Sian’s Top Insights into the Scottish Household Survey from 2011

Last Saturday we went through to Nairn to hear Joanna MacGregor play Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It was revelatory. Bach fanatic though I am, I’d never really managed to properly engage with this hour-long display of compositional and keyboard virtuosity. MacGregor’s performance made me understand why: too many players approach the work with reverence. MacGregor grabbed […]

What is it that stops, prevents, or puts people off attending or participating in the arts? One of the biggest hurdles we face when considering marketing or audience development is how to attract those who have not engaged before or have become a lapsed attender.

Typically in the marketing and audience development field we collect data about audiences based on attendance, sales and the demographics of our audiences. Sometimes there will be questions added into surveys and box office systems about the quality of the performance, whether the audience member enjoyed the performance, and possibly about how they heard about the event itself. But does this really measure the success of the experience?

“Culture and creativity are important drivers for personal development, social cohesion and economic growth.” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Back in 2007 the Education and Culture Directorate-General of the European Commission commissioned the TNS Opinion & Social to carry out a survey of public opinion on culture and its value within Europe. 26,755 people across the EU were interviewed across the 27 member states, including residents in the UK.

Carrying on with the theme of segmentation, at last week’s Arts Marketing Association Conference (you can still watch all the keynote speeches here … AMA Conference 2011), I attended a breakout session presented by Andrew McIntyre, of Morris Hargreaves McIntyre. If you haven’t come across this particular consultancy agency then it’s about time you were introduced. Morris Hargreaves McIntyre is at the forefront of cultural research and have helped cultural organisations across the country to understand who their audiences are and why they engage with them. In this particular breakout session Andrew McIntyre presented us with their new segmentation analysis tool called Culture Segments, produced as a result of Audience Atlas UK.

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