Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With!
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The document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and revenue at the Guthrie Theater. It analyzes patron data and trends over time, finding that most revenue comes from existing patrons rather than new patrons. The Guthrie Theater has implemented several initiatives focused on existing patrons, such as improved renewal campaigns and acquisition of add-on purchases from current subscribers. Early results include increased renewal rates, subscription add-ons, and subscriber-donor rates. The key recommendation is to "love the ones you're with" by cultivating loyalty among current patrons through targeted campaigns and personalized engagement.
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Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With!
- 1. Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With! Trisha Kirk, Guthrie Theater Jill Robinson, TRG Arts Copyright © 2014 TRG Arts All Rights Reserved
- 7. What We Do Patron Results 1. Consulting Capacity building for sustainable growth 2. Data & Analytics Services Aggregation, analysis, direct response counsel 3. Community Data Networks 35 million households
- 9. Studying Patron Loyalty Patron Loyalty Index Donors and consummate loyalists The magic of “and” From 1st time to second or last time to NOW
- 11. Increased capacity, strategy for new audiences
- 12. Increased capacity, strategy for new audiences GUTHRIE THEATER last 5 years in previous building all 7 years in new building variance AVERAGE NUMBER OF TICKETS 298,024 402,515 35% AVERAGE REVENUE $7,198,693 $12,646,682 76% AVERAGE AVAILABLE CAPACITY 347,850 524,388 51% AVERAGE % OF CAPACITY UTLIZED 84% 77% -7%
- 13. Market Factors Market factors both favorable and challenging Higher penetration = expensive to acquire new patrons Sources: TCG 2010 Theatre Census (peer group of like markets in budget level 6; U.S. Census; Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “How America Gives” study
- 14. Completeness: 94% of records have contact information Report Card: Database Size: 445,000 households • 39% Active in past 5 years • 30% Active in past 3 years • 23% Active in past 2 years
- 15. National .5-2% HH 20-40% Revenue 5-10% HH 13-38% Revenue 90-95% HH 38-66% Revenue Wake-up call: Few Buyers & Advocates Guthrie Theater .3% HH 16.1% Revenue 3.7% HH 25.7% Revenue 96.1% HH 58.1% Revenue
- 16. Opportunity lies with EXISTING patrons “Love the ones you’re with”
- 17. Galvanizing team around data Shift in focus to EXISTING patrons
- 18. Actionable data Not just one-time/ one-use research Directional Easily Understood Ongoing Touchstone
- 19. What we’re trying Cultivating new audiences Committing to follow-up on new-to-file patrons to ensure retention of Tryers A/B testing: • Deadline vs. no deadline • Immediate follow-up vs. waiting a few weeks after attending
- 20. BACK FRONT
- 21. BACK FRONT
- 22. What we’re trying Subscription timing Guthrie has a short subscription selling timeframe Elongating campaign: • Start acquisition campaign 3 weeks earlier • Early Bird renewal: customized email Overlap renewal with acquisition
- 23. What we’re trying Renewal best practices
- 26. What we’re trying Annual fund acquisition Low subscriber-donor rate compared to peers: • Changed annual fund asks • Marketing-development partnership • Incentives for box office staff 25% vs. 32%
- 27. Early results Increased renewal rates GUTHRIE THEATER RENEWAL CAMPAIGN COMPARISONS* 2013-14 2014-15 variance BOTH STAGES, FIXED SEAT 83% 88% 5% THRUST ONLY, FIXED SEAT 80% 83% 3% PROSC ONLY, FIXED SEAT 61% 70% 9% CUSTOM PACKAGES 3% 10% 7% *at same point in campaign, first wave of the campaign has been completed, additional waves to follow
- 28. Early results Increased subscription add-ons Type # Amount % of # % of $ Additional 160 $17,442 20% 20% Lapsed 194 $13,614 24% 16% New 121 $7,363 15% 9% Renewal 321 $47,678 40% 55% Total 796 $86,097 Compared to $40,000 for same group last year
- 29. Studying Patron Loyalty Patron Loyalty Index The first donation Renewal New to file buyers
- 30. Value of a Patron Back to basics Revenue power of just 2,300 households 2007-11 Households 2009-13 Households % change 2009-13 Per Capita Revenue Advocates 416 497 19% 5,401$ Buyers 7,455 6,974 -6% 1,027$ 312,003$ Tryers 183,508 181,695 -1% 284$ 514,892$ TOTAL 826,895$ Assumes maintain all Buyers except those who grow to Advocates
- 31. QUESTIONS?
- 32. Thriving on Loyalty: Love the Ones You’re With! Trisha Kirk, Guthrie Theater Jill Robinson, TRG Arts Copyright © 2014 TRG Arts All Rights Reserved
Editor's Notes
- Hi everyone, I’m Jill Robinson, President and CEO of TRG Arts. I’m joined today by Trisha Kirk, Director of Marketing at the Guthrie Theater. We’re here today to talk about audience loyalty research and how data led to a plan that’s already changed thinking and practices at one of America’s most lauded theatre companies.
- Jill: We’re talking about loyalty today. The premise is this: Your audience is not some vast, unknowable conglomerate, but people—the individual audience members or PATRONS who come through your doors. At TRG, we use the word “patron” for any PERSON engaged with an organization—visitors, ticket buyers, members, donors, event attendee) So know that when you hear us say “patron”, know that I mean any PERSON engaged with any type of arts and entertainment organization—visual or performing arts; seated event or general admission.
- Jill: Loyalty is all about people—and their RELATIONSHIP with your organization. Yes, you heard me use the word relationship. [CLICK] It’s courtship, a love story—And in your ticketing and database systems, your audience writes the plot line for their relationship with your organization…
- Jill: …through the revenue-based you have with them--transactions like: Which exhibit they attended, which years they subscribed, how much they donated. This revenue is what allows your organization to exist, sustain itself, and thrive. It’s funded by revenue, yes, but more deeply, by your patrons’ PASSION for your artform.
- Jill: TRG Arts is a consulting firm dedicated to the arts and entertainment field. We use data to develop strategies that help clients achieve results. TRG Arts was founded in 1995 by our late founder, Rick Lester. Our firm has grown over two decades on pioneering strategies focused on patrons and ways to develop pricing and loyalty that today have achieved results for our clients. We are based in Colorado Springs, Colorado with 35 team members, each skilled in providing guidance and solutions that are patron-based for sustainable loyalty of patrons and sustainable revenue from those patrons. At TRG, we use the word “patron” for any PERSON engaged with an organization—visitors, ticket buyers, members, donors, event attendee) So know that when you hear us say “patron”, know that I mean any PERSON engaged with any type of arts and entertainment organization—visual or performing arts; seated event or general admission. CLICK
- We’ve worked with about 1,200 organizations in arts and entertainment over nearly two decades, in three countries: in the United States…these are some of our marquee clients….in Canada, where our presence has expanded over the past few years, and in Australia and the UK.
- Jill: This is what we do at TRG, falling into 3 areas: [[Please proceed in your own words, Jill]]
- What is a Patron Loyalty Index? What are Advocates, Buyers, and Tryers?
- New venue and its strategy for new audiences. This is not JUST about a new venue. It’s about anyone with seats to fill.
- Trish: The bottom line for why we are working with TRG is to bridge the gap between our available capacity and our utilized capacity - which is a universal theme of any marketing department that isn’t selling to 100% of capacity.
- Jill: Was there capacity in the market? In a heavily penetrated marketplace, how big could the Guthrie get? Source for demographic comparison: Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “How America Gives” report Source for population data: 2010 US Census estimate (Minneapolis-St Paul MSA) Source for # Guth households: Audit Questionnaire for TRG (active households) Source for peer penetration rate: TCG 2010 theatre census, peer group of Size 5 and 6, comparable budget levels, market sizes
- Jill: Guthrie’s data told the story of an organization with a high number of active patrons. They were consistent with data collection, which helped us discover opportunities. Data was an asset.
- Goal was broadness, so they met their goal, but if they didn’t deepen those relationships it wouldn’t be sustainable.
- Trish: Data FORCED us to all get on the same page. It’s not just Trish or marketing saying it, there’s data to back it up. They started asking WWJD?--What would Jill and Jim (their TRG consultants) do?
- Development, marketing, artistic were working in an integrated way to understand patrons holistically.
- Trish: Committing to follow-up on new-to-file patrons to ensure retention of Tryers.
- For EVERY show
- Trish: We had high renewal rates, around 70% and 80% for most packages. TRG encouraged to keep tweaking to get the rate even higher.
- Trish: Pre-printing the renewal deadline very obviously at the top (in previous years we printed it on as part of the personalization process to ensure the date would be correct, but it made it not stand out) Saying on the form “…As Easy as 1, 2, 3” and numbering the things people had to do.
- Trish: The option to add a gift is significantly expanded and where there are blanks in the copy were filled in by personalized pre-determined amounts. Having more directive contact information at the bottom.
- Trish: Changed annual fund asks: Who they would ask for acquisition and how much
- Trish: We’re working on renewing those custom (small) package people into larger packages.
- Trish: Talk about being stronger at renewing those custom (small) package people into larger packages.
- Jill: summary of what Guthrie did at each level: -Tryers: “Second Date” campaign -Buyers: How high can the renewal rate go? -Advocates: growing Buyers into Advocates
- Jill: Over the course of 7 years, this is why retention matters. Trish: It was meaningful to see a number like that. Because we weren’t retaining, we were losing out on $826,895 in revenue.