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Messy White Gays Creative Targeting

CAPABILITIES

DIGITAL

OVERVIEW

Client Name: Messy White Gays
Campaign: Creative Targeting
Date/Timing: August – September 2025

THE SUMMARY
Messy White Gays needed to make a splashy launch as they set their sights for Off-Broadway. To propel this, The Pekoe Group took a novel approach to targeting audiences through digital advertising: by leveraging the digital ad creative itself.

THE CHALLENGE
In Q3 2025, Meta Ads introduced Andromeda, which deprioritized traditional targeting inputs; no longer could we target followers of individual shows and theatre brands. We needed a new way to reach those audiences by leveraging the new system powering Meta Ads.

THE INSIGHT
The audiences Messy White Gays wanted to reach are specific, complex and varied. If we could no longer minutely target these audiences by interest, maybe we could tailor our ad creative to speak to those audiences and allow Meta AI to do what it does best: match the right creative with the right audience.

THE IDEA
Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to creative, we created a wide range of creative as complex and diverse as the audiences we were targeting.

THE EXECUTION
We held a content shoot, gathering a wide range of photos and videos of our cast in various settings. We adapted these assets into our creative in a varying range of digital ads to speak to each of our target audiences. Love brunch? There’s an ad for you. Looking for an affordable entry point? A different ad. A fan of mimosas and murder? Welcome to the club!

THE RESULTS
The ads performed exceptionally well, with a clickthrough rate 4x the industry’s benchmark. The show began performances with a strong advance and audiences packing the house.

KEY TAKEAWAY
As algorithmic targeting grows more advanced and complex, our approach to digital advertising creative needs to evolve accordingly. At The Pekoe Group, we believe that the best way to sell your show online is through crafting a 360° digital environment, with creative as multitudinous as the audience members filling the theatre.