Cirque du Soleil bends over backwards for Gen Z’s love

The Future. Battered by the pandemic and having to file for bankruptcy in 2020, Cirque du Soleil wants to be more than a series of live shows — it wants to be an all-encompassing brand that Gen Z finds cool. With the average Cirque attendee being 42-years-old (and aging), Cirque sees this as an existential moment for the company. But if the push for cultural ubiquity makes the brand seem too kitschy or try-hard, it may actually cause Cirque du Soleil to lose its luster with its core audience.

A bigger tent
The world’s most famous circus company hopes to “hack popularity” to become relevant with Gen Z.

• That involves changing the equation of making 80% of its revenue from live shows and 20% from… well… everything else.
• To do so, the brand is releasing a video game (dropping today), a documentary series (amazingly titled Down to Clown), brand partnerships (Motorola), a fragrance, a line of furniture, and a Comic-Con-like convention.
• The hope is to show Gen Z that Cirque du Soleil already embodies things Gen Z is into: “campy outfits, kitschy makeup, and feats of athletic daring.”

To pull this strategy off, Cirque du Soleil tapped a “cultural analysts” firm named Cultique, which believes Gen Z just isn’t making the connection between what they love and what’s already apparent in Cirque — giving off the vibe of “over-the-top performance.” The firm’s “Soleil Strategy” wants to turn the circus into something that could be selected for a Met Gala theme.

Or in other words, “there’s a real opportunity to elevate the art of clowning.”