Transcript Audience Engagement - A Close Examination

Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Audience
Engagement – A
Close Examination
Creative Trust
December 10, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
© WolfBrown 2009 All Rights Reserved
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Agenda – Part 1 – Research
• What does ‘audience engagement’ mean?
• Why is the sector paying more attention to engagement?
• What does research tell us about how audiences want to
engage?
Agenda – Part 2 - Practice
•
•
•
•
Stages of engagement
Examples of engagement practices (case studies)
Adopting an engagement philosophy
Assessment
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What does “audience
engagement” mean to you?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
The Many Senses of Engagement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
To hire: to engage a worker; to engage a room.
To sustain interest: The novel engaged her attention and interest.
To attract or please: His good nature engages everyone.
To bind, as by pledge, promise, contract, or oath; make
liable: He engaged himself to repay his debt within a month.
To betroth (usually used in the passive): They were engaged
last week.
To enter into conflict with: Our army engaged the enemy.
To cause to become interlocked (gears or the like)
To pledge one's word; assume an obligation: I was
unwilling to engage on such terms.
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Core Definitional Elements
•
•
•
•
Attraction or common cause
Mutuality of intent; commitment or agreement
Make an investment; take responsibility
Unusually high level of interest, involvement or
participation
• An act of risk; accepting liability for an uncertain outcome
• To become interlocked or intertwined
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Engagement in Arts Experiences
• Engagement is a guiding philosophy in the creation and
delivery of arts experiences
• People who subscribe to this philosophy:
- Encourage each participant to be a co-creator of meaning
- Integrate various learning experiences with the presentation of art
- Accept that people have different ways of engaging, and allow audience
members to curate their own learning experience
- Realize that not everyone relates to art on an intellectual basis
- Embrace many pathways through the art form
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What’s driving the cultural sector
towards offering engagement
programs and activities?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A Confluence of Many Forces
• Demand for shorter and more intense experiences
- Extract more value from the same investment
•
•
•
•
•
Shift towards more active forms of participation
Rise of new forms of creative expression
The culture of continuous feedback
The second generation of experience learners
Expectation that leisure experiences can be customized
- e.g., the director’s cut
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Why does engagement matter?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Successfully engaging your audiences
can lead to…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Increased relevance to existing audiences
Higher retention rates
Broadened awareness and reach in the community
Higher levels of loyalty and community ownership
More critical dialogue about the art
More public and private support because of higher impact
More sensitivity to, and support for, the value of intrinsic
impacts
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What does research tell us about
how audience want to engage?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A large midwestern theatre company in a
major metro area
Let’s start with two basic questions:
• Generally, how much do you like to prepare in advance for
performances by reading, watching or listening to
information about the artist or program?
• Generally, how much do you like to debate or critique
performances afterwards?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Results: Most people are somewhat
inclined to engage…. BUT… some really do,
and some really don’t
Source: Six University Presenters (multi-disciplinary sample)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
‘Talking about it’ is the dominant form of
engagement of the six activities tested;
likelihood declines with age
Likelihood of Doing Specific Engagement Activities,
by Age Cohort
Likelihood of Doing (1=Unlikely, 7=Likely)
7.0
Seek out information about
upcoming artists or programs
on the web
6.0
5.0
Attend pre-performance
lectures, masterclasses or
symposia, when offered
4.0
Participate in hands-on
interactive workshops, when
offered
3.0
Stay after performances to
participate in discussions
with artists, when offered
React to performances by
contributing to online forums
or blogs
2.0
Tell your friends what you
liked or disliked about a
performance
1.0
18 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65+
Source: Six University Presenters (multi-disciplinary sample)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Who engages in online activities?
Source: Six University Presenters (multi-disciplinary sample)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Some people like to arrive at the theatre
with lots of context on the play they are
about to see, while others prefer not to
know much about what they are going to
see, in order to have an open mind and
allow for the element of surprise (i.e., a
“blank canvas”).
All else being equal, where are you along
this continuum? (circle a number)
1 = Much Context, 4 = No Preference, 7 = Blank Canvas
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Most want at least a bit of context…
Preferred Approach to Pre-Performance
Engagement
Much Context
8%
0%
19%
10%
20%
2
3
No Preference
24%
30%
40%
5
6
22%
50%
60%
Blank Canvas
13%
70%
80%
9%
90%
4%
100%
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Most want at least a bit of context…
but younger audiences are less inclined
Preferred Approach to Pre-Performance
Engagement
Much Context
8%
0%
19%
10%
20%
2
3
No Preference
24%
30%
40%
5
6
22%
50%
60%
Blank Canvas
13%
70%
80%
9%
90%
4%
100%
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
This theatre’s audiences like to prepare in
various ways – mostly reading and talking
FREQUENCY OF PRE-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES
(RANDOM SAMPLE)
Occasionally
100%
90%
Frequently
14%
80%
35%
70%
46%
60%
50%
40%
33%
47%
83%
30%
60%
47%
20%
34%
10%
0%
Read
program
notes
28%
30%
30%
4%
3%
Read review Discuss w/
Read
Seek out Read play in Attend prefriends
Backstage information advance performance
online
talks
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Some people enjoy vigorously discussing
the meaning or merits of a play
immediately after the performance, while
others prefer to reflect quietly on their
own.
All else being equal, where are you along
this continuum? (circle a number)
1 = Reflect Privately, 4 = No Preference, 7 = Discuss Vigorously
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Most tend to reflect privately; how are you
going to reach them?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Informal discussion is the dominant form of
post-processing
FREQUENCY OF POST-PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES
(RANDOM SAMPLE)
Occasionally
100%
90%
12%
80%
Frequently
30%
42%
70%
60%
50%
40%
54%
87%
47%
64%
30%
55%
20%
23%
10%
17%
9%
0%
Talk about
play over
drinks or
dinner
Read a review Discuss play Find out more Stay for post- React in an
over ensuing about cast,
perf.
online blog or
days/weeks director, or discussions
forum
production
team
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Younger buyers are more likely to be involved
in participatory theatre activities, and less
likely to rely on reviews
PERCENT CITING "FREQUENT" ENGAGEMENT IN
THEATRE ACTIVITIES, BY AGE COHORT
120%
12%
100%
6%
% of Age Cohort
9%
80%
60%
6%
10%
22%
5%
7%
7%
10%
40%
11%
17%
9%
5%
7%
5%
5%
7%
10%
4%
73%
27%
32%
18-34
35-44
Write, perform in or
work on plays or
musicals
Read or comment
about theatre on blogs
83%
61%
Read plays for own
enjoyment
Read critical reviews
of theatre productions
47%
20%
Travel to other cities
to see theatre
0%
45-54
55-64
65-74
75+
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Factor analysis reveals five overlapping
modalities
Readers
(94%)
Talkers
(86%)
Listeners
(18%)
Bloggers
(26%)
Actors
(12%)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A somewhat different view for another regional
theatre in California
Theatre
Arts
(26%)
Online
Engagement
(20%)
Casual
Conversation
(92%)
Intellectual
Reflection
(41%)
Critical Review
(80%)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Younger audiences tend to have more active
connections to the art form; what does this mean?
Age, by Engagement Factors
(% of Respondents with High Propensity)
60%
55%
61%
65%
50%
15%
29%
26%
37%
39%
36%
37%
32%
37%
35%
34%
37%
32%
26%
27%
20%
20%
24%
24%
25%
27%
30%
37%
35%
35%
38%
34%
43%
40%
44%
45%
10%
5%
0%
18 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
Theatre Arts
Intellectual Reflection
Online Engagement
Casual Conversation
55 to 64
65+
Critical Review
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A large opera company in the U.K…
10 Engagement Activities Were Tested:
• Read programme notes prior to arriving
• Prior to arriving, read about the singers who’ll be performing
• Prior to arriving, seek out information about the opera online
• Prior to arriving, listen to musical excerpts at home
• Attend pre-performance scholarly lectures
• Read programme notes at the venue
• Read supertitles during the performance
• Stay afterwards for talk-backs with the performers
• Talk about the performance afterwards with your family or friends
• React to the performance in an online blog or forum
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A large opera company in the U.K…
Along with Five Other Forms of Involvement:
• Sing in a choir or perform in operas or musicals
• Listen to opera recordings at home
• Read or contribute to online blogs or forums about opera
• Attend broadcasts of operas in cinemas
• Go to the opera while travelling or on holiday
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Again, five engagement modalities, based on
factor analysis
Bloggers
(10%)
Multi-Channel
Opera Omnivores
(52%)
Preparers
(46%)
Listeners /
Ponderers
(32%)
Singers
(15%)
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Engagement Tendencies, by Audience Segment
Mix of Engagement Factors, by Segment
Singer
250%
Blogger
225%
200%
175%
38%
41%
31%
150%
125%
50%
28%
23%
47%
60%
29%
61%
24%
7%
0%
Loyal
Overbooked
Adventurers Opera Buffs
Auto Pilot
Audience
20%
31%
28%
39%
28%
46%
41%
46%
Preparer
34%
55%
50%
25%
39%
30%
100%
75%
Multi-Channel
Omnivore
Ponderer
37%
Motivated
Middle
Ground
7%
18%
15%
16%
20%
Young
Trialists
Greatest Hits
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A large orchestra on the east coast
• Commissioned a segmentation study
• Input variables included:
-
Musical tastes: eclectic vs. classical-focused
Knowledge level about classical music
Appetite for new works by living composers
Preferences for different concert formats
Preferences for engagement activities
Motivations for attending
Influence of purchase decision factors
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
A four-segment customer model illustrates
the diversity within this audience base
PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA CUSTOMER
SEGMENTATION MODEL (N=1,075)
Casual Followers
28%
Adventurous
Intellectuals
25%
Warhorses
23%
Old School
Connoisseurs
24%
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Six in ten want brief introductions from
the stage
PREFERRED CONCERT FORMAT,
BY SEGEMNT
100%
90%
28%
34%
80%
17%
19%
20%
70%
Interpretation-rich
educational format
60%
62%
50%
40%
70%
74%
67%
Traditional format (no
talking)
66%
30%
Format with brief
introductions
20%
21%
10%
0%
10%
5%
Warhorses
Old School
Connoisseurs
Adventurous
Intellectuals
5%
Casual
Followers
TOTAL
AUDIENCE
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Preference Levels for Types of Engagement
PREFERENCE LEVEL FOR TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT, BY SEGMENT
Warhorses
Old School Connoisseurs
Adventurous Intellectuals
Casual Followers
Avg. Rating (1=Dislike, 7=Like)
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
Attending prePreparing for
concert talks given concerts at home by
by visiting artists or reading about the
speakers
program or
listening to
recordings
Reading printed
program notes at
the concert
Hearing conductors Concerts designed
or musicians give for newcomers to
brief introductions classical music, or
of pieces from the people who prefer a
stage
more educational
format
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Summary
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What does research tell us?
• Audiences are diverse with respect to engagement
- Younger audiences are far more likely than older audiences to engage online, and
tend to prefer more active forms of engagement
- Some older audiences long for the arts education experience they had as children
- Some people would actually prefer educational formats
• Lectures and discussions tend to attract people who are already
knowledgeable about the art form
- How can you engage the ‘big middle’ of the audience?
• Patrons with lower knowledge levels prefer talking from the stage over
reading printed program notes
• Need to provide context in layers, so people get take a little or a lot
• Be careful about vocabulary (i.e., level of difficulty)
• Eliciting informal conversation outside of our venues may be a big win
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Part 2 (10:00 a.m.)
Sculpting the experience: A
framework for thinking about
audience engagement, including
an overview of new engagement
practices
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Stages of Engagement
• Pre-performance
- It all starts with marketing: messaging about engagement
- The purchase: give options
- Post-purchase: build anticipation, preparatory activities
• At or during the performance
- Interpretive assistance
- Participatory activities
• After the Performance & Forever
- Structured processing in-venue
- Unstructured processing out of the venue
- Memory elicitation
• Apart from the Performance
- Digital engagement
- Audience involvement in art creation
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Pre-Performance
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Marketing as an Engagement Process
• The marketing message should signal engagement
opportunities
• Send first engagement message with ticket
acknowledgement
• Seamless transition from marketing cycle to engagement
cycle
- Heighten anticipation
• Will audiences pay to be engaged?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Examples of Preparatory Activities:
• In-depth information available through website (pull)
• Audio briefings accessed via website (pull)
• Listening to audio recordings at home or in the car on the
way
• Distribute ‘season primer’ CDs (SF Opera)
• Skills-building programs (ArtSavvy, Dance 101)
• Mail or email contextual information to patrons (push)
• What are some other examples?
- Write down any ideas that you’re interested in exploring this afternoon
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
At or During Performances
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Examples of at-venue engagement
activities:
•
•
•
•
Sit in your seat and read the program notes
Pre-performance lectures or “executive briefings”
Introductory videos (e.g., Appalachian Spring)
Interpretive assistance during performances
- Supertitles (translation or commentary)
- Talking from the stage
- Interpretive text broadcast to mobile devices
• Visual representations of music
• Real time audience input/feedback
• What are some other examples?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Martha Graham Dance Company
• Incorporated supertitles into
a touring production of
Clytemnestra
- Reviewer: “Supertitles help
audiences approach what could,
without context, come across as a
museum piece; spoken, often
humorous introductions to the
repertory do the same. It is tempting
to dismiss these efforts as heretical,
but they seem to engage viewers.
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Audience
Concert Companion
• Embedded interpretation
- Concert Companion (“CoCo”), a hand-held PDA device
- Interpretive assistance synchronized with
the music
- Users read information in real-time
- Tested with Kansas City Symphony, Philadelphia
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic
- Greatest resistance was from musicians
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap
Audience Engagement
• Deliver interpretive content
during concerts via Twitter
- "With this first ever in-time symphonic
Twitter you can have the conductor as your
personal guide through Beethoven's most
colorful and atmospheric work,” explained
Conductor Emil de Cou. “I have designed
the tweets to go perfectly with ideas I have
about the piece as I conduct it but also
some interesting commentary to go along
with the sights and sounds of Beethoven's
day in the countryside: an adult musical
pop-up book written for first timers and
concert veterans alike."
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
New World Symphony
• Format Experimentation
- Mini Concerts: short, casual concert experiences lasting up to 30 minutes
- Club-Style Concerts: an evening-long, lounge-style social setting
- Discovery Concerts: extended, introductory explanations of the music with visual
enhancements
- Journey Concerts: full-length concerts using different ensembles to fully present
the breadth of works by one composer
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Arts In Motion, Philadelphia
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Arts In Motion, Philadelphia
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Pacific Symphony
• Music Unwound
- Interactive and educational core programming
- Example: Photochoreography for recent performance of Alpine Symphony
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Audience
MacPhail Center for Music
• New Rehearsal/Performance Space
- ‘Perfectly Flexible’
- Space can be reshaped for multiple events
- Invites two-way experience
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
After Performances
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Examples of post-performance engagement
activities:
• Post-performance discussions with the artist
- Attendance has doubled at the Kennedy Center discussions after dance
performances
• Read a critic’s review
- But professional criticism has vanished in many markets
- Some efforts to replace it (sfcv.org)
• React to the performance in an online forum
• Radio call in show
• What are some other examples?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Audience
University Musical Society
• Eliciting feedback from audiences
- Production of ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ (four
performances)
- Needed to quickly generate community excitement
• Process
- Sent an e-mail to attendees on opening night asking
for audience comments
• Outcomes
- Received ecstatic emails
- Generated 25% of sales after 1st performance
- Empowered audience as critics
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Forever
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What happens to the memory of arts
experiences?
• Printed programs play a role
• Some people remember experiences for a lifetime
- Others sleep through it
• Mondavi Center: handing out ‘artist cards’ to youth
• What can you do to ensure that people remember your
experiences?
- Send audio files? Image files? Create an online scrapbook?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Apart from Performances:
Digital Engagement, Engaging
Audiences in Acts of Co-Creation
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
On the Boards
• OtBTV
- Online video on-demand, payper-view programming
- Full-length, high-definition
contemporary dance
- Extra features Include
podcasts, audience blogs, and
artist voices
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Berlin Philharmonic
• Digital Subscription
- Major effort to attempt a new business model
- Produce high quality audio/video recordings of
concerts
- Sell them as a subscription experience
- http://www.berlinerphilharmoniker.de/en/media/digital-concert-hall/
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Steppenwolf Theater
• Online Customer Center
- Planning a new website that will allow customers to log in and build a
micro site for themselves
- Accumulate memories (images, videos, personal comments)
- Access educational materials
- Profile themselves
- Interact with other audience members
- Invite friends
- http://www.steppenwolf.org/watchlisten/videos/detail.aspx?id=53
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
The New Frontier: Engaging Audiences in
Creating Artistic Content, and even in
Program Planning
• TakeOver09 (York Theatre Royal)
- A festival run “by young people, with young people, for everyone”
• Art Institute of Chicago
- Panels of representatives of ‘target communities’ (e.g., African
Americans) collaborate with staff to design exhibitions
• Cornerstone Theater
- Develops plays around community themes, with extensive community
involvement
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Hannah Rudman: Organizational Porosity
and User Generated Content (video)
• Rapidly evolving landscape
• New forms of co-creation
- “It’s not about giving up control”
• Culture cannot be ‘provided,’ but is generated together
- ‘Open source’ artistic direction
• Return of the amateur
• See online references at: http://delicious.com/hanrudman/ugc
• For more information about Hannah Rudman, see:
http://consultrudman.wordpress.com/
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Audience as Co-Author of Meaning
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Summary of Case Study Research
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What lessons have we learned?
• Engagement occurs when audiences participate actively in designing and
interpreting their experience
• Transparency invites engagement
• Small organizations have more flexibility to adopt engagement practices
• Sometimes, engagement requires performing in less than ideal
circumstances
• New/redesigned physical spaces can enable a higher degree of engagement
• Constituent input is a key success factor
• Drawing a line between audience engagement and community engagement
is unnecessary and ultimately limiting
• Accepting audiences where ever they are in their arc of involvement with
the art form
• It is extremely difficult to reach alignment around engagement as a
philosophy when you have inflexible conceptions of how the art form
should be experienced
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
How do arts groups move
towards an engagement
orientation?
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Three Levels of Adoption
Organizational
– Philosophical alignment at the board level
– Artistic leadership is a full partner, and core
programming is an instrument of engagement
– Org. structure serves engagement goals
CrossFunctional
– Departments work together and share risk
– Tend to be project-based (e.g., residencies)
– Supplemental to core programming
Departmental
– Institutionalized at the departmental level
– Specific outcomes desired
– Core programs are “protected”
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Practice occurs on a continuum from Community
Engagement to Audience Engagement; is the
distinction necessary?
Organizational
Cross-Functional
Departmental
Community
Audience
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Where do your engagement practices fall?
Organizational
Cross-Functional
Departmental
Community
Audience
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Beginning Map of Engagement Practices
Alignment
• Stakeholder Input
• Benefits-based programming
• Education is integral to every
production
• Critical dialogue encouraged
• Venue diversification
• Holistic view of the art form
• Artists are teachers, interpreters
• Festivals and special programs
• Free performances
• Educational enhancements
• In-school concerts
• Customer service
• Contextual Programs
• Residencies
• Interactive technology
• Visual Enhancements
• Youth orchestras
• Target marketing
• Embedded Interpretation
Community
Audience
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Assessing audience engagement
activities
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
What does success look like?
• What are the outcomes of engagement programs?
• How would you know if you’ve successfully engaged
someone? What’s the evidence?
• Focus on intrinsic impacts
-
Captivation
Emotional resonance
Spiritual value
Aesthetic growth
Intellectual stimulation
Social bonding
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
Lunch Break
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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Audience Engagement – A Close Examination
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