Somerset County Cricket Ground
28th March 2003
“This was my first SWAM conference so I hoped for inspiration, relevance and contacts – and received all three”
The theme of this years SWAM conference was Target Practice, or ways to understand your audience. Any study of audience behaviour concludes that our potential markets consist of a number of sub-groups and individuals with similar needs, characteristics, motivations and buying practices. The day looked at some of the theories and tools artists and arts organisations can use to segment their customers to make their communications relevant, effective and welcome.
116 delegates and speakers met at the County Cricket Ground in Taunton to hear keynote speeches, presentations and to attend breakout sessions. And judging from your feedback forms once again the day hit just the right note.
“Excellent useful speakers, who achieved the right tone”
Andrew Curry, Director of the Henley Centre, one of Europe’s leading and best-respected strategic marketing consultancies, delivered the Keynote speech. The Henley Centre specialises in generating consumer insight and understanding what makes consumers tick, and Andrew has developed many of the techniques used to visualise and test the future. His presentations are much sought-after by marketers in every field but in the last year particularly his insights into consumer trends have been inspirational to arts marketers and managers throughout the country.
Andrew’s keynote offered us a snapshot of the customer in the 21st century. People are:
- More affluent
- More educated
- More feminised
- Have fewer children
- Have more fragmented households
- Older
- Less happy
- Value quality of life
This is evidenced by a downturn in happiness despite an increase in consumer expenditure over the last ten years. So how do these unhappy people spend their leisure time? Andrew outlined the five core ‘out-of-home activities’:
- Big night out
- Specific hooks
- After work
- Catching up
- Family day out
For the average adult in the UK there are 55 going out occasions per year. The going out activity they choose depends on how they feel about time, should they spend time ‘for me’, ‘time for friends’ or ‘time for the family’?
Andrew showed how the increasing spend on leisure activities set against the decreasing number of people who agree they are happy with their standard of living reveals a gap, called the disappointment gap. This gap cannot be filled by the commercial world but by ‘enlightenment’ such as that evidenced in audience responses to unique live performance, and by quality of experience. He summarised that people make leisure decisions to fill social needs and are more cautious about the investment of time and energy than about the financial cost, and that the arts should seize the opportunity to fill the disappointment gap.
“Good breakout sessions – lots of practical case studies which relate to arts organisations of any size!”
The conference offered eight different breakout sessions including practical workshops and case-studies at a variety of levels as requested in feedback to previous conferences. In particular we included a session aimed specifically at individual artists rather than organisations, and several sessions that did not require the use of a computerised box office to take advantage of their ideas.
“A fantastic networking opportunity – it’s great to meet new people”
A large number of you mentioned the friendliness of the conference and how well organised it is, and we are delighted that so many of your comments were positive. The venue itself received a mixed response, although the free parking was greatly appreciated, as were the cricketers. Perhaps the greatest area for contention was the catering and while many people were full of praise for the lunch, others were disappointed, particularly those who missed out on the profiteroles.
“Top value for money”
South West Arts Marketing is already on the look out for a suitable venue for our 2004 conference, and we would welcome any suggestions that you have. If you know a venue that you think fits the bill within the south west region, then please contact Ruth on 0117 927 6936 or ruth.staple@swam.org.uk.
“I thought it was an excellent day – it left me feeling very motivated”
2002-2008 © Audiences South West