House Lights

Would you like up-to-date

audience insight to inform

business decisions?

Do you need to present

valuable, timely and relevant

information to your Board and

stakeholders?

Would you like to know how

your organisation performs in

comparison with other venues

in the country?

House Lights is an established

venue benchmarking project,

successfully piloted with

theatres in the Yorkshire and

Humber region since 2005.

We are delighted to extend

an invitation for your venue to

become involved in the

project.

What it means for you

Whatever your venue’s size,

location or benchmarking

experience, House Lights will

provide intelligence to benefit

your organisation and inform

your strategic planning. With

its unique ‘package’ system,

House Lights offers meaningful,

flexible benchmarking that is

tailored to suit you.

Depending on your needs and

chosen level of involvement,

House Lights can help you to

develop an understanding of

your current and potential

audiences, building a profile

of your bookers and gaining

further insight into their ticket-

buying behaviour – both in

relation to your own venue

and other benchmarking

partners. And, if you need

more detailed analysis, there is

also the opportunity to further

bespoke your research.

Welcome to

House Lights

How it works

All the information you need

to provide for analysis is easily

collected via an online survey

and through our bespoke

data extraction process.

Our extraction process is

designed to work with four

main box office systems:

ProVenue Databox, ProVenue

Max, The Patron’s Edge and

AudienceView. It can also be

adapted to additional systems

– please contact us to discuss

your requirements.

When all the data has been

extracted, we will perform

analysis based on the key

features of the package you

have chosen. Once the

analysis phase is complete, we

will then present the results to

you in reports covering your

own venue’s results and those

of all participants. We will also

present the results at a joint

event where participants can

discuss the findings and best

practice and inform further

development of the project.

“The Benchmarking Reports... build up a detailed snapshot of audience behaviour and help us compare ourselves to other venues”

What do others think?

“The Benchmarking Reports

have proved invaluable to

defining the work of the

Lawrence Batley Theatre’s

audience development. The

reports build up a detailed

snapshot of audience

behaviour and help us

compare ourselves to other

venues . . . to see where we

might improve our practice in

order to connect with more

people. Used in conjunction

with other resources . . . and

internal research, we can

build a really clear picture on

how to move forward and

utilise the findings every step of

the way.”

Graham Whitehead,

Press and Marketing Manager,

Lawrence Batley Theatre

“A very valuable tool for my

Board, helping them to push

our neck out, for example

when launching a new

membership scheme.”

Dan Bates,

former CEO at York Theatre

Royal

Choosing your package

This table provides an

overview of the five packages

that your venue can choose

from. The content and

benefits of each package are

explained in full over the next

few pages.

Package Contains Ideal if you are…

1. Venue in

Context

Mapping and profiling of your

venue’s local area

Starting to build an

audience, or if you have

limited audience data

2. Audience

Profile

Profiling of your audiences

using ACORN and AAI

segmentation models

Building on current

audiences and looking for

new bookers

3. Audience

Behaviour

A range of analysis of

purchasing behaviour (who

books, when, how much do

they pay etc)

Developing a more

sophisticated approach

which would benefit from

information about

audience behaviour

4. Audience

Behaviour in

Context

Further audience behaviour

analysis based on your

audiences’ behaviour in

previous years / visits to other

venues, i.e. retention and

crossover

Taking a wider

perspective, looking at

identifying long-term core

audiences and

competitors

5. Detailed

Audience

Analysis

A range of further analysis,

including analysis by show, art

form, and production type, as

well as further details such as

occupancy

Seeking a holistic view of

your audiences and

would like the opportunity

to choose further bespoke

analysis

What you will receive

In each year of participation

you will receive a full report

covering 12 months of data

relevant to the package you

have selected, presenting

your results alongside those of

other benchmarking partners.

From Autumn 2010, if you

subscribe to packages 3, 4 or

5, you will also receive a bi-

annual report showing the

results for your own venue

every 6 months. This report will

show your results by quarter, as

well as combined results for

the previous 12 months.

Packages in detail

Package 1:

Venue in Context

Maybe you don’t have a lot of

audience data, but you need

to know about the people

living locally to your venue

and the types of experiences

they want from a theatre. This

will help you to build your and

your colleagues’

understanding of potential

audiences. Your report will

contain the following features:

Feature With this analysis you can… This item is useful for…

Headlines Record any contextual

information (e.g. about

promotion or programming)

which might have impacted

upon your theatre’s ticket

sales

Building a strong narrative

of your venue’s year-on-

year development and

understanding your peers

Financial

analysis

Report top-line sales figures,

provide average ticket yield

figures and analyse return on

marketing investment

Reviewing pricing and

budget allocation

Drive-time

maps

Learn the exact locations of

households that can reach

your venue by car in just

fifteen and thirty minutes

Highlighting hot- and

cold-spots of local

attenders and enabling

targeted, more cost-

effective marketing

ACORN

and Arts

Audiences:

Insight

Profiles

See which ACORN

Categories and Groups or

Arts Audiences: Insight

segments are prevalent in

your fifteen and thirty minute

drive-time areas, and which

are over-represented

compared to a national

average

Aligning your theatre’s

offer to the lifestyles of

your potential audiences.

Identifying what are likely

to be the most successful

programming and

communications choices

Package 2:

Audience Profile

Perhaps you have an idea of

where your audience come

from, but you need to know

who they are and what type

of experiences and

communications will interest

them. You would also like to

define your catchment area

and get to know new

audiences within that area.

Your report will contain all the

features from Package 1 plus

the analysis below:

Feature With this analysis you can… This item is useful for…

Audience

hot-spot

maps

Find out the exact locations

and clusters of your bookers

Allowing you to target

marketing materials to

where your audiences

live

Catchment

area

analysis

See the area from which you

are drawing your audience

and the types of people who

live there

Targeting promotional

activity and identifying

the locations of core

audiences

Audience

drive-time

info

Learn the proportion of

bookers who come from

within a 15 and 30 minute

drive-time of your venue

Targeting your publicity

based on an

understanding of how

local your audience is

ACORN and

Arts

Audiences:

Insight

audience

profiles

Discover which ACORN

Categories and Groups and

Arts Audiences: Insight

segments are prevalent

amongst your bookers, and

which are over-represented

compared to a national

average

Aligning your theatre’s

offer to the lifestyles of

your current audiences

and identifying which

type of people you are

currently reaching

Package 3:

Audience Behaviour

You know your box office

holds a wealth of information

and would like to get more out

of it. You’d like to know when

to time promotional activities,

what ticket offers could be

profitable and how seasonal

audiences are different from

those year round. This

intelligence would significantly

reduce the risks associated

with developing new

approaches and strategies.

Your report will contain all the

features from Packages 1 and

2 plus the analysis below:

Feature With this analysis you can… This item is useful for…

Penetration

map

See where current

audiences live and which

areas contain an untapped

potential audience

Identifying new

audiences of likely

theatre-goers

Sales timing

analysis

Find out how far in advance

your bookers buy tickets and

when your peak sales period

occurs each year

Ensuring that marketing

activity is carried out at a

time which will maximise

bookings

Party size

analysis

Understand how your

audience prefers to attend

your theatre. In pairs? In

groups? As part of an

organised trip?

Understanding audience

attendance and

assessing the importance

of booking agents to your

theatre’s sales

Seasonal

analysis

Learn what value and

proportion of your annual

sales, transactions and

tickets are sold for seasonal

events

Assessing the importance

of seasonal programming

and comparing

important productions

such as Christmas shows

Package 4:

Audience Behaviour

in Context

Knowing who and where your

current and potential

audiences are is vital, but

you’d also like to look at things

in context. Are you engaging

your core audience over a

long period of time? Which

other theatres do they visit?

Information like this can

identify useful yearly trends

and flag up organisations you

might want to collaborate

with. Your report will contain all

the features from Packages 1,

2 and 3 plus the analysis

below:

Feature With this analysis you can… This item is useful for…

Visit histories See the proportion of last

year’s bookers who returned

this year, and look at the

frequency of attendance by

bookers who have ever

been to your theatre before

Gaining insight into your

core versus occasional

audiences and

understanding frequency

of attendance

Crossover Get an overview of which

other theatres in the

benchmarking group your

audience attends and how

frequently these crossover

audiences attend your

theatre

Identifying potential

collaborators across the

country

Full price /

concessions

Discover what value and

proportion of sales are at full

price / concessions

Reviewing pricing and

concessions

Visit histories See the proportion of last

year’s bookers who returned

this year, and look at the

frequency of attendance by

bookers who have ever

been to your theatre before

Gaining insight into your

core versus occasional

audiences and

understanding frequency

of attendance

Package 5:

Detailed Audience

Analysis

You want to go into more

depth and understand which

art forms your audiences are

interested in and where these

interests overlap. You’d also

like to be able to ask specific

research questions because

there’s more you want to

discover about your

audiences. Your report will

contain all the features from

Packages 1, 2, 3 and 4 plus the

analysis below:

Feature With this analysis you can… This item is useful for…

Yield and

occupancy

by

production

See which productions have

a higher or lower average

ticket price paid and

compare how close different

productions come to selling

out

Reviewing and planning

productions and

identifying effectiveness

of particular marketing or

programming

Ticket price

by booking

frequency

Identify whether frequent

attenders pay more or less on

average for a ticket

Reviewing pricing and

concessions

Lead time

by art form

Compare purchase lead

times across different art

forms

Understanding booking

patterns so you can more

accurately predict how

well a show will sell based

on initial sales transactions

Art form

crossover

Find out if, for example, your

drama audience also attends

jazz, or if your ballet audience

is more likely than average to

attend poetry readings

Cross-marketing different

art forms to maximise

bookings

Venue

crossover

by art form

Discover if people who

attend different art forms are

more or less likely to attend

elsewhere

Understanding the

behaviour and venue

loyalty of different

audience groups

Crossover

by

production

type

See crossover between

received, produced and

amateur productions

Cross-marketing different

types of performance to

maximise bookings

Further Bespoke Analysis

With Package 5, you can also

choose to commission further

bespoke research. For

example, you may want to

investigate:

Group relations: the

combinations of full price and

concessionary tickets in

transactions. This is useful for

reviewing the profitability of

ticket offers and identifying

where new offers might be

beneficial.

Detail on hot-spots and cold-

spots: receive ACORN

category details mapped for

hot-spots and cold-spots. This is

useful for understanding

audience types in key areas.

Profiling by art form:

understand the ACORN and

Arts Audiences: Insight profiles

of the audiences for your top-

selling art forms. This is useful

for targeting the marketing of

different art forms.

Spot mapping of top 5 art

forms: this is useful for

identifying key pockets of

attenders for different art

forms.

Further analysis on production

types: e.g. sales, yield and

profiles by production type.

This is useful for identifying the

implications of changes to

programming and informing

agreements with visiting

companies.

Further analysis of particular

audience groups: e.g.

frequent attenders, lapsed

attenders and cross-over

audiences. This is useful for

getting a detailed

understanding of your

audience and strengthening

your customer relationships.

If you are interested in further

bespoke analysis, this would

be costed separately to the

pricing packages outlined on

the next page.

Price List

The following prices reflect the

fact that 2009/10 data is

analysed in both a single

individual and a joint report,

whereas 2010/11 data would

be analysed in two individual

reports, as well as the joint

report.

Package

Number

Name Price 09/10

Data

Price 10/11

Data

1 Venue in Context 400 400

2 Audience Profile 600 600

3 Audience

Behaviour

900 1350

4 Audience

Behaviour in

Context

1200 1750

5 Detailed

Audience

Analysis

1500 2350

Susan Ingham

[email protected]

0113 320 0160

Next Steps

We’d love to talk to you about

getting involved in House

Lights. If you know which

package you would like, or if

you have any queries about

House Lights and would like to

talk about which package is

right for you, please contact:

Book now for 2009/10

data

The 2009/2010 data would be

extracted in April, with reports

delivered from the end of

May, also in order of delivery

of data.