1. 6 questions Chris Denton
Director of Marketing, Communications and Digital Strategy – Southbank Centre

2. 11. Be honest, do you tell, sell or engage at the moment?

3. The last 40 years! with thanks to Morris Hargreaves McIntyre

4. Then…
Organisation
Customer
TELL AND SELL
Take it or leave it!

5. What is a ‘cultural experience’?
The opportunity:
We can create and deliver an expanded and enriched cultural experience to an international audience using advances in digital technology.

6. COMMUNICATION CONVERSATION COMMUNITY
AUDIENCES
Now…
Arts organisation

7. 2. What are you asking people to buy into?

8. Build your brand
MISSION – Who you are, what you do VISION – What you want to become VALUES – What you believe, what defines you

9. Elevator moment

10. The importance of brand
AFFORDABILITY
Wherever possible we need to encourage people to make value judgments about us based on ‘hearts’ and not ‘heads’.

11. The importance of brand
TRUST
We need to build trust with audiences and not sabotage it.
Deliver on our promises

12. The importance of brand
PASSION
Loyalty
Belief in the importance of what we do
Prioritise us
Champion us to others

13. 3. How will you make it more than a one night stand?

14. What is audience development?
ACQUISITION
RETENTION
FREQUENCY
CROSS-OVER
TRUST
ENGAGEMENT
LOYALTY
LOVE
WHO is responsible? EVERYONE in the organisation
NOT JUST ABOUT BUMS ON SEATS

15. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Marketing Education WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Digital
Sponsors
Learning and Participation
Press and External Affairs
Membership and Friends schemes
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Front of House service/Shops/Bars/Cafes
Education
MARKETING OR ENGAGEMENT?
Box Office
Board
Development Team
Marketing
Digital

16. Some of you may have heard me speak before about CRM – or Customer Relationship Management. This too is a vital concept to grasp and adopt.
CRM is all about being CUSTOMER CENTRIC – putting customers at the very heart of what you do.
By thinking of customers – ALWAYS – you have a better chance of developing your offer in a way which is engaging and relevant to them. By being relevant and engaging, you have a better chance of making them decide that you are an essential part of their choices at the moment. In other words, you are helping yourselves pass the AFFORDABILITY test in the minds of your customers.
Brand and CRM are – to me – the twin pillars which undermine any successful marketing strategy. You need to be clear about what you offer – brand – and develop the right tools and methods of telling people about it – CRM

17. Who comes already? What do you know about your audience?
Are they loyal?
Can they come more often?
Do you look after them?
Aim: Long term, loyal, profitable

18. DATA Understand and target your audiences better
Increase income via dynamic pricing, & yield management
Who are our customers?
What do we really know about them?
Are we communicating with them in the right ways and at the right time?
What are we actually saying about our brand when we do talk to them?
Are they loyal to us?
If they are loyal, are we treating them with respect?

19. BEHAVIOUR Booking patterns: Recency Frequency Value Arts interests:
Art form
Genres
Multiple interests
Location:
Distance
Loyalty:
Subscriber
Friend
Patron
Major donor

20. Good at winning new customers
Year

21. Bad at keeping them
Year

23. New audience plan

24. 28% increase in those coming more than once
31% increase in revenue from returning customers (extra £1.2m)
14% of new audiences still attending after 5 years. Up from 5%
16% of people receiving welcome pack came back within one month of first visit
26% increase in bookings in the first two years of programme
40% more revenue from higher frequency visitors within 3 years

25. All customers are equal
Know which customers to focus most attention on

26. 4. Who are you going to reach out to and how?

27. PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION
The Four P’s…
PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION

28. Audience development matrix
Existing programme to existing audiences
Existing programme to new audiences
New programme to existing audiences
New programme to new audiences

29. Audience development matrix
Existing programme to existing audiences
Existing programme to new audiences
New programme to existing audiences
New programme to new audiences

30. Audience development matrix
Existing programme to existing audiences
Existing programme to new audiences
New programme to existing audiences
New programme to new audiences

31. Research Work together with others Agree benchmarking priorities
Set audience development targets
Test and learn
Identify the potential
What do you really do?
Who comes, why and how do they know?
What new things do you want to do? Is there demand? Research?
How good is your current marketing?
Are there people doing similar things? Who is your competition?
Are you meeting financial targets? Will the new idea help?
How many are you selling and to who?
What are your prices? Have they changed over the last few years?
Do you have a marketing or audience development budget? Is it adequate?
What additional money will you need to put your new ideas into place? Where will the money come from?
What influences might affect your project, such as social or economic issues nationally or locally?

32. 5. Think like the people who aren’t coming

33. ATTITUDE Psychographic segments Values Attitudes Beliefs Motivations
Expectations
Life experiences

34. Tips Don’t think about ‘difficult’ programmes
Imagery, tone of voice – be appropriate
Remove basic barriers (dress code etc)
Pricing – don’t undervalue what you do
Make a night of it (packages)
Test, test and test again
But don’t forget…

36. 6. Are you following them or are they following you?

37. Existing programme to existing audiences
Existing programme to new audiences
New programme to existing audiences
New programme to new audiences

38. Who leads, who follows? The art or the audience?

39. FESTIVAL STRATEGY

42. Audience development aims
Create a destination – something for everyone
Target least engaged audiences
Deepen engagement
Be entrepreneurial to attract new audiences
Make best use of the site and venues
Cultural activism
We use the festivals as a route to draw people into material that would otherwise be difficult or challenging – whether topics such as death with our festival of Death or repertoire such as 20th century classical music as part of the award winning The Rest is Noise.
We work with commercial partners of all kinds that attract new audiences to Southbank Centre, where they will ‘bump’ into aspects of our cultural programme, such as the external installations as part of our festivals or the free events and performances and discover more about what we do. Examples include the weekly markets, or pop up restaurants such as Dishoom (Asian communities including families) and Wahaca (young adults), and the summer comedy, circus and cabaret festival with Udderbelly (audiences new to Southbank Centre).

45. PIC SHOWING VIBRANT SITE
HOLDING IMAGE

50. FESTIVAL STRATEGY - TRANSFORMING THE BUSINESS MODEL

51. Transforming the Business Model
Festival Strategy has:
Driven foot fall and visits
Created a vibrant destination
Increased attractiveness to commercial partners
Attracted new sources of sponsorship

52. Grant v Self Generated Income

53. Southbank Centre is UK’s 3rd most visited visitor destination
6.2m tickets issued
5,000 ticketed events each year
31m people visit the site
50% of events are FREE
One of the most diverse audiences in UK arts
Bold vision with stunning results