Christmas starts early

We’re sorry to bring this up so soon, but there are just 24 weeks until Christmas. Those venues that have their Christmas show on-sale already are one step ahead of the game. Venues have already taken 13% of the total revenue they are going to achieve for that show – money already in the bank – and potentially more tickets reserved by large groups.

Over the past few years there has been something of a resurgence in people going to the good ol’ panto, and national data reveals the impact of this. The Christmas show is proving to be a great way to pull in new attenders, activate lapsed customers and satisfy loyal audiences with their annual Christmas visit. For some people, this is their only engagement with their local theatre so attracting these audiences each year is vital. Therefore, as we prepare for the autumn season we need to consider how we can maximise the potential of the year’s biggest cash-cow.

Using Arts Dimensions we can see that Christmas audiences often live in very different areas from normal audiences

Don’t worry that we’re in the height of summer – customers should have the ability to book as early as possible. Why is this? Christmas for many is a ritual of set events and the Christmas show is a huge part of this. One former colleague went to the theatre every Boxing Day since she was a child and would book with the date as the primary driver. Booking early ensures something ticked off the list. If you haven’t chosen an early on-sale date, the danger is that customers who like to book early have already taken their business elsewhere.

For Christmas shows the average audience is split roughly one-third new attenders and two-thirds active attenders. But ‘time of booking’ doesn’t vary much between these two groups, so clearly there are other factors that explain booking behaviour. Working out what these are is critical. Marketers hoping to attract new audiences will be looking for a maximum return on their investment, so where do you start? In our last article, ‘Context is Everything’ we introduced Arts Dimensions, Purple Seven’s new profiling solution. This identifies arts attendance patterns – including propensity to attend a Christmas show.

Using Arts Dimensions we can see that Christmas audiences often live in very different areas from normal audiences, so an emphasis on other parts of your catchment could prove to be most effective. At the Woodville Theatre in Kent we have been able to identify specific areas where they have low audience penetration but a high number of potential Christmas bookers. Neil Chandler, General Manager at the venue says: “The insight we gained into where our bookers came from – and more importantly, where our potential bookers live – was very useful.  It has enabled us to target our marketing far more specifically than we ever thought we could…”

When we explore where customers attend in relation to their postcode, we see that on average 84% of customers stay within the same region. Audiences are choosing to visit their local venues, so even if families are travelling to come together, it is likely that the booker is the lead organiser. This is nowhere so evident as in London where 97% of customers who live there, stay there for their Christmas show. Only one area breaks the trend: nearly 25% of customers living in the South East are likely to travel into London for their Christmas show. This may simply be because they live on the outskirts of London, but may also be due to London venues using bigger marketing budgets to create a wider presence. Anyone who has lived in a commuter town outside of London will be well aware that the train routes are covered in posters for London shows, so venues in the South East may have to do more to persuade their local audiences to stay local than those in other parts of the country. We will be revisiting the Christmas theme in the New Year to understand the effect of early on-sale and impact on consumers, and in the meantime, ho, ho, ho…

Hannah Mitchell is Client Services Manager for Purple Seven. This article is the third in a series of articles on the theme ‘Insight into Audiences’, sponsored and contributed by Purple Seven.
www.purpleseven.co.uk

Purple Seven collects ticketing data for around 250 organisations, covering 70% of the UK’s ticket sales. All ticketed arts organisations can receive an interactive report on their Christmas show using Arts Dimensions. For more information please contact: [email protected]