Daniel Lamarre was trained as a journalist, made a very successful career in public relations and became the president of a private television broadcaster, TVA Group, the largest of its kind in Quebec. Just when he thought he would go no further professionally, Guy LalibertŽ, founder of Cirque du Soleil, invited him to join the company. That was 2001. Seven years later, Lamarre is the company's CEO. In an interview with Macau Business, he unveils some of his great plans, both for Macau and Cirque du Soleil.

What plans do you have for Macau?
Daniel Lamarre – Macau became our Asian social headquarters, so activities here cover the whole of Asia. All of our marketing plans for Asia, with regards to our permanent or non-permanent shows, are now developed in Macau.

Quite a strategic importance for such a small place…
In terms of marketing, Macau is of enormous strategic importance for us, because it will allow us to present our first permanent show in Asia. The first resident show in Macau, Zaia, will allow us to develop a much more spectacular performance because of its technological advances. It also allows us to present a product that is more spectacular than our tour shows. Our permanent show in Macau will be used as a display window in Asia for our shows.

How do you deal with the lack of manpower, especially in your field, in Macau? Have you had problems with hiring non-residents?
We are based here and what we want is to be ever more present locally, meaning we might even create a training centre for our Asian artists in Macau, and we want to form technical manpower, because there are only a few technically trained professionals in our field in Macau, so we want to train them for our shows.

How many?
We are talking about over 300 technicians in a short-term period of time for both our shows. We arrived with very specific needs in a specific field and we knew beforehand that we would have problems finding trained personnel, this is why we are very much focused on training people we need. This might seem difficult at the beginning but if you take into consideration that at the end they will be trained according to exactly what we want them to do…

You said you expect to sell over one million tickets per year in Macau.
How many spectators do you have worldwide?
Over 80 million nowadays. We are the entertainment company that sell the most tickets in the world. In Macau, we are talking about 700,000 spectators per year, and multiply that by two, because of our second show, [to open next year in the new resort build by Las Vegas Sands also on Cotai Strip] so we will have 1.4 million visitors coming to Macau to see Cirque du Soleil shows.
Let me give you a "Las Vegas" perspective: when we first opened a show in Las Vegas, 14 years ago, 90 per cent of the Vegas revenue was from the gaming sector alone, which is probably the situation in Macau right now. Fourteen years later, in Las Vegas, the revenue from the gaming sector represents less than 50 per cent, meaning entertainment is playing a greater role. If you ask people in Las Vegas – they have 40 million visitors a year – five per cent will say: "The only reason why I am in Las Vegas is to see a Cirque du Soleil show." This means we are a huge contributor in bringing tourists to Las Vegas, that otherwise would never go there. This is the business model I am hoping to create in Macau. I hope I'll bring a lot of new tourists in Macau.

But old habits die hard….
I think within a year and a half, or two years, we would have changed the behaviour of people. We would have changed the reason why people are coming to Macau.

Who will you be targeting? Only mainlanders?
Mainland, a lot, yes, but also Hong Kong people. I have no idea about percentages, we have done a lot of research, probably 60 to 70 per cent will come from the mainland, but I would think a lot of people from Hong Kong that never come to Macau will come to see the show.

What about the new show in Tokyo?
It is a new permanent show that will open this fall. Tokyo comes right after Macau. It is a very different show from Macau. For example: we have our Vegas show and we have a permanent show at Disney in Orlando, Florida. To me, the show in Macau is equivalent to the spectacle in Las Vegas, and the show in Tokyo will be in Tokyo Disney, more of a family show. The Macau and Vegas show is more circus oriented.

Venetian paid for the theatre at US$150 million, and US$50 million for the production of the show. What are your plans for shows in China? What do they depend on?
It will depend on how the market evolves in Mainland China. I would hope that within five years I would be able to open a permanent show in Shanghai and hopefully one in Beijing. I wouldn't be surprised in five years from now if I would have a show in Seoul, Korea. We have touring shows in Korea right now. We are very popular there.

Why not start your Asian bet in mainland China?
It was easier to start in Macau. It was a much easier business decision. There are around 20 million tourists a year, a huge convention business that the Venetian is going to develop, so for all those reasons it was much easier for us to develop.

Were there political constraints?
No. No, not at all, no. It was strictly a business decision. If you find me someone willing to build me a theatre of US$150 million, I'll go, tomorrow!

What are the risks for Cirque du Soleil in accepting such deals? You have a reputation and a strong brand image…
You just touched the right point. The risk of the brand…we cannot fail. We never shut down a show. All our permanent shows are still up and running. We will be having ten performances a week in Macau for both shows.

Would you open a show if you only sold 50 per cent of the tickets? There is the perception that the Venetian would rather cancel shows than have a half-empty house….
Nobody knows about Macau, there was never a show of the magnitude we are talking about, so I am not going to panic in the early days; I think we'll have to educate the people…

But in the other places did you ever have less than expected?
When we are under 85 per cent, we hate it! We consider ourselves very lucky, because we are always over 85 per cent, but right now, just to give you an idea: the show "O" is sold out every night, "Love" – the Beatles show – is also sold out every night, Kˆ is at 95 per cent, Mystre, which is in our 14th year, is at 85 per cent…

Your company is very much involved in social responsibility matters. You have been giving money to local charities and social aid organisations, what is it you want to achieve?
We are one of the few companies in the world spending one per cent of its revenues in this field. Normally companies spend one per cent of their profits.
We do this because we truly believe in social responsibility, so what we do is… our one per cent is mainly to help youth at risk, people from the streets, because Cirque du Soleil came from people from the street, so I want to go back to the street and help people at risk. We will have a whole social team here, helping youth in Macau. To start with we will probably have one trainer and then develop it by training locally. We will create an association, but I cannot give details yet. The idea is to have an Asian chapter of Cirque du Monde located in Macau – Cirque du Monde is an organisation we created in conjunction with OXFAM. Macau is in need for social action, yes, like any major city in the world.

Will you be focusing on young people and the influence of casinos at an early age?
When I talk about Macau, I also mean Hong Kong. I like to see Macau and Hong Kong as a whole. There are a lot of needy people in both cities. Other issue besides poverty are present. We would like to deal with them.
The government seemed surprised about our policy because they are used to chase companies, not the other way around. They were surprise for us being proactive. We took this approach and they were happy with our social involvement. They are supporting us and making sure that we target the right issue. That is the key. We want to understand the market and basically we want to become citizens of Macau!

The Cirque fast facts
Cirque du Soleil was created in 1984 to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Canada's discovery. It started with 73 employees. Twenty-four years later the company, a global phenomenon, employs 3,500 people with an average age of 35. The CDS employs people of over 40 nationalities speaking altogether 25 different languages.

The brand is considered one of the most powerful in the world, with an astonishing growth: in 1998, ten years into the business, the company recorded revenues over US$200 million; six years later the figure doubled. In 2006 its revenues were recorded at US$620 million, with similar figures being attained last year.

Since 1984, the company shows have toured over 200 cities around the world and almost 80 million spectators have seen at least one Cirque show. Last year alone, 10 million spectators went to a Cirque performance.

Zaia, Macaus' own resident show, is the story of a girl who journeys into space to find herself on a voyage of self-discovery. After finding the "beauty of humanity" she brings it back and shares it with the inhabitants on the earth.

by Joyce Pina