Research Summary

2003-2006

1 Methodologies and Data

Sound Circuit began working with contemporary music promoters in 2002. Early in the consortium’s life, it carried out an audit of existing marketing practice and access to marketing information. This found that promoters had a lack of research information about their own markets and a shared need to understand their markets better and define priority target audiences more effectively.

Key areas about which promoters needed information included

The profile of existing audiences
Potential for cross-over with other artform audiences
Potential for collaborative audience development amongst contemporary music promoters

Sound Circuit started a programme of research in 2003, using 3 principal methodologies: audience questionnaire work; box office data analysis; and action research projects.

The audience questionnaire research was done through surveying audiences for 4 tours between 2003, and 2005. This involved 9 different venues, and 586 respondents.

The box office data analysis was done in 2005, and looked at contemporary music audiences for the previous 3 years. For this element of the research Sound Circuit joined with the Contemporary Music Network, and included their audiences as well. The box office research in total took in 405 contemporary music events at 15 different venues, for which there were found to be a total of 23,925 unique bookers.

The action research projects have involved individual promoters testing out audience development strategies, evaluating their impact, and then sharing their results and findings with the rest of the consortium. Different action research projects were carried out by promoters in Birmingham, Oxford, Manchester, York, Huddersfield and London.

1.1 Box Office Data Overview

The Sound Circuit promoters who contributed data were: York University, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Royal Northern College of Music, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Oxford Contemporary Music, London Sinfonietta, South Bank Centre and Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange. CMN tour venues which also contributed data were located in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birmingham, Coventry, Bracknell, London, Basingstoke, Brighton, Southampton and Exeter, and they represented 6 CMN tours.

The research looked at the data from these different locations in several ways –a set of data was defined for each promoter so that they could compare their individual findings with those of other promoters; an overall set for CMN in all its locations was identified; and an aggregated set for all Sound Circuit promoters was also defined. (This set excluded the South Bank because their quantity of data would have dominated the sample, and also to avoid a London bias in the findings.)

The overall sample of data, contained around 24,000 bookers. The total number of tickets bought by this sample over the 3 years studied was 82,888, and the total value of those tickets was £883,681. The average spend per booker over the period was £33.43.

2 Key Findings

2.1 Geographic Location of Bookers

One of the aspects of the market promoters were interested in investigating was the geographic spread of bookers – where they were coming from in relation to the venue. This was answered by calculating the distance from the booker’s home to the venue using postcode data, and expressing the results at drive distances. It was found that the pattern was in fact similar for most promoters.

A large proportion, close to half of bookers (46%) came from within 5 miles of the venue. A little further out, it was found that just 16% of bookers came from between 5 and 10 miles drive distance, and 13% came from between 10 and 20 miles. The final group, the proportion from over 20 miles, was 25%.

Comparing the Sound Circuit results with other research provides the following figures:

	Sound Circuit CMN 2005	Arts Index Classical 2002	ACE WM Festivals 2005
10 miles or less	62%	54%	57%
10 to 20 miles	13%	23%	18%
over 20 miles	25%	22%	25%

[Sound Circuit + CMN base: 295 events, 9,050 bookers / Arts Index 2002 – Arts Council England, base: 318 events, 22,297 bookers / ACE WM Festivals research 2005, base: 15 festivals, 12,772 bookers]

The figures are fairly consistent. It seems that contemporary music is attracting the same proportion of visitors (from over 20 miles) as other artforms, and this provides some useful evidence for its value in cultural tourism development, and consideration of economic impact. However, contemporary promoters may be falling behind with attracting a regional audience – those from between 10 and 20 miles away, or indeed between just 5 and 20 miles away.

2.2 Frequency of Attendance

Looking at the situation for bookers and promoters overall, 72% of bookers had booked just once during the 3 years included in the study. Those people who came just once accounted for 29% of bookings over 3 years. The next group (16% of bookers) came either 2 or 3 times each over 3 years. Their business made up 15% of bookings overall. The final group, making up 12% of bookers, had booked for 4 or more events over the 3 years (and in fact many of them had booked for many more than this), and they accounted for 56% of bookings overall.

There are 2 striking issues here: One is that over half of bookings, 56%, came from just 12% of the customer base, and secondly, it’s staggering that 72% of the customer base had booked once during the 3 years and not been heard from again.

Existing data about frequency indicates that this figure is not unusual. Arts About Manchester found in their DataCulture:Vital Statistics programme that 80% of the existing audience for the performing arts in Greater Manchester only book once a year, and other arts studies have put the figure at 69%.

This raises the question of whether contemporary music promoters are actually much better at attracting new attenders than they thought, and have as a result neglected to develop effective customer retention strategies to hold onto their hard-won new attenders. Considering that the marketing cost of acquiring a new customer is believed in the commercial sector to be 5 times the cost of retaining an existing customer, finding an appropriate balance between resources spent on attracting new audiences, and resources invested in developing the existing customer base, will be one of the keys to building attendance overall.

2.3 Attendance at Other Artforms

The audience survey asked what other types of events attenders had been to in the past 12 months: 84% had also been to classical music, 79% had also been to art galleries/ exhibition, 76% had also been to the cinema, 77% had also been to plays, and 63% had also been to opera. These attending habits were compared to those of people at orchestral concerts and using results from a Matthews Millman evaluation study of Classic FM support for orchestral concerts, which looked at attenders of standard orchestral concerts as well as concerts supported by Classic FM. This study found that 73% of orchestral attenders had also been to art galleries or exhibitions in the previous 12 months, 68% had also been to the cinema, 63% had also been to plays, and 51% had also been to opera.

	Sound Circuit Attenders 2005	Orchestral Attenders 2004 (Matthews Millman)
Classical Music	84%
Visual Arts	79%	73%
Cinema	77%	68%
Plays	77%	63%
Opera	61%	51%

[Sound Circuit base: 22 events, 688 respondents / Matthews Millman – An evaluation of Classic FM support for orchestral concerts (results for non-supported and supported concerts)]

The conclusion here seems to be that contemporary attenders are also visiting the same broad art forms as orchestral attenders, but are doing so in higher proportions.

2.4 Motivation for Attendance

The survey also asked what had made people want to attend the contemporary music event where they filled in the survey. Over half of them (55%) were simply motivated by the fact that “it looked interesting”. Around a third (35%) came because of specific artists or performers, and 16% came because the event had been recommended. Comparing these again with other research, Matthews Millman found that 47% of their orchestral attenders came because of the orchestra, and the Arts Council’s Arts in England survey of 6,000 adults in 2003 found that just 7% of respondents said they were motivated to attend the last arts event they went to because of a recommendation. (Arts In England Survey 2003 – survey of 6,025 adults from the Office of National Statistics Omnibus Survey 2003).

These comparisons imply that the contemporary attenders were less likely to be motivated by the particular performing group or artists, a higher proportion of them will come on recommendation, and they are more likely to come just because the event looks interesting – in other words they are more likely to take a risk.

2.5 Age Profile

Half the audience was made up of people between the ages of 45 and 64. Around a third were aged under 45, and just 16% were 65 or older. This is a much lower proportion of older people than the orchestral audience, which had 39% of people aged 65 or over for standard concerts and 47% aged 65 or over for Classic FM supported concerts (figures from Matthews Millman Classic FM research).

2.6 Mosaic Profile

Mosaic divides up the audience in terms of their socio-demographics, lifestyles and behaviour, using sources such as census data, the electoral role, house prices and lifestyle survey information. There were 2 significant groups amongst contemporary bookers which applied to all promoters’ audiences. The first of these groups is called “Urban Intelligence” and the Sound Circuit data had around 31% of bookers in this group, compared to just 7% of UK households overall.

People in the Urban Intelligence group are young, well educated and open to new ideas and influences. They are cosmopolitan in their tastes and liberal in their social attitudes. Few have children. Many are in further education while others are moving into full-time employment.

The next most significant group across all promoters is called “Symbols of Success”, and this group had 21% of contemporary bookers as compared to 10% of UK households overall.

Symbols of Success people are well set in their careers and their incomes have risen far into upper income tax ranges. Some work for large corporations in senior management positions; some hold respected roles in professional practices; others have built successful enterprises with their own commercial acumen. These are people with busy and complex family lives. Their children are now less time consuming, with more independent lifestyles.

After these groups the profiles tend to differ according to audiences in different locations. For example the group known as “Suburban Comfort” is a significant one for some promoters, notably in Birmingham, Huddersfield and Manchester, and the group known as “Ties of Community” is also particularly significant in Huddersfield.

2.7 Touchpoint Profile

Touchpoint is a segmentation system which places consumers into 19 different categories based on the likelihood of them using different channels to purchase products, and on motivations such as price and innovation that lead customers to prefer one brand or product over another.

The first dominant group for contemporary bookers in this system is called “Quality and Choice”, which represents 19% of Sound Circuit bookers compared to 11% of UK adults.

Quality and Choice comprises consumers who are less interested in innovation than in personalisation. Often having a wide range of active leisure pursuits these better off individuals are a relatively light consumer of mass media. Though not fashion driven, Quality and Choice will actively seek out and endorse niche brands that are specifically tailored to its own particular interests or needs. Its access to the internet typically arises from the educational needs of its children.

The next significant category was “Multi-channel experimenters”, which represents 19% of Sound Circuit bookers, and 13% of UK adults.

Multi-Channel Experimenters see advertising as informative and entertaining rather than intrusive, but prefer humour to hard sell. Not being strongly grounded in family or local community networks these consumers are generally thirsty for information. Other than for iconic lifestyle labels, performance and function are more important than brand and competitions.

Also of interest are “Electronic Elites” of which Sound Circuit had 10%, compared to just 4% of UK adults.

Electronic Elites are the consumers who are the most happy to engage electronically. They have a thirst for information and are quick to learn and apply their knowledge of new technologies and communication channels. Work and leisure blur; they have a modern self-image and their ability to adapt, network and interact is central to their lifestyle.

As with the Mosaic profiles, there were different patterns depending on the individual promoters. There were similarities between the Touchpoint profiles for CMN, London Sinfonietta and Brighton, for whom the Multi-channel Experimenters were particularly significant.

3 Action Research Projects

The action research projects gave promoters the opportunity to test out audience development strategies and share their findings with the other promoters on the circuit.

3.1 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

hcmf undertook 2 projects (2004 and 2005) concentrating on attracting 17-25 year olds as new attenders, and combining targeted research, marketing and promotional elements to learn about the age group as an audience sector.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Target groups were defined including: students and tutors of music-related subjects, film and dance at universities and colleges; readers of MUSO magazine; and attenders at Freshers’ Fairs
17-25 year olds were offered the special ticket price of £3.50 / £5
Bookers received a goodie pack containing discount vouchers and free items
A targeted flyer was distributed to the target lists and through freshers fairs
A 2-page editorial feature and competition appeared in MUSO magazine
A new dedicated page was created on the hcmf website
Research was carried out in 2004 through a self-completion questionnaire which was sent out with the leaflets, and available to fill in on-line, and in 2005 via a face to face survey during the festival

73 completed questionnaires were returned in 2004, and 194 face to face interviews were carried out in 2005
A Sounding Board was established comprising 8 young people aged 17-25 who took part in discussion groups
The ticket discount scheme generated over 900 ticket sales
The research showed that 73% of respondents were attending hcmf for the first time
Extrapolating from the 73% of survey respondents being first-time attenders, gives a figures of 662 first-time attenders overall – exceeding the target of 100
Almost 1,000 new records were generated for the hcmf database

2.2 Oxford Contemporary Music

OCM’s first project in 2004 concentrated on strategies to broaden the student audience. It aimed to grow OCM’s network of students who flyer and poster the universities and related sites through peer recruitment and developing OCM’s own contacts, and learning about the motivations of the student market through focus group research.

Project Methodology	Main Outputs / Outcomes
Use of a placement student from Oxford Brookes University to recruit students to focus groups Incentive offered to students of free beer at the focus group and 4 free tickets (to include 3 friends) to 2 events of their choice in the season. Free compilation CDs distributed amongst students as tasters of the season	There were 4 meetings with a focus group of students from Brookes University, and 2 meetings with students from Oxford University 4 of the students came to the London Sinfonietta Berio Folk Songs event and brought friends with them OCM produced reports on the findings from the focus groups and used them to inform their future marketing to students

OCM’s 2005 project focussed on finding ways to attract new attenders through cross-over from attendance at other non-music contemporary arts events. It aimed to do this by researching ways in which OCM could reach attenders to non-music contemporary arts events, learning about the ways the target group find out about events and their motivations for attendance, and devising strategies for OCM to use this knowledge to communicate effectively with the target group.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Research the marketing strategies of non-music contemporary arts organisations in Oxford
Produce a freepost postcard to be used as a questionnaire / mailing list sign-up devise
Distribute postcard through mailing lists of other contemporary arts organisations (de-duped against OCM’s mailing list) and at other organisations’ events
Incentive of 1 free ticket to every concert in the Autumn season
Respondents sent a follow-up letter and their bookings monitored through ticket sales

Interviews took place with representatives from Modern Art Oxford, Oxford Playhouse and Creation Theatre Company.
Findings include evidence of an increasing move towards online marketing, data showing that national press coverage has more impact than local, and the effectiveness of added value for the target group (e.g. artist blogs, video, photographs, artist interviews)

2.3 University of York Concert Series

York Concerts set out to identify people who attend, or view, other contemporary artforms and who may be categorised as being the ‘curious’ audience. It aimed to achieve this through collaborating with other contemporary arts organisations in York and developing cross-over from their attenders.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Contemporary arts organisations in York were approached for access to their mailing lists
A postcard was produced to promote the contemporary aspect of the season
Special ticket offers and a prize draw for a free CD were offered as incentives

Theatre Royal York, City Art Gallery, City Screen and the National Centre for Early Music were approached
City Screen and the National Centre for Early Music both collaborated but the other the organisations did not because of data protection issues
2,800 postcards were sent to the City Screen mailing list and 580 to world and fold music attenders at the National Centre for Early Music
271 card were returned and a database of respondents was created, including an email list
17 tickets for Spring Festival events were purchased by those on the new database
Although Theatre Royal was not involved in the postcard distribution, discussions have now been initiated with them about promoting occasional early evening concerts, which would also feed into a city tourism initiative

2.4 Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

BCMG used the Sound Circuit box office research findings to identify potential geographic and geodemographic markets, and devised a campaign to develop new attendance from those markets and increase BCMG’s capacity for on-going audience development in those markets. The geographic target markets were the 20-45 minute drivetime area around Birmingham (and specifically arts attending hot spots in that area), and the area in central Birmingham very close to the CBSO Centre.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

A new leaflet was developed to communicate with people who had not attended BCMG, and may not have heard of the organisation at all. A tear-off freepost mailing list form was included
The target group was defined using the bookers’ postcode and Mosaic profiles from the Sound Circuit box office research, and the Arts Council’s area profile report around the CBSO Centre.
A new in-house distribution list was developed for the target areas
An incentive was offered of a free interval drink for people quoting the code on the leaflet

2,000 leaflets were mailed to individuals
8,500 leaflets went out on established distribution runs
2,750 leaflets were given out at other organisations’ events
1,200 leaflets went out on the new in-house distribution run
One new booker quoted the leaflet code at the box office
5 mailing list forms from the leaflet were returned
There has been an increase in the proportion of people joining the mailing list from the target areas compared to the period before the campaign
The new distribution run continues to be used so that BCMG can build its profile in the target areas

2.5 Royal Northern College of Music

RNCM set out to develop new attenders by identifying target groups, and inviting them to an accessible and welcoming initial experience of a new music concert, and then encouraging them to make a return visit. The project used the ‘Test Drive’ audience development principle as its basis.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Targets were identified from 3 sources: attenders on the RNCM database who don’t currently attend new music events (particularly jazz and world music attenders); Mosaic and Touchpoint groups of best potential identified in the Sound Circuit box office research; audience ambassadors and students who took part in previous projects
Postcard produced offering 2 free tickets via an on-line entry form
Tickets to a choice of 3 events offered, with added value including free drinks, post-concert DJ event, and free programme with CD
Telephone questionnaire undertaken to gain qualitative feedback
Attenders offered 50% off tickets to further choice of events (stage 2)
Attendance tracked through box office system

94 people responded to the first mailing, resulting in 188 new attenders to stage 1 events
2% of respondents were from the Mosaic/Touchpoint data; 8% were from RNCM lists
Telephone questionnaire provided useful findings and 12 new people for the mailing list:

80% had enjoyed the event and would come again

5 offer tickets sold for the stage 2 events
A further 4 tickets were sold at full price to the target group

2.6 London Sinfonietta

In 2004/05 London Sinfonietta carried out a project developing audiences from their successful Warp/electronica series of concerts. They aimed to develop this segment of their audience by recruiting a team of people who had been to one of these concerts as audience ambassadors (connectors), encourage further attendance from them and their contacts, and learn about attracting similar types of people through discussions with them, and their involvement in developing promotional material for 2 forthcoming events – Steve Reich/Michael Gordon and Luigi Nono.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Initial training session held with Mel Jennings about working with ambassadors
Connectors recruited via email list, freshers fayres and website
Connectors invited to an event and a series of meetings

Discussed reactions to events
Developed promotional material with the aid of designers known to the connectors

Connectors given complimentary tickets to the 2 events and asked to bring at least 5 contacts with them
Audience surveys carried out at both events

Active and enthusiastic group of ambassadors recruited
Print developed for the 2 events
Audience attendance for both performances exceeded expectations
53 questionnaires returned from attenders at Luigi Nono event

Around 20% had seen flyer produced by the connectors

Nearly one fifth of telephone bookings for the events came in via the separate telephone number used on the connectors’ publicity
80 people joined mailing and email lists
All the connectors had positive experiences of the project

London Sinfonietta’s 2005/06 project was called “Open Ears”. It involved recruitment of people to a music discussion group run by London Sinfonietta in a similar way to a reading group. Amongst its aims were the desire to introduce participants to new types of music, develop a form where participants could openly explore music and build confidence through discussion their ideas, and increase attendance at London Sinfonietta concerts by a diverse section of society.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Members of the group were recruited in a number of ways including targeted press advertising, the intranets of large companies, and an email bulletin
An initial meeting was held, followed by 5 monthly sessions of 1.5 hours
Meetings were facilitated by London Sinfonietta and included guest speakers
A library of CDs was assembled and made available for sale
Each meeting focussed on works or composers to be featured in a London Sinfonietta concert the following month
Members were given a complimentary ticket and programme for each of the concerts they learned about, and were invited to bring guests to concerts at a reduced ticket price

16 people were recruited, from a variety of backgrounds
Surprising number with classical music training who wanted a way into contemporary music
People new to London from Italy, UK, Armenia
4 recruited through The Voice, but only one became a regular member
Average of 5 tickets to each concert for members of the group
Hard to get a core of members to come to all meetings – holidays, work commitments and illness, and students enjoying spring evenings were all factors
Feedback from the meetings was good. All who completed questionnaires at the end said they were now more likely to come to a concert than before.

2.7 Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange

Brighton Dome undertook a project in 2004/05 aiming to develop a cross-fertilisation of audiences for experimental music with contemporary classical and improvised music events. The project focussed on the 19-35 year old market for experimental music and involved finding out more about this market segment through focus group research, and then encouraging the attendance of a sample group at contemporary music events through offering risk-free promotions.

Project Methodology

Main Outputs / Outcomes

Identify people in 2 target groups
Existing contemporary classical collaboration event attenders at London Sinfonietta/Warp records and Britten Sinfonia/Nitin Sawney events
Experimental music promoters in Brighton
Hold focus group with existing attenders to explore:

Current attendance patterns and experiences of attending
Responses to marketing materials, ideas for promotions such as CDs, and incentives to reduce risk such as money-back offers

Hold focus group with music promoters, looking at:

Attitudes to Brighton Dome and new music programming
Motivations behind their own promoted events
Effective ways to communicate with this market

Encourage the target groups to attend further events using a risk-free offer

2 focus groups took place and were facilitated by Sussex Arts Marketing
One group had 11 participants who had attended at least one contemporary classical collaboration event in the last 2 years – around half were in the target age group of 19-35 years.
The other group consisted of 6 people involved in the music industry and event promotion. This group was run as a peer group discussion/debate.
Sussex Arts Marketing provided Brighton Dome with a report from the focus groups, suggesting ways of developing the target groups, including;

A greater array of concession prices at experimental events
Targeted flyers for this group
Make brochure copy more personal and informative
Programme cross-over events using mixed media
Provide a CD with a mix of known and unknown artists.