June Forum – North Region

June Forum – North Region

Scope

• Project update

• Box office audit

• Mosaic

• Next steps

Project update

• Aims

• Objectives

• Participants

• Reference group

• Update on DDX

• Box Office audit

Aims & Objectives

To create sustainable organisations with a profound understanding of their audiences

To build capacity and capability across the sector in audience development

To support cross sector collaboration

Objectives• To profile the Scottish audience for the performing arts and offer national and

regional benchmarks• To increase the capacity of companies and venues across Scotland to

extrapolate and manipulate audience data and use it to inform the actions, artistic and operational, of their organisations

• To develop key competencies in customer care, data management and data compliance

• To support and encourage best practise in customer care and relationship management

Participants•Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy•Aberdeen Music Hall, Aberdeen•Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh•Caird Hall, Dundee•Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline•Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow•Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow•City Halls, Glasgow•Cumbernauld Theatre, Cumbernauld•Dance Base, Edinburgh•Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee•Eden Court, Inverness•Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh•Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh•Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh•Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh•Filmhouse/Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh•Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow•His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen•Horsecross, Perth•Howden Park Centre, Livingstone•King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

•King’s Theatre, Glasgow•Lochgelly Centre, Lochgelly•Macrobert, Stirling•National Theatre of Scotland•Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow•Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry•Platform, Easterhouse•Rothes Hall, Glenrothes•Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh•Royal Scottish National Orchestra•Scottish Ballet•Scottish Chamber Orchestra•Scottish Opera•The Arches, Glasgow•The Byre Theatre, St Andrews•The Hub, Edinburgh•The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen•The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh•The Tron, Glasgow•Theatre Royal, Glasgow•Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh•Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Reference Group

Reference group•Ben Jeffries – Horsecross•Janice Kelly – Scottish Arts Council•Duncan May – Glasgow Theatres Ltd•Martin Reynolds – Festivals Edinburgh•David Stark – RSNO

Role of group•to review progress of the project •to provide informal feedback to the management team from participating organisations •to oversee and contribute to the evaluation process

Project Stages

1. DDX install (new venues)

2. Box Office Audit

3. Forums

4. Training Needs Analysis

5. Individual audience feedback sessions (new organisations)

6. Reports

7. Training and Capacity Building

8. Evaluation

DDX Install

•Glasgow and Edinburgh venues already have the software installed.

•New venues across Scotland currently being installed and event data is being extracted and coded.

Venue Status

AttFife (x4) Install due

APA (x3) Installed, coding complete

Caird Hall Installed, coding complete

Dundee Rep Theatre Install due

Eden Court Inverness Install underway

Horsecross Installed, coding underway

Macrobert Installed, coding underway

Pitlochry Festival Theatre Install underway

The Byre Install due, historical coding underway

Box Office Audit

Thank You!!!

Box Office AuditRationale• A need to understand the technical capability of the current box office systems in

use to identify the levels of future investment required to enhance the marketing effectiveness and sales performance of organisations.

Aims - to assess:• Overall age and marketing capability of current systems• How box office systems are used currently • The quality of the audience data • Data compliance • Relationship between the sales, front of house and marketing teams • Levels of technical understanding, support & use of current box systems• The levels of investment required to maximise the capability of current box office

systems

Box Office Audit

Why we undertook the box office audit

“It is really good that the FST are doing this survey as the Box Office are an undervalued resource.”

“As a general rule box office staff are undervalued. The BO is the public facing dept and is the vital point in the org. The BO have the knowledge about the customers, can see different behaviours and trends. From a programming point of view they have lots of knowledge.”

“A delight to be asked in-depth questions about the Box Office. Always seen as Grunts on the front line and not as a vital components to the other departments to do their jobs.”

Box Office Audit

Methodology

• The Source project team identified objectives and areas of investigation for the box office audit

• Aplin Partnership contracted to deliver the box office audit• Experience & expertise in field of box office• Independence

• Detailed questionnaire developed• Detailed telephone interviews conducted with box office managers by Aplin

Partnership between March & June• All Source participants invited to participate. 4 out of 28 potential participants still

to take part.

Box Office Audit

Methodology

Interviews focused on:• Box Office systems• Box Office staffing• Systems set up and practice• Organisation culture and how it impacts upon the Box Office• Technology usage, awareness and backup procedures (inc internet

ticketing)

Interviews conducted in confidence

The Aplin Partnership report to The Source will include:• Groupings according to behaviour, attitude and system usage• Groupings according to size and geography• Recommendations to feed into the project overall and propose

interventions which will have the maximum lasting positive impact

Box Office Audit

Key themes

• Box office infrastructureA significant proportion of the box office infrastructure is ageing and reaching

the point where it is not fit for purpose based on the general rule that IT systems

should be written off after 5 years• 13 venues have ticketing systems more than 5 years old

• Role of box office

With a few notable exceptions, fundamentally most Box Office systems and staff are regarded as a sales tool and not as a key customer touch point and knowledge source

Box Office Audit

Key themes

• Audience data / management informationSome key indicators suggest that box offices are not being used as effective

tools for audience data or management information. Although it is important to

note that there are a number of venues who have a very thorough knowledge of

their database and are working to minimise duplicate records

• 5 venues could not say how many performances they had on thesystem each year

• 7 venues could not say how many customer records they had • 11 venues were unable to say how many duplicate customer records they have• Virtually all participants sell tickets online: 5 venues did not know what % of

internet ticket sales they have, 7 venues gave a precise %

Box Office Audit

Key themes

• Data complianceOne of the key regulatory areas for box office. The majority of organisations

(not necessarily within box office) were confident they were compliant in this

Area• 18 venues said they were confident (or had someone in their organisation who was)

about the Data Protection Act & where they stood legally• “[the team are] ...Quite comfortable with the process.”

• 4 venues said they were not confident• “[We are] ..Not asking the right questions and will need to look into this.”

• Relationship between the sales, front of house and marketing teams -This was a key dimension of the interview & analysis which has informed a segmentation of the sector

Box Office Audit

Key themes

• Levels of technical understanding, support & use of current box systemsThe questions related to current practice and understanding has helped to

identify some training gaps in the following areas:

• Customer care• Specific ticketing system training• IT training• Managing staff / staff communication skills• Marketing reports• Cross selling and up-selling skills• Disability awareness• Financial budgeting

Box Office Audit

Outputs from the audit

• One of the significant outputs from the study will be a series of benchmarks which will help you position yourself within the wider sector. Examples of the benchmarks include:

• Year box office system installed• Tickets sold per year• % of sales achieved with customer data capture• % of duplicate records on the system• % of tickets sold online• Wages per hour

• In addition Aplin Partnership will group together clusters of organisations based on answers to soft indicators for example relating to identified training needs or development areas

Box Office AuditKey Findings

Box Office AuditGroupings according to behaviour, attitude and system usage

1: Collaborative & CommunicativeOrganisations with good internal communication who have a fundamentally collaborative approach and staff who feel supported yet empowered

2: Command & ControlOrganisations with rigid controls and structures & strong demarcation between departments

2a: Efficient Command & Control – Staff working reasonability well within the constraints of their organisation, who whilst feeling there is a lack on communication, are reasonably happy 2b: Inefficient Command & Control – Staff feeling that they are inefficient and less effective than they could be because of the constraints of their organisation, they are generally fairly unhappy.

3: Un-engagedThose who did not participate in the survey at all, or in a meaningful way


Collaborative & CommunicativeOrganisations with good internal communication who have a fundamentallycollaborative approach and staff who feel supported yet empowered

Example quotes:Q: Are there targets set for performance sales? – are you involved in this?A : Yes, we have a meeting at the beginning of the season and set targets. we talk together

constantly. Q: Do you feel that your contribution in the Box Office is valued by the organisation?A: Yes – definitely Q: What 3 things would make your job easier?A: More staff – which I’m getting on Monday, a slightly bigger box office – but things are going

really well....we work as a team


Command & ControlOrganisations with rigid controls and structures & strong demarcationbetween departments

Efficient – Staff working reasonability well within the constraints of their organisation, who whilstfeeling there is a lack on communication, are reasonably happy

Example quotes - Efficient Command and ControlQ: What 3 things would make your job easier?A: Would like better pay and a guarantee of hours for the casual staff. Communication within the

whole business could be improved. Q: Are the box office involved in the brochure design?A: No - we will see it before it is printed and proof read the relevant pages.


Command & ControlOrganisations with rigid controls and structures & strong demarcationbetween departments

Inefficient Staff feeling that they are inefficient and less effective than they could be because of the constraints of their organisation, they are generally fairly unhappy

Example quotes - Inefficient Command and ControlQ: Do you feel that your contribution in the Box Office is valued by the organisation?A: No - Undervalued. Nobody is bothered as long as we are bringing the money in.

Q: Are there targets set for shows?A: Probably there are

Box Office AuditKey Findings

Box Office Audit

What Next?

• Detailed analysis of findings• Dissemination of more detailed findings• Development of cluster groups• Informing Training Needs Analysis• Training and development sessions

Benchmark Areas

Area Profiles

A Upper EchelonsB Families on the MoveC Small Town ProprietyD Country LifestylesE Urban SophisticatesF Town Centre SinglesG Renters Now OwningH Low Income FamiliesI State BeneficiariesJ Shades of Grey

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East West Central

North North East

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Next Steps

Training Needs Analysis

Individual organisation reporting

Benchmark area reporting

Evaluation framework

Training Needs Analysis

• E survey to box office & marketing teams

• Incorporating findings from the box office audit

• Taking place June- Sept

• Looking at training needs within organisations and across the sector relating to audience data and knowledge

• Leading to identification of training needs

• The Source to create development plan to meet needs

Reports

New participantsYour audience report (06-09)Quarterly reporting

Current VS participantsAs current, backdated reports almost complete!

Reports

1 headline analysis per organisation to include:

• ART FORM and VENUE cross-over – what else and where else and audience member goes

• POSTCODE district

• DRIVE distance and time

• BOOKING time and day

• PARETO – number of tickets sold and £ generated by the number of times a household attends

• FREQUENCY of attendance

• MOSAIC Profile – the characteristics of who the audience is (and who it is not)

• ART FORM and VENUE cross-over – what else and where else and audience member goes

• POSTCODE district

• DRIVE distance and time

• BOOKING time and day

• PARETO – number of tickets sold and £ generated by the number of times a household attends

• FREQUENCY of attendance

• MOSAIC Profile – the characteristics of who the audience is (and who it is not)

Activity PlanJune-Sept 09Training Needs Analysis

June-Sept 09DDX install, data extraction, coding & analysis: your audience report

Sept 09Regional Forum

•Headline results of TNA•1st regional benchmark area reports

Thanks!

Documents

June Forum – North Region