Data in Marketing: More Audience, Less Sales? It’s Time for a Strategy Shift.

Last month we released our latest Trends in Audience Behavior study, which compared sales trends from the 2023-24 season to the past 4 seasons (pre- and post-pandemic). Our most salient finding was that…

We have more people, buying less.

Despite a 103% increase in unique audience members, we’ve seen a 12% decline in annual ticket sales and a 21% drop in ticket revenue (adjusted for inflation) compared to the 2018-19 season.

This finding implies that our organizations deserve a pat on the back for getting audiences back, but they also have a new challenge ahead: either develop loyalty amongst current audiences or find even more unique audience members. Without pursuing one or both of these approaches, organizations will have a hard time getting revenue back to pre-pandemic levels.

In other words, there are two ways to fix this problem:

1) Develop Loyalty

When we say, “develop loyalty,” your mind might automatically go to subscriptions or memberships. But we know those are a harder sell these days. An easier approach is to find ways to increase loyalty in smaller increments. Enter: Segmentation.

Segment your audience by their behaviors, including how frequently they visit. Then, identify the audiences with the most potential to increase their frequency, and set goals for the frequency increase. For example, maybe you have a segment of individuals who attend once a year consistently. What if you got just 10% of that segment to come twice this year? What impact would this have on your ticket sales and ultimately your bottom line?

If you have clear goals BY SEGMENT like the above, you’ll be able to focus your marketing efforts on loyalty efforts that will move the needle—beyond a typical subscription campaign.

And remember, those people who only come once a year ARE loyal. They love you! You should do what you can to show them your appreciation and deepen your relationships with them.

2) Find New Audiences

If audiences attend less frequently, we need to increase our reach and attract MORE unique audience members to maintain ticket sales income. So, how do we find new audiences to buy tickets?

One strategy could be to identify shadow audience members. Shadow audience members are the people who accompany the primary ticket buyer to the show. You typically don’t have their data in your database. Using digital ticket sharing services, like those offered by True Tickets, you can capture shadow audience data and start building relationships with them through targeted marketing and communication campaigns.

We found in our study that True Tickets clients made an average of $245k a year from revealed shadow audiences! This is a great way to find “new” audience members (or audience members who weren’t previously ticket buyers) and turn them into ticket buyers—helping to make up the gap in ticket sales and income post-pandemic.

We can help!

If you need help with segmentation or audience development to grow your audience and ticket sales, we’re here for you. Learn more about our services at https://www.jcainc.com/who-we-help/performing-arts or click below to start a conversation.

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