We’ve given you the overview of the main findings from our latest IMPACT report earlier this year (if you missed it, you can check it out here). But there’s so much in it we wanted space to talk about the other things we thought were interesting. So, over the next few months, we’ll be diving into some specific topics, starting this month with motivations.

What motivates audiences?

Are you entertained?

What’s new?

 

The motivation of supporting the venue or space has dropped by 3% each year from 35% in 2023-24 to 29% last year. Meanwhile, the opposite has happened to the motivation of feeling like part of a community, increasing by 6% over the same period.

This may not seem like a huge amount, but given that other motivations have remained consistent, it’s a notable trend. This is one of the advantages of IMPACT being longitudinal data – we can know the difference between a blip and a trend.

Feeling like part of a community

The first change – the decrease in the motivation “to support the venue/space” is easier to understand. In 2023 the whole sector was still reeling from 18 months of enforced closure due to the Covid pandemic. Support for the recently re-opened venues was at an all-time high. Rather like absence making the heart grow fonder, everyone was eager to get back and support their favourite venue. As ‘normality’ has returned, it is perhaps not surprising that support for venues – as a distinct motivation – has tapered off.

But what of the growth in the motivation “to feel like part of a community”? To what might we attribute this change? We know that the respondents that selected this motivation were more likely to be under 45 years. But there’s nothing else obvious that makes this group different. We could speculate about the effects of world instability or the growing atomisation of society affecting the under 45s more… But that would be pure speculation. What we can do with this research though is think about how we meet that growing motivation.

Using the research in a practical way

There are lots of things we can do to ensure our audiences feel like part of a community. Much of it is about audience relations – or ‘Visitor Experience’ – being considered throughout an attendee’s whole experience, from the tone of the initial prompt to purchase a ticket, right through to the follow up email asking them for feedback. And in between, ensuring staff are greeting familiar faces, remembering the specific needs of disabled regulars without asking every time, and simply taking the time to chat. Loyalty or ‘friends’ schemes can encourage that sense of community, too, for example, by releasing tickets first to that ‘community’.

Collective effer-what?

But feeling like part of a community covers more than this. There’s an emotional aspect: ‘collective effervescence’ is the feeling you get when you share an intense emotion with a crowd of people.

When everyone dances ecstatically, or is swept along in a singalong, or cheering or crying…  that emotional synchronicity makes us feel like we are part of a community. And the good news is that, in the arts sector, we frequently make those moments happen. So yes, there’s always work to be done on audience relationship building, but for creating togetherness and that sense of community, the arts sector should carry on doing what it already does so well.