The next frontier in audience development for the arts sector

Colleen Dilenschneider's recent findings on the cultural industry's negative substitution ratio serve as a loud wake-up call for orchestras and opera companies:

The percentage of the US population that doesn't feel welcome in the classical music world continues to grow.

In Colleen's words, our best efforts to prioritize diversity and inclusion "are not expanding audiences fast enough to sustain attendance."

Covid certainly hasn’t helped the situation. In January, IMPACTS reported that 2021 attendance at performing arts organizations averaged 54.5% of 2019 attendance, but projected market potential in 2022 increases to only 85.9% (assuming that onsite programming opportunities are similar to 2019.)

Simply put, we need to do more—and quickly.

While programming has shifted dramatically, there’s a huge missed opportunity in the area of marketing. It's a crucial piece of the puzzle that's not being addressed in this ongoing audience development conversation, and that’s a problem.

To put it bluntly: traditional, egocentric arts marketing is no longer relevant. Consumer behaviors have changed. They simply don't trust marketing that ignores them.

And we can't retain them if we can't get them through our doors in the first place.

Dilenschneider’s research shows that every traditional orchestra attendee who leaves the market (by way of death, relocation, migration, or otherwise) is replaced by just 0.908 people. As she puts it, “Less in plus more out equals a shrinking visitor base.”

When we run out of Insiders (our current Loyals and Connoisseurs), who will be left? Hopefully, a new cohort of audiences—formerly Outsiders—whom we were able to bring inside our doors by marketing with relevance and empathy.

How? By understanding the struggles that our community members are facing in their lives—the progress they’re seeking to make—and showing them how our offerings can help them make that progress. “Sell the benefits, not the features” is a tactic that has proven highly successful in the for-profit world. But artists often push back on this idea, concerned that their art will be dumbed down or cheapened in favor of filling seats.

I propose a reframe. Through empathetic marketing, we can convince consumers to show up for the social connection, or the fancy night out, or to improve their social standing, or for any number of non-art-related reasons—but we are not dumbing down our art by shifting our marketing strategy to be more relevant to Outsiders. We’re teaching them how to weave art into their lives.

There are few who can experience the full orchestral sound or an unamplified operatic voice and not experience awe. And science tells us that awe engenders curiosity. So it’s entirely possible that curiosity will drive many of these outsiders to become the new connoisseurs who develop a deep appreciation for the extraordinary beauty and power that classical music brings to the world.

But we have to get them in the door first.

Dilenschneider’s data is clear: If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’ve been getting over the past two decades: ongoing audience decline.

Here’s a controversial call to action, but I’m sticking to it: Every board of directors, president, and executive director that wants to see their arts organization survive and thrive should be prioritizing customer-centric marketing in 2022.

What does that look like? Getting to know your customers (and your haters) to find out what’s relevant to them. Doggedly pursuing relevance in every gesture (visuals, copywriting, calls to action.) Relevance, says Nina Simon, is the key that unlocks meaning for your target audiences. She writes:

Imagine you are entrusted with a great treasure.

You want to protect the treasure, so you wrap it in ritual and reverence. In a shroud of rhetoric and rules. These rituals give the treasure power, but they also block direct access to it.

Over time, treasure-keepers become more and more interested in the rituals around the treasure, believing that the rituals not only keep the treasure safe but provide the one true way to experience it.

The treasure becomes like a mummy deep in a crypt. Silenced. Deadened. Regular people see the locked door but not the shining glory within. Hand them a treasure map, and they throw it out.

'Too much work. Too expensive. Not for me. Not worth it.'

Relevance is about making it worth it.

Now imagine [you're an outsider, and] someone asks you: 'What do you value most in this world?' You think about it. You gather the courage. You answer honestly.

And then she says, 'I know of a room that holds a treasure that speaks to that thing you most value. Here is how the treasure enhances your values. Here is a key to the door to that treasure.'