I received weekly sales reports from Lincoln Performing Arts Centre by Spektrix. This allowed me to correlate which marketing activity was most successful in generating ticket sales. I contacted Siren FM via Twitter to ask if members of the company could come on the show and speak about INKA. This was a result of networking with them on Twitter. This interview aired on the 28th April (which can be found below) and from the graph, it is likely that it helped generate ticket sales.
The following week I also started a photographic countdown on both Facebook and Twitter and sent out a press release to local press and local arts professionals, which again generated ticket sales.
(Figure 1 – Graph of ticket sales I have created using Spektrix data)
Arts Council England
Marketing and audience development is important as it allows venues, companies and Arts Council to understand audiences, build relationships, reach out to new audiences and engage the public. Arts Council England suggests you provide an audience development plan when applying for Grants for the Arts which includes:
Your Audience Objectives
Clearly set out the objectives and targets for your audience development or marketing activities. Make them smart (SMART) – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely.
The details of your activity
Describe the target audience or participants for the activity (be specific, identify each ‘audience type’, for example students aged 18–24). Provide details of how many people you are hoping to involve (be specific and break this down by each ‘audience type’). Describe the benefits and why it would appeal to them. Describe what is unique or different about your activity and plans.
Demand for your activity
Describe how you know that there is demand for your activity from your target audience, and provide details of any research you have carried out.
Audience development and marketing methods
Describe the tools, approaches and methods you plan to use to reach your target group
Timetable
Provide details of the timetable for your activities, give exact dates if possible
Budget
Provide details of the income and expenditure for your audience development and marketing plan, and remember to include the costs of evaluating your plans. Where possible break down the figures to show the detail of the budget.
Evaluation
Describe how you will evaluate the success of your plan against your objectives and targets. For example, how you will find out if you have reached the people you wanted to reach. Include information on when you will do this and who will be involved. Remember to reflect, review and evaluate to inform future work.
Audience Finder and Segmentation
Venues and organisations who are funded by Arts Council England are required to use the Audience Finder by the Audience Agency. The website “provides tools for collecting and analysing data in a standardised way which builds a clear picture of audiences locally and nationally. The results help organisations to find new audience opportunities using a range of tools, features and support” (The Audience Finder, 2018). The Audience Finder does this by using segmentation which allowed me to understand how to appeal towards the biggest segment in Lincoln who are called “Dormitory Dependables”, making up 26% of potential audiences. This group attend the arts regularly but infrequently and culture is more of an occasional treat, rather than an integral part of their lifestyle (Audience Finder, 2017). “Dormitory Dependables” are least likely to respond to postal mailings and are more likely to respond to text and email (Audience Finder, 2018). By using this tool, I could, therefore, tailor my marketing towards this group. To do this I did not use postal mailings, instead, I focused on digital marketing by sending our press release by email to local press and arts professionals.
The rigorous application for Grants for the Arts ensures that artists meet certain criteria before receiving any money from Arts Council England. The application ensures that artists and company’s meet ACE’s five goals for arts and culture. These five goals include excellence, arts for everyone, resilience and sustainability, diversity and skills and children and young people. I understand that evaluation is very important to Arts Council England when applying for Grants for the Arts. Therefore, I used social media to collect feedback and comments about INKA. This audience feedback can be found under the ‘Our Shows’ ‘INKA’ tab.
– Rosie
Marketing Manager
Works Cited:
The Audience Agency (2017) Audience Finder Available from https://audiencefinder.org/ [accessed 27 April 2018].
Arts Council England (2017) Audience development and marketing, and Grants for the Arts.