Lancering Vloek of zegen, 26 februari 2015 | Sarah Boiling

Visitor Research –

the view from Britain

Sarah BoilingConsultancy Director

Today

• The Audience Agency

• Audience research in the cultural sector

• Visitor Finder

• Ten research essentials

The Audience Agency

Audiences at the

heart of culture

• A UK federation of small organisations

• Inconsistent and ignored at national level

• 2011 – funding withdrawn

• 2012 – The Audience Agency formed

• Merger Audiences London + All About Audiences

• 2015 - Two offices, fifty staff, £2m turnover

The Audience Agency - history

Our purpose

Supporting resilient and healthy cultural organisations

which:

• Matter to the public

• Understand and meet their needs

• Balance social, artistic and financial aims

• Maximise income and investment

Our approach & services

• National resources + local knowledge

• Co-operative - Not for Profit - Give-and-Gain

• Audience planning

• Expert audience research and analysis service

• Evidence, impact measurement & evaluation

• Engagement services

• Specialist advice and consultancy

• Facilitation and collaboration

Evaluate, inform policy and practice

Action-research, consultancy, collaborate

Interpretation, advice

Context, analysis, benchmarks, profiling

Primary research

Audience

Development

Knowledge

Information

Data

Our approach

Audience research in the

cultural sector

1997 – 2010 ‘New Labour’

• ‘Instrumental’ value of

culture

• Focus on under represented

groups

• Targets and measurement

• Free admission to National

Museums 2001

• Museums, Libraries, Archives

Council (MLA)

2010 …. Coalition

• Recession + ideology = reduced public funding

• ‘Bonfire of the quangos’

• Focus on fundraising and philanthropy

Large organisations

• Well resourced

• In house expertise OR budgets

• Sophisticated view

• Some ticketing data

• Visitor insight informs planning

Medium scale

• Less well resourced

• no specialist research staff

• Some ongoing research

• Otherwise Infrequent - need to

know basis

Small

• Very limited resources and

infrastructure

• No ongoing research

• If at all, on an opportunity basis

• But – DO have a valuable

personal/anecdotal understanding

of their visitors

Performing arts

• Ticketed so closer financial relationship to audiences

• Transaction data and sophisticated reporting

• Less likely to undertake primary research

Audience research in the cultural sector

Challenges

• Where power resides –

cultural issues

• Creative leadership

• Box ticking fatigue

• Lack of skills and

resources

Opportunities

• Financial imperatives

• Big Data

• Need for evidence

• Proving the value of

research

Audience/ Visitor Finder

The opportunity – Audience/Visitor Finder

• Arts Council England commission

• National audience data programme – Audience

Finder, designed and delivered by The Audience

Agency

• Provide the tools and support for organisations to

obtain, understand and use audience data

• Individually and in context

• Museums strand of Audience Finder = Visitor Finder

Evaluate, inform policy and practice

Action-research, consultancy, collaborate

Interpretation, advice

Context, analysis, benchmarks, profiling

Primary research

Audience

Development

Knowledge

Information

Data

How it works

• Builds on Audience Finder infrastructure

• Collect – Understand - Apply

• Regional clusters of museums facilitated by

Audience Agency staff

• Agree their key issues/objectives

• Select appropriate questions from a standard set of

quantitative research questions

• Museums own staff undertake fieldwork

• Training, support and advice

• On-line dashboard displays their key data

• Cluster report and workshops to discuss implications

Visitor Finder clusters

Success factors

• Go where there is interest and appetite

• Existing networks more productive

• Museums need to be a minimum size to benefit

• Skilful facilitation required

• Step away from the questions …

• Regular communication

Proving the value of research

• Outdoor Arts sector proved their audience reach =

increase in ACE funding

• London orchestras identified infrequent attenders =

collaborative promotional campaign = £64,000 ticket

income

• Dublin galleries = evidence for advocacy to tourism

bodies

• Cambridge Museums = Curating Cambridge

campaign

Research - top ten tips

Research – top ten tips

1. Need clear objectives – what will this

information enable you to do ?

2. Check the information you need doesn’t already

exist

3. Choose the right method

4. Do the VUMI test

5. Involve internal colleagues (but stay focused)

6. Use standard questions if available to give you

context

7. Test your questions

8. Ensure a representative sample - minimise bias

9. Share the findings - internally and with visitors

10. Use what you learn

Thank you

[email protected]

• Dashboard demo

www.audiencefinder.org/my-profile