Using Culture Segments to understand the New Zealand arts, culture and heritage audiences

This research undertaken in 2011 by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre on behalf of Creative New Zealand, uses two sector specific products Audience Atlas and Culture Segments to identify and understand arts, culture and heritage audiences in New Zealand. The research is designed to help arts, culture and heritage organisations to target, reach and engage with new audiences and meet their needs more effectively.

Was the Books for Babies scheme a success?

Research evaluating the social impact of the Boots Books for Babies scheme, which saw over 42,000 bags of books and literacy-related materials distributed to babies in Nottinghamshire. The research explores the wider social impact of the scheme to establish what difference it made to children and parents. It concludes with implications for future development of the project.

Introducing Culture Segments

Understand your audience and target them more accurately with this introductory guide to the Culture Segments sector-specific segmentation system. It explains each segment’s motivations and habits, allowing you to begin applying it in your own marketing work.

Evaluating the impact of libraries’ creative reading work with emergent adult readers

This report, “Confidence All Round”, explores the individual and societal outcomes for emergent readers from libraries’ creative reading activity in partnership with the Skills for Life sector.

The fit of these outcomes is mapped against the Shared Priorities and the Adult Literacy Core Curriculum to provide evidence of how the approach can help libraries and the Skills for Life sector achieve their objectives.

Recommendations are made for enhancing the effectiveness of libraries’ creative reading activity at both a strategic and tactical level.

A digest of information available on audiences in the North East

A report exploring existing research on museum and gallery audiences in the UK, with a particular emphasis on the North East. The digest includes factors informing people’s decisions about leisure time, how families make the decision to visit, advance planning and incidental visiting, frequency of visits, and the barriers to attendance.

The impact of folk festivals

This report looks at the impact of the folk festival and provides some key findings about festival goers, funding, programming, partnerships and ticketing.

Evaluation of an education programme at Imperial War Museum

This evaluation report explores the impact of the Imperial War Museum’s Immersive Learning Programme Their Past Your Future 2. The programme involved overseas trips for young people, which aimed to immerse them in the places, people and objects they were learning about.

Culture segments in action: British Museum case study

A case study of Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman exhibition at the British Museum. Explore how the British Museum developed a segmented campaign to reach new audiences.

Understanding audiences for online collections resources

This report provides digital resource managers across the East Midlands with:

• Evidence of the motivations, expectations, needs and current levels of satisfaction of online audiences.
• Insight into why users are using sites, how resources are meeting their needs, and how current and future resources could better meet needs.

Findings are intended to help make the case for investment in online collections resources, and help inform improvements and new initiatives based on users’ needs.

Recommendations addressed include use of web statistics, online surveying, user testing and evaluation. A detailed checklist is provided to aid embedding user needs in online collections resources.

Veterans Reunited education learning programme at Imperial War Museum

This study evaluated a major learning programme, and assessed how the exhibition and wider programme delivered engagement, innovative formal and informal (including digital) learning opportunities, personal development, diversity of audience, intergenerational interaction, and new perspectives. Societal impacts and legacies were identified, with clear recommendations including: evaluation and partnership delivery models; involving young people; harnessing the power of intergenerational learning, and promotion of resources.

The Veterans Reunited Programme spanned generations to commemorate the Second World War, and reached over 11 million people.

V&A exhibition testing research

The research quantified the instant appeal of proposed titles, explored the interest in and understanding of proposed titles and exhibition content, determined the likelihood of attendance by visitor type, and explored the dynamics of a visit – how far potential visitors will travel, who they will visit with, willingness to pay. Five exhibitions were tested, and findings provided thematic suggestions for future exhibitions. The conclusions address audience profile, marketing communications, intrinsic appeal and how to meet visitors’ needs and provide value for money. The wider market for temporary exhibitions was also quantified as context.

Audience engagement and relevance in the 21st century

Exploring Interactivity and Personalisation, this article argues that arts organisations must become more relevant to emerging audiences or risk becoming obsolete.

Redefining audience segmentation

An article, The Unusual Suspects, contextualises arts audience segmentation but also seeks to provide a new model for the 21st century based on key understandings about how audiences want to engage with the arts and how they want to be communicated with.

The Culture Segments segmentation model presents eight segments that offer a common language to bridge the understanding of marketers, educators, curators, programmers, interpreters, front of house staff and managers. It helps put visitors at the centre of the discussion and informs strategic choices.

Culture Segments helps you operate as a 21st century organisation: vision-led, audience-focused, strategic and personalised.

Test drive the arts: an introduction

The ‘Test Drive the Arts’ concept is about utilising spare capacity in arts venues (which generate nil income) to give potential attenders a ‘taste’ of the product in order to stimulate repeat attendance (and thus generating income in venues where a charge is levied).

This groundbreaking study evaluates performance against objectives including: targeting 25,000 new attenders; testing the concept with diverse new audiences; response and retention rates; benchmark costs; informing a national campaign; and best practice guidelines.

Defining the market for original contemporary visual art

The Taste Buds study explores the extent to which individuals in England buy or have the inclination to buy contemporary art for their homes through three questions:

• How to enhance and increase sales of innovative contemporary art and private commissions through diverse distribution points;
• How to help artists to become more entrepreneurial in their engagement with the marketplace;
• How to expand the audience for contemporary work.

A series of recommendations propose how to help more artists to sell more work, help more people buy contemporary art, develop the supply side, build the collector base, and attract more cash into the sector.

Research study on the needs and motivations of young people

A research study that profiles the changing social, emotional, personal and cultural needs of young people by investigating their needs, motivations and attitudes, informing service provision.

The findings seek to understand the child’s world through the variety of environments and relationships in which they live – the political systems and policies, how they develop and learn, their demographic, social and economic context, and social, emotional, personal and cultural needs, motivations and attitudes.

A literature review of architecture and design impacts

Developed to inform new design to improve quality of life in Scotland, this literature review explores national and international evidence of the social, economic and environmental impact of architecture and design.

Measuring the impact of culture in Shropshire

The study develops locally relevant indicators and measures to prove the value of culture, with particular reference to central and local government agendas including: Quality of Life and Shared Priorities (commissioned by Shropshire County Council). These locally relevant indicators relate to the impact and outcomes of Cultural Services’ actions across healthy lifestyles, community safety and quality of life in local communities. The report summarises existing practice, details implications for relevant indicators for the county, provides a policy context, and details best practice.

Visitor behaviour and engagement in the museums and heritage sector

This document brings together a vast body of research and experience to demonstrate how research can develop museums’ and galleries’ ambitions, vision, models and methodologies to enable a much more meaningful measure of impact and value.

Researching the market for contemporary craft

A two-year study that quantifies and appraises the buying market for contemporary craft, which followed on from Making it in the 21st century (profile and economic contribution of designer-makers), and Taste Buds (developing the art market). This allowed the distinctions between the art and craft markets to be explored.

The findings were then interrogated to create a contemporary craft production model and a supply route model, details market-regulating factors, identifies market segments and explores designer-makers’ motivations and attitudes alongside those of buyers and potential buyers.

Recommendations addressed subscription activity, dealer networks, supporting excellence, and sector advocacy.

Opening time research for London galleries

The study, involving nine London galleries, sought to quantify and understand the evening market for galleries, providing demographic and psychographic profiling data alongside attender motivations and the relationship with daytime visits. The data also cross-referenced findings from participating venue to venue, and analysed marketing activity reach and appeal by segment, and opportunities to position galleries as more social destinations. A benefits matching model (between audience segments and galleries) emerged from the findings.

Museum volunteering evaluation programme

In Touch was an innovative Cultural Heritage volunteering programme delivered by Manchester Museum and Imperial War Museum North (IWM North) in partnership with Trafford College and Salford City College and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The model focused on personal and skills development for a specific group of socially-excluded people who are significantly under-represented in the museum volunteer workforce. The study examined who volunteered and why, the transformative achievements of the volunteers – including personal learning, confidence, social skills and employability. It also explored the legacies of the programme and impacts on the two museums.

The impacts of a CPD programme at Imperial War Museum

The study reviews the InSite educator immersive learning CPD programme, part of Their Past Your Future (TPYF). The programme involved participants from schools, museums, curriculum development and educator training.

The report explores why the combination of elements of the programme produces the impact that it does to explore the learning techniques employed and to consider the implications of this type of education work for future learning and interpretation at Imperial War Museum (IWM).

Changing arts audiences in the 21st century

Morris Hargreaves McIntyre detail seven pillars for arts organisations to potentially transform their audience development focus: vision-led, brand-driven, outcome-orientated, inter-disciplinary, insight-guided, interactively-engaged, and personalised.

The impacts of an immersive learning programme at Imperial War Museum

The study reviewed the immersive and experiential learning programme for young people – Their Past Your Future (TPYF). It evaluated how direct engagement with people, places and objects impacted on a personal and societal level, and how it enhanced knowledge for young people and educational institutions. It also explored impacts on the Imperial War Museum itself.

Can a web portal develop jazz audiences?

Jazz audiences are small, fragmented and static, but with enormous potential to attract new audiences. The failure to do so is mainly due to poor sector marketing and audience development infrastructure.

Research suggested that would-be attenders needed an accessible, authoritative source of information about jazz that minimised risks with cost, time or self-image.

The getintojazz.com website is designed to fulfill this recommendation, and this study maps the development of the site and tests its efficacy in developing new audiences for jazz.

The impact of the arts in Birmingham

A study to identify the economic contribution of the main arts organisations to the Birmingham economy and the impact they have on the image, profile and perceptions of the city and wider West Midlands region.

Understanding the contemporary craft market in a changing economy

A study that provides market intelligence and essential information for contemporary craft makers and suppliers of craft. The aims of the study are to understand market size, motivations and other contributors to craft purchases, and the growth potential of the contemporary craft market size in England, and how the market might evolve in response to broader consumer trends.

Who visits the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and why

The audience profiling study provided primary data through interview-led exit surveys to gain a deeper understanding of visitors, who they are, their motivations and attitudes. The profiling examined reasons for visiting, marketing reach, exhibition awareness and engagement, and visitor satisfaction. The insights informed recommendations for how Baltic could deepen engagement and improve the offer, and provided comparative data when set against other regional/national museums or art galleries.

How to utilise spare capacity to stimulate repeat attendance

This report provides a summary of the Test Drive: North West audience development project which looked at how venues could increase repeat attendance using spare capacity.

Using telemarketing, potential attenders where given a chance to ‘try before you buy’ with the offer of free tickets providing an opportunity to capture personal data and profile their demographics and their attendance histories.

The project targeted 20,000 new attenders, and set out to test the concept with diverse audiences, measure the response and retention rates and  provide a body of evidence which could form the basis of a nationwide campaign.

Assessing the market for original contemporary visual art

The Taste Buds research set out to discover the extent to which individuals in England buy contemporary art and looked at three key questions: How to increase sales of innovative contemporary art, how to improve artists engagement with the marketplace and how to expand the audience for contemporary work.

The research looked at three key areas, production, supply and demand, the methodology included a literature review, consultation with stakeholders, a population survey looking at buyers and potential buyer, in-depth interviews and focus groups with artists, buyers, and suppliers and a survey of artists.

The growth of the folk festival in cultural tourism

The folk festival scene is growing and is an essential part of the folk industry, providing performance opportunities, local employment, a market place for local products, a stimulus to local economies and audience development opportunities.

This report looks at the rising impact of the folk festival on local economies and cultural tourism using research from a sample of over 4000 adult festival goers. It provides insight into audience demographics, access, experiences, investment and local economics.

Studying the potential of the craft market

With a potential to increase the size of the market for original craft by 63 per cent this report provides an insight into the findings of a 2 year research programme looking at how work undertaken through the Crafts Council might be complemented, how the sales of contemporary fine craft can be increased and how the market for contemporary fine craft can be developed.

It contains statistics based on data derived from a population survey of a sample of adults aged 16 and over, qualitative research and quantitative information derived from Making it in the 21st century – a socio-economic survey of crafts activity (Crafts Council, 2003).

Assesing the impact of folk festivals

A report highlighting the findings of a major research study that elicited responses from 4,294 adults during the summer of 2002, supported by a series of depth interviews with those working in the festivals sector, and quantitative audience data gathered from 31 festivals.  With analysis of the economic and social impacts of folk festivals, the needs of festival organisers, artistic and audience development practices, and recommendations for future development, this is a must read for anyone working in the folk music or festivals sector.