Culture Restart: first wave of results

SUMMARY

A new partnership between Baker Richards, Indigo and One Further, The Insights Alliance, has launched the Culture Restart Toolkit. This set of free tools is designed for cultural organisations at all stages of reopening, and will track customer sentiment over six months, giving organisations instant access to audience insight and building a national picture for the benefit of the whole sector. Here you'll find the first wave of findings, a webinar and full details of how to access the toolkit.

Culture Restart

The Culture Restart audience tracker is the successor to Indigo Ltd’s After the Interval sentiment tracker. It will report on the sentiments and confidence of audiences and visitors every month until the Spring of 2021. Baker Richards are providing analysis of the data, and future results will be shared in an interactive dashboard created by One Further.

This first wave reports on fieldwork from cultural organisations including theatres, arts centres and touring companies across the UK during October 2020, and does not cover London and the West End. 72% of respondents usually attend culture four or more times per year.

Summary of findings

The net confidence score of respondents for returning to live culture is +47%, though confidence declines with age.
72% would feel uncomfortable returning to venues which do not socially distance attendees or require the wearing of masks, even if all patrons were Covid-tested on arrival.
Though overall respondents are less likely to engage with online culture once able to attend live performances, of those who are interested only 12% expect content to be free.
Loyal attenders have shifted to cinema, heritage sites, visual arts and outdoor arts during lockdown. Advance booking is strongest for musical theatre, live popular music, and comedy.

Key takeaways

Audiences are keen to return to live events
Where audiences have returned they feel confident and safe with the safety measures cultural organisations have implemented
Following customer sentiment over what is simply ‘allowed’ is essential (e.g. Socially distanced seating; operation ‘moonshot’)
There is likely to be a strong, ongoing appetite for digital content
Organisations should think about how to balance their programmes of digital activity
Online culture isn't just for younger people. Older people and vulnerable groups are engaging in large numbers
There is significant appetite among respondents for paying for digital content, especially if digital offers something unique as distinct from live
The same principles of price differentiation used for live remain important for digital to ensure you appeal to a range of what people are willing to pay
Free is a bad anchor, undermining value and future income generation

Download the report