Who patrons listen to, what they say, and how organisations can remain a part of that conversation forms the new frontier of arts marketing.
This transition has been dubbed the changing culture of culture by Edinburgh-based consultant Hannah Rudman, and marks the evolution of consuming the arts from a passive past-time to participatory behaviour. Technology is the motivator, as digital mechanisms continue to infiltrate and proliferate. In the online world, what someone posts and shares is becoming as influential as what they see and do. Patrons no longer rely solely upon official channels for information; their recommendations are sought from peers, not promotion, as they increasingly crowdsource their experiences.
At the 10th annual Ticketing Professionals Conference in Brisbane, keynote speaker Rudman told of the drastic shift in engagement with the arts over the past five years, driven by the capacities inherent in the digital arena. Having overseen the strategic digital development of over 150 cultural, arts and heritage sector organisations in the United Kingdom, across all operational and business models, Rudman’s insights came with grounding in experience.
The way audiences interact with culture has changed both before and after attending a show – both prior and post cultural consumption. Though online ticketing has become a mainstay of event attendance in recent years, and technology-enabled, paperless entry to events is gaining prominence, more change is afoot. Arts organisations should recognise the shift underway, embrace its potential for increased engagement, and actively prepare for future developments.
Who do patrons listen to, and what do they say?
At the most basic level of arts marketing and selling, traditional methods of promotion are being overtaken – not just by online mechanisms, but by consumers. Audiences seek avenues beyond a venue’s website or an event’s poster, and look further than static, text-based social media posts. The recommendations of their friends, through shared content, are highly influential.
Word of mouth, both as an authentic expression of opinion from arts attendees, and as actively elicited by organisations through marketing campaigns, is now more likely to be spread by social media. The decision to attend an event is often motivated by friends on Facebook and Twitter. The act of watching is captured on a mobile device, to be shared afterwards. Views post-show, whether favourable or not so, are immediately posted online to be validated and commented upon by peers.
Even the sales mechanism falls into this space, with ticket purchases processed online with growing frequency, and increasingly made from mobile devices – often after seeing social media posts. Those same sites are, of course, ablaze with comments the moment the event ends, potentially attracting a new audience; the cycle continues.
Sharing is illustrative of the blended digital world we now live in, Rudman observes, with the data supporting her position. It is not enough for a patron to see an advertisement in a newspaper, visit a venue’s box office to buy tickets, attend the show, then tell their friends in persons about their experience. That method of cultural consumption is becoming the exception, rather than the rule.
The bulk of interaction is moving onto the internet and away from official marketing channels. As documented in the Yellow Pages Social Media Report, 65% of Australians use one or more social media channel. 67% of social media users access their platform of choice via a smartphone.
Social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum, of course, with its users keenly seeking out opinions from their peers in many forms – and adding their own to the masses in turn. 79% of social media users utilise review and recommendation sites before making a purchase, broadening their sphere of information. A positive rating on Yelp or a similar platform bears considerable weight in the success of an event in attracting a further audience. The crowd speaks, and patrons listen.
How can arts organisations remain a part of the conversation?
Creating content is key: both on- and off-line, and in a promotional as well as a programming sense. Marketing needs to be less static, Rudman explains. Just as patrons are creating and sharing their own videos through social media posts, organisations can encourage engagement by doing the same – and not just through standard online methods.
Visual information, especially in video format, is the most popular form of shared content – and is something that audiences are taking more notice of. Including videos in social media can be a simple mechanism for furthering the conversation around an event, and can include trailers, behind the scenes footage, interviews and more.
The rise in augmented reality marketing may seem like a gimmick; however it neatly bridges the gap between printed and digital content, potentially amplifying interest in the process. Overlaying online assets – often videos, but also digital versions of printed guides – on collateral, commonly through the use of QR codes, provides a further point of interaction between a consumer and an event, and is primed for sharing through social media.
Cultivating new programming opportunities is another method of sustaining the conversation with patrons that could prove just as lucrative, as a number of examples offered by Rudman demonstrate. The merging of theatre and film through simulcast performances, as seen in the popular NT Live program, lends itself to new and heightened discussion, as well as opening both mediums and the National Theatre as a London-based establishment to a broader audience.
Such niche-leaning programs, offering a hybrid of art forms and the potential to celebrate the best of both in a customised environment, provide a changed experience ready-made for social media sharing. Talking about the new and the different always appeals, and is likely to gain traction with patrons eager to enjoy – and tell their friends about – the unique, emerging and unusual.
The immersion of the audience in the curatorial process goes one step further, with some innovative arts organisations – such as The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota – calling upon their patrons to take over a component of their program. Risks abound in this crowdsourced content strategy, but the rewards can be enormous. In 2012, this technique gave rise to the Internet Cat Video Festival as part of the Walker Arts Center’s Open Field programming, attracting thousands of attendees, significant international media attention, and content begging to be discussed online.
Where to from here?
Digital technologies will continue to emerge and disrupt. The increased usage of second screens while watching will filter out of homes and into events. The inevitable emergence of wearable computing will again alter the way audiences interact with and spread content. In their marketing and selling efforts, arts organisations need to build confidence that they can adapt and deliver in a space that is constantly evolving, as consumer activity will only venture further down the sharing path.
Cultivating – not merely remaining part of – the conversation with audiences as they engage through social media, seek trustworthy, non-official sources of information, and broadcast their views on cultural events is of vital importance. Rodman’s final recommendations: work out how emerging technologies change audience behavior and expectations relevant to your organistion, and build staff and organisational capacity to produce appropriate content that capitalises upon this change.
