TrendsettersTrainspo tters

Trainspotters and Trendsetters: niche audiences for the arts: 

Trainspotters and Trendsetters: niche audiences for the arts Heather Maitland

What are niche audiences?: 

What are niche audiences? Trainspotters: relatively small groups of people who are consistently interested in a specific type of arts activity that most people aren’t Trendsetters: relatively small groups of people who consistently take risks with unfamiliar and untested arts activities in a way that most people don’t

What are they like?: 

What are they like?

The big questions: 

The big questions Who are the trainspotters and trendsetters and what are they like? How important are they in helping us meet our attendance targets? What motivates them? How do they find out about the arts activities they enjoy? How can we get more of them?

Slide5: 

Trendsetters

Attitude to risk: 

Attitude to risk

Slide8: 

Brian 27 events in the past 12 months Subtitled films Lives within walking distance Contemporary dance Pride and Prejudice !

How often do they attend: live events: 

How often do they attend: live events C Unfamiliar: 2.0 B Familiar: 1.5 A Mass Appeal: 1.2 D Unknown: 3.4

How often do they attend: films: 

How often do they attend: films C Unfamiliar: 4.3 B Familiar: 2.6 A Mass Appeal: 1.7 D Unknown: 9.6

Slide11: 

Trendsetters have a deep relationship with the organisation they take risks with

What do they go to?: 

What do they go to? Category D people Tickets for category D events make up 20% of all the tickets they bought in that year 78% had attended at least one category A event that year 85% had attended at least one category B event that year

Slide13: 

Trendsetters don’t always want to take risks

How important are they?: 

How important are they? They attend frequently They spent on average £209 each in 12 months

What motivates Trendsetters?: 

What motivates Trendsetters? Most are choosing from the Arts Centre’s broad menu But 18% of trendsetters for live events only came once that year – why? About half of came from outside a 30 minute drivetime A third of them were new and two thirds of these new ticket buyers never came back These non-returners had been attracted by very specific content: Religious Eastern European Folk French or Spanish language drama for adults

Slide16: 

Some trendsetters are willing to travel long distances Consistency of programming is important Very few are innovators for innovation’s sake

Slide17: 

Brian 27 events in the past 12 months Guitar Blues World, jazz, blues, folk Once a month to gigs in pubs Once a month to the Arts Centre

Slide18: 

Trainspotters

Four types of trainspotter: 

Four types of trainspotter Focused interest Social circle Genre specific Cross-genre connection

Slide20: 

John Renbourn

Slide21: 

Paul Always to see John Renbourn Four times ever Once this year to the Arts Centre Lives two hours’ drive away Goes to gigs across the UK two or three times a week

Slide22: 

Trainspotters are willing to travel long distances to see events they see as ‘special’

Slide23: 

The Fahies and friends But could see this close to home Come to the Arts Centre once a month or so Travel over an hour Used to live in Stamford Come to music and cultural cinema as a way of seeing friends

Slide24: 

Trainspotters are not always motivated by the event itself

Slide25: 

David Every couple of months Folk, jazz and blues But picks and chooses Used to live in London and went to gigs two or three times a week

Slide26: 

Trainspotters may say they are interested in a particular genre but that doesn’t mean they are interested in all events in that genre

Slide27: 

John and friend Folk, blues, gypsy jazz, classical A regular since 1998 coming twice a year or so Lives over two hours’ drive away Anything with a guitar – an acoustic guitar His friend’s a folk enthusiast - “but I wouldn’t say I was avid”

Slide28: 

Even niche audiences are fragmented

What motivates trainspotters?: 

What motivates trainspotters? Don’t assume!

Slide30: 

He bought tickets for Calexico They covered a John Fahey number on a tribute album He wanted to see Calexico because John Fahey is his guitar hero California meets Mexico

Slide31: 

She bought tickets for Calexico She wanted to see Iron and Wine, the support band California meets Mexico

Slide32: 

Motivations are too complicated to predict

Motivations of dance attenders: 

Motivations of dance attenders Doing dance classes as a child Being interested in sport and what the human body can achieve Being introduced to dance by an ex-partner Doing life drawing Wanting to be a fairy princess as a child

Slide34: 

Martin is into the blues He’s for ever searching for “chicken skin music” Not any blues but Chicago electric blues It could be rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, country, rock – anything that motors

Motivations: 

Motivations Blues Gospel Rock’n’Roll Country

Motivations: 

Motivations Blues Gospel Rock’n’Roll Country

Motivations: 

Motivations Blues Gospel Rock’n’Roll Country

Motivations: 

Motivations Blues Gospel Rock’n’Roll Country

Finding “chicken skin” music: 

Finding “chicken skin” music Personal recommendations Deliberately seeking the unknown Reading reviews Playlists Surfing Random purchases Keeping an eye on a menu of sources Making connections

What motivates trainspotters?: 

What motivates trainspotters? Don’t assume!

Slide41: 

Nick is into rockabilly But she’s also into dance His wife, Patience, is into psychobilly And they’ve got two kids who like going to the cinema

Slide42: 

Even trainspotters have lives – partner, dad, music enthusiast, work colleague, rockabilly fan, friend … and their arts attendance will reflect all of these identities

How can we create more of them?: 

How can we create more of them? Get on the trainspotters’ menu by programming enough of their kind of event – like that they’ll keep an eye on what you’re doing and they’ll generate their own word of mouth Get your programmers to share their enthusiasms with the trainspotters to build trust Take trainspotters onto a journey into unfamiliar territory Talk to the trainspotters separately from your mainstream audience

Communicating effectively: 

Communicating effectively Look at how trainspotters attend as well as what they attend and communicate accordingly Don’t just send everyone the season brochure If possible offer menus of relevant events Give them lots of notice Provide loads of information to allow them to create their own connections (website!) Think in ‘flavours’ as well as genres Think about their different identities and communicate accordingly

How important are they?: 

How important are they? Only one in four ticket buyers for Stamford Arts Centre’s series of acoustic blues guitar players from the USA had a particular interest in the Blues Only 29 out of 732 ticket buyers for folk bought tickets at the Arts Centre more than once and only bought for folk Only one in five ticket buyers for contemporary dance said they had a particular interest in dance The vast majority of contemporary classical music are frequent attenders of all kinds of music and all kinds of arts

Slide46: 

Mainstream audiences make up at least three quarters of the audience for niche events

Slide47: 

Nurture frequency among mainstream audiences because frequent attenders are likely to become innovators

Slide48: 

Encourage mainstream audiences to crossover because they will be the majority of the audience for niche events

Encouraging crossover: 

Encouraging crossover Use your season brochure to communicate with mainstream audiences Don’t assume a theoretical knowledge Talk about emotional responses to the event Don’t name drop – they won’t have heard of them Make connections: if you like that, you’ll like this too Create a welcoming, intimate, informal atmosphere

Slide50: 

There’s potentially a trainspotter in everyone

Slide51: 

Thank you hmaitland1@aol.com