Show Me the Data! Title slide Show Me The Data! 2012 APASO Conference John Beck, ArtsBoston; Douglas Clayton, LA Stage Alliance; Kendra Lawton, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Session Overview Creating a Culture of Data Collection & Sharing What to do with all this data

O RIGINS OF THE A RTS B OSTON A UDIENCE I NITIATIVE 3 ArtsBoston launches the ArtsBoston Big List to simplify mailing list exchanges and to remove guesswork from direct mail marketing More community databases are launched throughout the country, with the focus shifting from mailing lists to market knowledge Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation approaches ArtsBoston to administer a new community database in the Berkshires region The Berkshires Audience Initiative is launched in collaboration with vendor TRG Arts. ArtsBoston uses this opportunity to pilot a model program to implement in Greater Boston ArtsBoston transitions from the Big List to the ArtsBoston Audience Initiative (AAI), Greater Boston's first comprehensive arts market knowledge program. 2012

A RTS B OSTON A UDIENCE I NITIATIVE 4 We are in Year 1 of our program 50 Organizations Participating Including BSO, Citi Center, Broadway in Boston, Over 1 Million Unique Households Organizations may participate for “Research Only” There is an administrative fee to participate

Creating a Culture of Data Collection and Sharing – What’s Worked Give ownership to the community Create a culture of collaboration Utilize case studies Engage throughout the year Build an incentive to utilize the data Share the results Collaborate with funders SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

Creating a Culture of Data Collection and Sharing LA STAGE Arts Census

7 QUICK FACTS: LA had a BIG LIST through Enertex for ten years, averaging twenty participants and 250,000 households each year. Late 2009, shifted to the TRG Arts eMerge program Changed the name of the program to the LA STAGE ARTS CENSUS Change the framing to a ‘Research and Efficiency Tool, with List Trades as an optional feature’ Eliminated all costs/fees to participate Targeted major institutions and thought leaders Currently 120 participants, 3.8 million unique households Now have several major funders requiring participation, so expect to triple the number of participating organizations by summer 2013

Creating a Culture of Data Collection and Sharing – What’s Worked Promote a big vision Remove all barriers to participation Identify and focus on recruitment of leaders and major institutions Clearly define the program as intended to serve not just cultural organizations, but also funders and our politicians and other powerful partners Hands on follow-up and engagement SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

Creating a Culture of Data Collection and Sharing – What’s Worked Make pretty graphs and get powerful numbers 41% of all Los Angeles County Households are in the Census (and over 50% of all Orange County households) SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

Creating a Culture of Data Collection and Sharing – What’s Challenging Large Organization Legal Departments Organizational Leaders who are defensive and protective of their data, and/or who oppose sharing lists for any reason Small Organizations often only need to use eMerge infrequently, so they forget to use it for their benefit, and require regular re-training The need for higher level thinking/consulting for full maximization of benefits of the program. SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

M AJOR O BSTACLES F OR D ATA C OLLECTION As a group, let’s brainstorm and/or share strategies for how to help groups collect data. ArtsBoston is evaluating the needs of the community to determine the best plan, possibly: Creating a new community-wide ticketing and data collection system Applying for funding to help organizations afford new technology In asking groups to submit their data, we realized that many small and mid-sized groups do not have the technology for point-of-sale data collection.

Group Brainstorm

Cultural Alliance Since organizations, over 2 mil unique households Currently free Changes ahead – Rebranding to “Audience Analytics” – Tiered participation structure – pay / service

Member requests for research Share information with partners Our own aggregate research Evaluate program What to Do with the Data

Share information with partners

Crossover with all orgs in List Co-Op Penn Museum Barnes Foundation The Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia Orchestra 33% Philadelphia Orchestra21% Philadelphia Orchestra22% WHYY23% WHYY13% Franklin Institute18% Kimmel Center19% Kimmel Center13% Pennsylvania Ballet17% Pennsylvania Ballet 19% Pennsylvania Ballet12% Kimmel Center16% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe 14% Philadelphia Museum of Art10% WHYY15% Opera Company of Phila 14% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe9% Arden10% Phila Folksong Society13% Mann Center8% Phila Folksong Society 9% Barnes13% Phila Folksong Society 7% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe7% Arden12% Opera Company of Phila7% Mann Center7% Annenberg Center11% Arden7% Opera Company of Phila6% Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Franklin Institute Science Museum Philadelphia Orchestra14% Philadelphia Orchestra37% Philadelphia Orchestra20% Kimmel Center10% WHYY 24% Kimmel Center17% Pennsylvania Ballet9% Pennsylvania Ballet22% Pennsylvania Ballet15% WHYY9% Kimmel Center21% WHYY14% Phila Folksong Society 5% Phila Folksong Society 18% Academy of Natural Sciences14% Barnes5% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe16% Arden9% Mann Center4% Opera Company of Phila16% Longwood8% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe4% Arden14% Philadelphia Folksong8% Longwood4% Barnes14% Mann Center7% Opera Company of Phila3% Wilma 12% Philadelphia Live Arts & Fringe7%

Paid Patronage Study w/ TRG Arts Voter Analysis Advocacy Data Points Demand Analysis What to Do with the Data - Aggregate

Exploratory Study comparing CDP data & List Co-Op USAGE data Correlation not Causation Performing Arts biggest users Larger orgs more likely to use The higher the usage & more sophisticated usage, positive relationship with gains in attendance and income. Attendance gains most noteable for small to mid-size orgs and suburban based orgs What to Do with the Data - Evaluate

SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012 C ASE S TUDY – H UNTINGTON T HEATRE C OMPANY How can we attract and retain younger patrons? Finding the answer through the database: First, analyze current audiences using basic demographic overlay report. Next, segment the portion of the audience under 35 years of age, as well as the audiences of other participating organizations in that age bracket, and create a direct mail campaign that targets these patrons. Going forward: The Huntington’s “35 Below” program has become a great success, reaching patrons under the age of 35 throughout the region.

C ASE S TUDY –S TERLING AND F RANCINE C LARK A RT I NSTITUTE What are our members other areas of interest? Finding the answer through the database: Run a demographic overlay report to show various interests amongst members. RESULT: A large number of members are interested in gardening (determined by number of subscriptions to gardening publications). Going forward: The museum programmed a garden photography workshop last summer (which they are repeating this summer due to its success). They are also exploring possible partnerships with local botanical garden and other horticultural institutions. SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

AA LWAYS BB E EE VALUATING SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012 Both the ASO and the participating organizations should be consistently evaluating their strategies. Intended outcomes for the program should be built into program planning from the start. Be sure to make SMART outcomes. Organizations should utilize response reports for mailings. For more detailed goal-tracking, create a logic model (see next slide).

ActivitiesOutputs ArtsBoston is established as an industry leader in the field of market knowledge. Heat map of participation Arts organizations have greater visibility, sell more tickets, understand how to reach new and interested target audiences, and engage current audiences more deeply. Create a user manual with information on how members can best utilize the new tools. The tourism industry, government agencies, funders, and arts service organizations have the tools to analyze, and ultimately increase, cultural participation in Greater Boston and beyond. User sessions with participants to optimize the program and maintain engagement. A baseline report for Year One will be created. A RTS B OSTON A UDIENCE I NITIATIVE L OGIC M ODEL Create Market Knowledge Taskforce to evaluate current programs and implement new and improved market knowledge program. Meet with tourism industry, government agencies, funders, and ASOs to ensure that their needs are met. Over time, ArtsBoston will develop strategic partnerships with local universities, credit card companies, and others as needed. Develop comprehensive recruitment plan to build representative database. Develop best practices in Market Knowledge from programs in other regions with APASO colleagues. Near-term Outcomes (1 Yr) ArtsBoston is positioned as a market knowledge provider in Greater Boston. Arts Organizations identify trends, shared challenges, and opportunities in audience development. Arts Organizations see participating in community database project as essential to understanding audiences. A collaborative approach to audience development is fostered among arts organizations. Report identifying largest areas of potential for increased participation. Arts community understands baseline participation and defines current market of ticket buyers. AAI is comprehensive and representative of audiences in Greater Boston. Long-term Outcomes (5 Yr) Convene participants on a regular basis to discuss trends, and address shared concerns and opportunities. Mid-term Outcomes (3 Yr) Arts organizations are inspired to better track their patron data. Participating organizations are actively using the system for both list trading and analysis. ArtsBoston builds a knowledge base of best practices for our region. Arts community is able to further analyze participation with the use of transactional data. Once transactional data is included in the AAI, ArtsBoston will create an annual “state of the arts” document to outline participation. Arts Advocacy groups have the ability to support their arguments with current and accurate data SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012

A RTS B OSTON A UDIENCE I NITIATIVE L OGIC M ODEL - I NDICATORS Near-term Indicators Arts groups will convene on a quarterly basis to discuss audience trends. The size of the AAI database will be significantly larger than the Big List, going from approximately 250K names to 1 Million. Near-term Outcomes Arts Organizations see participating in community database project as essential to understanding audiences. Arts organizations are inspired to better track their patron data. Participating organizations are actively using the system for both list trading and analysis. The number of organizations tracking their audience data will increase. AAI is comprehensive and representative of audiences in Greater Boston. The number of groups logging into the system and requesting mailing lists from other organizations will increase. (Based on usage reports from TRG Arts) Existing organizations will submit a larger number of names each year because they are better tracking their patrons. In a survey to local arts organizations, the majority will respond that the AAI is a valued resource for their audience development. The number of participating organizations will increase from 40 to 60.

SHOW ME THE DATA – APASO 2012 A RTS B OSTON A UDIENCE I NITIATIVE T HE P OWER OF S URVEYS “…the fact that we had a sold out house…can be attributed to BAI and the lists of others. There were enough new faces at the concert that they had to have come from somewhere besides word of mouth or our local advertising or our own list…” From the most recent Berkshires Audience Initiative Participant Survey: “The collaborative spirit that BAI has generated is unprecedented in my 15 years in the Berkshire cultural arena” “The BAI project has made a lasting contribution to improving our ability to market the arts in the Berkshires and to advancing stronger relationships.” “BAI submission process has forced us to look for effective ways to collect and segment our own data at the various points of entry”

Questions?