I value the arts

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MANIFESTO

We believe that great art needs great audiences, and that's why our Manifesto outlines our key messages for funders, policy-makers and the sector in England and the evidence behind those views. You can download our Manifesto here.

Membership to Audiences Yorkshire has become an absolutely vital part of our overall marketing strategy. The practical advantages such as accessing distribution channels, being featured on digyorkshire.com and reaching out to audiences within our catchment area are extremely important to us. At the same time we have the support needed to think creatively as an organisation and this is encouraged within industry briefings, CEO conferences and AY research such as the Theatre Benchmarking Report. As well as all of this, the networking opportunities that are available with similar venues is a real advantage and the AY team are incredibly knowledgeable about the arts environment, working closely with us to ensure we are moving forward at our pace.

Member - Audiences Yorkshire

Develop the market, don’t cut the marketing budget

28th May 2010

Arts Council England’s Annual Submission figures for attendance during 2008/09 mirror the record-breaking figures in the West End for the same period. People may have reduced their spending on big ticket items in the economic downturn, but so far it seems they haven’t reduced their spending on tickets.

Quite right too: we have a phenomenal cultural offer in the UK. But we haven’t saturated the market and we haven’t filled every seat in every venue or packed out every exhibition. To survive and thrive in challenging times, we need to be developing new domestic and international markets for the one economic sector where Britain still leads the world.

When belts are tightened, we shouldn’t sacrifice quality and innovation. At the same time organisations large and small must remember that every penny carefully spent on marketing is not a cost but an investment that will reap further financial and social rewards.

The key is to make informed decisions and invest wisely. The prize is a more sustainable sector and an even more culturally engaged and successful nation.

David Brownlee, Chief Executive, Audiences UK

Comments

  1. Author
    Roger Tomlinson
    Permanent link
    #
    Date
    28th May 2010
    Comment
    Plainly there is a huge opportunity in the unsold seats or absent visitor numbers. Analysis of attendance patterns shows that getting infrequent attenders to come an extra time would make most arts organisations full to capacity - because infrequent attenders are the majority. Instead of stating capacity as how full an organisation's activities were, perhaps we should start quoting how empty they were? What would it feel like to say "AnyTown Theatre was 33% empty last year"?
    Marketing is certainly an investment and most techniques give a ROI or at least cover their costs. And every extra person attending makes the arts better value for government funding and earns some extra income for the arts organisation.
    Roger

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