In partnership with Spektrix, and in association with a consortium of many of the UK’s leading arts organisations, this sector-wide research involved 72 performing arts organisations gathering 32,600 responses. The full report, published today, explores the profile, behaviour and experience of first-time attenders to the performing arts and what organisations can do to attract them and keep them.
The analysis of aggregated ticketing data from Spektrix showed that:
- 2023 audiences were larger than ever before
- More than half of audiences in 2023 were first-time bookers
- Audience retention had been declining long before Covid, but 2023 saw new audiences returning at a higher rate than for at least 7 years, showing some green shoots of potential growth for the sector.
The 32,600 survey responses told us that:
- Around 20% of audiences who were attending the organisation for the first time had never or rarely attended the performing arts pre-Covid
- New audiences were going out more than those who were previously culturally engaged
- New-to-arts first-time attenders were having an even better experience than those who attended the arts already and had a greater intention to come back to the organisation again
- The three key motivators for first-time attendance were People, Familiarity and Occasion - and people needed at least two of these in place to attend
- The barriers could be summarised as Not on my radar, Too hard and Poor value
- To attract the audiences of tomorrow, performing arts organisations must boost the motivators and reduce the barriers, using tools ranging from automation through referral schemes to testing and listening.
Kerry Radden, Associate Director at Indigo said:
“This is the first research project to truly understand and quantify the opportunity that new audiences post-lockdown present within the performing arts. Despite the challenges of recovery from the pandemic, our UK arts organisations are not only bouncing back, but managing to attract significant numbers of new attenders - many of whom have discovered the performing arts for the first time. Armed with the insight we have uncovered together, we're confident that the sector can build these new attenders into the audiences of tomorrow and beyond.”
Liv Nilssen, Director of Sector Strategy from Spektrix said:
“By combining booking data from theatres and arts centres right across the UK with expert analysis and survey responses, we’ve learned that there’s a real opportunity to develop new audiences. This unique consortium has brought together technology and consultancy with leading arts organisations to create a truly connected view of audience behaviours and to understand how arts organisations can revitalise connections with their visitors.”