FULL HOUSE Turning Data into Audiences - Creative New Zealand

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10
Theatre Attendances
8
6
4
2
Mean attendances in range 2.3 to 2.7 time per annum
0
At least once
a month
Every 2 to 3
months
2 to 3 times a year
Once a year
Less often
Diagram 2-2: Visits/Tickets Bought per Annum
Research by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in the UK suggests that some of this pattern may be self-inflicted by arts
organisations. Andrew McIntyre argues that much marketing information is geared to meeting the needs of the core
frequent attenders, the ‘bull’s eye’. Unfortunately this information then deters the rest of the potential attenders. His figures
align with those on the distribution of attendance frequency, suggesting that, for example, the printed brochure for a
season of activity might be effective in persuading 15% of attenders to attend, and frequently. But in the process, that same
brochure could be failing to persuade the other 85% of current attenders, possibly even dissuading them. So to increase
frequency of attendance, marketers need to segment the market and communicate appropriately, according to each
attender’s past attendance patterns and what is known about them.
The later chapter on direct marketing (Chapter 11) makes clear that, to be effective, the message must match the market,
and this will not be achieved by ‘broadcasting’ the same message to everyone. While the opposite – ‘one-to-one’ marketing
– may be logistically unachievable in reality, Andrew McIntyre has argued that if there are 20,000 attenders on a database,
then perhaps 20,000 audience development strategies are needed. Realistically, we are talking about communicating to
attenders according to their individual needs and circumstances, so we must group them into contactable segments based
on their transactional behaviour.
2. PEOPLE NOT ‘BUMS ON SEATS’, CUSTOMERS NOT ‘PUNTERS’
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