Research into ticket buying behaviors carried out by Spektrix over the last 18 months shows that post-lockdown recovery remains an ongoing challenge for the arts and culture sector. But there are green shoots of recovery — the second quarter of 2024 looks like the best since 2019 for sales across the US and Canada, and reattendance is at its highest rate in six years.

Ticket sales data: A look at the sector

First, let’s look at the data. In 2023, ticket sales across the US and Canada recovered to 93% of 2019 levels — consistently lower than they were before COVID-19 and rising costs impacted the sector. The first half of 2024 has seen little change. Overall ticket sales are up less than 1% on the same months of last year, although the last quarter’s sales looked a little more optimistic - from April-June sales were up around 8% on average, compared to a decrease of 6% from January-March.

So, where are the positives? Perhaps we can find them in reattendance figures, which showed levels of loyalty to arts and cultural organizations unmatched since 2018.

Over the last decade, year-to-year reattendance reduced from just under 35% in 2013 to 32.4% in 2019. But after a dip during the pandemic, reattendance rebounded — and since 2022, it's stayed well above the trendline, with a 2023 reattendance rate of 33.1%.

Among first-timers — people who purchased their first tickets in one year, and returned the year after — there's a more positive direction of travel. Reattendance by first-time audience members dropped faster than other patrons from 2013 through to 2019, reducing from 29% to just 17.5%. That crucial second visit is a hard win for arts marketers!

However, after a dip and recovery during COVID closures, reattendance by new patrons has continued trending upwards. The chart above shows that 19.3% of audiences who first bought tickets in 2022 attended events at the same organization in 2023, roughly equivalent to 2018 and heading in a positive direction.

What does this mean for arts organizations?

As the Global Village sponsor of INTIX, Spektrix loves to look at learnings from around the world to guide our thinking. This year in the UK, we worked with arts consultants Indigo-Ltd to learn more about Tomorrow’s Audience — exploring the motivations and behaviors of new ticket buyers, and what might influence them to return.

We learned that for audience members like Helen, John and Zahara, programming was only one of the drivers for their choice. They were driven by the occasion, or by the chance to spend time with family or loved ones — the choice of event was secondary. Zahara’s sister wanted to see some musical theatre, and Zahara was happy to join her for a treat. ‘The Snowman’ was playing close to Helen’s home, so she took her child along to encourage his love of music. John wanted to recreate a great experience, reducing risk by revisiting a tried and trusted event.

Many of these are different motivations from those that influence pre-pandemic audiences. So, to help you rethink the tools you use to drive reattendance, we’ve worked with Indigo-Ltd to create a recipe box of ideas to bring audience members back again and again.

Marketing experiences, not events

Traditionally, we’ve used past ticket buying behaviors to segment arts audiences. If someone saw a ballet last year, let’s invite them back to this season’s dance program. If they enjoyed drama, we assume they’ll want more of the same. For many patrons that might still be the right approach — but for others, the key is to offer the right experience, not just the right event.

Ditch the kids: An unforgettable date night

We’ve seen that patrons like Helen are making it a priority to encourage their children’s love of music or theatre, even when money’s tight. But many organizations only offer occasional family programming. How can we engage the parents and caregivers who buy tickets for kids’ shows, and invite them to visit our venues more frequently?

It’s likely you’re programming a great range of adult options — musical theatre, drama, a new exhibition and more. Perfect for date night or an evening with friends, when the adults can ditch the kids and have a great time as grown-ups.

One of our Recipes for Success, Ditch the Kids, encourages you to think outside the box, targeting your family audience segment with an offer designed for adults. Inspire them to come back with a choice of great events, maybe a food and beverage offer to help them make a night of it, and positive images of adults and couples enjoying the venue — matching your priorities to your patrons’ interests.

Time to celebrate: Create occasions that are truly special

The second Recipe for Success, Time to Celebrate, responds to the idea that many people — like John and his wife — buy tickets to help celebrate a special occasion.

Here, your priority might be to reach people in your database who’ve never made a booking, and encourage them to convert for the first time. It’s not possible to target them with a specific genre of event, since you don’t know their interests — but everyone has an occasion to celebrate from time to time.

Focus on what you can offer to make their special day unique, as well as increasing overall spend — VIP upgrades, concession packages or reserved seating, giving them everything they need for a memorable occasion.  Create a page on your website, and link them through to explore the highlights of your celebration packages, even before you route them to what’s on.

In both cases, run reports in your CRM system to understand how the initiatives performed for you. Look at engagement with your emails, and even more importantly look at return on investment — how many of the people you targeted actually went on to spend money with your organization?

If the idea’s worked, build on it — send email reminders eleven months on, anticipating an anniversary, or ask patrons to tell you their birthday so you can help them celebrate. With a fully integrated email and CRM system, it should be easy to automate birthday programs and other reminders based on customer behaviors or data fields — in Spektrix, we’ve even pre-built a set of email programs to help you set up workflows within minutes.

Looking for more ideas?

When you’re short on time and resources, implementing something new can feel like an impossible ask. But, with these simple yet effective recipes, designed to spark ideas no matter what CRM or marketing tools you’re using, you'll be able to use what you have to grow your team’s capabilities and make real progress toward re-engagement.

The good news is that some of these recipes take as little as five minutes. You can start by using our foundation recipes to think about how to work smart and set up systems to track, segment and engage first-time audience members, or dive straight into our “signature bakes” like Time to Celebrate and Ditch the Kids, to get crafty with your messaging. We really want to encourage you to put the data into practice, try something new, and see what you can accomplish. 

With a mission to help the arts and culture sector connect better with audiences and communities, Spektrix works with partners and professionals globally to explore the latest ticketing and marketing trends. Visit our website to learn more, or sign up to our sector newsletter to hear the latest news and innovations direct to your inbox.

This article was sponsored by Spektrix