Whitney Britt, a theater and marketing industry veteran, has launched her own business, Two Dog Circus. The boutique consultancy specializes in business development, corporate partnerships and special events for Broadway, brands and the performing arts.
With 15 years under her belt, Britt has been on the marketing side of the theater industry and worked on shows including “Mary Poppins” and “The Lion King” during her time with Disney Theatrical Group. She spent the better part of the last decade leading the American Express theater program — which provides cardholders exclusive access to presale tickets, curated experiences or other special offers tied to Broadway, Off-Broadway, touring and other productions to cardholders — where she teamed up with over 100 Broadway productions and also created legacy partnerships with St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Public Theater and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.
Now, with Two Dog Circus, Britt will straddle the theatrical and big brand worlds.]
For a theatrical institution, Britt can be called upon for anything from bringing a big brand on for a capital campaign to producing a special event. For brands, Britt aims to match them with an organization or show that meets their goals.
A recent favorite project she worked on was a special event with the revival of “Macbeth” starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. Working with the production’s marketing agency, Serino Coyne, Britt and her collaborators crafted a night that united the actors, a Fortune 500 brand and a balcony full of students from the nonprofit organization The Opportunity Network. The Fortune 500 bought out the house for a single performances and “were able to then offer tickets to this hot celeb show to their members exclusively.” Britt and Serino Coyne then married this buy-out with Craig’s Macbeth 2022 Ticket Initiative, “which was near and dear to his heart, allowing 100 students from underrepresented communities to attend the performance at no cost and stay for a talkback with Craig and Negga.” A win-win.
“I like to think of it as matchmaking … of how you can make a really great relationship between [the] arts and a brand,” she continued. In her work, she aims to develop “mutually beneficial relationships that should last for a long time.”
“I’m a supplemental set of eyeballs and an extra brain that you get to apply to what your business problems are as a theatrical organization,” Britt said when asked about Two Dog Circus’ services. “Part of my value proposition is that you get my brain on retainer. You get me [on your team] with one foot in your organization … but you also get my outsider’s perspective.”
Britt launches Two Dog Circus with a client list that includes “Hamilton,” the 2023 revival of “Sweeney Todd,” Roundabout Theatre Company and The Public Theater.
Her “special sauce,” as she calls it, is her expertise and experience in both the theater and brand marketing industries. She’s able to speak the language used by artistic directors of theaters, as well as the lingo of larger brands to develop partnerships to achieve their business goals.
“I truly believe that Broadway and the arts is an underutilized space for brands,” Britt said. She looked to sports as an example of an industry that does brand partnerships well and takes advantage of the opportunities there.
“The value proposition [is] that there are 365 days a year, eight shows a week, 41 theaters — there are thousands of people, thousands of potential impressions for brands walking in those doors and that doesn’t even start to take into all the nonprofits and touring and all the other ways people see theater every single night. I don’t believe we’ve even scratched the surface of the amount of brand partnerships, or ways we can act like sports in a theater world.”
Through her work, Britt hopes to bring more women-owned and minority-owned brands to the theatrical partnership space. But mostly, she wants to “ impact this industry that I love so much.”
