No more blind data

For a marketing department, having direct access to audience data is invaluable: sometimes it confirms what you think and that you’re on the right path – and sometimes it surprises, sparking ideas and prompting questions at all levels of the organisation. But for touring companies that do not have the benefit of their own box office system, a familiar challenge is the construction of a single picture of their complete audience from dispersed sources and diverse systems. Venues are understandably protective of customer records, but it is in the interests of both parties for the booking information contained in those records to be used for effective marketing. Data sharing should always be based on a relationship of trust between the venue and the touring company. A venue can assist a touring company by creating a data partnership agreement⁽¹⁾ – this usually takes the form of a short written agreement which enables ‘dual-key’ control and allows data to be shared.

However, a data partnership alone is not enough to enable a touring organisation to use their data in a meaningful way. At the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) we work closely with our four main venues which use three different ticketing systems, each producing different reports in different formats. We have thus created an additional level of ‘data autonomy’ by directly extracting and analysing our specific data from these venues using the Vital Statistics (VS) Touring software from Purple Seven. Customer and sales data is automatically brought together and made accessible online. This enables us to have an overview of our complete audience and to easily create bespoke customer selections for use in our marketing campaigns.

Alongside a suite of additional marketing reports (including frequency analysis, drive-time and MOSAIC statistics, which describe the characteristics of neighbourhoods) we can obtain timely sales data. As well as looking at the global figures for a whole tour or season, we can monitor sales progress at each of the individual venues for each of our performances as tickets are sold. Strategically, we’re able to measure audience lapse rates and compare our reach in different geographical regions which is key to planning our wider marketing campaigns.

We have a great relationship with our venues and partnership arrangements in place to share access to customer records. It’s easier for all when we create campaigns and analyse returns without having to ask a box office for their intervention. Currently our campaigns run at a healthy 10–12% response rate but can peak at over 20% with VS helping us to select appropriate campaign recipients. Put simply, we now mail fewer people yet generate more income through our direct marketing campaigns. And that has to be especially attractive to arts organisations working to cope with a problematic economic environment.