Audience Development Blog

Developing Audiences across the Highlands and Islands

Date: 21 Mar 2012 | Category: Audience Development | Response: 0

Social Media and Social Networking is not only becoming an essential way of marketing and promoting but also for networking and raising awareness of your online profile. However, there is still alot of concerns and fear around using social media. So I’ve pulled together all the information that I have to hand that has helped [...]

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Date: 20 Feb 2012 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development, Dance & Drama, Festivals, Film, Gaelic, Heritage, Music, Visual Arts & Crafts, Writing | Response: 0

My name is Sian and I like to hoard information. Often or not people are surprised at how excited I get about statistics, data and research information. It’s a genuine excitement as well, I often refer to myself as a bit of an information geek. The reason why I love cold hard statistical evidence is [...]

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Date: 3 Feb 2012 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development, Regions | Response: 4

‘It was the revolutionary fundraising model that swept Barack Obama to power – and it could help arts bodies in Britain stay in business.’ Are you constantly looking for the right funding route but coming up empty handed? Are you looking for alternative routes to fund your project that doesn’t rely on public bodies? Would [...]

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Date: 16 Dec 2011 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development | Response: 0

The Scottish Government published its new National Performance Indicators this year, which are designed to measure progress towards the achievement of the Government’s purpose and national outcomes. 16 new outcomes were identified to deliver sustainable economic growth, of which Cultural Engagement is one. This is encouarging for the Cultural and Creative sector, as it enables us [...]

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Date: 21 Sep 2011 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development | Response: 0

Barriers to Engagement and Participation

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.

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Date: 5 Sep 2011 | Category: Audience Development | Response: 0

Asking the Right Questions

Some of the more tricker aspects of Audience Research is thinking about the types of questions that you might like to ask your audience, or even knowing what questions to ask in the first place. Tomorrow I am off to Melrose in the Scottish Borders to talk to a network of venues and promoters in [...]

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Date: 18 Aug 2011 | Category: Audience Development, Dance & Drama, Festivals, Film, Gaelic, Heritage, Music, Visual Arts & Crafts | Response: 2

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?

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Date: 15 Aug 2011 | Category: Audience Development, General | Response: 0

More Family Friendly Tips

The Tip Sheet: Family Friendly Initiatives is my most popular blog post, recieving 719 views last month. With that kind of interest I have complied some more practical help guides, tips and advice which could help you on your way to developing a family friendly initiative, organisation and/or event.

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Date: 1 Aug 2011 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development | Response: 0

European Cultural Values

“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.

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Date: 28 Jul 2011 | Category: Artforms, Audience Development | Response: 0

Culture Segments

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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