The New Arts, New Audiences project aimed to develop audiences for contemporary arts events
through a collaborative project funded by the Arts Council’s New Audiences programme. It was a
collaborative project, taking place simultaneously in West Yorkshire, Birmingham, Greater Manchester
and Merseyside, involving over 50 arts organisations, delivering over 1,000 new attenders, interacting
with over 9,000 potential attenders, testing six methodologies for developing audiences and including
attitudinal research with several thousand attenders.
The results of the project were presented in a special one-day conference hosted by West Yorkshire
Arts Marketing in November. Unfortunately, this coincided with spectacular flooding and disastrous
delays on the train so, having been advised it would take 4 hours to get to Birmingham and they
couldn’t guarantee getting me any farther, I reluctantly had to cancel.
However, WYAM kindly distributed a copy of the Final Report to those of us unable to reach Leeds
and this gives a good overview of the methodologies and findings of the project.
The original premise for the project was to test opportunities to consolidate audiences for
contemporary work by:
and the intention was to explore jargon-free, information-based language (‘tell-not-sell’) using a variety
of communication tools.
Birmingham Arts Marketing co-ordinated a project which took the basic Test Drive model and adapted
it for cross-artform, multi-venue use, offering participants a choice of events rather than a single event.
A database of prospects was developed and participants selected by telephone interview according to
their attitude to contemporary work and level of attendance in the past six months. They were then
offered free tickets to one of five events from a range of artforms (filtered to ensure regular attenders
of one artform were not given that option). In Stage 2 people taking up the initial offer were contacted
again and offered a second choice of events at 1/3rd full price and in Stage 3 those responding were
offered a third choice at full price but with value-added incentives. At each Stage, the telephone
contact meant participants could ask for the information they wanted rather than being passive
recipients and this allowed them to overcome any fear of the unknown. This approach also allowed
for the promotion of contemporary events as a whole and managed risk through free/reduced cost
tickets.
BAM again, this time creating a website dedicated to promoting contemporary arts in Birmingham and
using accessible copy, images, interviews, clips, audience feedback. The launch and subsequent
updates were promoted by email. Problems arose through lack of material about events – especially
audio or video clips – and virtually no interactive response from site visitors. With the collection and
collation of information proving time-consuming and a low level of traffic to visiting the site, this
initiative provided evidence of the need/ability to commit a high level of resources to develop
effectively.
Arts About Manchester co-ordinated Teleprompt, a factual telephone information service promoting
contemporary arts events to lapsed attenders and traditional arts attenders. The call was used as a
‘prompt’ rather than a sales call and was followed up by mailed information, basic fact sheets and
descriptive narrative rather than a glossy brochure. Spread The Word was an extension of the
initiative which offered a 4 for 2 incentive to a sample of the participants to encourage them to bring a
friend. The service was well received and 44% of those called did attend at least one of the events,
generating a known 155 attendances with 50 being first time attenders. The additional information
was especially appreciated (88% of participants) and 68% agreed strongly that this had helped them
make an informed decision whilst 28% said it was the main reason they attended. 90% said they
would like to participate in another scheme BUT only 13% wanted to receive phone calls in the future,
the majority preferring other forms of communication.
TEAM in Liverpool tested a specially formulated piece of print targeted at 1,000 contemporary arts
attenders. The objective was to test the potential for crossover by including evemts from a variety aof
artforms whilst additional research would look at attendance habits of attenders. The brochure was
well received and there was a high response to the questionnaire indicating 54% were planning to
attend an event. 77% of respondents appreciated having different artforms in brochure and 199
attended events they would not normally have tried.
WYAM tested the potential for crossover by encouraging existing attenders to visit a new venue or artform by sending out comprehensive information packs and offering added value extras such as drinks and talks. An initial database of 11,000 contemporary arts attenders was reduced through self-selection (a brief questionnaire to be returned) to 4,000 – an impressive 36% response rate. Under the branding ‘Arts Adventure’ individuals were the invited to an event in an artform or venue not previously attended. Results varied enormously but a total of 318 tickets were finally issued for 9 events, although actual attendance is estimated to be higher.
Overall the project was successful for raising the profile of contemporary arts and of smaller organisations/venues and the vast majority of people reacted favourably to being involved, regardless of the methodology. The one clear result was how much people valued the additional information that helped them make informed decisions.
If any wants to read the full report of this project, give SWAM a ring on 0117-927 6936.
2002-2008 © Audiences South West