FULL HOUSE Turning Data into Audiences - ARTS Australia

1210Theatre Attendances8642Mean attendances in range 2.3 to 2.7 time per annum0At least oncea monthEvery 2 to 3months2 to 3 times a yearOnce a yearLess oftenDiagram 2-2: Visits/Tickets Bought per AnnumResearch by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in the UK suggests that some of this pattern may be self-inflicted by artsorganisations. Andrew McIntyre argues that much marketing information is geared to meeting the needs of the corefrequent attenders, the ‘bull’s eye’. Unfortunately this information then deters the rest of the potential attenders. His figuresalign with those on the distribution of attendance frequency, suggesting that, for example, the printed brochure for aseason of activity might be effective in persuading 15% of attenders to attend, and frequently. But, in the process, that samebrochure could be failing to persuade the other 85% of current attenders, possibly even dissuading them. So to increasefrequency of attendance, marketers need to segment the market and communicate appropriately, according to eachattender’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 toattenders according to their individual needs and circumstances, so we must group them into contactable segments basedon their transactional behaviour.2. PEOPLE NOT ‘BUMS ON SEATS’, CUSTOMERS NOT ‘PUNTERS’13