In this Showbiz U Luminaries interview, Jim Glaub, founder of Arts Meets Commerce and a veteran digital and social media strategist for theater, shares his journey from a childhood love of theater—creating holiday pageants and finger‑puppet shows—to becoming a self‑taught technologist who embraced emerging internet tools. He recounts how, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he began using email, message boards, and early web design to promote theater in Chicago, noticing that the industry lagged behind retail and banking in tech adoption. This insight led him to launch Arts Meets Commerce, where he educated producers about platforms like YouTube and demonstrated the low‑cost, rapid impact of early digital campaigns. Glaub discusses today’s biggest obstacle: fighting sophisticated social‑media algorithms that force marketers to pay for reach despite limited budgets, requiring creativity and strategic planning. He outlines his campaign process—starting with a SWOT analysis, defining guiding principles, positioning, tone and voice, then developing content strategy, platform selection, and partnerships. A highlight is his work on the Tony Awards digital campaign, a project that initially terrified him but resulted in a Webby Award and proved the power of digital storytelling for a legacy brand. Finally, he advises aspiring theater marketers to become jack‑of‑all‑trades, mastering Adobe tools, basic coding, social‑media management, and email marketing, emphasizing continual self‑learning and using analytics as a creative narrative driver.
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My name is Jim Glaub.
You have had an illustrious career. I love that word in this industry.
Yes, that's a very good word.
What was the moment that you said, I love theater?
Oh my gosh, the, the moment I said I love theater was definitely buried deep inside when I was very young. During the holidays, our family would get together and all the kids would sort of go to the, go to the basement or go, we'd go outside and we all play together. My cousins, my twin sister, and I remember I just didn't, I wasn't really interested in like the games or like playing sports or anything like that. So basically I got everyone together, all the kids together, and I would write like mini shows and get all of the kids to act out in these sort of little pageants over the holidays. And it's always— it happened for a very long time, and I was like, I think the theater has just been in me for my entire life.
Did you ever film any of those?
No, I wish I did. We did one that was really creative that was like all like finger puppets. It was, it was very ahead of its time. Finger puppets, paper dolls.
So from that moment, from finger puppets to sitting in this chair here today, what— I'm sure it was a perfect straight line to what you do today.
It was. There was one thing that was always consistent, and that was always using futuristic, or at least the tools that were available that helped push forward technology. Or communication. That has always been consistent with my career, and I'm really happy and proud of that. I always considered myself a futurist and what's next, what are people using, and not even that it was something that I, that it didn't come, it wasn't hard for me, it just came easy. A lot like you, right, where you grab onto the things that it's like, oh, this is becoming something, let's try this. Didn't work? Okay, let's move on. So that's been the thing that has been consistent straight through is that using technology, using social tools and communication tools to help spread the word about theater.
If you look at an art form that's 120 years old— we were at an event and they were talking about the birth of the Shuberts 120 years ago— we've always needed to get people into the theater.
Yeah.
Something that— whether it be something pasted on the wall to somebody standing outside. When you entered the world of theatrical, where your job was to effectively sell tickets, talk about what it was like when you started and what you have seen over time and how that role has changed.
This is fascinating because when I really got started in my career was actually in Chicago. Really at the birth of Broadway in Chicago, which owned 3 theaters at the time, 3 major theaters. And I was working there. I had my own small theater company off the side where we would just do smaller shows. And what was happening at that time was people were becoming more familiar with email. We didn't have any mobile technology, but absolutely people were sitting at a computer and working. And that was a time where it was beginning. Things like Friendster started to pop up and message boards and AOL chat rooms. And websites were still very basic. In a lot of ways had transitioned into Flash and more of the sort of innovative tools of the time. But what I noticed was that there wasn't— but theater wasn't engaging in any of these new technologies like retail was or like banking was. And I would be very— it would be very confusing to me because I would sit there and engage in these tools in other aspects of my life but not in the theater or didn't hear about things through these tools. So very early on I was creating email communications. I was working in message boards. I could jump into message boards and be like, you guys, there's this amazing show, you know. Or, and then that's when I really learned how to design a website, and I sort of really got into HTML and coding at the time and design. I was really, at the time, I very much self-taught, and that was, that was very valuable.
And from that, that launching point, you started a company, Arts Meets Commerce.
Yeah.
And what was it like back then talking to traditional producers about what you are trying to do? And you were successful at it.
Yeah.
How did that all work?
I think I was always able to look what happens in in technology, you were, you've been in technology, there's a lot of confusion around it. And I think a lot of times people take it and they don't know how to use real words or put it in a context in which people can understand. That's something I've always been able to do. I've always been able to like interpret in some ways from what something in technology can do to some, a real person can understand. In that way, I was able to take the story of technology and tell it through the eyes and lens of my personal experience in the theater. So I think that what ended up happening was at the very— when I first started my company, it was a lot of education. It was a lot of walking around to room to room, meeting with a lot of people to tell them, oh no, there's this, there's this thing called YouTube. There is, it's going to be a thing. There was a lot of education. There was a lot of getting people to understand the potential power of and immediate results. And at the time too, what was so fantastic about it was that it was, and still is, a bit of the Wild West where you could make a difference very quickly, very cheaply, and be able to cut through. This was before the real sophistication of the algorithm, the sophistication of audiences, privacy. There wasn't the copyright issues that exist now. There was a— it was about coming in and trying to convince producers and to convince theater owners that the brand is no longer theirs. It is for the people.
And from that point, you look at how our industry now has evolved. Yeah. And where we are today. What are the new exciting challenges you face today?
If If you're watching this in 2020, the biggest challenge of marketing and advertising in this time is fighting the algorithm. I think that is absolutely the problem that exists with our world. We live in a corporation in our social media. Like, we are addicted to it. We have— it's fine. We're in Facebook. We're in Twitter. We're in YouTube. We're in Instagram. And those are corporations, and it is about getting people in front of people and how do you beat the robots and algorithms that allow for you to be able to get in front of those people. So this is the biggest challenge, is getting in front of people, because you will have to pay for it, and budgets are small, and it takes a lot of organic— it takes cleverness, it takes creativity and the ability to understand that you're not going to reach the very audience in which you want without having to pay for it. I think that's going to be our biggest challenge.
When you look at some of the new projects that you're currently working on, how do you start this process? Because I'm sure everybody says, I want a viral video, Jim. Haha!
And then I wind it up! Haha! How do we start the process? Well, first of all, I think it's really important for people to lay the groundwork in every aspect of the campaign by starting out with what we do, which is a traditional SWOT campaign: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We take a look at that because it sort of gives us a base for which we know what the product is. Then we take that and develop some guiding principles, things that— these are mottos and things that we always adhere to. A lot of like what we are as humans, right? What are our principles? What do we stand for? And then we go with our positioning statement where this is who we are, this is our flag in the sand, and then create a tone and voice because brands have a personality. They are changing, they're complicated because they are people and they are value. So that's really what we determine then is like what is the tone and voice and that could be is it confident, is it cool, is it a variety of different aspects. Then the fun stuff, content strategies, what are the platforms we exist on, what are the partnerships, what are the, yeah, then it gets into the like real creative stuff. Once you do that sort of groundwork, you're building the architecture and then you can start to decorate the house.
Tell us a story about a project or an endeavor that you worked on that scared you to death and at the end surprised you to ultimate joy.
Okay, the project that scared me to death was when we first were awarded the Tony Awards account. Personally, as a kid, and I think a lot of people have this story, I grew up in, in Kansas City, Missouri, I didn't have access to theater on a regular basis. There was, there's theater, absolutely amazing theater in Kansas City, and but what happened was, you know, when I was younger, I really relied on the Tony Awards to get my information on what was going on on Broadway. And so to come full circle and, and to be able to work on the digital campaign for the Tony Awards when it was first starting out, I mean, this was before during the beginnings of where the brand is. That was really exciting and it was really scary. It felt like an extreme amount of responsibility, but turned into one of the most rewarding, exciting opportunities. We won a Webby Award for our work on the Tony Awards. We were able to challenge and push position an industry using this awards ceremony, which was an incredible, an incredible opportunity and felt great. And what turned into fear was actually like the greatest thing.
For somebody who's watching this, who's at home making their own finger puppet projects, who wants to do what you do, what should they, what should they be looking at? What should they be doing to get ready for a career like this?
So I think the world of the future of marketing is definitely going to be the jack-of-all-trades aspect. I think it's really important to understand what it takes to do all areas of, of marketing and advertising in the digital space. Most importantly, understanding how these tools work so that you can communicate how you need them to work with other people who might be using the tools. For example, getting a little bit of, a little bit or a lot of experience in the Adobe Suite platform, Photoshop, Premiere, the ability to do some design, to do some coding work, even if it's light, the understanding of coding and how a backend website works is really key. Jumping in and creating and managing social media platforms so that you understand how it works and how it's and how to engage with the tools. And as well as email and direct response, I think is something to be able to take a look at. Really just going in and diving in and practicing on these tools made a world of difference. I totally self-taught myself how to do all this. At the time, there wasn't a school for social media because it hadn't been built yet. So I think one of the things is to think about like, okay, what's coming and how can I play with it right away so that at least I know how to be able to use it as a weapon. A weapon for good.
As far as your career, when you look at if you had to take a title, you cover a lot. When you look at the digital space, you're both using your left side of your brain in your analytics and understanding and curating, but then you're also letting your right side run free and be creative. Yeah. Do you then look at your analytics or your left side to help validate and then leapfrog from that? Or how do you manage those two?
I think the greatest thing about analytics is that it's actually really creative. But the thing about analytics is that it's a way that you can communicate stories. The numbers are saying that there's something that's working or something that's not working. And that can then drive you into a really creative story of how you're able to position that and change it for the future. So for example, you create a campaign that is rolled out onto social media and a lot of people are engaging in something. Well, we need to shift some of our media spend or some of our technology or even our efforts to this one thing because we see it working. And when it stops working, if it stops transferring to ticket sales or excitement or engagement or whatever our KPIs are, then we bag it and move on to the next.
To say anything to those passionate people sitting in their version of Kansas or Guam or wherever in the world that they are that they love theater, what words would you give them?
There is a place for you in the theater. It's so easy to think that this, this world is closed and not for them, but you are welcome in the theater. You're absolutely welcome here. There are so many jobs. There's so much to do, and there's so much success to be had. That's the best thing about this business is that it is, with the right heart and the right intention, You can be absolutely so successful here.
