This webinar focused on proactive ways arts managers can manage pricing strategies based on data for best results with patrons and visitors. Director of Consulting Lindsay Homer distilled two decades of TRG's ground-breaking pricing counsel and today’s dynamic technology-driven trends into a new strategic playbook for pricing right. Attendees learned why:
- Pricing drives behavior, then revenue follows.
- You can and should curate when and how many tickets go on sale.
- Nothing beats a full(-looking) house.
Flip through the slides and take home at least one idea that can help you generate more ticket revenue on your next big event or production.
- See video and more at: http://www.trgarts.com/TRGInsights/Article/tabid/147/ArticleId/197/10-16-2013-TRG-Webinar-3-New-Rules-for-Pricing-Right.aspx#sthash.yxRkUWoA.dpuf
The Art of the Upgrade: A TRG Master Class for BlackbaudBlackbaud
This document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and donations through targeted "upgrades." It defines upgrades as asking patrons to take the next step, such as renewing a membership at a higher level, adding an additional donation, or attending more events. The document outlines how upgrades can be identified through data analysis to recognize patterns. It provides examples of increasing yields from single ticket buyers to renewing subscriber-donors. The key is engaging patrons at multiple touchpoints and across organizational assets. Effective upgrading requires having a plan for every patron type and focusing first on the biggest opportunities to cultivate meaningful relationships and growth.
Pricing: High-Impact Business Strategy or Departmental Tactic?TRG Arts
Is your organization’s pricing strategy focused only on the cost of admission? Developed in just one department? This 90-minute workshop, presented at the Arts Reach Canada Conference in May 2013, was designed to show leadership teams how much more there is to consider and to gain. High-impact pricing generates positive perception, improved patron loyalty, and greater revenue for every admission or seat sold. Jill Robinson, President of TRG Arts, the consulting firm that pioneered dynamic pricing and demand management in the arts, will open the session with a short quiz. You’ll evaluate your organization’s pricing approach. Then, hear how best pricing practices can earn double-digit revenue increases when your management and staff play the right roles. Take home new ideas for effective pricing leadership, decision-making, and staff team participation.
TRG Arts on the Impact of Loyalty: Success stories of growth through retentio...TRG Arts
1) TRG Arts is a consulting firm that has worked with over 1,000 arts and cultural organizations over 22 years to help them grow sustainable patron bases through data-driven strategies.
2) Building patron loyalty is important as loyal patrons have higher lifetime value and renewal rates. TRG advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level through a "loyalty pyramid" with advocates, buyers, and tryers.
3) Case studies show how organizations saw increases in retention rates, revenue, and numbers of loyal patrons by implementing loyalty strategies like membership programs, dynamic pricing, and focusing on reducing churn of first-time patrons.
Rekindling Subscriptions: A Loyalty Love AffairTRG Arts
This document discusses strategies for rekindling subscription programs and loyalty through targeted retention efforts. It shows that focusing on retaining existing patrons through subscriptions generates significantly more revenue than acquiring new single ticket buyers. Specific strategies that helped increase subscriptions by 470% and revenue by over 500% at one organization are outlined, including flexible package options, value messaging, and a new membership program. The document advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level and investing more in retaining renewing subscribers.
Dynamic Pricing is Not Enough: Webinar (April 2018) TRG Arts
Aimed at those in marketing, box office and senior leadership working in arts organisations, hear from TRG Arts’ Christina Hill and Stephen Skrypec, plus special guest Claire Murray, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Sheffield Theatres, and learn about our three-pronged strategy for pricing and demand management.
Copyright TRG Arts, April 2018
2018 Holiday Season Postmortem with Keri Mesropov TRG Arts
In this virtual discussion group, VP of Client Services, Keri Mesropov guides a panel of TRG Arts experts through Holiday Season sales trends across the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Holiday programming can make up 60% or more of ticket revenue annually, how are you optimizing this annual cash-cow? Keri and her team answer all of your questions so you can maximize your holiday sales this year.
This document discusses data sharing across cultural organizations through community networks and consulting services. It provides examples of campaign successes from the Museum of History & Industry and Jazz at Lincoln Center that utilized data from community networks. These campaigns achieved increased membership acquisition and ticket sales. The document also discusses insights from a patron loyalty study, including that deeper patron loyalty correlates with engagement across more organizations and that many "inactive" patrons are active with other organizations.
Originally presented at the 2017 NAMP Conference.
Have arts leaders increased the loyalty of their patrons in recent years? TRG Arts is the longest-standing aggregator of loyalty metrics in the arts industry and has recently refreshed its aggregated Patron Loyalty Index. In this presentation, we’ll describe the ways patrons are behaving in terms of their recency, frequency, monetary investment and growth over time, across transactions in single tickets, membership, subscription and donation.
The Art of the Upgrade: A TRG Master Class for BlackbaudBlackbaud
This document discusses strategies for increasing patron loyalty and donations through targeted "upgrades." It defines upgrades as asking patrons to take the next step, such as renewing a membership at a higher level, adding an additional donation, or attending more events. The document outlines how upgrades can be identified through data analysis to recognize patterns. It provides examples of increasing yields from single ticket buyers to renewing subscriber-donors. The key is engaging patrons at multiple touchpoints and across organizational assets. Effective upgrading requires having a plan for every patron type and focusing first on the biggest opportunities to cultivate meaningful relationships and growth.
Pricing: High-Impact Business Strategy or Departmental Tactic?TRG Arts
Is your organization’s pricing strategy focused only on the cost of admission? Developed in just one department? This 90-minute workshop, presented at the Arts Reach Canada Conference in May 2013, was designed to show leadership teams how much more there is to consider and to gain. High-impact pricing generates positive perception, improved patron loyalty, and greater revenue for every admission or seat sold. Jill Robinson, President of TRG Arts, the consulting firm that pioneered dynamic pricing and demand management in the arts, will open the session with a short quiz. You’ll evaluate your organization’s pricing approach. Then, hear how best pricing practices can earn double-digit revenue increases when your management and staff play the right roles. Take home new ideas for effective pricing leadership, decision-making, and staff team participation.
TRG Arts on the Impact of Loyalty: Success stories of growth through retentio...TRG Arts
1) TRG Arts is a consulting firm that has worked with over 1,000 arts and cultural organizations over 22 years to help them grow sustainable patron bases through data-driven strategies.
2) Building patron loyalty is important as loyal patrons have higher lifetime value and renewal rates. TRG advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level through a "loyalty pyramid" with advocates, buyers, and tryers.
3) Case studies show how organizations saw increases in retention rates, revenue, and numbers of loyal patrons by implementing loyalty strategies like membership programs, dynamic pricing, and focusing on reducing churn of first-time patrons.
Rekindling Subscriptions: A Loyalty Love AffairTRG Arts
This document discusses strategies for rekindling subscription programs and loyalty through targeted retention efforts. It shows that focusing on retaining existing patrons through subscriptions generates significantly more revenue than acquiring new single ticket buyers. Specific strategies that helped increase subscriptions by 470% and revenue by over 500% at one organization are outlined, including flexible package options, value messaging, and a new membership program. The document advocates treating patrons differently based on their loyalty level and investing more in retaining renewing subscribers.
Dynamic Pricing is Not Enough: Webinar (April 2018) TRG Arts
Aimed at those in marketing, box office and senior leadership working in arts organisations, hear from TRG Arts’ Christina Hill and Stephen Skrypec, plus special guest Claire Murray, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Sheffield Theatres, and learn about our three-pronged strategy for pricing and demand management.
Copyright TRG Arts, April 2018
2018 Holiday Season Postmortem with Keri Mesropov TRG Arts
In this virtual discussion group, VP of Client Services, Keri Mesropov guides a panel of TRG Arts experts through Holiday Season sales trends across the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Holiday programming can make up 60% or more of ticket revenue annually, how are you optimizing this annual cash-cow? Keri and her team answer all of your questions so you can maximize your holiday sales this year.
This document discusses data sharing across cultural organizations through community networks and consulting services. It provides examples of campaign successes from the Museum of History & Industry and Jazz at Lincoln Center that utilized data from community networks. These campaigns achieved increased membership acquisition and ticket sales. The document also discusses insights from a patron loyalty study, including that deeper patron loyalty correlates with engagement across more organizations and that many "inactive" patrons are active with other organizations.
Originally presented at the 2017 NAMP Conference.
Have arts leaders increased the loyalty of their patrons in recent years? TRG Arts is the longest-standing aggregator of loyalty metrics in the arts industry and has recently refreshed its aggregated Patron Loyalty Index. In this presentation, we’ll describe the ways patrons are behaving in terms of their recency, frequency, monetary investment and growth over time, across transactions in single tickets, membership, subscription and donation.
Artistic Programming by the Numbers: A KC Rep Case StudyTRG Arts
One of the biggest challenges for theatre leaders lies in perfecting the balance between commercially popular and artistically ambitious plays. In 2014, Kansas City Repertory Theatre was at a crossroads with programming choices, finding it difficult to grow new audiences and cultivate their current loyal supporters. The artistic and executive director decided to do something quite radical: quantify the impact of programming on audience development. Some of the questions they asked were: Which genres grow new audiences? Which deepen current loyalty? Which plays encourage and discourage repeat attendance? Does venue impact audience behavior? How are factors like per-ticket spend impacted?
Learn what the data said about different artistic genres and the types of audiences it attracted, how KC Rep used the data as inspiration for their new Creative Future Fund, and the results they’ve seen in the following three years in audience and revenue numbers. This presentation was made at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference.
Data Skills: What you and your staff need to know in 2017TRG Arts
You’ve got a CRM system. You’ve got reports galore. But how can you use data to affect change at your theatre? DataArts has partnered with field experts to create a new series of free online courses teaching essential data skills for arts leaders. In this session, TRG Arts will present a brief preview from Connecting the Dots: Audience Data Essentials, a course they co-created with DataArts. Attendees will leave the session with 4 basic metrics to track at their own theatre, plus ideas about how these courses can serve as a valuable resource for their own learning, or as a professional development tool for their staff.
This session was presented at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference by TRG Arts and DataArts.
What changes do you need to make for optimum organizational health? No FitBit required! In this session, presented at the 2017 AAM Annual Meeting and Convention, experts from the National Center for Arts Research and TRG Arts to examine ways to measure and improve organizational health. Using a new free tool, participants will have the opportunity to get individual organizational health scores, discuss what they mean and how they compare to their peers, determine which metrics are most applicable to their organization, and how to change their work to get results. Walk through a process of identifying marketing, attendance, virtual participation, expenses and earned revenue strategies and challenges, as well as examples of data-guided, sustainable change.
TRG's David Brownlee presented new data on touring productions at the 2017 UK Theatre Touring Symposium. David's research (based on 2016 data) illuminates trends in ticket income from touring and non-touring productions over several years.
One major takeaway of the study was that touring accounts for the majority of tickets sold and income at UK Theatre venues, driven by musicals at big venues.
1) There was 13% growth in theatre-going households in DC over the past decade, with increases in new households, returning households, and attriting households.
2) Younger demographic clusters like singles and families saw the fastest growth at 32% and 22%, while older boomer clusters grew 14%.
3) Most patrons (82%) are "Single Ticket Experimenters" who visit only one theatre occasionally, though visiting multiple theatres correlates with more loyal behavior.
Christmas in July: Turn up the heat on the holidaysTRG Arts
Forget about Independence Day. Start thinking about Black Friday.
If not, you could be missing out on your biggest opportunity of next season.
The holiday season starts NOW for arts managers. Don’t let the heat of summer lull you into thinking holiday shows sell themselves—there’s a lot to do. It’s time to dust off and refresh your marketing plan for The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, your holiday concert, or whatever hot ticket event you have this December.
In this free one-hour webinar you’ll hear from arts marketers like you who have maximized their holiday programming and gone on to break revenue records. Just when these arts administrators thought their perennial programming couldn’t garner any more, new highs were reached. These experts as well as the consultants from TRG will share the newest best practices for turning up the heat on the holidays.
You’ll learn:
- What, when, and how often: how to optimize campaign timing and frequency, and content strategies for an event that’s repeated annually
- Why a good marketing campaign is nothing without a pricing strategy that allows revenue goals to be met--or exceeded. We’ll explore how the two work together for high-demand programming.
- The importance of realistic budgeting and revenue projections as well as the basics of matching revenue expectations to historical data
My audiences, your audiences: Developing theatre patrons as a communityTRG Arts
Seven theatres. 10 seasons of data. One community. Learn what this study, completed in January 2015, reveals about theatre patrons in one community and their buying and giving habits. The importance of audience development and retention shines through, in light of data analysis on how Washington, D.C. theatres are attracting and holding on to patrons. Zoom in on trends in patronage in this community, including new theatre-goers and patrons who attend multiple theatres. Learn about the clusters of patrons in this community who look demographically or transactionally similar. Unlock the secrets of audience behavior that may point to trends in your own community.
In this session, you’ll learn:
• The benefits of a community wide market research campaign.
• The actions this community is taking as a result of the research findings.
• The role of audience development initiatives in strengthening loyalty and attendance patterns.
Patron Development: Preparing a path from first ticket to planned giftTRG Arts
A patron’s loyalty is built step-by-step with each interaction with your organization. TRG is a data-driven consulting firm that teaches arts and cultural professionals a patron-based approach to sustainable revenue and discussed patron segmentation strategies and proven practices for closing the gap between subscribers and donors.
TRG Webinar: All in: Developing patron loyalty across departmentsTRG Arts
It’s easy to think of audience development or patron loyalty cultivation as a job for the marketing department. The fact is, all the departments in an organization must align around patrons in order to make a patron-centered business model work.
All in: Building patron loyalty through teamworkTRG Arts
Think audience development is marketing’s job? Think again. All departments play a critical role in retaining and cultivating patron relationships. In order to make a patron-centered business model work, all departments—including ticketing and patron services, artistic staff, development, and executive leaders—must align their objectives with that of patron loyalty.
In this session, presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America conference in New York City, both executives and staff members will reexamine how they lead and collaborate on initiatives that create lasting patron relationships. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson looked at how cross-departmental campaigns build loyalty, how a sales orientation in the patron services department can bolster marketing-development collaboration, and how artistic programming can also factor into loyalty-building.
Seat o-nomics: demand-based pricing strategies for chamber music organizationsTRG Arts
What motivates someone to attend a concert? And, more, importantly, what drives them to attend again and again? Arts managers (and patrons themselves) often cite price as the main and biggest incentive for arts attendance. Certainly price plays a major role in a customer’s decision-making process.
But pricing doesn’t mean anything unless it’s attached to value. It’s a two-sided equation, with price on one side and demand—how much a patron wants the experience—on the other.
Luckily, you have tools that can sweeten the value proposition for your audiences. Ticketing inventory, historical data, discounting, and the choice and timing of programming can help you incentivize audiences to engage with you again and again.
This session was presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson discussed:
- Strategies to attract audiences to low, middle, and high-demand concerts
- How to incentivize loyalty based on demand for programming
- When and how to approach discounting and dynamic pricing
Developing audiences through data (Desarrollar audiencias a partir de los datos)TRG Arts
As public subsidies for the arts change, organizations must rely on people—their audiences and patrons—to provide the revenue to sustain them long-term. How can organizations build a new business model that both serves audiences and relies on them for revenue? The first step is to see what the data says about building these patron relationships.
In this keynote, presented at the 2015 Conferencia de Marketing de las Artes in Madrid and Barcelona, Jill Robinson of the arts consulting firm TRG Arts offered data-inspired lessons on how organizations can monetize patron relationships. These relationships drive the revenue that allows the entire organization to thrive, instead of merely surviving. Jill also discussed data collection and privacy concerns, and how to create incentives for genuine connection between patrons and organization. You’ll learn how pricing and demand, patron loyalty, database management, and artistic programming each impact patron-generated revenue, and how they can be integrated into an organization-wide culture to drive revenue. When marketers leverage this integrated model, they can make the most of their marketing budget, and start cultivating audiences for a sustainable future. This presentation discussed these specific questions:
1. Why does loyalty matter? How can higher ROI on each patron build sustainable arts organizations?
2. Not all patrons are created equal. How can we right-size our marketing investments in different groups of patrons?
3. Does the type of programming that a patron attends determine future ROI?
Pricing Drives Revenue at New Wolsey TheatreTRG Arts
“Our patrons won’t pay that…”
“Everyone wants to sit in this section…”
Our assumptions about what our audiences will and won’t want or do can stop us from pricing to optimize revenue for our organizations. But we don’t really know until we look at the data. Ignoring what patron data tells us about pricing can lead arts organizations to leave money on the table—money that could be sustaining their mission.
At The New Wolsey Theatre in the U.K., small changes to pricing strategy resulted in big revenue increases. In just nine months, the company reported a 31% increase in box office gross—without selling more tickets. In this webinar, New Wolsey’s Head of Sales and Marketing Stephen Skrypec and TRG’s VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson shared how the theatre updated daily practices and challenged prior assumptions about audiences, leading to their success. We examined how arts organizations, whether in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere, can use pricing to drive patron behavior and revenue.
Better Together: Loyalty, Collaboration, and Community in PhiladelphiaTRG Arts
You may know the buying and donating patterns of your own audience. But do you know how they engage with the other arts organizations in your community? And does that mean you’re in competition with them or have opportunities to collaborate?
Seventeen arts and cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area set out to find the answers to those very questions. The study they commissioned investigated the buying and donating behavior of nearly 1 million arts audience and visitor households over seven years, with interesting findings about community engagement and audience loyalty. Researchers profiled how loyal patrons were to each individual organization and tracked patterns of loyalty across the community.
Join the research team from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and TRG Arts in this hour-long, free webinar. You’ll learn:
- The most relevant findings from this ground-breaking study
- How patrons at different levels of loyalty invested in the Philadelphia arts community at large
Why data shows that collaboration and cooperation between organizations strengthens community-wide arts audiences
- How your own audience may be behaving based on the behavior patterns found in this study
- What your organization can do to create and keep loyal supporters
"Loyalty takes time." That was the key point that Jill Robinson, President & CEO of TRG Arts, put forth in a discussion of young donors at the 2015 Opera America Conference in Washington, DC. The panel's premise was that, with opera audiences growing older, companies must focus their attention on new generations of support. While development departments may have mastered the appeal to traditionalists and baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials are looking for something else. Attendees at this standing-room only session learned what the data says about these patrons, what matters to next gen donors, and how opera companies can engage them.
The panel was moderated by Erin Sammis, Director of Major Gifts at Opera Philadelphia. Jill was joined on the panel by Yuming Chiu, associate brand manager, Johnson & Johnson; Mary Galeti, executive director and vice-chair, Tecovas Foundation; and Kim Parker, director of social trends research, Pew Research Center.
Chaos, Order, and Innovation: Planning to ImproviseTRG Arts
The poem describes chaos being confined within strict lines of order. Over 14 lines, chaos is captured and contained, forcing it to mingle with order. The hours and years of chaos's arrogance and humanity's servitude are past. Order now holds chaos's essence and shape, and will make it conform to order, rather than forcing it to confess or answer. Order will simply make chaos good.
The death of the subscription has been greatly exaggeratedTRG Arts
Let’s face it; the subscription has been uncool for years. While disruptive technologies and changing arts consumer behavior have transformed the way arts managers see their business model, the subscription has declined and stagnated. “Subscriptions are dead” is now conventional wisdom in our industry.
But, if subscriptions were truly dead, wouldn’t they have just disappeared by now? Inconveniently, subscriptions incentivize loyalty and provide sustainable revenue that's difficult to find elsewhere in any audience-centered business model. Many organizations that have tried to innovate in this area have found themselves in a state of subscription emergency.
The fact is, subscriptions are still viable, but selling them today requires a different mindset than it did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. While it takes work to rescue and resuscitate your subscription program, it's achievable and you already have many of the tools you need to do it. In this webinar, CEO & President Jill Robinson presented:
- Evidence that subscription survives and, yes, even thrives at arts organizations today
- How subscription can build loyalty among audiences
- What it takes in 2015 to rescue your subscription program
Would you like season tickets with that? The Art of the UpgradeTRG Arts
For cultural institutions, the box office is not just the place where ticket orders are passively taken. It plays an active role in growing revenue by developing loyalty. Every time a patron logs in, calls, or visits to buy a ticket, the opportunity exists for them to upgrade and deepen their relationship with the organization. With the right training, the box office can become experts on how to cultivate patron relationships and keep audiences coming back for more.
TRG President & CEO Jill Robinson presented this session at the 2015 InTix conference in Denver with Jeremy Scott of Seattle Repertory Theatre and Molly Riddle Wink of Denver Art Museum.
Artistic Programming by the Numbers: A KC Rep Case StudyTRG Arts
One of the biggest challenges for theatre leaders lies in perfecting the balance between commercially popular and artistically ambitious plays. In 2014, Kansas City Repertory Theatre was at a crossroads with programming choices, finding it difficult to grow new audiences and cultivate their current loyal supporters. The artistic and executive director decided to do something quite radical: quantify the impact of programming on audience development. Some of the questions they asked were: Which genres grow new audiences? Which deepen current loyalty? Which plays encourage and discourage repeat attendance? Does venue impact audience behavior? How are factors like per-ticket spend impacted?
Learn what the data said about different artistic genres and the types of audiences it attracted, how KC Rep used the data as inspiration for their new Creative Future Fund, and the results they’ve seen in the following three years in audience and revenue numbers. This presentation was made at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference.
Data Skills: What you and your staff need to know in 2017TRG Arts
You’ve got a CRM system. You’ve got reports galore. But how can you use data to affect change at your theatre? DataArts has partnered with field experts to create a new series of free online courses teaching essential data skills for arts leaders. In this session, TRG Arts will present a brief preview from Connecting the Dots: Audience Data Essentials, a course they co-created with DataArts. Attendees will leave the session with 4 basic metrics to track at their own theatre, plus ideas about how these courses can serve as a valuable resource for their own learning, or as a professional development tool for their staff.
This session was presented at the 2017 Theatre Communications Group Conference by TRG Arts and DataArts.
What changes do you need to make for optimum organizational health? No FitBit required! In this session, presented at the 2017 AAM Annual Meeting and Convention, experts from the National Center for Arts Research and TRG Arts to examine ways to measure and improve organizational health. Using a new free tool, participants will have the opportunity to get individual organizational health scores, discuss what they mean and how they compare to their peers, determine which metrics are most applicable to their organization, and how to change their work to get results. Walk through a process of identifying marketing, attendance, virtual participation, expenses and earned revenue strategies and challenges, as well as examples of data-guided, sustainable change.
TRG's David Brownlee presented new data on touring productions at the 2017 UK Theatre Touring Symposium. David's research (based on 2016 data) illuminates trends in ticket income from touring and non-touring productions over several years.
One major takeaway of the study was that touring accounts for the majority of tickets sold and income at UK Theatre venues, driven by musicals at big venues.
1) There was 13% growth in theatre-going households in DC over the past decade, with increases in new households, returning households, and attriting households.
2) Younger demographic clusters like singles and families saw the fastest growth at 32% and 22%, while older boomer clusters grew 14%.
3) Most patrons (82%) are "Single Ticket Experimenters" who visit only one theatre occasionally, though visiting multiple theatres correlates with more loyal behavior.
Christmas in July: Turn up the heat on the holidaysTRG Arts
Forget about Independence Day. Start thinking about Black Friday.
If not, you could be missing out on your biggest opportunity of next season.
The holiday season starts NOW for arts managers. Don’t let the heat of summer lull you into thinking holiday shows sell themselves—there’s a lot to do. It’s time to dust off and refresh your marketing plan for The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, your holiday concert, or whatever hot ticket event you have this December.
In this free one-hour webinar you’ll hear from arts marketers like you who have maximized their holiday programming and gone on to break revenue records. Just when these arts administrators thought their perennial programming couldn’t garner any more, new highs were reached. These experts as well as the consultants from TRG will share the newest best practices for turning up the heat on the holidays.
You’ll learn:
- What, when, and how often: how to optimize campaign timing and frequency, and content strategies for an event that’s repeated annually
- Why a good marketing campaign is nothing without a pricing strategy that allows revenue goals to be met--or exceeded. We’ll explore how the two work together for high-demand programming.
- The importance of realistic budgeting and revenue projections as well as the basics of matching revenue expectations to historical data
My audiences, your audiences: Developing theatre patrons as a communityTRG Arts
Seven theatres. 10 seasons of data. One community. Learn what this study, completed in January 2015, reveals about theatre patrons in one community and their buying and giving habits. The importance of audience development and retention shines through, in light of data analysis on how Washington, D.C. theatres are attracting and holding on to patrons. Zoom in on trends in patronage in this community, including new theatre-goers and patrons who attend multiple theatres. Learn about the clusters of patrons in this community who look demographically or transactionally similar. Unlock the secrets of audience behavior that may point to trends in your own community.
In this session, you’ll learn:
• The benefits of a community wide market research campaign.
• The actions this community is taking as a result of the research findings.
• The role of audience development initiatives in strengthening loyalty and attendance patterns.
Patron Development: Preparing a path from first ticket to planned giftTRG Arts
A patron’s loyalty is built step-by-step with each interaction with your organization. TRG is a data-driven consulting firm that teaches arts and cultural professionals a patron-based approach to sustainable revenue and discussed patron segmentation strategies and proven practices for closing the gap between subscribers and donors.
TRG Webinar: All in: Developing patron loyalty across departmentsTRG Arts
It’s easy to think of audience development or patron loyalty cultivation as a job for the marketing department. The fact is, all the departments in an organization must align around patrons in order to make a patron-centered business model work.
All in: Building patron loyalty through teamworkTRG Arts
Think audience development is marketing’s job? Think again. All departments play a critical role in retaining and cultivating patron relationships. In order to make a patron-centered business model work, all departments—including ticketing and patron services, artistic staff, development, and executive leaders—must align their objectives with that of patron loyalty.
In this session, presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America conference in New York City, both executives and staff members will reexamine how they lead and collaborate on initiatives that create lasting patron relationships. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson looked at how cross-departmental campaigns build loyalty, how a sales orientation in the patron services department can bolster marketing-development collaboration, and how artistic programming can also factor into loyalty-building.
Seat o-nomics: demand-based pricing strategies for chamber music organizationsTRG Arts
What motivates someone to attend a concert? And, more, importantly, what drives them to attend again and again? Arts managers (and patrons themselves) often cite price as the main and biggest incentive for arts attendance. Certainly price plays a major role in a customer’s decision-making process.
But pricing doesn’t mean anything unless it’s attached to value. It’s a two-sided equation, with price on one side and demand—how much a patron wants the experience—on the other.
Luckily, you have tools that can sweeten the value proposition for your audiences. Ticketing inventory, historical data, discounting, and the choice and timing of programming can help you incentivize audiences to engage with you again and again.
This session was presented at the 2016 Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. TRG's VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson discussed:
- Strategies to attract audiences to low, middle, and high-demand concerts
- How to incentivize loyalty based on demand for programming
- When and how to approach discounting and dynamic pricing
Developing audiences through data (Desarrollar audiencias a partir de los datos)TRG Arts
As public subsidies for the arts change, organizations must rely on people—their audiences and patrons—to provide the revenue to sustain them long-term. How can organizations build a new business model that both serves audiences and relies on them for revenue? The first step is to see what the data says about building these patron relationships.
In this keynote, presented at the 2015 Conferencia de Marketing de las Artes in Madrid and Barcelona, Jill Robinson of the arts consulting firm TRG Arts offered data-inspired lessons on how organizations can monetize patron relationships. These relationships drive the revenue that allows the entire organization to thrive, instead of merely surviving. Jill also discussed data collection and privacy concerns, and how to create incentives for genuine connection between patrons and organization. You’ll learn how pricing and demand, patron loyalty, database management, and artistic programming each impact patron-generated revenue, and how they can be integrated into an organization-wide culture to drive revenue. When marketers leverage this integrated model, they can make the most of their marketing budget, and start cultivating audiences for a sustainable future. This presentation discussed these specific questions:
1. Why does loyalty matter? How can higher ROI on each patron build sustainable arts organizations?
2. Not all patrons are created equal. How can we right-size our marketing investments in different groups of patrons?
3. Does the type of programming that a patron attends determine future ROI?
Pricing Drives Revenue at New Wolsey TheatreTRG Arts
“Our patrons won’t pay that…”
“Everyone wants to sit in this section…”
Our assumptions about what our audiences will and won’t want or do can stop us from pricing to optimize revenue for our organizations. But we don’t really know until we look at the data. Ignoring what patron data tells us about pricing can lead arts organizations to leave money on the table—money that could be sustaining their mission.
At The New Wolsey Theatre in the U.K., small changes to pricing strategy resulted in big revenue increases. In just nine months, the company reported a 31% increase in box office gross—without selling more tickets. In this webinar, New Wolsey’s Head of Sales and Marketing Stephen Skrypec and TRG’s VP of Client Development Lindsay Anderson shared how the theatre updated daily practices and challenged prior assumptions about audiences, leading to their success. We examined how arts organizations, whether in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere, can use pricing to drive patron behavior and revenue.
Better Together: Loyalty, Collaboration, and Community in PhiladelphiaTRG Arts
You may know the buying and donating patterns of your own audience. But do you know how they engage with the other arts organizations in your community? And does that mean you’re in competition with them or have opportunities to collaborate?
Seventeen arts and cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area set out to find the answers to those very questions. The study they commissioned investigated the buying and donating behavior of nearly 1 million arts audience and visitor households over seven years, with interesting findings about community engagement and audience loyalty. Researchers profiled how loyal patrons were to each individual organization and tracked patterns of loyalty across the community.
Join the research team from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and TRG Arts in this hour-long, free webinar. You’ll learn:
- The most relevant findings from this ground-breaking study
- How patrons at different levels of loyalty invested in the Philadelphia arts community at large
Why data shows that collaboration and cooperation between organizations strengthens community-wide arts audiences
- How your own audience may be behaving based on the behavior patterns found in this study
- What your organization can do to create and keep loyal supporters
"Loyalty takes time." That was the key point that Jill Robinson, President & CEO of TRG Arts, put forth in a discussion of young donors at the 2015 Opera America Conference in Washington, DC. The panel's premise was that, with opera audiences growing older, companies must focus their attention on new generations of support. While development departments may have mastered the appeal to traditionalists and baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials are looking for something else. Attendees at this standing-room only session learned what the data says about these patrons, what matters to next gen donors, and how opera companies can engage them.
The panel was moderated by Erin Sammis, Director of Major Gifts at Opera Philadelphia. Jill was joined on the panel by Yuming Chiu, associate brand manager, Johnson & Johnson; Mary Galeti, executive director and vice-chair, Tecovas Foundation; and Kim Parker, director of social trends research, Pew Research Center.
Chaos, Order, and Innovation: Planning to ImproviseTRG Arts
The poem describes chaos being confined within strict lines of order. Over 14 lines, chaos is captured and contained, forcing it to mingle with order. The hours and years of chaos's arrogance and humanity's servitude are past. Order now holds chaos's essence and shape, and will make it conform to order, rather than forcing it to confess or answer. Order will simply make chaos good.
The death of the subscription has been greatly exaggeratedTRG Arts
Let’s face it; the subscription has been uncool for years. While disruptive technologies and changing arts consumer behavior have transformed the way arts managers see their business model, the subscription has declined and stagnated. “Subscriptions are dead” is now conventional wisdom in our industry.
But, if subscriptions were truly dead, wouldn’t they have just disappeared by now? Inconveniently, subscriptions incentivize loyalty and provide sustainable revenue that's difficult to find elsewhere in any audience-centered business model. Many organizations that have tried to innovate in this area have found themselves in a state of subscription emergency.
The fact is, subscriptions are still viable, but selling them today requires a different mindset than it did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. While it takes work to rescue and resuscitate your subscription program, it's achievable and you already have many of the tools you need to do it. In this webinar, CEO & President Jill Robinson presented:
- Evidence that subscription survives and, yes, even thrives at arts organizations today
- How subscription can build loyalty among audiences
- What it takes in 2015 to rescue your subscription program
Would you like season tickets with that? The Art of the UpgradeTRG Arts
For cultural institutions, the box office is not just the place where ticket orders are passively taken. It plays an active role in growing revenue by developing loyalty. Every time a patron logs in, calls, or visits to buy a ticket, the opportunity exists for them to upgrade and deepen their relationship with the organization. With the right training, the box office can become experts on how to cultivate patron relationships and keep audiences coming back for more.
TRG President & CEO Jill Robinson presented this session at the 2015 InTix conference in Denver with Jeremy Scott of Seattle Repertory Theatre and Molly Riddle Wink of Denver Art Museum.
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2. TRG’s next webinar
Wed., Nov. 20, 2013 at 2 ET / 11 PT
Launching Loyalty
from a „Second Date‟
with Patrons
Sign up at www.trgarts.com
3.
4. Who’s Here Today
My organization sells tickets primarily for:
78%
15%
4%
Reserved seat
events
2%
General
Turnstile
Turnstile
admission seated (museum, cultural (museum, cultural
events
orgs) general orgs) Timed-ticket
admission
admission
5. Update Pricing Annually
When did you last update
your pricing strategy?
47%
25%
20%
9%
In advance of
the current
season/year
Last
season/year
More than two
seasons/years
ago
Don‟t know
7. Your Strategy?
Was the average amount paid for a ticket to
your most popular event last year more or less
than other events in the same year?
More, 45%
Less, 4%
About the
same, 41%
Don’t know,
10%
13. Follow Data
To What Patron’s Value
Programming
Seasonality
Day of Week
Opening &
Closing Dates
Time of day
Available
Seats
14. Museum Price Table
Full Adult Price
Member Price
Always Available Discounts
Seniors
Students
Young People
Military
Coupons, Special Offers
15. Museum Price Table
Drive patron behavior when…
1. Promote value
Members save? Say so.
2. Simplify
Consider visitor‟s ability to navigate options
3. Provide real-time help
Train visitor services to motivate behavior
Make buying online easy, intuitive
16.
17. Behavior Drivers
1. Entry level prices
Are they available, affordable?
2. Top ticket prices
Are they data-informed, competitive?
3. Price jumps or spread
Are differences between prices reasonable?
22. Price Table: Seated
Drive patron behavior!
1. Provide clear value options
Affordable “starting at” price
Top is competitive, “worth the price”
Sweet spot in the middle
2. Reasonable differences between prices
Comfortable jump from low to middle
Middle to top is upgrade from good to best
3. Keep it simple
Complexity motivates “no thanks”
27. Inventory & Demand
On sale date
High Demand
Higher Yield
When?
Early as possible
Low Demand
Lower Yield
When?
Early as possible
28. When Do Yours
Go On Sale?
How far in advance of the opening date
of your most popular events do single
tickets go on sale to the public?
67%
22%
11%
Seven to 12 months
Two to six months
A month or less
29. Inventory & Demand
On sale date
High Demand
Higher Yield
How?
VIP advance priority
Low Demand
Lower Yield
How?
Planned strategic pricing
30. Inventory & Demand
Complimentary Tickets
High Demand
Higher Yield
Low Demand
Lower Yield
How many?
• Few or none
How many?
• Strategically limited
To whom?
• Artists
• Venue
• Obligated by contract
How?
• Voucher
• No hard tickets
• Fulfill at ticket window
47. 1
Does your strategy
Drive Patron Behavior?
Do: Take the patron‟s view
Don‟t: Let internal biases, assumptions rule.
And do:
• Follow data to find what patrons value
• Mind your bottom, top, and middle price
• Streamline your price table
48. 2
Does your strategy
Curate your inventory?
Do: Take control
Don‟t: Rely on technology alone
And do:
• Earliest possible on-sale date
• Plan incentives: VIPs and hard-to-sell
• Strategically limit, distribute comps
• Develop good inventory release plan
49. 3
Does your strategy
Create “Full” Houses?
Do: Scale based on demand facts
Don‟t: Assume
And do:
• Demand analysis annually
• Refresh or re-scale every year
• Build desired fill patterns into scale plan
• Price increases as more inventory sells
Pricing is one of those evergreen topics that is constantly evolving. Even if you’ve heard us talk about pricing before, there are new challenges to face with in each year’s market conditions, programming and ever-savvier patrons. That’s why we’ve come up with a few new rules that can help you price right today….and under any circumstances. But before I go forward, I know we have some folks on the line today who have never been to a TRG webinar before. Let me say a few words about TRG and our approach to pricing for arts organizations.
Mark your calendar for our next webinarIt’ll be held Wednesday, November 20th at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific.We’ll welcome our friends from the Seattle Repertory Theatre, and hear their patron retention success story that we’re calling: Launching Loyalty from a Second Date with Patrons.You can sign up for the webinar on www dot T-R-G arts dot com.
At TRG, we use data to helpclients achieve results. TRG Arts was founded in 1995 by our late founder,Rick Lester.Our firm’s ground-breaking strategies in PRICING, along with loyalty strategies, are the basis for proven results among our clients.We’re based in Colorado Springs, Colorado with 35 team members, and each of us is focused on providing guidance and solutions that are patron-based….By patron we mean: ticket buyer, member, donor, event attendee…any PERSON engaged with an organization.Our patron-based solutions seek sustainable loyalty of patrons and sustainable revenue from those patrons. Pricing is a big part of that, because pricing can drive loyal behavior… or not. Driving loyal behavior is a key aspect of our discussion today.We recognize that arts consumer behavior plays out differently in different types of organizations. For context….
The biggest proportion of participants in our webinar audience today represent seated event institutions. Know that the principles we discuss today were built on your circumstances because that’s where the preponderance of data and transactional evidence exists.And for our webinar audience members from museums, cultural and other organizations that have turnstile admissions -- today we’re focusing on success factors than can benefit you as well – starting with this…
At TRG, we’ve counseled thousands of organizations on pricing for more than nearly two decades and we have a bias: Pricing strategy must be updated every year.Our webinar survey tells us that 47% of you re-examined your pricing strategy for the 2013-14 season. Today, we’ll ask you to listen for productive tweaks – refinements that can make your plan more successful.The survey also indicates that more than half of you haven’t updated your pricing strategy in a year or more. With today’s webinar , we hope you’ll find fresh thinking, particularly in the areas that we see as the most important strategies for you to embrace.
Whether or not you’ve updated your strategy regularly, the bigger question is: How do you know if you’ve adopted the right pricing strategy? There’s no one simple answer, but there is one metric that ‘s a good barometer of how well you’re doing. That metric is per capita revenue… defined as… the average price paid for a ticket. In a successful pricing strategy, per capita rises as sales increase. That means your best selling events yield more revenue per ticket than other, less well-sold events.Too often, however, this is what we see: ticket sales --- represented by the red bars in this chart– increase while per capita revenues – the black lines --actually go down. You DON’T want this negative trend to happen because of your strategy. That’s why we asked you about your per capita revenues….
When you registered for this webinar, we asked you about the average amount a patron paid for a ticket to your most popular event last year. Was it more, less or about the same as other events that same year?As you can see, 45% of you say your most popular event last year earned more per ticket than other events – That could mean a number of things, including the fact that you’re probably charging more for popular events. In general, that’s a step in the right direction. Today I hope that those of you in this 45% find ways to sharpen your strategy and reduce bad outcomes from guessing wrong. For the rest of our audience today, there appear to be other factors at play. Your per capita revenue for popular events is the same or less than other events. Or, you just don’t know what’s happening with this metric. In our experience, this can mean that you may be leaving money on the table in your pricing decisions. Or, you may be focusing on a set of tactics that aren’t serving you as well as they could be. We hope you’ll hear something today that can get your per capita revenue moving in an upward direction.……With that introduction, let’s start at the beginning…..
Pricing [ ] is the end of a strategic process, not the beginning.The process of setting prices is what happens in a successful revenue plan after you’ve built a foundation. Today we’re going to talk about 3 principles that BUILD that foundation…. ( ) AND lead you to sound price setting.
We know pricing decision-making can be subject to emotional, political, and reactive forces within an organization – none of which can be denied, BUT…
None of which is productive, especially if STRATEGY is built on fear that your prices are too high or too low OR, worse yet, based on assumptions about what you believe patrons will or won’t do….that leads us to Rule #1.
Pricing should drive patron behavior.Intuitively, most arts managers understand this rule. Too often, however, using price as a patron motivator gets lost in those emotional, political, and reactionary forces we just talked about. WHY?
Too many organizations take their own view, and not the patron’s view.Allow me to illustrate.Think about your performing venue.Or your exhibit space.Now, go to the best seat in the house.Or choose the perfect date and time to see your museum’s special exhibit.….What would you choose?...How would you respond?How would your colleagues? Your Board Trustees?Were I to take a poll right now, I’d KNOW every one would have a slightly different personal view.That’s why ….when personal views are allowed to guide pricing decisions, you end up with bad strategy.If you stick to your internal biases….or internal assumptions about what patrons value, you’ll never be able to motivate patron behavior.Instead… To drive patron behavior, you must understand the patron’s view – not your own. What you THINK or ASSUME can miss the point and end up derailing your strategy. For instance:Internal price resistance.It shows up in statements like this: People will NEVER pay this amount. You can probably think of many other statements like this you’ve heard.TRG would tell you: unless you’ve looked at your ticket purchase history and your market standing, you must not assume you know what patrons will or won’t pay. Then there’s this:Internal biases.Everyone in your organization has an opinion on what’s best and what’s not.We hear it like this:If we all went on a trip to your venue, and I asked you to pick the best seat in the house, everyone would choose a different seat. When we say “These are the BEST seats in the house or the BEST time to see an exhibit”, that’s a bias.Or, the opposite:Nobody wants those seats in the back of the balcony ORNobody wants to come at that hour or on that date.The truth is: These are YOUR internal opinions. Unless you have data that tells you what the patron thinks is the best or worst, you’re just guessing. And, if pricing is going to drive PATRON behavior, you …must…not… assume.
Follow your event sales history data to find out what patrons VALUE. In data, patrons tell you what they are willing to buy, and that’s how you learn what factors will help you drive patron behavior.Value – or what arts consumers are willing to pay for – depends on many different factors.Especially programming…and time of the year ---your holiday or big summer events, for instance….but also….dates….times…and yes…available SEATS.All of these factors affect what a patron is willing to pay. When you use data to understand how these factors create or diminish value for your patrons, then you can use price to drive patron behavior.Now let’s look at how patrons get information about your pricing…... Your price table….
First, let’s review the components of a museum price table, which is generally comprised of many parts.There are full price, adult tickets and special admission for members – sometimes admission is free for members.Then there are discountsMuseums often have discounts that are always available…For senior citizens….for students and young people….and for military.Pricing at museums also often includes coupon prices and other discounted admissions that are not on the published price table. Rather, they’re offered separately through advertising or online media. Take a step back from this array of price options and imagine what it’s like to walk up to the visitor’s service desk and try to digest these options.No matter how beautifully you’ve displayed your prices, there’s a whole process involved in figuring out which type of ticket Iqualify for. If I’m attending with myfamily, ticket purchasing in real time requires doing some math. I’m forced to react to multiple variables. Are you motivating my behavior?
Your museum price table can drive patron behavior when:You want your price table to promote value in the eyes of the visitor.Make clear what your best value is. If members save—say so. Don’t just make your pricing signs look beautiful, simplify them. Your mission likely dictates that you must offer a range of price options or “always-available” discounts. So, consider ways you can make it easy for visitors to navigate those options.One way to do that isProvide real-time help at the point of purchase.Your visitor services team needs to be trained on how to quickly and courteously calculate admission in a way that motivates behavior.If you want visitors to become members, teach visitor services how to suggest membership as a value option.Do you want them to come back again? Ensure that your visitor services team makes every encounter with a visitor a good one.Remember too that visitors of all ages are increasingly making ticket purchases online. Your online ticket purchase option must be easy and intuitive.Let’s take a look at a good example.
This is an online price table for one of our museum clients. You can see that everyday general admission for adults – with ages clearly specified – is $20.The eligibility discounts for seniors, students, military and young people are also clearly delineated.What you can’t miss in the hot pink is that members get in for free. To underscore that point and to motivate membership buying, the website takes you instantly to a membership signup with one .Now, let’s look at another behavior this museum wants to motivate: buying online.With any ticket purchase, the visitor saves by buying online.Why? This museum wants to collect patron contact information – they want to use that contact information to develop a future relationship with their visitors.So, they motivate that behavior by offering a discount for buying online.Now, let’s look at driving behavior in price tables for those of you in seated event organizations.
As we’ll see in moment, things get complicated for seated-event organizations. But there are three key patron behavior drivers you’ll want to consider in your pricing.The first is Entry-level prices.Think of this as your everyday standard lowest price.In a theatre or concert hall, some seats need to be available at this low price at every performance.The price you choose needs to be accessible to most people – meaning, low enough to be considered a deal. In some markets, that might be $10 or under. In others, it might be around $25. A good entry level price can motivate patrons to buy – maybe to come see you for the first time, or to try a program they aren’t sure about.Your top ticket price drives behavior too.For those patrons looking to get the best seats, or the most popular program, your top ticket price must seem “worth it.”Here’s where data comes in: your sales histories can show you what your patrons are will to pay for the best experience.When patrons get to see something they really want to see from seats they value, they’re willing to pay top dollar.What’s the right top price? In addition to a review of your own data, a competitive sanity check is in order. The top prices other arts and entertainment organizations are getting in your market can help you decide your top price.A third behavior driver is the difference between prices you offer. We call these price jumps or the spread betweenprice points.When the difference between your low, medium and high prices vary enough and by a reasonable amount, they help patrons differentiate and decide to buy. For instance, if your lowest price point is sold out, and the next available price is double the price, you might lose the sale. A patron may not see the difference as reasonable. But, if the next available price feels like a good value for “better” seats, you’re more likely to motivate that patron to buy the more expensive seats. Now, let’s take a look at a price table where all of these behavior drivers play out.
Remember, I said it would be complicated. This happens to be a price table for a theatre company. It is no longer in effect so we’re using it today as an illustration to make a point.It includes a lot of variables and options that make a price table hard to understand.When a price table is confusing, it cannot drive patron behavior in any meaningful way. There’s a LOT here, so let me focus your attention on a few key points.First, there are two different sets of pricing: one for non-musicals and another for musicals. The top adult price is higher for musicals -- $5 higher to be exact.The choice to price musicals higher assumes that patrons will value any musical more than any non-musical.If you are among those who choose in advance to make some programs higher priced than others, take note.Our experience tells us that in today’s arts programming, consumer demand is not that predictable.A blockbuster title on Broadway or in another market might not be a hit in your market.The same goes with a ballet, opera, or orchestral programs. So, the question becomes: Does any organization need to differentiate between types of programs and price?Let’s imagine that with this price table in effect, tickets go on sale and the season-opening musical doesn’t sell well. What happens then?Typically– discounts. Lots of them, right up to curtain time.A better strategy would be: Use data – sales and competitive analysis -- to set one standard top price. Open sales with that price.Then use the tools of our trade to adjust the top price – upward through dynamic pricing when a show is a hot-seller, OR…… downward through strategic discounting when a program or performance date or seat section does not find an audience. Now let’s look at the entry level price.
In this example, there are two adult prices, a top price and this one. It’s $39 or $46 – that’s their lowest price ticket.Would a $39 or $46 ticket motivate a value-conscious patron to try a production they’ve never heard of before? Or, is that price capable of motivating a value-conscious patron to come at all?Our experience tells us: No, it wouldn’t.In this example, the lowest price ticket is reserved for “children.” Why the limitation to children? Having some seats at the every day low price of $19.50 or $23 could drive ADULT patron behavior, and that’s really the goal…..Now what about the difference between prices?
In this example, the difference between the low price and top price is $25 or $23 dollars.If all the $39 or $46 seats were gone, would patrons pay another $25 to see a show?That could be a pretty steep jump, especially when there’s no entry level price.Price differentials can seem more reasonable when there are options. A better strategy is to follow the data to find optimal low, middle and top prices with reasonable differences between them.AND, we’d encourage simplification.
Now, look at all the variables offered:Non-musical. MusicalPrime nights and week nightsMatinees and Wednesday evening discountsAnd…Price plus fees.A better choice is to develop the simplest price table possible ….one that offers clear choices and shows true value to the patron.In short….
To drive patron behavior, a seated event price table must firstprovide clear value options, including an affordable “starting at” low price,offer a top price that consumers regard as locally competitive and worth paying for the seats and program they’re getting,and include mid-level prices at some data-informed sweet spot in between the top and bottom.The patron must see reasonable differences between prices.The jump from the lowest to the middle price should be comfortable for value-conscious patrons, andThe jump from a middle to top price should be perceived as an upgrade…going from good seats or dates to the best.Keep that price table simple.Our experience tells us that all of those variables you think are important adds complexity to ticket-buying. And complexity motivates behavior you don’t want to encourage. Patrons say “no thanks” and walk away.That brings us to Rule number 2.
You get the most from your pricing strategy when you manage (or curate) when and how many tickets go on sale.Whether your tickets represent seats or a time and date of visitation, they represent your “inventory.”Why is this rule important?
YOU decide what to sell , what not sell …. and when to sell it.Inventory – your seats or the times and dates of your exhibits – is your most valuable asset.The key to pricing success is how well YOU are managing and leveraging your inventory. There’s no fancy piece of technology or operational plan that can, by itself, be responsive to sales patterns or unpredictablechanges in patron behavior. Only you can do that.How?
Survey says: Not so much. We asked: How far in advance do you put your most popular events on-sale? Two thirds of you said 2-6 months in advance and another 11% said a month or less in advance. That’s likely too late, especially for events you expect will be your most popular. …. And yes,….we’ve heard all the reasons why you wait, but none of those reasons address the fact that a significant portion of patrons WANT to buy early. They PLAN to buy early. That’s why we advocate launching sales campaigns as early as possible, and being active curators of your ticket inventory from that moment on.Next, let’s look at …
In the new plan, this theatre put on sale… …only rows, AA-H – that’s about 360 seats or half the house. They divided these 360 seats into three price points:- The two front rows - in yellow - were changed to the theatre’s new lowest price.Value-conscious patrons were motivated to sit in seats that used to go empty most of the time.- The middle-level price - in red - was assigned to seats on the edge, where demand had been luke-warm.- And the top price - in purple - was assigned to seats that were the hottest, most likely to sell.So even when this theatre was half-full, it appeared to be well-sold from front-to-back and side-to-side.More often than not, this theatre was better than half sold, and when the first half of the house was substantially full,The next block of 156 seats was released. Since demand for the performance had increased, only the top two price levels were available.When sales neared sell out, the remaining block of 68 seats were released – all at the top price. As sales volume increases, more seats are released.As demand increases, the available price increases.This theatre is following demand, driving patron behavior, and improving its per capita revenue with this sequence of hold and release.The corollary for museums is sequencing that adds visitation availability around your peak times, dates, and seasons. Sequencing works especially well when you sell admission for specific dates and times, but it can work for general visitation as well. Several museums we’ve known actually ADD inventory through more dates or extended hours of operation for their biggest peak demand.
In the new plan, this theatre put on sale… …only rows, AA-H – that’s about 360 seats or half the house. They divided these 360 seats into three price points:- The two front rows - in yellow - were changed to the theatre’s new lowest price.Value-conscious patrons were motivated to sit in seats that used to go empty most of the time.- The middle-level price - in red - was assigned to seats on the edge, where demand had been luke-warm.- And the top price - in purple - was assigned to seats that were the hottest, most likely to sell.So even when this theatre was half-full, it appeared to be well-sold from front-to-back and side-to-side.More often than not, this theatre was better than half sold, and when the first half of the house was substantially full,The next block of 156 seats was released. Since demand for the performance had increased, only the top two price levels were available.When sales neared sell out, the remaining block of 68 seats were released – all at the top price. As sales volume increases, more seats are released.As demand increases, the available price increases.This theatre is following demand, driving patron behavior, and improving its per capita revenue with this sequence of hold and release.The corollary for museums is sequencing that adds visitation availability around your peak times, dates, and seasons. Sequencing works especially well when you sell admission for specific dates and times, but it can work for general visitation as well. Several museums we’ve known actually ADD inventory through more dates or extended hours of operation for their biggest peak demand.
In the new plan, this theatre put on sale… …only rows, AA-H – that’s about 360 seats or half the house. They divided these 360 seats into three price points:- The two front rows - in yellow - were changed to the theatre’s new lowest price.Value-conscious patrons were motivated to sit in seats that used to go empty most of the time.- The middle-level price - in red - was assigned to seats on the edge, where demand had been luke-warm.- And the top price - in purple - was assigned to seats that were the hottest, most likely to sell.So even when this theatre was half-full, it appeared to be well-sold from front-to-back and side-to-side.More often than not, this theatre was better than half sold, and when the first half of the house was substantially full,The next block of 156 seats was released. Since demand for the performance had increased, only the top two price levels were available.When sales neared sell out, the remaining block of 68 seats were released – all at the top price. As sales volume increases, more seats are released.As demand increases, the available price increases.This theatre is following demand, driving patron behavior, and improving its per capita revenue with this sequence of hold and release.The corollary for museums is sequencing that adds visitation availability around your peak times, dates, and seasons. Sequencing works especially well when you sell admission for specific dates and times, but it can work for general visitation as well. Several museums we’ve known actually ADD inventory through more dates or extended hours of operation for their biggest peak demand.
So, how do we mange the practice of curating our inventory? Thisis a practice that involves a whole team of colleagues. You can’t just turn the plan “on’ and watch it go.You need to talk about it as a team. That’s why we advocate Sales Pacing Meetings. These are weekly staff meetings that include representatives from each department that has a role in sales or inventory management – that could include executive leadership, marketing, development, and the ticket office.You bring in sales reports and watch sales progress….the volume of tickets sold…the pace at which tickets are selling…the patterns of how seats or day parts are filling up with ticket purchases. Then you take actions to feed or stimulate demand – through promotional activities, and through the various inventory management practices we’ve just discussed.Every time you follow the data and watch your pacing, you’ll make better decisions that optimize revenue on what your patrons value.And that brings us to today’s 3rd and final rule…
I know pricing strategy isn’t a game or a gamble, but let me poke a little fun here.Nothing beats a full house.We’re talking about a full-lookinghouse…nothing optimizes your strategy more than having your patrons attend with lots of other people.Your house can look full, even when it isn’t. That comes from good inventory management as we’ve just discussed AND a good scale-of-house strategy -- that is, the number and distribution of price sections in a theatre or the assignment of price to days and times of visitation. Your goal is to create full-looking houses, or as we call it: A perception of success. Again….
You know –right now -- which events are going to sell and which aren’t. Your sales history tells you and your internal expertise can corroborate which events will be blockbusters and which will have difficulty finding an audience.So plan for it.Low demand? There’s magic in making it look like you have it…And, that’s where the scale of house plan comes in.
Let’s summarize
Thank you so much for attending.There will be video of the webinar on the TRG website posted in the next week. We will send you an email with the link once it is posted.