Hans Waege - Data, knowledge and innovation. The case of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Hans Waege is managing director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival since 2009. Previously he was professor and researcher at Ghent University, director of the Antwerp Philharmonic and director of several arts organizations. In that capacity he has worked on a manual for audience research. At the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Hans Waege intensified the interaction between local roots and international prominence. Under his leadership the orchestra expanded his tour schedule and closed major recording contracts. For those achievements he received the Rotterdam Marketing Award 2012. He puts his past as a professor/researcher in good use in his new role at the Philharmonic by using data and knowledge of the audience for successful product innovation. In his presentation he will tell us how.

Martin Barden – The audience centre stage

Martin is an experienced commercial director, specializing in customer service, loyalty programs, sales and marketing, revenue generation, change management, product, brand and system development. He has extensive experience in managing complex multi-site operations to ticketing and membership engagement and profitability. In April 2012 he will start a new career as a Principal Consultant for Culture Consultants Ltd.

Until recently, Martin Barden was dealing with memberships and loyalty programs at the Tate in London. In the past 10 years he has successfully developed various membership programs. At the congress he will tell us about the steps to a successful way to bind our audiences as theater company or orchestra. To be successful in developing an art membership program, you need to slow down and listen. Most important of all, you have to focus on the individual, not the institution, says Martin Barden.

Change in practice - Naomi Russell

Naomi Russell is an internationally operating Adviser in the area of strategy development for cultural organisations, designing new business models and sending the associated change processes. With her company Wonderbird she has already many large and small organisations in the United Kingdom advised and now is Naomi also in Netherlands to building an impressive portfolio. Naomi Russell MCN is commissioned by TIN and the performing arts developed an online Toolkit Private financing instrument which cultural institutions be handles 2ºc itself started with tapping new revenue sources. The management about this Toolkit NAPK has at the request of TIN and MCN inherited.

We live in a world that is constantly changing. Moreover, for Dutch cultural organizations right now the need for change is keenly felt due to rapid and significant cuts in subsidy to the cultural sector, meaning new ways of doing things are urgently required.

Change is complex – it doesn’t fit a definitive model and can be unpredictable. Real change requires people who want it to happen and effective change is the result of purpose, engagement and communication inside and outside.

So, what can ‘Inside Out’ change actually mean – and feel like – in practice? Does it mean you have to compromise artistic integrity and core values? Can change in business models, reaching more audiences, doing things in a new way and merging organizations be achieved with positive outcomes, enrich the cultural sector and help your organization achieve more?

Naomi Russell will reflect on a formative experience in her own career when she was part of huge changes for a theatre company in London – this transformed its future artistically and financially. She will give pointers of what to consider when thinking about change, how to pace change, characteristics of ‘change makers’ as individuals and give practical examples and insights. She will challenge those attending on how to think about what change means for them individually inside their organizations – after all, as they say, the only person you can change is yourself…

The Evolution of Arts Segmentation - Andrew McIntyre

Andrew McIntyre (Director, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre) is one of the UK’s leading authorities on audience and organizational development. His work focuses on helping arts organizations to understand, build relationships with, and deliver outcomes for, their audiences and to articulate how this can help them achieve their wider objectives. MHM’s clients include the UK government, major funding bodies in several countries and more than 100 of the most forward-thinking theatres, orchestras, opera companies, museums and galleries in the world.

Clients range from large-scale super-brands like Tate (www.tate.org.uk) to Andrew's favourite, small scale, innovative contemporary music organisation, Arika (www.arika.org.uk).

Without segmentation, the audience is just a single homogeneous mass. Segmentation attempts to group people in meaningful ways. Ways that provide insight and help us to programme and communicate and build relationships.

The evolution of arts segmentation is the story of the search for better insight. In the beginning we used simple demographics box office behaviour data. Then we evolved by adding geography, socio-economic profiling, lifestyles and attitudinal data to the mix. Each has inched us closer but none quite got the heart of what fundamentally motivates audience behaviour.

Now it’s time for the third act in arts segmentation: deep-seated beliefs and values. Understanding what’s in audiences hearts and minds can help us to win those hearts and minds.

Andrew has been at the forefront of this evolution for the past twenty years and has never been more excited about the future relationship between arts and audiences. He’ll tell the story of the evolution and conclude by setting out the Six Tests for a 21st Century Segmentation System.

How your visitors behaviour is affected and how to use this to your advantage - Niels Vink

Niels Vink (Experian) is Consumer Insight Specialist at Experian Marketing Services. In this role he helps clients improve their marketing efforts by analysis of (marketing) Customer data supplemented with data from Experian and to help put these results into practical advice and applications. He spent a year in the United States at college before he studied Psychology and Industrial Design in the Netherlands. After his PhD in the field of decision behavior of consumers at the Technical University of Delft has gained extensive experience in various aspects of Marketing & Marketing Research. He now uses this knowledge in an advisory role.

Consumers make decisions every day: we buy a cold cola to quench our thirst, a car seat for our children, a trip to the Chinese Wall. We make decisions whether to visit the cinema or to go the museum instead. What drives a consumer to make these decisions? Niels Vink talks about the drivers of consumer behaviour and how to take differences between consumers into account. He provides insights about how you can turn these differences between consumers into an advantage. He also shares some recent cases to illustrate how you can start increasing visitors to your event, museum or theatre tomorrow!

(Live streamed video length 13mins of 30min session - wifi signal lost)

Rotterdam Audiences for art and culture: a local segmentation model as a basis for collective cultural marketing

William Wijgers (EMC Culture Studies) worked the past 20 years at the intersection of art, culture and marketing, both commercial and nonprofit. Before he took over in 2010 EMC Cultural Studies, he was at Performing Arts Promotion Agency involved in various projects that the knowledge and use of marketing in the cultural sector. Today, as a market researcher William helps his clients to generate propositions, which they successfully fight for time and money of the leisure consumer may engage.

EMC Cultural Studies released in spring 2012 on behalf of Rotterdam Festivals again the local market for cultural entertainment map. The previous description market took place in 2007. In that year, by the response to a public survey and transaction data from Rotterdam cultural institutions interrelate to bring, 8 groups formed in more or less interested in the Rotterdam art and culture. Because society is constantly changing, Rotterdam was the target model to review. During this presentation is William Wijgers EMC Culture Studies discussed the creation of the new target model and he expanded on the practical applicability of the model to include museums, venues, parties, festivals in the binding of current public and finding new visitors.

A target model provides direction for marketing efforts and make them specific and measurable. Another important advantage is the creation of a common framework by all local institutions together can be used to attract audiences for cultural entertainment. This is a model and the Rotterdam Audiences not only this city but also a powerful marketing tool for other cities and regions relevant when it comes to making visible - and tap - the cultural potential.

John Lievens of Ghent University tells about his research on non-participants. James Doeser of the Arts Council England talks about the Arts Audiences Insiht model and the non-participants.

James Doeser has a background in archaeology and his PhD examined the way in which archaeology public policy is formed. He has worked in heritage consultancy, journalism and broadcasting. His current role in the research team focuses on supporting the development of Arts Council policy relating to public engagement with the arts. He is coordinating the Arts Council's research into the future of public libraries, and leads the Arts Council's involvement with the Taking Part survey and audience segmentation. He also has a strong interest in communicating research.

Part 1
In 2008 Arts Council England developed the Arts Audiences: Insight segmentation to provide those working in the arts with greater knowledge of the levels and broad patterns of arts engagement in today’s society, across both arts attendance and participation. It explains the motivations and behaviours of different audience groups, including both those who are already active in the arts and those who currently have little or no engagement. It shows how the arts fit into people’s overall lives today, by illustrating how aspects of arts engagement are associated with patterns in other lifestyle choices, behaviours and attitudes. And it offers some ideas and inspiration for strategies for engaging more people with the arts.

This presentation will explain how and why the Arts Council chose to undertake the segmentation research, and why they updated the segment profiles in 2011. There will be important lessons for other organisations looking to undertake segmentation research, especially if it is designed to inform decision-making, programming and marketing.

The non-attender: Who is (s)he ? And what is (s)he to you? John Lievens | congres podiumkunsten 2012

John Lievens is professor at the Department of Sociology of Ghent University (Belgium). He teaches several courses in statistics and demography. His research focuses on culture and art participation/consumption, perception of culture, lifestyles, sexual behavior, and partner choice in ethnic minorities.

Studies on cultural and art participation often show a notable blind spot for non-attenders. In this presentation we provide insight in the non-audience. First, we sketch the lifestyle space in Flanders, revealing both the size as the specific characteristics of segments that are not intensely involved in attending cultural events. Second, we zoom in on the non-attenders and look at differences within this group, that too often is considered to be homogeneous. Subsequently, we examine what the most important barriers are that non-attenders indicate as reasons for their non-participation. Finally, we assess whether and to what extent attenders and non-attenders differ in their perceptions of cultural activities. The main focus of this presentation is then on identifying and characterising different segments of non-participants, each possibly requiring different strategies for cultural communication. The data that is used concern two large-scale representative surveys on (cultural) participation in Flanders (2003, 2009).