At Indigo, we know that every penny counts for arts organisations. Whether you’re a theatre, music venue, or arts centre, making smart decisions with limited resources is essential. But how do you make truly informed decisions that are more than sticking your finger in the air?
Benchmarking isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a superpower that helps you understand how your organisation stacks up against others. It can give you reassurance that your audience is behaving ‘typically’ when compared to other similar audiences across the country, or the chance to spot the differences. By comparing your audience insights with similar organisations, you can spot trends, identify opportunities, and gain the confidence to make great decisions. Are your first-time attenders returning at the same rate as other venues? Are your younger audiences under-represented compared to the sector average? The answers to these types of questions give you invaluable audience insight.
For cash-strapped organisations, benchmarking is even more critical. It allows you to focus your efforts on areas with the greatest impact. And it’s not just about your organisation: we’re in this together. By contributing to collective datasets, you’re helping to strengthen the sector, making it easier to advocate for funding and support. (And it helps to know that if you’re finding something hard, it’s likely lots of others are, too).
With Indigo Share, benchmarking is at the core of what we do: together, we collect comparable data, and then we collectively share what we find. Whether it’s bi-annual benchmarking of your Indigo Share: Subscription survey results against other arts organisations, or taking part in a free Indigo Share: Hot Topic and seeing how your audiences compare to tens of thousands of others across the UK on subjects of the moment, we can offer you the confidence to make decisions in a meaningful context.
So why guess when you can know? Let’s work together to turn your data into insights that drive smarter, sector-wide growth.