UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCES:Adopting Big-Data Thinking in the Arts

WHAT IS ARTSBOSTON?

ArtsBoston.org

BosTix Discount Ticketing

ArtsBoston Audience Initiative

Civic Collaborations

Shared Learning

Tourism Outreach

Email Marketing

Discounted Advertising

Media & Community Partnerships Social Media Outreach

reinvested into the regional arts economy

residents and visitors in Greater Boston reached

regional arts & cultural organizations promoted

arts & cultural organizations promoted

years of arts and cultural community service

38

2,300

20,000,000

$55,000,000

Boston Ballet

The area’s largest and most comprehensive nonprofit arts service organization and one of

the leading organizations of its kind in the country.

THE ARTSBOSTON DIFFERENCE

165

IDENTIFYING A CORE NEED IN THE COMMUNITYArts groups need access to more comprehensive patron data in order to understand WHO is in their audience.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

To address this, ArtsBoston partnered with TRG Arts, widely acknowledged as the industry leader in developing community databases, to create the ArtsBoston Audience Initiative (AAI)

2004•ArtsBoston launches the ArtsBoston Big List

2010•Market knowledge task force convened to explore creation of a community database for Greater Boston

2011• Berkshire Taconic

Community Foundation and ArtsBoston develop pilot program for Berkshires region.

2012•ArtsBoston Audience Initiative (AAI) launches with 48 participating organizations and 1.2 million households in database

2013•2nd annual AAI conference held in Boston.

•ArtsBoston plans and facilitates 1st national convening of community databases in Philadelphia.

HOW THE ARTSBOSTON AUDIENCE INITIATIVE EVOLVED

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

MEET CUTE

THE FIRST FEW DATES

COMMITMENT

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

COURTSHIP

LOVE

NEW BUYER

REPEAT BUYER

MULTI-BUYER

SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER

DONOR

ADVOCATE / INVESTOR

P E R S O N A LR E L AT I O N S H I P S

To do this,

you need

their DATA!

PAT R O N R E L AT I O N S H I P S

Start with Organizational Data

HOW DOES THE ARTSBOSTON AUDIENCE INITIATIVE WORK?

Compile, Clean and Match

Organizations Access Research and Reporting Tools

Organizations Receive Technical Assistance and Collaborative Learning Opportunities

Demographics Geography

Psychographics

Append with Axciom Data

56 Participating Organizations

5+ Million Records Uploaded

1.3 Million Unique Households

750+ Reports Run

1+ Million Addresses Traded

AAI QUICK FACTS

1 out of every 3 homes in Metro Boston is currently in the database.

METRO BOSTON PRESENCE

46%

20%

13%

9%6% 4% 2%

Genre

MusicTheatreMulti-DisciplinePresentingMuseumDanceComedy

26%

35%4%

20%

13%2% Budget Size

$5m$1-5m$500k - $1m$100 - 500k$50 - 100kUnder $50k

AAI PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS

The broader we can go, the more different types of organizations we can invite in, the better picture we’ll have of what the potential is for the arts in Greater Boston.

David DalenaHuntington Theatre Company

Boston University College of Fine Arts

Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra

Broadway in Boston

Cantata Singers

Cappella Clausura

Celebrity Series of Boston

Central Square Theater

Chameleon Arts Ensemble

Chorus pro Musica

Citi Performing Arts Center

Company One

Danforth Art

Discovery Ensemble

Emmanuel Music

From the Top

Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts

Huntington Theatre Company

Improv Asylum

Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre

Lexington Symphony

Lyric Stage Company of Boston

New Repertory Theatre

Opera Boston - DATA ONLY

Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra

Radius Ensemble

Revels

Rockport Music

SpeakEasy Stage Company

Stoneham Theatre

Symphony Nova

The Boston Conservatory

The Handel and Haydn Society

Walnut Hill School for the Arts

Wellesley College

WGBH

Zumix

Actors' Shakespeare Project

American Repertory Theater

ArtsBoston

ArtsEmerson

Blue Heron

Blue Man Group

Boston Ballet

Boston Baroque

Boston Center for the Arts

Boston Chamber Music Society

Boston Classical Orchestra

Boston Early Music Festival

Boston Gay Men's Chorus

Boston Lyric Opera

Boston Midsummer Opera

Boston Philharmonic

Boston Symphony Orchestra

ARTSBOSTON AUDIENCE INITIATIVE (AAI) PARTICIPANTS

January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012

Participants pulled:

341 Mail or Email lists

295 Demographic Reports

214 Segment Penetration Reports

118 Zip Code Penetration Reports

Quarterly NCOA on 1,956,125 records

These services are valued at more than

$415,000And are all included at no extra cost to participants.

HOW ARE ARTS GROUPS USING IT?

Arts groups can pull up a variety of reports that compare their data to all patrons included in the AAI as well as contextual data for all of Greater Boston.

Data points include age, race, marital status, education and income level.

SAMPLE ORGANIZATION REPORT

Participants have 24/7 access to their own patron data and community-level reports, plus automated mailing list trading, through TRG Arts’ online data management system, eMerge.

24/7 ONLINE ACCESS

ORGANIZATIONAL REPORTS

ZIP CODE PENETRATION SEGMENT PENETRATION

DEMOGRAPHIC OVERLAY

“I can run a demographic report on our audience in 15 minutes. There’s no way we could get this level of accurate insight with a traditional audience survey.” -Henry Lussier, Director of Marketing for The Lyric Stage Company of Boston

AUDIENCE FACTNew patrons can be incented to come again and become regular arts attendees!

BIG PICTURE SECTOR DATA: WHAT THE AAI TELLS US

Q: Of those attending more than one organization (24%), how many did they attend?

A: 2 Orgs: 14% 3 Orgs: 5% 4 Orgs: 2% 5+ Orgs: 3%

AUDIENCE FACTMulti-buyers are great prospects since they have a proven track record of participation.

Q: How many households were brand new to the orgs in the database?

A: 22% from Patron Origination Report

Because TRG Arts manages 20 databases across the country, participants can benefit from national best practices and national market research.

NATIONAL NETWORK OF SHARED LEARNING

To provide technical assistance and encourage shared learning, ArtsBoston hosts monthly small group sessions with 5-10 people to learn more about system tools, and help users turnresearch into action. Workshop topics include:

Digging into eMerge l l Targeting and Engaging Audiences with the AAI

Individual Donor Trends and Tracking l l Next Level Segmentation Strategies

TRAINING: SMALL GROUP WORKSHOPS

ArtsBoston‘s monthly Knowledge Exchange Newsletter keeps

participants informed on how to take full advantage of the

system, and is one reason AAI usage rates are so high.

AAI KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE E-NEWSLETTER

John Beck

617.262.8632 x 240

johnb@artsboston.org

Usage High Usage0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

BostonChicagoPhiladelphiaSan FranciscoLos Angeles

(5+ inquiries through system)

Thanks to ArtsBoston’s multi-faceted training and technical assistance, Boston’s arts groups have actively embraced our community database

as a practical tool for analyzing and building audience participation.

BEST-IN-CLASS: NATIONAL USAGE RATES

DATA=POWER. BUT HOW DO YOU COLLECT IT?Ticketed Events: Encourage patrons to buy in advance, and train box office staff to collect data from walk-up sales.

Non-Ticketed & Free Events: Much trickier… Here are two examples of how others have tackled this challenge:

Norman Rockwell Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Norman Rockwell Museum installed a kiosk where guests can enter their information for a chance to win a special prize. It works!

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has interns and volunteers who approach visitors with an iPad to ask for their information. It works too!

Ford Hall Forum (free lectures) gathers patron data using Eventbrite:

DATA=POWER. BUT HOW DO YOU COLLECT IT?

The Huntington Theatre Company is utilizing the reporting tools in the AAI to track participation in its new Community Membership program, which reaches out to clients of local social service agencies.

American Repertory Theatre used the AAI to identify prospects for its annual new subscriber mailing. Analysis showed that although the standard 1-2% bought subscriptions, an extraordinary 20% of those who received the subscription brochure went on to purchase single tickets at some point during the season.

Handel and Haydn Society is using the AAI to develop a new single ticket buyer loyalty program. An AAI workshop allowed them to work with ArtsBoston staff and colleagues to explore how they should establish a baseline and what benchmarks would indicate “success.”

AAI CASE STUDIES

Situation

Goal: Prove that the Pavilion is serving a wide audience in order to receive funding from the City of Denver.

Solution

Reporting: Pulled a demographic match report & zip penetration on all of their data.

Result: They were prepared and ready for the presentation to the committee. Funding Received!

CASE STUDY: DENVER BUTTERFLY PAVILION

Situation

Traditional marketing for the company focused ONLY on Skokie residents until a new marketing director became concerned about marketplace saturation

Solution

Searched the co-op and discovered pockets of theater-goers traveling “past” Skokie to get to downtown theaters

Targeted marketing efforts at theater-goers North and West of Skokie promoting “high quality theater, more convenient to where you live”

Result: Discovered whole new markets for their product

CASE STUDY: NORTHLIGHT THEATRE SKOKIE, IL

Situation:

Needed to increase admissions to achieve a more financially sustainable business model

Solutions:EMP recognized the value of data, learned how to act on it, and used what they learned to inform marketing decisions for increased ROI/cost of sale

EMP re-set pricing, simplified and streamlined discount policies

Instituted discount for online advanced sales

Improved messaging to communicate unique value proposition

Result: Online purchases have gone from 1% to 22% in 2013 (and growing)

CASE STUDY: EMP MUSEUM SEATTLE, WA

THANK YOU!

For more information contact:

Deputy Director John Beck at johnb@artsboston.org

Executive Director Catherine Peterson at catherinep@artsboston.org

Or click:http://www.artsboston.org/page/audienceinitiative