6 questions

Chris DentonDirector of Marketing, Communications and Digital Strategy – Southbank Centre

11. Be honest, do you tell, sell or engage at the moment?

The last 40 years!

with thanks to Morris Hargreaves McIntyrewww.lateralthinkers.com

Organisation Customer

TELL AND SELLTake it or leave it!

Then…

What is a ‘cultural experience’?

COMMUNICATION

CONVERSATIONCOMMUNITY

AUDIENCES

Now…

Arts organisation

2. What are you asking people to buy into?

MISSION – Who you are, what you doVISION – What you want to becomeVALUES – What you believe, what defines you

Build your brand

The importance of brand

AFFORDABILITY

•Wherever possible we need to encourage people to make value judgments about us based on ‘hearts’ and not ‘heads’.

The importance of brand

TRUST

•We need to build trust with audiences and not sabotage it.

•Deliver on our promises

The importance of brand

PASSION

•Loyalty

•Belief in the importance of what we do

•Prioritise us

•Champion us to others

3. How will you make it more than a one night stand?

What is audience development?

ACQUISITION

RETENTION

FREQUENCY

CROSS-OVER

TRUST

ENGAGEMENT

LOYALTY

LOVE

Education

Learning and Participation

Membership and Friends schemes

Front of House service/Shops/Bars/CafesARTISTIC

DIRECTORDevelopment Team Marketing

Board

Sponsors

Digital

Box Office

Press and External Affairs

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Who comes already?

• What do you know about your audience?• Are they loyal?• Can they come more often?• Do you look after them?

• Aim: Long term, loyal, profitable

DATA• Understand and target your audiences

better• Increase income via dynamic pricing, &

yield management

BEHAVIOUR

Booking patterns:RecencyFrequencyValue

Arts interests:Art formGenresMultiple interests

Location:Distance

Loyalty:SubscriberFriendPatronMajor donor

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

1996-7 1997-8 1998-9 1999-00 2000-01

Existing

New custs

Good at winning new customers

1 2 3 4 5Year

% from 1996-7 who have returned

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1996-7 1997-8 1998-9 1999-00 2000-01

Bad at keeping them

Year 1 2 3 4 5

% of patrons against % of income to Centre

64%

17% 14%

5%1%

16%

27%

19%

7%

31%

1 Visit 2 Visits 3-5 Visits 6-9 Visits 10+ Visits

% database

% income

New audience plan

28% increase in

those coming more than once

14% of new audiences

still attending after 5 years. Up from 5%

26% increase in

bookings in the first two years of programme

31% increase in revenue

from returning customers (extra £1.2m)

40% more revenue

from higher frequency visitors within 3 years

16% of people receiving

welcome pack came back within one month of first visit

All customers are equal

Know which customers to focus most attention on

4. Who are you going to reach out to and how?

The Four P’s…

PRODUCT

PRICE

PLACE

PROMOTION

Audience development matrix

Audience development matrix

Audience development matrix

Research

•Work together with others•Agree benchmarking priorities•Set audience development targets•Test and learn•Identify the potential

5. Think like the people who aren’t coming

ATTITUDE

Psychographic segments

•Values•Attitudes•Beliefs•Motivations•Expectations•Life experiences

Tips

• Don’t think about ‘difficult’ programmes• Imagery, tone of voice – be appropriate• Remove basic barriers (dress code etc)• Pricing – don’t undervalue what you do• Make a night of it (packages)• Test, test and test again• But don’t forget…

6. Are you following them or are they following you?

Who leads, who follows?

The art or the audience?

FESTIVAL STRATEGY

Audience development aims

•Create a destination – something for everyone•Target least engaged audiences•Deepen engagement•Be entrepreneurial to attract new audiences•Make best use of the site and venues•Cultural activism

PIC SHOWING VIBRANT SITE

• HOLDING IMAGE

FESTIVAL STRATEGY - TRANSFORMING THE BUSINESS

MODEL

Transforming the Business Model

• Festival Strategy has:

– Driven foot fall and visits

– Created a vibrant destination

– Increased attractiveness to commercial partners

– Attracted new sources of sponsorship

Grant v Self Generated Income

• Southbank Centre is UK’s 3rd most visited visitor destination

• 6.2m tickets issued• 5,000 ticketed events each year• 31m people visit the site• 50% of events are FREE• One of the most diverse audiences in UK arts• Bold vision with stunning results