On June 22nd, Orchestras Canada, in partnership with CAPACOA and the Association for Opera in Canada, presented a free webinar on the latest trends and research on ticket-buying behavior of performing arts patrons. Eric Nelson from TRG Arts presented research on the recovery of the performing arts post pandemic, and Zander Kyba from AudienceView presented and analyzed ticket buyer research collected by their team.
We’ve put together 10 insights we learned from their presentation that will help orchestras boost their bottom line, five from Eric & TRG Arts and five from Zander & AudienceView.
10 Insights: What do Performing Arts Audiences Want Now?
Insights from Eric and TRG Arts
1.We need to compete with the couch
Eric shared that in order to compete with the comfort of home, organizations should lean into the intrinsic value of gathering together and the elevated experience. Audiences are looking for experiences that are immersive, gamified, diverse and/or with technology everywhere.
2. Donations are decreasing
When we compare quarter 4 of 2022 and quarter 1 of 2023 to the same quarters in 2019, some very interesting insights into revenue recovery post pandemic are revealed. To begin with, we can see that revenue is down 5%, but units are only down 17%. This indicates that, while attendance is down to events, those who do attend are spending more than they did pre-pandemic. Donation revenue tells a different story. Donations are down 38% in revenue and 24% in units, meaning that there are fewer people donating and those who do are donating less than before. To address this, Eric recommends speaking to donors and investigating what is holding them back from donating at the same level as before. Later we will explore other strategies to bring back donors.
3. Take a closer look at patron loyalty
What is RFMG? TRG Arts offers this anagram to analyze the commitment and loyalty of patrons:
- Recency: Are they engaging in some way every year?
- Frequency: Do they engage frequently during the same season?
- Monetary: How does their financial investment compare?
- Growth: Can we count on their investment/activity to be consistent (or grow) every season?
These are the metrics we should be assessing when looking at loyalty programs and targeted marketing.
4. New Customers are coming, but they aren’t staying!
TRG Arts divides patrons into segments that cover the wide spectrum of loyalty within an organization’s database. They describe 3 levels of engagement and further segments them below; acquisition, current customer, and re-engaged:
Acquisition
- New Customer: Had not transacted previously.
Current Customer
- Once before: Transacted once before within the past 18 months.
- Convertee: Transacted twice before and at least once within the past 18 months.
- Active: Transacted 3-9 times in their history and at least once in the past 18 months
- Super Active: Transacted 10+ times in their history and at least once in the past 18 months
Re-Engaged
- Stale: last attendance, prior to the most recent purchase, was 18-36 months ago
- Lapsed: last attendance, prior to the most recent purchase, was 3 years or more ago
From these segments, TRG Arts has collected data that shows significant participation from New Customers but that loses momentum from Once Before and Convertee patrons. This tells us that the churn rate of consumers is higher than ever before and that organizations need to be taking extra measures to drive retention from new patrons.
5. Gen X and Millennials are participating more!
Finally, Eric presented data divided by generations and taken exclusively from orchestras within the dataset. TRG Arts found that Gen X and Millennial participation has grown post pandemic while older generation participation has declined. Yet, Baby Boomers are still the largest donors within the data set. Millennial contributions have grown but Gen X has remained stagnant. Eric pointed out that Gen X patrons should be nearing the peak of their earning potential and thus should be larger philanthropists. He recommends organizations reach out to this demographic and make a targeted effort to engage them.
Insights from Zander and AudienceView
6. 41% of patrons are attending fewer events than they did pre-pandemic
Zander began his section of the webinar by revealing that, according to AudienceView’s data, most patrons are attending the same or more performances than they did pre-pandemic. Yet, there remains 41% of patrons who are attending fewer events than they did in 2019. So how do we get these folks back?
AudienceView’s data revealed that 63% of patrons said that ticket sales and discounts would compel them to attend more events followed by new shows and content being brought to the venue. The 3rd most popular option was subscriptions and packages with flexibility and value.
7. Patrons are looking for elevated experiences
AudienceView’s data also revealed that audiences are looking for full and elevated experiences when they attend events, with 4 of 5 reporting that they prefer to pair event attendance with another experience. Patrons are looking to make a full afternoon or evening of their event experience by pairing a meal or drink with their experience. Zander suggests that organizations appeal to this by partnering with food and drink venues to offer packages or reservations along with ticket purchases.
8. Box office and phone purchasing are on the rise
AudienceView reports that while most patrons this year continue to prefer to buy tickets online, 20% of patrons reported that they preferred to make purchases using the box office in person or via phone call. This is of interest as last year’s data showed that only 13% of patrons preferred in person or phone call purchases, showing a significant increase.
Additionally, Zander pointed out that when asked why they abandoned purchases, 39% of patrons reported that they found that added online fees were unexpected and too high. For this reason, he suggested that organizations should notify patrons from the beginning of the purchase journey that these fees exist or working them into ticket prices, so they seem less shocking to consumers.
9. Make donation opportunities available along the patron journey
AudienceView’s data suggests that patrons are welcome to donate during multiple stages of their purchase journey. Patrons reported a smattering of responses when asked. The top two answers were online separate from the ticket buying process, and in person at the event separate from the ticket buying process. This is followed by online during the ticket buying process. What this suggests is that organizations should be providing opportunities to donate in multiple locations across the patron journey to address all preferences.
10. Patrons want exclusivity in exchange for their donations
So, how do we persuade patrons to donate when we ask them? AudienceView’s data suggests a few strategies, most of which provide a sense of exclusivity. Top examples include early access to purchase event tickets, tax deductions and access to exclusive donor only events. The data also shows that patrons are most likely to donate to public fundraisers hosted by venues and associations that share specific goals. People want to know where their money is going, so Zander recommends making that clear in fundraising communications.
We would like to offer a final thank you to Eric and Zander for sharing their insight and expertise on this topic! Additionally, thank you to our co-presenters CAPACOA and the Association for Opera in Canada. If you would like to learn more about what Eric and Zander shared or review the recording and slide deck from their presentations, check out https://oc.ca/resource/performing-arts-recovery/.
