‘MOVE !’

Using a typology of audience development interventions

to create a practical project to build audiences

SCCaTStephen Cashman Consultancy & Training

A strategic conundrum

DATELINE: Tyneside 1999/20

00 ...

An inadvertent explosion of dance

7 runs of dance …

in 3 nearby venues

All within 7 months

HOW DO YOU REACT? & WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Towards an Audience Development typology:

The Ansoff matrix

MarketExtension Diversification

Product Development

MarketPenetration

New

MARKETS

New

Existing

Existing Products or services

A typology of Audience Development interventions

Offering

Users

CurrentNew

New

ResearchCultivatio

n

&

Retention

Programme

Develop-ment

Broadening

scopeInnovation

Current

The 5 types of AD interventions

Developing:

an audience’s usage of an organisation together with its pattern of consumption (‘retention & cultivation’)

an audience’s social, demographic & geographical breadth (‘broadening scope’)

the range and quality of the experience offered to an audience (‘programme development’)

both the audience’s breadth and the scope of its experience (‘innovation’)

the range of knowledge an organisation has on its audiences (‘audience development research’).

‘Co-opetition’

“Business is co-operation when it

comes to creating a pie

and competition when it comes to

dividing it up.

You have to compete & co-operate at

the same time.”

Nalebuff & Brandenburger [1996]:

Game theory

The mathematical study of games & strategy

Straddles economic & social theory

Concerned with modeling decision making & the likely outcomes / payoffs

Prelude to “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

DATELINE: Moscow ... The S

talin era...

The Prisoner’s Dilemma - rules & payoffs

The Conductor

Hold out

Tchaikovsky

Hold out

Confess

3

3

1

25

1

25 10

10

Confess

Core features of The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Depicts paradoxical contrasts:

good intentions vs bad outcomes

what’s best for the individual vs what’s best for all(‘the common good’)

Initial learning points from The Prisoner’s Dilemma

The benefits of thinking ahead - preparing for “the shadow of the future” (Axelrod [1984])

The benefits of having a prior deal to work collaboratively for the common good

The need for mutual trust

The Prisoner’s Dilemma- reservations & responses

The PD is an abstract simplification

In parts a ZERO SUM GAME (I win, you lose)

It’s a ‘one-off’, FINITE GAME (Carse [1986])

But real life’s best seen as a ‘NON ZERO SUM’ & ‘INFINITE GAME’ (win / win games)

And Axelrod’s iterated PD shows that co-operation is the winning strategy

Axelrod’s prescription for co-operation in networks

Enlarge “the shadow of the future”

Teach people to care about each other

Change the perception of the payoffs

Play ‘tit for tat’ - co-operate first, then reciprocate

A bigger pie is more important than a bigger share of it

NOW:

Estimated market size =200,000 attenders

The FUTURE:

Collective marketing activity leadsto a 10% uplift in market to 220,000

A 15% share of the overall market for arts attenders = 30,000 people

So just a 14.5% share of the overall market for arts attenders = 32,000 people

A strategic conundrum

DATELINE: Tyneside 2000 ..

.

An inadvertent explosion of dance

7 runs of dance …

in 3 nearby venues

All within 7 months

HOW DO YOU REACT? & WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Solving the strategic dance conundrum

‘MOVE’ - an ACE New Audiences funded project led by DN

Run collaboratively with 4 venue

Based on pooling & profiling dance databases

Then taking collective promotional action to: • reward & move current attenders • attract new, first time attenders

The proof of the pudding

MOVE generated:

An initial core database of 15,500 dance interested individuals

Bookings by 557 people

Between 1,558 and 1,731 bookings new to the relevant venues

A ‘legacy’ database of 700 active dance attenders

Reflections on adopting a ‘co-opetition’ strategy

Not the only way of doing things

Demonstrable benefits of a combined approach: growing the cake whilst occasionally fighting for a share of it

Willingness to think ahead collectively is crucial

Can require a change in mind-set

Message is mutuality: “Let’s work both for our benefit and for the common good”

Co-opetition - references & resources

Robert Axelrod [1990] The Evolution of Co-operation, London; Penguin Books.

Robert Axelrod [1997] The Complexity of Cooperation - agent based models of competition and collaboration, Princeton New Jersey; Princeton University Press.

Arthur Battram [1998] Navigating Complexity - the essential guide to complexity theory in business & management, London; The Industrial Society.

James P Carse [1986] Finite & Infinite Games - a vision of life as play and possibility, New York; Ballantine Books.

Avinash K Dixit & Barry J Nalebuff [1991] Thinking Strategically - the competitive edge in business, politics and everyday life, London; W W Norton & Company.

Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand & Joseph Lampel [1998] Strategy Safari - a guided tour through the wilds of strategic management, London; Prentice Hall Europe.

Barry J Nalebuff & Adam M Brandenburger [1996] Co-opetition, London; Harper Collins Business

Stephen Cashman Consultancy & Training can be contacted by e-mailing: stephen.cashman.consultancy@blueyonder.co.uk