What's the standard for digital marketing in the arts? Here are findings from a survey of 180 U.S. arts organisations by Capacity Interactive.

We ran our first focus group with our Audience Panel and they had a lot to say about how they find out about upcoming arts and culture events.

Global Web Index's report on millennials' online behaviors and their attitudes to digital and marketing.

How to engage with family audiences - from your programming, to customer experience and marketing.

This research explored UK audiences' behaviours during lockdown, their wants and needs post-Covid and marketing opportunities for arts & culture organisations moving forward.

Research into the media preferences and habits of over 25,000 US performing arts customers.

10 personas for UK cultural audiences. These are a great way to visualise your audience once you know where they're coming from.

Older people are a growing population - both in Northern Ireland and globally. Here's how to make your cultural offering and marketing appeal to this group.

This resource from The Wallace Foundation in the USA gives some refreshingly fact-based strategies for attracting millennials.

Earlier this month, we were invited to take part in the Festivals Forum, where we presented some of our findings on festival audience attendance over the last 4 years. The meeting provided us with great insight into trends from across NI festivals. Eve discusses in this report.

This in-depth qualitative study looks at arts audiences from 20 organisations across the UK, uncovering why people attend shows, events, and galleries - and what holds them back from engaging more.

Insights from the ticketing data of up to 343 cultural organisations across the UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada.

This report from NISRA gives the overall picture on who is living in Northern Ireland, and covers population growth, travel and transport, technology use and more.

A national survey from Arts Council of Ireland looking at attendance and participation in the arts in ROI.

The iBeholder pilot was developed to help us discover new ways to gather audience data for non-ticketed visual arts organisations and boost the audience experience. This report details everything that happened throughout the project and the insights we uncovered during the pilot.

Get an evidence-based strategy to deliver your objectives.

Uncover the insight in your box office data.

Practical ways to create an email strategy that increases sales and improves customer loyalty.

'The Touring Marketing Map’ is a mind map guide created by the AMA to help motivate organisations with their marketing campaigns.

If you're confused about who you can market to via email under the new GDPR regulations, this handy flow chart will help you identify what you need to do.

Are you a theatre company or producer showing your work in a receiving venue? The toolkit will help you prep all the info you and your venue need to market your show effectively.

In this blog post, our CEO Fiona explains her take on the differences, and how audience development is the only way to meaningful change.

GDPR has had a major impact on email marketing. There are new and more rigorous standards on who you can email to. Here's what that means for marketers.

Thinking BIG! is a guide to building and using strategic marketing plans for arts organisations by consultant Stephen Cashman

Before we can see the effects of GDPR, here's a breakdown of how well Northern Irish venues are capturing contact details and permissions for their ticket buyers.

Thrive's Sarah Blake Knox shares the latest arts marketing news and resources from this year’s Arts Marketing Association conference.

Maurane Ramon shares her thoughts as an arts marketer new to Northern Ireland’s geographical, cultural, and political landscapes.

Using scenarios can help develop a rounder view of your audience, and give insights where personas just don't apply.

How East Durham Creates used an audience-led approach to change the low levels of arts engagement in the area.

Author: Nikki Locke, East Durham Creates

As we're noticing the impact of the latest Apple update on social media advertising, we wrote a blog to explain what it's all about and the challenges it brings to arts and culture organisations.

We recently deactivated our Instagram account. We're telling you why in our latest blog.

Our family friendly toolkit will help you to welcome families and anticipate their needs.

Sarah interviews Katy Raines, a well known arts marketing expert. Katy explains what segmentation is, why it works and includes case studies of successful segmentation.

If you're a producer that brings work to receiving venues, you may think it's difficult to get a hold of your audience data for those shows. This blog clears up who has a right to the data. Plus, you'll get tips on how to work with venues to share this data, and increase audiences for everyone.

Get the low-down on recording images of audiences under GDPR, and download our template to make your own event photography notice.

How popular is online booking with Northern Irish arts ticket buyers - and how does it differ between urban and rural contexts?

'Legitimate Interests' could be the saving grace for many arts and culture organisations who want to hold on to their marketing lists.

Confused about consent for GDPR? Whizz through this checklist and see where you're at.

How the V&A combined digital, physical, and personal welcomes to create a great visitor experience.

Author: Kati Price

We worked with Shannon Yee to find an audience for her immersive theatre installation. An example of how communication with box office and front of house staff is vital for marketing alternative theatre.

Kelly-Anne Collins from Dance Resource Base writes on the importance of taking the time to understand and communicate the ‘why’ of your organisation.

A checklist of practical information to give to your potential visitors or event attendees.

How GDPR still applies in times of crisis and tips on how to ensure you've got it right

Limited time to get the word out about what you do? Or not sure where to start? Download our communications plan template and get all angles covered.

In early July, Sarah and Maurane hopped over to sunny Brighton for the Arts Marketing Association
conference. Maurane was invited over as a speaker and Sarah decided to tag along and mingle with over 750 representatives from the UK’s cultural sector. The conference, themed "Be Bold, Be Brave," featured thirty-five talks over two days. Here are some key lessons in bravery that Sarah learned.

How receiving venues can make the most of their visiting companies' fans.

Author: Sian Dudley, Arts Professional

Audience development. It’s an objective that is close to our hearts here at Thrive. This summer, we decided to delve deeper into it, meeting with people from various parts of Northern Ireland’s arts and cultural sector (festivals, producers, galleries, and venues) The aim? To get an insight into the unique challenges each group faces around building and maintaining audience relationships.

This toolkit from the Tourism NI walks through how to market your cultural product as a tourism experience.

Our strategic insights director Chris Palmer blogs on his return to thrive after three years away.

Sadler's Wells explain how they increased their membership scheme while at the same time reducing the membership discounts.

Author: Sebastian Cheswright Cater, Arts Professional

When you're starting any kind of research - the first thing to do is to check what's already out there. Here are our top free online sources of audience information.

How National Theatre of Scotland is using digital creatively to improve access and grow Deaf audiences.

Confused about GDPR? Here is a quick and easy guide to what you need to know to get started.

Use this template to create a powerful one-page persona that helps you focus on your target audiences.

Musing on the language around cultural audiences - can we borrow some ideas from sport?

Katy Raines, co-founder & partner at Indigo Ltd and Associate of thrive, writes about GDPR and COVID-19 for arts organisations.

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions we've been getting from the cultural sector on GDPR.

Last August, we invited Olly Davies from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to share his experience of using audience data to make positive lasting changes to their overall strategy.

Three proven ways to get performing arts audiences to re-attend.

Make sure your research delivers the results you want. This toolkit will help you design a research brief to do just that.

Sign-up forms, subscription confirmations, welcome emails... they're all opportunities to get the message out there about who you are and why a potential audience member should buy a ticket or plan a visit.

We've talked audience development with hundreds of organisations across Northern Ireland (and further afield!). So here are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear about understanding and growing cultural audiences.

VR is an exciting new opportunity for arts, culture, and heritage. But is there really an audience for it, and can it be used as an audience development tool? Fiona Bell reports from the Culture Geek conference.

It's been a year since GDPR hit our inboxes. How have companies and cultural organisations coped, and what are the most common misunderstandings around the legislation?

What ticketing data can tell us about the effects of funding cuts on the arts in Northern Ireland.

For our new themes for 2021/2022, we take a closer look at a typical audience journey, from the first time they hear about you to when they become loyal customers, and all the steps in between. Read our introduction and first step of the audience journey.

Are cultural organisations too focused on new audiences - at the expense of encouraging and rewarding loyal visitors? Here's how and why arts organisations should be promoting audience loyalty.

Talking to your audiences online and encouraging them to post comments and interact is a great way to draw attention to your offer, and increase audience loyalty. Here are the best ways to get started, and deal with any negative comments too.

Every year, we mine box office data to uncover insights into audiences for venues and festivals across Northern Ireland. Data includes overall benchmark figures for NI, as well as differences by Belfast venues and regional venues.

Our Client Programme Coordinator Sarah looks at examples of how organisations outside of the arts and culture sectors exceed their audiences' expectations. Read her blog to find out her key takeaways.

The lowdown on the newest ways cultural organisations can use digital to connect with their audiences.

A run-down of all the ways to find out about your current and potential audiences. These range from simple and no-cost solutions, to more sophisticated box office systems.

Clever use of social proof can help you use your current audience to encourage new visitors to your cultural venue or events.

Advice from MOMA on using digital to connect with visual arts audiences, and a spotlight on creating a digital plan for heritage organisations.

Our strategic insights director Chris invites NI festivals and venues with box office systems to take part in a returning favourite, our Foundations bench-marking project.

Why green issues matter to audiences and how the cultural sector is well-placed to make a positive impact on the environment.

The action-research report from Cinegi profiles their efforts to bring filmed theatre, ballet, and opera to libraries and village halls across England.

How much will your audience pay for a show or experience? And do lower prices de-value your product? Here's the research behind effective pricing strategies.

How you can use images to connect with your audiences.

How trying to serve and attract everyone can harm your cultural organisation.

Our CEO Fiona attended the Family Arts Conference and learnt a lot about ticket prices. Read her blog to find out her key takeaways.

The Foundations 2019-2023 report was made to study look at the ticketing landscape in Northern Ireland in recent years, including festivals. We learned a lot from it. So, we decided to talk to a few Northern Ireland festivals that weren't in the report. We wanted to find out what they thought about the trends for the next year.

How and when does an interest in an artform translate into attending and participating in it? In June, our resident BOSS Eve attended the 'Interest Into Action' TEA Break session hosted by the Audience Agency. This session led Eve to doing some investigating into this concept of her own with some very interesting results.

Margaret Henry talks about the importance of looking after your own well-being in the arts, culture, and heritage sectors and brings the top five tips back for increasing your resilience  from this year's CO3 conference.

There is wealth of free information about your current and potential audiences available through your social media and website. Here's how to access it and build a picture of your online audiences.

With the new StopCOVID NI app up and running, Sarah looks at the implications of GDPR in contact tracing and what it means for your organisation.

Outburst Queer Arts Festival introduced their own ticketing strategy 'More if/Less if' to make their programme more accessible. They're one of our 2019/2020 Audience Delight Winner.

In this guest blog, Sarah McAvera from Golden Thread Gallery, shares her experience of attending "free" cultural events with her family, which often come with hidden prices. She explores whether this outcome is inevitable or if organisations can implement changes to provide more budget-friendly and accessible family programming.

How can you know more about your audiences? We're listing free tools that you already have access to and tips on how to use them.

When it comes to collecting audience data, free, non-ticketed spaces always ask us the same question: how can we learn more about the people who come through our doors without a ticketing system?

Avoid the awkward when you're writing surveys that ask about gender, and be sure you're asking about the right things in the right ways.

Happy New Year! We're opening the year with a new theme: strengthening your relationship with your audiences and loyalty. It is as important as ever when our cultural spaces remain closed. Read our blog to find out more.

Libraries are routinely reaching audiences that other cultural organisations struggle to. What can we learn from libraries about attracting a more diverse and representative audience?

Thrive's visitor profiling project to learn more about the visitors to six Northern Ireland museums.

Our top tips for designing and running a survey. Find out how to create useful survey questions and get the response rates you need.

Audience development is about building relationships and this is what we will be focusing on to support the sector over the next 12 months.

Our CEO Margaret attended the Westminster Media Forum event recently, and came away with a lot of ideas and questions for digital transformation in the NI arts, culture, and heritage sector.

When audiences visit your organisation for the first time, what can you do to build a lasting relationship with them? Read our blog to find out.

How Young At Art create relaxed performances and an accessible festival experience for their young audience members with additional needs.

Our insights director Chris looks at the ticketing trends and what they say about where people get their cultural fix in NI. Do ticket-buyers in Belfast stick to city venues - and vice versa?

In this blog, our former Research Executive Victoria explores the different benefits of having a ticketing system.

How Hull Truck Theatre improved the accessibility of their website and online booking process.

Author: Danielle McLoughlin

How using focus groups helped The Crescent understand how their audience sees them, and led to a new brand and website that's showcasing the best of what they offer.

Change in the cultural sector is often associated with fighting funding cuts - but organisational change is essential to survive and thrive in our fast-paced environment. Our CEO Margaret Henry shares her thoughts and experience on the challenges and benefits of change.

How can the NI arts and cultural scene adapt to social distancing measures after the lockdown? Our Chief Executive Margaret Henry tries to find out.

Grassroots venues play a vital role in maintaining the longevity of the music sector. In this blog, Eve explores the challenges facing local grassroots music venues and what could be done to support their long term success.

We found that demonstrating the value of arts and culture, and the impact it can have on people and their communities is not an easy task. EastSide Arts' project 'The Gert and Friends' is a great example of how it can be done through co-creation.