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The Subscription Alternative
- 1. The Subscription Alternative ANew Way to Look at Loyalty, Donors and Revenue Strathmore Case Study
- 2. What is Strathmore? Multi-DisciplinaryArts Center/Presenter 175 Performances a Year - 3 venues 11 Rotating Art Exhibitions A Year 115 Classes, Lectures and Workshops Festivals and Special Events Tea Room and Shops
- 4. Downward Trends Year 05-0606-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 # of Subscribers 1178 860 912 885 585 # of Members ~900-1200 per year (rolling membership)
- 7. Implementation It took severalyears! Research Research Research Quiet Phase: Colleagues advice Formal Proposal to Executives then Full Staff Formal Marketing Research Let the Negotiations Begin This will NEVER work! Finalize Plan – Begin the Work Incorporate Into all Materials, Database and Website Train Staff, Develop FAQs Plan and Execute Public Launch
- 10. Web Integration andUpselling
- 11. Benefits $$ Increased Revenue$$ Programming Flexibility Patron Benefits Expand the Donor Prospect Pool
- 12. Financial Results FY10 vs FY11 FY11vs FY12 FY12 vs FY13 # of Music Center Performances 18% 15% -15% Total Ticket Sales Revenue 42% 9% -10% 128% 5% -1% 10% 20% -6% # Members (Stars from FY11 On) Total Membership Revenue
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- 14. Membership Renewal Rates Renewalrates by number of years donor has been giving (FY13) Star Level First Year Second Year Third Year 1 Star 29% 74% 81% 2 Star 53% 88% 88% 3 Star 76% 79% 96% 4 Star 43% 80% 94%
- 15. Membership Renewal Rates Renewalrates by number of years donor has been giving (FY12) Star Level First Year Second Year Third Year 1 Star 44% 80% 79% 2 Star 80% 90% 92% 3 Star 65% 80% 94% 4 Star 75% 100% 93%
- 16. Customer Retention Repeat Customer Rates FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY11 FY12 #of FY10 to to to buyers FY11 FY12 FY13 15435 22203 16% 22308 20% 19386 21%
- 17. Multi-Buyer Rates Multi-Buyers PerSeason Rates % diff % diff FY10 % diff FY10 FY10 (pre(pre-Stars) (pre-Stars) Stars) vs vs FY11 vs FY12 FY13 # of Music Center Performances 18% 36% 15% Bought One Performance Only in Season 44% 44% 26% Bought 2 Performances in Season 64% 61% 36% Bought 3 Performances in Season 94% 111% 66% -11% 6% -19% Bought 4 or More Performances in Season
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- 20. Jennifer Buzzell VP, Marketing& Communications Strathmore (301) 581-5190 marketing@strathmore.org Beginning November 18 Director of Marketing and Sales Signature Theatre (571) 527-1830 buzzellj@signature-theatre.org
Editor's Notes
- #4 Two Separate Difficult Issues: Both bringing Revenue Down
- #5 Problem 1Low number of subscribers - Over the years, we have tried all sort of subscription packages – fixed, flexible etc. but it just didn’t work with our presentation model where artists are not similar year over year.Still we only had 585 subscribers in the final year (FY10), and yet we were giving those 585 people:10% discount on everythinga pre-sale period of almost 4 months (May-August) while no one else could purchase tickets.Only about 20% of these subscribers were also membersProblem 2Low number of members – great difficulty getting donors to become members as they were getting no real benefits except Gift shop discountSummer Parking PassBest seating IF they subscribed (ie: if members subscribed to a series, those members were seated in the CH before other subscribers)Pre-Sale period of 2 weeks or so once single tickets went on sale in AugustPRICE - Started at $75
- #6 Problems to Solve:Too long of a pre-sale for a too small amount of patrons – wasting too much time of the sales yearGiving the best benefits and discounts to people who were not donors at allNot giving donors valuable benefitsHaving our season announced in April/May, people who didn’t want to subscribe could not buy tickets for 4 months – by that time, they forgot about it and we had to spend more marketing money to remind them about the show they were excited about 4 months ago.What are we going to do? Is there one simple solution?
- #7 Basic Concept – An elegant solution to solve both problems. We created what came to be known as the Strathmore Stars-Go from three (or 4) entrance doors to Strathmore (Members, Subscribers, Single Ticket Buyers)- To two – you can donate and become a Star, get pre-sales for best seats plus a discount on every item you buy (Shows, shop, restaurant, tea), or you can be a single ticket buyer and pay full priceShorten the pre-sale period from 4 months to either about one month (when we announce a large amount of shows) to 2-5 days (when we announce only a few shows)
- #8 Implementation It took several years!I never thought subscriptions would work for our product, but gave it the old college try. Both problems came clear to me - I thought we might be able to have a simple single solutionResearch ResearchResearchI studied several models, other subscription packages, loyalty programs, other donor programs, both inside the industry and outsideLots of online research, calls, thoughtfulness.Quiet Phase: Colleagues adviceRun your ideas by colleagues you trust, get their honest reactionFormal Proposal to ExecutivesFormal Proposal to Full StaffFormal Marketing ResearchWe knew this would have an adverse effect on our subscribers, and wanted to assess the salability of the concept to those who were not subscribers. We also studied current members.Let the Negotiations BeginTake the research findings, bring all the key players in and hammer out the details – what are the rules, costs, how will it work. Do there need to be exclusions – or how universal can we make it. Nothing is too small when it comes to how it will effect the consumer. Anticipate their needs, wants and questions, address them.This will NEVER work!Finalize Plan – Begin the WorkNEXT SLIDE Incorporate into materials (more next slide)Train Staff, Develop FAQsNEXT SLIDE - COMMUNICATE IT TO PATRONS
- #9 DetailsWe did this at the beginning of a new season, when we would normally announce the new subscriptionsIncorporate Into all Materials, Database and WebsitePlan and Execute Public LaunchSales Pieces IntegrationBrochuresNewslettersEmailsWebsiteOn Site PiecesStars Communications – emails/letters – send them early!
- #10 For those who are Tessy – there are two parts to the database integration- Constituency – Ease of access for phone sales and development callsAllows them to buy online
- #11 Custom WebCodingTo pick up the ranking and show the stars pricesTo Upsell to Stars
- #12 Benefits– Increased Revenue-People now give us money to get a discount and best seats, where before we were simply giving them a discount to get those benefits.-Easy upsell to a membership to get access to pre-salesProgram Flexibility-We don’t have to worry about subscription add-ons, and not being able to add any shows if it wasn’t “in the brochure” – we now add shows whenever a good one comes along.Patrons Benefit-We show people what their discount will be online with the Stars – they can do the math and figure out they can pretty quickly pay themselves back.-Reduced barriers to entry by making the entry level membership $65 ($50 in the first year) down from $75-Clear and easy to understand message for patrons to understand – support Strathmore’s programs philanthropically and you get valuable benefits in returnDevelopment-We now have a much larger pool of donors (the one Stars) as a starting place to research donor prospects and move people up to higher levels of giving.
- #13 FY10 was the final year of traditional subscription and membership modelFY11 – we gave free one year memberships to the former Subscribers so that is why revenue does not match number increaseI’m happy to share the more details spreadsheets with actual $$ on a one to one basis
- #14 Best year = Compared to when we had subscriptions
- #17 FY10 Last Year of Subs
- #18 FY10 Last year of Subs
- #19 Stars brand as skyrocketed. I expected patrons to say they were members – they ALL say “I am a Star!”We found for extremely popular artist pre-sales people would buy a membership just to get one show –now this gives us a nice chunk of extra money we would never have had before, but it is tough on renewal rates Renters shows with pre-sales (some of our biggest names come from outside/commercial promoters) – we get more bang for our buck!Because we put no ticket limit - Group leaders became Stars to get group tickets early.
- #20 Stars membership rolls and revenue tied to show popularity, and # of performances in a yearThere is no such thing as “a dog” to hide in a subscription package anymore – every show is now measured on its own artistic and financial merit.We had a few scalpers become Stars, and have had to put in place measures to prevent them from buying too many of best seats online at the beginning of any pre-sale