Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Ha ll with Pacific Symphony audience.JPG

Arts audiences have long been segmented by – and communicated to – based on behavior. Behaviors such as number of tickets purchased, donation amount, or frequency of attendance.

As cultural organizations move through this period of closed venues and a slow return to business as usual, what will be the new lines by which you will ‘value’ and therefore segment and communicate to your audience? What happens when your audience is no longer purchasing tickets to events, either because you are not on stage, you are forced to implement reduced capacities to fulfill social distancing guidelines, or your audience members are uneasy about attending? Or, indeed, your customer’s financial circumstances have changed and they are no longer able to give at the same level? In this new reality, what are the new metrics you’ll use to measure their ‘value’? And how will you continue to measure loyalty and engagement, and record this in a way that is meaningful and actionable now and into the future?

In other words, how can you think about and talk to your audience in new ways that are not focused on physical attendance, number of tickets purchased, or level of gift? We’ve been thinking about how organizations are interacting with audiences during the shutdown and how they can use this information to inform future marketing and development campaigns.

Subscriptions and Memberships
An obvious way we measure ‘value’ is through donations, but right now you also need to think about how you are representing ticket donations in your database. How are you tracking donated tickets or money on account against the customer’s current ‘value’ from both a marketing and a development perspective? And for those organizations who announced future seasons pre or mid shutdown, how are you recording those customers who took the leap and renewed or joined you as a subscriber or member during this time of uncertainty (regardless of their ticket value or frequency)? They have displayed an incredible level of faith in you as a company – they are truly your most valuable customers and should be indicated (or targeted) as such for future marketing and development campaigns.

We’re seeing many examples of museums and galleries extending memberships, and some of our performing arts clients are making the commitment to allow subscribers to roll their tickets for performances that have or will be cancelled into the following season and beyond. These customer-first strategies are to be applauded but behind the scenes you should be thinking about what that means in terms of the customer’s recorded ‘value’ for this season and next. How will you will represent deferred memberships and subscriptions in your database for not only future renewal campaigns but also for future reporting?

Digital Engagement
Many organizations are coming to recognize that digital programming that was perhaps considered a temporary measure at the start of the shutdown will become a standard part of their offering to customers in the future, and necessarily are starting to invest in the platforms to deliver content digitally. As part of this process you should not only be looking at how you measure total digital engagement for digital programs but also how you can record engagement for individual customers. This may become an easier metric to measure if digital programming becomes part of a paid offering – or at least a benefit of membership or historical loyalty – but as a starting point, are you requiring audiences to sign up or RSVP to your digital events, and recording this in their customer account? If so, you should also be experimenting with how digital attendance contributes to a customer’s ‘value’.

Readiness to Attend
As my colleague Tom recently explored, and as ongoing research is uncovering, many of our audience members will not be ready to return when we open our doors, or indeed for seasons to come. This may be driven by health concerns or changed financial circumstances. Lack of physical attendance or inability to give doesn’t lessen their attachment to – or need for – your organization.

In order to understand where your audience is, you need to start that conversation with them. Through direct conversations and research over the coming months and years, it will be important for your teams to understand where your audience members are at in terms of their readiness to return to your venue or to give to your organization. Many organizations are participating in this kind of research already, and we challenge you to think about how you are recording this data on an individual customer level, and more importantly how you will craft your communication – and offerings – accordingly in the future.

Offline engagement
In this time of uncertainty, one thing remains certain: Connection remains vitally important for all of us. Beyond digital programming, are there other ways that you provide moments of connection for the members of your audience who may not be as comfortable online, that may also serve as ways for you to collect data? Simple calling campaigns to check in with your audience (without an ask!), or research projects conducted over the phone or by mail, are useful ways to keep connected to and gather information from those audience members who are not digitally connected.

While we are all grappling with the day-to-day right now, we do need to strategically think about what this period means for our audience relationships and interactions, and how it will set the path for our future conversations with them. The traditional models of measuring value and tracking behavior no longer accurately depict the entirety of your relationship with you audience, nor do they take into account their personal responses to this period of upheaval and change. Now is the time to go beyond traditional transactional measures to really understand your audience’s needs and motivations to help you better plan for the uncertain future that lies ahead.

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Our team is now offering virtual workshops that will help your team rethink your organization’s relationships to audiences. Learn more.

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Rani Haywood is a Senior Consultant at Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a New York City-based arts consultancy offering strategy, assessment, executive search, and leadership coaching services to organizations across the US—all with a focus on audiences and revenue outcomes. For over fifteen years Rani has held senior marketing roles at an array of performing arts and cultural organizations in Australia and the United States, including at The Metropolitan Opera, Roundabout Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company.