Posts filed under ‘Case Studies’
Super Subscribers: Saving the Day, Seeding a Loyalty Initiative
An instructive case study of soliciting donors from subscribers at 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle from TRG Arts.
Facing a funding shortfall in 2009/10, 2010/11 subscriber were approached to become “Super Subscribers” and make a donation to “enhance their theatre-going experience“.
This is explained as follows: “Instead of requesting help for the organization, the letter invited patrons to enhance their theater experience with a tax-deductible gift that included experiential benefits: a backstage tour, a one-time guest pass to the major donor lounge, and a show poster of the subscriber’s choice from the upcoming season. Their gift would also support scholarships for the 5th‘s upcoming summer camps, but the primary focus of the ask was on the subscriber’s experience.“
40% of donations came in response to just the direct mail campaign without the need for any follow up calls.
The campaign brought in 453 gifts and a total of $51,189 at a 10% cost-of-sale and analysis by TRG was very interesting:
- “Most Super Subscribers were relatively new to subscribing. 65% included first timers, subscribers of five or fewer years, or patrons returning after letting their subscription lapse.
- Super Subscribers were primarily new donors. 70% had no previous giving history; 30% were lapsed donors.
- Super Subscribers were twice as generous. The campaign’s average gift size was $113, more than double 5th Avenue prior new gift average of $53.73.”
24 January, 2012 at 7:50 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Audience Development may yet, not be, a “non-job”?
A colleague, Jerry Yoshitomi of MeaningMatters, put me on to this article. I find this quite exciting for the future of Audience Development and the development of meaningful consumer models – Voter data crucial to Romney’s victory
No, I am not going to bore you with a regurgitation of the seemingly endless US election process 
I am, however going to wax lyrical about the use of data to segment prospects and inform relationship marketing.
“A central factor in Mitt Romney’s impressive win in New Hampshire was a sophisticated and relentless voter contact program that locked in supporters early and turned them out to the polls.“
Romney’s team “mined reams of consumer information — from the number of purchases voters made at Williams-Sonoma to their range of financial investments — to build a model that would allow them to find and identify potential supporters.“
They used data to prioritise prospects and then implemented an ongoing structured program of communication developed a loyal core.
“Romney operatives expanded a list of 5,000 solid supporters in New Hampshire from his 2008 campaign to more than 25,000 whom they believed they could rely … while also turning out with friends, relatives and colleagues.“
Just imagine if we had audiences on which we could rely and they turned out with friends, relatives and colleagues. Although I am not sure that we would aspire to this approach in the arts?
“In the end, the Romney team credited its successes to persistence — finding those undecided voters leaning their way and just inundating them,” said Romney’s New Hampshire director, Jason McBride.
Let’s hope that the arts can learn from this constituent development and use similar data mining tools for substantive audience development. Maybe we can then put to bed the accusations of nay-sayers like the recalcitrant Eric Pickles who variously called audience development an “non-job” or a “pointless post”.
13 January, 2012 at 10:54 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Isn’t it time you looked at integrating ticketing on Facebook?
Rob Martin, Digital Marketing Manager at The Lowry, Salford explains the implementation of Facebook ticketing at their venue as reported on the AMA COMMONS. Of note is the fact that at a cost of just £500 to integrate the new service, it paid for itself in the first month!
According to Rob “On average we sell around 50% of our tickets online, with the percentages rising for music and comedy.” Google Analytics revealed how important their Facebook page was for referring traffic, so logically they explored the option of selling tickets directly from Facebook.
“Live performances and ticket inventory taken from the Box office system into the … CMS now allows the website to share that information with Facebook users. The Facebook Events Page is a web application that … retrieves the current event information from the website via an exposed web service.“
Read more about the solution that paid for itself in a month: Lowry’s portrait of a Facebook ticketing operation
29 November, 2011 at 9:38 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 4 comments
Will you be stumbling around with Yumbling as your Entertainment Concierge?
I am not so sure about the name Yumbling, but it is an interesting development nonetheless.
“a free mobile app that recommends local entertainment options based on the user’s current location and preferences.“
This appears to be more than other apps like Urbanspoon which is more like a location based directory and in their words a “provider of time-critical dining data“. This covers a growing selection of entertainment options. They fine tune (or increase relevance of) recommendations by using what they call a “social DNA” algorithm.
“it factors in not only the user’s location, but also what it has learned of their tastes, and reportedly even contextual factors such as the time of day. Users who download the app … begin by creating a basic profile that includes some of their personal likes and dislikes. Yumbling logs this information, but also refines its understanding of the user over time based on their use of the app.“
It is device agnostic, available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia devices.
7 November, 2011 at 1:47 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Crowd Sourcing Meets Audience Sourcing, or is it just Audience Choice?
Some interesting trends for the future in Brazilian viewers choose what gets screened in local cinemas.
Mobz, a cinema chain in Brazil, hopes to make use of digital cinema to broadcast of live events, concerts, movies and more.
There is no programmer or “central decision-maker (who) chooses what gets shown, however; rather, local consumers are invited to vote on the site for the shows or films they want to see. When enough people vote for a particular screening, Mobz negotiates the details with the content owners and theaters, and viewers can then buy their tickets through the site. Mobz promotes the screening over social networks, and provided a minimum number of tickets are sold, the event or film is then aired. If the quota is not met, then those who had bought tickets are fully refunded.“
This is a similar model to that successfully applied by the filmakers of Four Eyed Monsters to build audiences for their film outside the traditional distributor model. Social networks are used to spread the word and, in effect, consumer advocacy drives the audience development.
While this is unlikely to have immediate applicability to whole live performances, maybe we will see more audience sourced content like that on a recent tour by Rufus Wainwright (for the Baby Boomer challenged, yes the son of Loudon III). The audience could vote in advance for the choice of songs that Rufus sang on an evening.
You will note that I have not, however, suggested cast selection reminiscent of Big Brother!
24 October, 2011 at 7:53 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
A Candid Discussion of the Approach to a Simple Segmentation
Sam Freeman on his blog Dark Laughs discusses his frustrations with the expense of brochures amongst other issues and his enthusiasm for newer approaches:
“There is much credit given to the “coffee table” appeal of brochures as something to be revered, perhaps it might be brought out over a dinner with friends while dipping some of that modern marvel french bread into the cheese fondue.”
I can not argue with his logic that a simple segmentation may assist his marketing. He approaches that with an analysis of recency and frequency within the parameters of the communication permissions of UK Data Protection.
It is as he says a work in progress with updates to be posted on his blog in the post Small Scale Segmentation.
12 October, 2011 at 7:28 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Are personalised search and online preferences narrowing our worldview?
Are algorithms editing our life and our choices? Kevin Slavin thinks so and presents a worrying picture in How algorithms shape our world (above).
You will be aware that there is no standard Google. Even if not logged in, Google takes into account 57 individual data points about YOU before serving you the results you searched for.
Algorithms are used to predict preferences or taste based on behaviour and recommend options. Do we risk saying goodbye to serendipity and innovation?
It is worrying though that a recent study at Columbia University found that a reliance on search engines for answers is actually changing the way humans think.
“Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganising the way we remember things. Our brains rely on the internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker,” said report author Betsy Sparrow.
Also exploring this subject, Eli Pariser warns us to Beware online “filter bubbles”.
The same stuff again and again is not satisfying, Pariser suggests we get trapped in a “Filter Bubble”. He warns that personalised search might be narrowing our worldview. A Filter Bubble is your own personal universe online, but the risk is that you don’t decide what is in it and you don’t see what is excluded or edited out
We rely less and less on our own critical faculties and word of mouth and more on what Mr Slavin calls the “physics of culture”. Pariser uses the analogy that algorithms are delivering the lowest common denominator – junk food, rather than a balanced diet. Search results and recommendations should not just keyed to relevance, but should expand a person’s horizon. He suggests five equally important weighting criteria:
- relevant
- important
- uncomfortable
- challenging
- other points of view
Hmmmmmm, sounds like a good premise for audience development in the arts to me.
Slavin moots a concept “the physics of culture” and discussed the recommendations of Netflix which account for 60% of films rented. Netflix has used a variety of agorithms to recommend films, Cinematch, Gravity and now the ominous sounding Pragmatic Chaos.
Just as we need a balanced diet of food, we similarly benefit and grow from a healthy balanced diet of politics and culture. We need in effect a benevolent editor and Pariser suggests journalistic ethics encouraged this in the newspaper industry a century ago. Although it sounds like those ethics need to be revisited now Mr Murdoch.
24 August, 2011 at 2:40 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
How Can Nonprofits Switch to a Data-Driven Culture?
Beth Kanter an influential writer on technology and not for profits, discusses how organisations can evolve to a data driven culture. A data-driven organisation makes use of the wealth of data at its fingertips and as a result is characterised by objective decisions based on constant monitoring and measurement. No surprises, key to the process of successful evolution is leadership.
How Can Nonprofits Switch to a Data-Driven Culture?
Beth suggests four evolutionary stages of a Data-Driven Culture:
- Dormant
- Testing and Coordinating
- Scaling and Institutionalizing
- Empowering:
A case study of DoSomething.Org provides and example of a not for profit exhibiting the characteristics and work habits of a data-driven organization and moving into the “Empowering Stage”.
To finish there are four tips for an organisation to make the switch to a data-driven culture:
- Start at the top
- Make the case to improve your measurement practice
- Think big, but take baby steps
- Share stories
“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians,” – Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google
18 August, 2011 at 1:48 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
CASE STUDY: Ticketing on your mobile
An entry in the 2011 Australian Mobile Awards in the Online Shoping & Payments category – Ticketing on your mobile with Moshtix.
There are a variety of notable elements in this implementation:
- Mobile optimised site – not an app.
- Ticket delivery via a mobile barcode allowing scanning direct on the phone – no paper ticket or physical fulfillment
- PayPal integration
- After purchase ticket buyers receive an SMS linking to their mobile barcode ticket
- Integration with Google Maps
- Social sharing of events through Facebook and Twitter
- Forwarding of tickets to friends from the same mobile
9 August, 2011 at 6:27 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
To Groupon or not to Groupon …
That is the question!
I would suggest that the challenge for the arts (in particular) is not attract audiences once – but to get them to reattend, let alone with frequency.
“It is a great way to get people in to try your arena,” says Chad Nason, a Groupon spokesman.
Yes discounting can be one way to encourage trial, but the real risk is discounting the perceived value.
“… the burden is on us to put the best deal out there for places that people will go back to for full prices,” says Chad Nason, a Groupon spokesman. That seems an unwinnable challenge to me for a discounter?
The opportunity cost is significant “You are only making 25 percent of the full-ticket price,” says Melissa Grande, director of marketing for Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre.
But beyond the size of the discount, the major handicap to the audience development potential of Groupon and similar discount schemes is that they do not provide the names and contact details of purchasers who redeem the offer. So, there is no way to continue (or even) start to engage with these first time attendees attracted by the discount and build an ongoing relationship.
Read more about Groupon in Can group coupons deliver what cultural groups want most: Repeat customers and revenue?
20 June, 2011 at 1:08 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
