Audience Development strategies campaigns and tactics There is a lot of debate about audience - PDF document

publications or published guidelines. nd elsewhere on the site, but www.newaudiences.co.uk re audiences and believe the work we do should have a wider audience. So, above and beyond our marketing strategy, we need ocess and flagging up possible pitfalls. It is development? audience development tools to the work your organiAudience development is about making an organisation-wide comm taken specifically to meet the needs of existing and potential audiences, and to help arts organisations to dev. It can include aspects of marketincommissioning, programming, education, custGrants for the Arts, Arts Council England, 2004 Audience development is a continual, actively managed prtion’s own artistic, social and financial objectives Audience development is a planned process which involves buildins must work to develop these relationships. Heather Maitland, The Marketing Manual Development 5 principles to apply to your audience development strategy: long term commitment audience and development commitment involve your colleagues is vital – especially if you in the organisation reasonable timetablea long-term plan, so take time to SMART: specific realistic opportunities to work together to develop audiences in your area? Would working audience? don’t get analysis paralysis plan, and include a timeline and audience development priorities – Don’t forget your current audience: the aim is the overview and the objectives define the specific results you need to achieve to fulfil each objective. does what record or measure to say whether you have technical procedure, just a note to say that Further reading: A Guide to Audience published by ACE and is free. See publications at See how others do it: the AMA website telemarketing to online development; One of the legacies of the New Audiences Programme is a wealth of information including case studies and project outcomes. Go to www.newaudiences.co.uk Case study links realistic actions clear and how you’ll carry on if it does : any background information budgets that underpin your resources, objectives Each audience development objective will require one or more ified audience group(s). The Involve the people who are going to Identify the audience group(s) you Choose the method(s) by which Identify resources required and Identify the tools you need Do you know enough before you start? What ideas do colleagues have to feed into the plan? If you are approaching lapsed You need to overcome barriers and negative Do you know where to find your target audience and Check resources and tools response to a first-time caller/visitor will stop them coming any closer to you. Dead. project a match? Will funding be in place before Is your box office system up to the job? Do you effort they will need? Do they know what to do? Agree detailed action plan and Check your monitoring procedures Schedule progress meetings may well involve building expertise, data profiling services? Have you geared to achieving the aims and objectives outlined in your strategy. responses to creative initiatives to You successfully increase attendances by your most audience’ and ‘a dance audience’? Examine sales You refine the way you segment audiences You achieve success in encouraging customers to try You re-organise the content of your postal and e-mail 3. Adding Value you would like them to stay 30? Think about longer audience, think about alternative ways of delivering your message. Use different media and by Mel You have new people coming to your venue/activity. Do some research to find out why they ‘loyalty’. Don’t invite people to attend and then never contact them again. rmation, or even their own perceptions. Think about value for money. Is what y Is it a worthwhile putting bums on seats, increasing visitor levels, achieving numerical targets. A Social inclusion initiatives can Ways in which audience development can assist organisation is focused on achieving something which Medium to long-term activity allows incremental opportunities they have inclusion on your own. initiatives are rarely about getting you new core attenders, and certainly not in the short term Realistic timetables and goals underpin work which can be view. valuable contacts and mean that your work is and make a genuine contribution to tackling exclusion Summary Focus upon a particular art form or embrace all performing arts – a lot will Receiving venues may require co-operation from touring companies. Have you an appropriate supply of the relevant product? It can be A lot of performance related audience you don’t have a computerised box office system, you’ll need to find Borrow tactics from other art forms. using press reviews. Productions with long runs can offer better flexibility for campaign work than Barriers and motivations for participating can be quite different The dynamics of your event will be Ensure that artists and workshop your audience development aims. First time attenders may appreciate extra guidance and customer care. what they will be doing and who with? A lot of participatory work is groups, be explicit about this and view. In the past it was thought that audience development contact with attenders and lack of box office data. have proved it is possible to achieve excellent results. If you offer free entrance or Use loyalty schemes to overcome the lack of box The joy of visual art is visual impact. An image Join up with other organisati Research communications methods. If you are If you have to use one-night audience. Mixed age participatory activity can Think creatively about where to find new audiences. People who enjoy web art may be technology fanatics Short-term impact Medium-term impact Long-term impact a subscriber evening. Remember to relate all short-term audience groups. If you are commissioning new long. Audience development requiring specially devised needs long term planning. Attracting new audiences should be measured over at least 2 to 3 years. An enthusiastic For anyone to try plan improvements to the audience stic and education staff to programme special mini-events and front-of-house Find out what prevents non-Design a series of events and activities specially holds data about individuals, computerised protect the data in your possession. You need to understand how ypublished by the Arts Marketing AssociatThe Disability Discrimination Act work in a number of ways including physical access and omers. Your Arts Council England contact will be able to point you towards appropriatadvice. Child Protection Policy Heather Maitland’s Guide to Audience Development A Practical Guide to Working with Arts Ambassadors’ by Mel Jennings, published by ACENew Audiences web si Sams Books: www.sam-arts.demon.co.uk Author: Louise Cogman. Format © Duncan Sones Associates