Older, Wiser and Engaged in the Arts

During our conference we discussed segmentation and social media. Here are excerpts from those discussions.

In particular delegates acknowledged that the demographics of their audience are evolving, whilst attendance had generally held well throughout the economic downturn (to date). Social Media / Networking obviously offers great tools to develop your audience. However, there are a few crucial questions to ask before committing vast investments in the latest technical tools to deliver Social Media:

What is your reach through Social Media?

What do the clients you reach through Social Media look like?

Can you segment these clients? Can you include them in your segmentation analysis? 

There are obviously clients that you cannot reach through Social Media. Some organisations are doing great work to address those segments of their client base. The guideline principal ought to be that whilst clients continue to maintain their relationship with you 'Offline' that your communications with them need to work to ensure that those clients are equally as 'satisfied' as the clients you engage with via Social Media.

The two common segments to consider are:

1) Long Shore Drift

While you are investing in new channels, tools and social networking - what about those clients who get left behind?  

There will inevitably be a number of people, for whom the latest gizmo will be the last innovation they 'care' about. It may be that they grew up with Myspace, but were reluctant to learn Facebook. Or that they grew up with Facebook, but will be reluctant to try Wave. They may well be web literate, but are not be as web literate as they could be.

This group of people is itself evolving - maybe reducing in number. Web 2.0 offers platforms, that are by definition user friendly, intuitive almost second nature to the web literate generations. As a result Web 2.0 increases the number of people that you can reach through Social Media and arguably reduces Long Shore Drift.

Can you calculate the value that Social Media offers your organisation, whilst you maintain your relationships to the Long Shore Drift segment?

Have you considered what percentage of your client base would prefer to continue to receive a mail, not an email?

What percentage of your client base would respond to a phonecall from your organisation?

How fast will your organisation move, as Technology develops?

How fast will your client base move, as Technology develops and as your organisation moves with it?

2) Coffee Table Culture 

While you are investing in new channels, tools and social networking - what about those clients who perceive a value attached to more traditional forms of communications?

What do you consider traditional communication? What are the advantages of quality communications E.g. Designer Membership Welcome Packs?

There will typically be a number of people, who are emotionally attached to the traditional methods in which you communicate. Unlike Longshore Drift, they may well be absolutely web literate, but simply prefer a more traditional approach to their relationship with you.

This segment are likely to be those clients who identify the value in your cultural product, their response to your communications is not limited to the product, or the message - but the value that they associate with your organisation or your art form. This segment of your client base will want to be communicated with in a way that reflects the status and value of your cultural product.

Your client base will not all simply accept the channels through which you choose to communicate with them.

Talk Now: Sponsorship Puzzle

Whether it is a brick, a seat, a tree or a bench - If you can label it - You can sponsor it!

The majority of cultural organisations engaged with sponsorship offer a target campaign, such as Adopt a Tree, Name a Seat etc - For a fixed sum donation, your supporters can place their name and a message on the 'Seat'.

However, the question is for how long should an adoption be valid?

What happens if the adopted object is damaged / moved / replaced?

If the appeal is part of a wider campaign (E.g. a Capital Build)?

Compton Verney advocate a resourceful approach to Sponsorship E.g. Adopt a Tree 

Here the organisation stipulates the terms upon which a Tree will be replaced.

What do you think - should an adoption have an expiry date?

An expiry date enables the organisation to solicit a new donor(s) - but does that devalue the opportunity in the first place? Does it mean you need to ask for a smaller donation to begin with?

You are welcome to comment, discuss and share best practice with every post on Ticket Talk.

All you need to do is register with the website. We look forward to reading your comments.

Relationship Management Conference 2009 Part 1

Thank you to everyone that attended our conference in London - 12th and 13th October.

We reworked the Arts and Culture track this year, as part of the wider Relationship Management Conference. A significant element of the programme were guest speakers, from Arts and Cultural organisations across the country:

Su Matthewman - West Yorkshire Playhouse

Nick Boaden - West Yorkshire Playhouse

Jennie Gentles - The Drum

Sarah Ogle - Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse

Paul Williamson - London 2012

Sue Uings - Delfont-Mackintosh

Martin Barden - Tate

Raychel Perks - Barnsley Civic

Chris Palmer - Audiences NI

Thank you to you for taking time to share your insight. As if to continue the technological theme across our sessions - YouTube today announced that 20 hours of footage are uploaded every minute, 1 billion hits a day. Consider that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, but only 4 years old. We will post excerpts from discussions held at the conference here. We welcome comment and feedback, which you can do direct onto this site.

Followspot 1: Floral Pavilion

We invited you to share your ticket tales as arts and cultural organisations. First to share their experience are a team from Wirral, near Liverpool. Thank you to Alistair, Kate and the team at Floral Pavilion. 

The new Floral Pavilion Theatre and Conference Centre opened its doors in December 2008; a brand new theatre on the coast of Wirral has an artistic programme designed to welcome a new audience to the landmark venue.

Under the management of Alistair Armit, the venue has been exceptionally pro-active in using The Patron Edge and Patron Edge Online to establish a new audience for the theatre. With new audiences currently at 80% per show, the scheme appears to be paying off.

The launch of a new membership scheme has had remarkable uptake. Members (over 200 after only 3 months) who are offered advanced booking, ticket discounts and regular events - are proving loyal to the venue. Many members also take up the chance to  volunteer at the theatre and earn loyalty points for every shift worked. A second membership will be launched, aimed at performing arts studnets and offering a loyalty point scheme, plus the chance to get to know the venue through theatre tours and social networking events.

Not limited to the physical boundaries of the theatre complex - the Box Office is in the process of working with a large retail outlet mall to enable their staff to sell tickets as an agent, through The Patron Edge Online. Finally, a scheme will be launched as a series of subscription packages cross-selling genre specific shows from the new season brochure. These have been set up in order to enable slow sellers to 'sell on the shirt tails' of more popular shows.

Floral Pavilion are the latest addition to the UK arts circuit. You can find out more about the venue - and their ticketing - here:

http://www.floralpavilion.com/

TT 0.0.2 Fund for Thoughts

As Arts and Cutural organisations, there can be precious few opportunities to interact with your constituents, clients or visitors on a transactional basis. A number of organisations have taken the breath between Easter Holidays and Summer Seasons to review the transaction process, with a view to leveraging additional income at the Ticket Desk.

Up/Cross and Beyond

The Point of Sale  (POS) can offer an opportunity to maximise the economic value of each transaction. Galleries, Museums or Visitor Attractions often talk about the 'Up-Sell, Cross-Sell' at POS. Typically, that means offering the Guidebook, Brochure or Catalogue - as a client orders their tickets. However, generally where an organisation does work to Up/Cross-Sell, it will focus on the Ticket Desk only. (There are a growing number of exceptions - London Transport Museum or West Yorkshire Playhouse, for example).

'Thank you. That's £20.99 for the Family Ticket to 'Easter Eggs through the Ages'.

Would you like a Guidebook for your visit?'

Mr E. Legg, Visitor Services - 'Blackbaud Birmingham City National Gallery'

There are additional points to consider:

1. Should you offer the 'Generic, Tourist Level, English Language, £x' edition OR
   the 'Enhanced, Knowledge Level, Multi-Language' edition?
2. What are the implications of price sensitivity?
   (You are probably unlikely to Cross-Sell a £30 brochure for a basket value of £20).

Your decision is likely to be Venue dependent, or even Event dependent. In either case, the key point to consider is the phrasing. What is the most effective way for team member to Up/Cross-Sell?

Regular Intervals

The Point of Sale can offer a similar opportunity, even if you are not a Gallery, Museum or Visitor Attraction.

'Thank you. That's £44.99 for the Family Ticket to the 'Jack and the Beanstalk Family Panto on Ice'.

Would you like to pre-order your Icecreams?'

Mr. E.Legg, Box Office - 'Blackbaud Birmingham Theatre'

There are additional points to consider:

1. Should you offer the entire range of inventory (i.e. All Flavours)?
2. Should you offer it for specific group-friendly events only?
3. What are the implications for extending the length of time required to complete a transaction?
   The Up/Cross Sell will unavoidably extend the average time required per transaction.

Benefit and Bottom Line

However, there are obvious benefits to the Up/Cross-Sell, beyond an opportunity to increase the average £value of transaction.

• Up/Cross can enable GA venues, to rationalise store space. A product line available at POS, need not require shelf space at the Gift Shop.
• Up/Cross can enable RS venues, to manage dated inventory. A product line pre-ordered by your clients, can inform your stock order - you will know to order 200 extra Choc Chip in advance.

Finally, Up/Cross need not be limited to standard inventory - why not consider Donations in the same way? A point I will come back to in more detail.

Your Visitor Services and Box Office staff may consider any Up/Cross an unnecessary extension to the transaction process. Admittedly, there is a careful consideration required around where to draw the line. However, what Up/Cross proposes is no different to the typical package holiday. But where a holiday consumer can now compare the market, buy flights and hotels separately, create their own experience etc - Arts and Cultural organisations have a captive audience. Guidebooks and Ice Creams are unlikely to be purchased elsewhere - and providing you consider the various points, you can make a compelling offer to your patrons on that basis.

Thank you for checking out today's Ticket Talk. If you would like to share your experience or raise questions, you are welcome to contribute to Ticket Talk - simply click: Comments.

Save the Date!

We are pleased to announce new Arts and Cultural events across the UK. Registration will open shortly, but make sure you save the date.

• Northern Ireland - Tuesday 23rd June at Strule Arts Centre, Omagh
• North - Thursday 25th June at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
• South - Thursday 2nd July at Blackbaud Europe, London

The forums are a great opportunity for Box Office Managers to share ideas, enhance product knowledge and talk tickets.

Real Estate - What do you do?

Ticket Talk 0.0.1 discussed the space around your online ticketing.

Do you have any comments or considerations? If you would like to share experience, discuss challenges or simply talk tickets - please add your thoughts to the Ticket Talk blog.

TT 0.0.1 Real Estate

Welcome to today's Ticket Talk.

One of the positive attributes of an online presence is that it effectively levels the playing field for every venue. You can have capacity for 50 people, but have a website akin to a venue for 5000.

There are a wide variety of small scale sttractions, venues and festivals - often where an audience can discover fantastic niche events - the internet offers an opportunity for these venues to acquire new visitors and extend word of mouth. Whether it be Thomas The Tank Engive, The National Teapot Museum or Canal Cafe Theatre - size need not matter when it comes to your online offering.

There are a number of options for non-ticketing information you can offer online, which can reinforce your position as an organisation.

How many of the following do you have on your website?

1. Downloadable Press Releases
2. Uploaded Press Coverage
3. External Hire Information
4. Local Listings (E.g. Local attractions or restaurants)
5. Education and / or Community Information
6. Links to External Websites (E.g. Visitng Companies)
7. Links to Local Transport
8. Visitor / Audience Testimonials

If you can increase the amount of information available online, you may increase the average time spent browsing your site, which can benefit your organisation in several ways:

 a) Advertising Real Estate: Remember that browse time is a key metric for potential advertisers, who need to maximise the exposure of their brand. Providing you offer quality information online, you can offer quality exposure online, which can drive the value of your advertising.

 b) External Relations: Recipricol links both from and to your website can drive transactions on your website and exhance your relationship with those organisations that you link to.

 c) Up-Sell and Cross-Sell: Additional online information, creates additional online opportunities to promote your own tickets, merchandise and memberships - so if your organisation is not involved in advertising - you can drive transactions through your website.

There are three key points to consider when increasing information content:

 1) Keep it Clean - Informative Content should be kept up to date.

 2) Keep it Narrative - Rationalise the navigation - how is a potential bisitor likely to navigate your site?

 3) Keep on Brand - Maintain the user experience throughout the site.

Thank you for checking out today's Ticket Talk. If you would like to share your experience or raise questions, you are wlecome to contribute to Ticket Talk - simple click: Comments.

Face Your Audience!

We are pleased to announce new format Patron Edge training, available at our London office classroom. These are a good opportunity to make the most of your ticketing.

 If you would like to find out more, please contact Eddie Lee. eddie.lee@blackbaud.co.uk

The Patron Edge and the Box Office Manager (1 day) - Tuesday 23rd June

This course is great for: Box Office Management

Facing Your Audience with The Patron Edge Online Beginners (1 day) - Tuesday 11th August

This course is great for: Box Office Management, Marketing - anyone responsible for putting events onsale online.

Facing Your Audience with The Patron Edge Online Intermediate (1 day) - Tuesday 18th August

This course is great for: Marketing, Designers, System and IT Managers or Box Office Managers