Posts filed under ‘Case Studies’
Emerging practice shared with you from Chicago
I recently attended the annual CultureLab meeting in Chicago and as part of the meeting of cultural consultants, funders and practitioners. The second day consisted of a variety of international best practice case studies ranging from Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago to Malmö Opera in Sweden.
The presentations are available online at the CultureLab Emerging Practice Seminar
CultureLab’s Emerging Practice Seminar is a concerted effort to bring forward promising new practices in the cultural sector and transmit them to the field.
Each year, two practice areas are selected that represent important developments for the arts field. The 2011 seminar focused on:
- Uses of technology in audience engagement
- Revenue management and dynamic pricing
The discussion of each topic featured several case studies drawn from arts organizations from USA to Sweden, and Australia and New Zealand in between.
13 May, 2011 at 11:54 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
The beauty of data visualization – David McCandless “… let the dataset change your mindset” Hans Rosling
“… let the dataset change your mindset“
9 March, 2011 at 12:36 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
The Risk of Getting Tickets for the London Olympics
An interesting contradiction reported in How to get an Olympic seat.
THE ADVICE: Apply for lots of tickets, but beware if you get them – you will have to pay for all of them.
“The official advice is that to maximise your chances of getting tickets, you will need to apply for lots of things. But be warned: if you get everything you apply for, you are committed to buying all those tickets“
Won’t that just encourage a secondary market for scalpers?
“It will be illegal to sell tickets for a profit, unless you are an authorised partner, … So if you put tickets up on, say, eBay, you will be committing an offence. However, London 2012 is developing an online exchange through which people can resell them.“
I hope the online exchange is up and running and road tested well in advance of tickets going on sale.
10 January, 2011 at 11:11 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Titles can reveal a lot about your constituency …
This is a gem to finish of 2010 from
Proper Discord: Trouble With Classical Music. The item Don’t forget Viscountess! potentially reveals how not to develop a website and be responsive to privacy, let alone PR. 
By the way there are about 130 different titles to choose from at last count!
30 December, 2010 at 11:21 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Customer Database = the Key to the Future?
Other industries are always interesting to watch for clues and ideas.
You can imagine my surprise to read the following passage in Databases Key to the Revenue-Streams of the Future:
“audience-development professionals need to focus their work on database management. “This is an essential competitive advantage and a barrier to entry … It’s a 3-D inside-and-outside picture of the audience that our marketers want. Whose job is it to build and maintain this? It’s the audience-development person.“”
Was this an enlightened arts organisations or a visonary venue? No, it was Canon Communication (now UBM Canon) a media products company serving the advanced manufacturing sector focussing on medical devices and electronics engineering.
It then suggests the audience development role is “the audience-development function is out in front of both editorial and sales.” I would moot it is also, or should be , an ambassador for customer service as well. Value is delivered to customers by the appropriate offering at the right time.
The scale is large for a company, with revenue of $106 million with 74 separate databases. “All of our audiences were scattered, and it was not a pretty process to try and merge them,” However, that is a problem that many arts organisations will recognise. Reconciling different sources of truth, let alone standardising subsequent information collection.
22 November, 2010 at 11:11 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
How to offer $10 tickets with no booking fees?
A nice case study from Joe Pug
“Joe wanted to offer his fans the fairest-priced ticket possible, so he sold a batch of tickets direct-to-fan for exactly $10, with no additional fees or charges above the retail price.“ The goal was to “ensure his fans could afford to see his show.“
Hang on isn’t that exactly the way that Pearl Jam had issues (albeit unsuccessfully) with the influence of Ticketmaster on low ticket prices back in 1994?
“In 1994, the rock band Pearl Jam appealed to the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, complaining that Ticketmaster adopted monopolistic practices and refused to lower service fees for the band’s tickets. At the time, Pearl Jam wanted to keep ticket prices under $20 for their fans, with service charges no greater than $1.80.“
Looks like Joe will be able to continue to look after his fans as long as he does not use venues with exclusive ticketing contracts! But, I digress – back to Joe Pug:
Joe Pugg ”mailed out 20,000 free copies of his two-song promo CD with handwritten messages inside. He gave away a full EP (”In The Meantime”) for free in exchange for email addresses.“
17 November, 2010 at 1:04 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Proof: How social media sold a theatre ticket on Facebook
A great blog article about monitoring social media and quantifying RoI from San Francisco colleague Ron (Big Game Hunter) Evans of GroupOfMinds.
Ron explores a case of virtual Word of Mouth first hand and then discusses the difficulties of identifying the sources and results of the diversity of conversations Social media may inspire. Ron then suggests some good ways to track the results of social media out in the wild.
“Not only is the conversation itself good, as it leads us to discover more about ourselves and the work, but those conversations can lead to real results at the box office.“
READ FULL ARTICLE ON GROUPOFMINDS Proof: How social media sold a theatre ticket on Facebook>>
17 September, 2010 at 2:10 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Sydney Opera House Insiders Revisits Booking Fees
The Sydney Opera House has launched a membership scheme called Sydney Opera House Insiders.
There are a variety of benefits for the annual fee of $110:
- Insider discounts and offers on tickets and experiences
- You’re invited to hang out at Insider pop-up lounges and events
- Get VIP treatment and discounts at bars and restaurants in and around the House, including Opera Bar
- Discounted parking at the Sydney Opera House Car Park, and …
- No more booking fees
I find the removal of booking fees very interesting and I do hope it sets a precedent for many other venues. The common logic of punishing loyal or regular customers with add on fees still escapes me. I understand that there is an opportunity cost of foregone income that venue box offices have become dependent upon, but I do find this development offers greater finesse to look after loyal customers as well as develop an ongoing dialogue and engagement.
14 September, 2010 at 1:02 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Turn Your Data into Action
An Arts & Business Council of Chicago: Marketing Matters Series on March 30, 2010 presented by Cheryl Slover-Linett and Chloe Chittick Patton.
It covers which data arts and culture organizations should be collecting, how to conduct basic analyses, and how to link data to new strategies and tactics for audience development.
The goals of the session were:
- Learn which data are most important to track
- Get tips on how best to track your data
- Consider specific strategies and tactics you can use to increase the success of your efforts
- Expand the tools in your toolkit
The session was presented with a variety of case studies from the following:
- Maria Gray
Development Director, Chicago Public Art Group - Lara Goetsch
Director of Marketing and Communications,
TimeLine Theatre Company - Anna Fitzloff
Director of Marketing, Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park
Presentation Powerpoint available online HERE>>
9 July, 2010 at 10:10 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Watchdog slaps big-ticket fine on Sistic
Singapore’s competitive watchdog, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS ), yesterday fined Sistic the dominant ticketing operator in Singapore about $1 million when it ruled that Sistic had stymied its counterparts’ ability to compete.
This is in direct contradiction of the USA and UK governments’ positions and findings with respect to the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger.
“Jointly owned by the Singapore Indoor Stadium and The Esplanade, Sistic also had ‘explicit agreements’ with the venues to be appointed as ticketing agents. Besides that, Sistic also had 17 other agreements with event organisers for it to be appointed as exclusive ticketing agents.“
The exclusive contracts are alleged to represent 60 to 70 % of the local market.
“As a result of the agreements, ticket buyers could buy tickets only through Sistic, causing prices of tickets to increase for which consumers had to bear, said CCS.“
I am not sure how a contract for one agent ticket agent to sell the tickets on behalf of the event owner has a causal link with increases in the face value or price of tickets? Sistic does not set the price of the tickets, they do however set the price of some of the transaction costs worn by the event owner (inside charges) and the consumer (outside charges). But it must be noted that inside and outside charges in Singapore are at very low level internationally as a proportion of ticket price.
7 June, 2010 at 10:09 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
