A presentation delivered to Hart House's governing body of the audience development initiatives I led during the 2013/2014 season at Hart House Theatre
CRM and the Performing Arts - A Report on Hart House Theatre
1. Audience Development Initiatives (2013/2014 Season)
CRM and the Use of Database Marketing at Hart House Theatre
Delivered to Hart House Board of Stewards - February 13, 2014
Created by Spencer MacEachern - Audience Outreach Coordinator, Hart House Theatre
Monday, February 17, 14
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2. CRM is...
“A series of strategies and processes that create new and
mutual value for individual customers, builds preference for
their organizations and improves business results over a
lifetime of association with their customers” - Ian Gordon,
Ivey Business Journal
http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/strategy/crm-is-a-strategy-not-a-tactic#.UwKjyF6j07A
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3. CRM can...
“...allow companies to respond efficiently, and at times
instantly, to shifting customer desires, thereby bolstering
revenues and retention while reducing marketing costs.” Harvard Business Review
http://hbr.org/2004/11/crm-done-right/ar/1
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4. Sources of Hart House Theatre’s
Customer Data
• Email Lists
• Nightly House Counts
• Survey Responses
• Our Box-Office Database
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5. Sources of Hart House Theatre’s
Customer Data
• Email Lists
• Nightly House Counts
• Survey Responses
• Our Box-Office Database
The cleaning, selection and transformation of our raw box-office data into a
usable format was a considerable project undertaken by UofTix between Sept-Dec, 2013
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7. Database Project
10 Years of Subscriber History
Over 850 individual subscribers
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8. Database Project
10 Years of Subscriber History
Over 850 individual subscribers
3,000 plus subscriptions sold
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9. What Can We Do with our Data?
1. Measure Marketing Efforts
2. Build Relationships
3. Focus our Outreach
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10. What Can We Do with our Data?
1. Measure Marketing Efforts
2. Build Relationships
3. Focus our Outreach
Although our box-office software lacks the ability to perform complex analysis a
simple excel sheet tracking subscriber history (with measurements of purchase
frequency, recency and monetary value) offers significant insight into our audience
base and the success/failure of our marketing efforts.
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11. Both Total Subscribers and New Subscribers are Increasing
300
250
200
Total Subcribers
150
Total New Subscribers
100
50
0
2005
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2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
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12. Each Subscriber is Becoming More Valuable
$160.00
$140.00
$120.00
$100.00
$80.00
Average Subscriber Value
$60.00
$40.00
$20.00
$0.00
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
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2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
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13. Each Subscriber is Becoming More Valuable
$160.00
$140.00
$120.00
$100.00
$80.00
Average Subscriber Value
$60.00
$40.00
$20.00
$0.00
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) over 3-years period is $225
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14. We Are Getting Better at Retaining Subscribers
100.0%
80.0%
68.0%
66.2%
62.8%
64.7%
60.0%
59.0%
48.4%
48.1%
40.0%
44.8%
43.1%
Retention Rate
Industry Average
33.8%
20.0%
0.0%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
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15. We Are Getting Better at Retaining Subscribers
100.0%
A 5% increase in retention
80.0%
68.0%
66.2%
62.8%
64.7%
60.0%
59.0%
48.4%
48.1%
40.0%
44.8%
43.1%
Retention Rate
Industry Average
33.8%
20.0%
0.0%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
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16. We Are Getting Better at Retaining Subscribers
100.0%
80.0%
68.0%
66.2%
62.8%
64.7%
60.0%
59.0%
48.4%
48.1%
40.0%
44.8%
43.1%
Retention Rate
Industry Average
33.8%
20.0%
Increases subscriber revenue by 8% in one year and 17% in two
0.0%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
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17. This is What Our Subcriber Base Looks Like
4%
44%
52%
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Retained
New
Reacquired
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18. What Can We Do with our Data?
1. Measure Marketing Efforts
2. Build Relationships
3. Community Outreach
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19. Post-Show Email Project
Responses to Post-Show Emails
Bone Cage
Twelfth Night
The Wedding Singer
100%
Using our box-office database we can send dynamic personalized emails to our
patrons immediately after they attend a performance
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Rate Experience (Percent Favorable) Would you Recommend (Yes/No)?
Monday, February 17, 14
Interest in Extra Events
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20. Post-Show Email Project
Responses to Post-Show Emails
Bone Cage
Twelfth Night
The Wedding Singer
100%
80%
60%
40%
This allows us to conduct surveys and send promotional offers/ special content.
20%
The information collected also enables Hart House Theatre to create targeted
campaigns for future shows based on email responses.
0%
Rate Experience (Percent Favorable) Would you Recommend (Yes/No)?
Monday, February 17, 14
Interest in Extra Events
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23. Some Responses
“We would love to have tickets for the Wedding Singer... we have some other UofT
alumni who want to join us so there will be 6 of us altogether. Is it easier for me to
phone in to give you my credit card details for the other attendees?”
“In addition to the complementary tickets, my wife and I have been contemplating for on
getting a subscription for this year as well, although never got around it due to time
restrictions, and its a great thing you brought this up. Is there any way we could also sign
up for this year subscription?”
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24. Some Responses
25% of those contacted made purchases within a month of the offer
“We would love to have tickets for the Wedding Singer... we have some other UofT
alumni who want to join us so there will be 6 of us altogether. Is it easier for me to
phone in to give you my credit card details for the other attendees?”
“In addition to the complementary tickets, my wife and I have been contemplating for on
getting a subscription for this year as well, although never got around it due to time
restrictions, and its a great thing you brought this up. Is there any way we could also sign
up for this year subscription?”
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25. Some Responses
“We would love to have tickets for the Wedding Singer... we have some other UofT
alumni who want to join us so there will be 6 of us altogether. Is it easier for me to
phone in to give you my credit card details for the other attendees?”
“In addition to the complementary tickets, my wife and I have been contemplating for on
getting a subscription for this year as well, although never got around it due to time
restrictions, and its a great thing you brought this up. Is there any way we could also sign
up for this year subscription?”
However our biggest hope is that we can leverage these
reestablished relationships into subscriptions next season.
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26. What Can We Do with our Data?
1. Measure Marketing Efforts
2. Build Relationships
3. Community Outreach
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27. Question:
How Do We Engage Students with the Theatre?
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28. Question:
How Do We Engage Students with the Theatre?
Go Where the Students Are: On Campus and
Online
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29. Twelfth Night Promotion at Sidney Smith
With our volunteer marketing team we set up a booth at Sidney Smith
where we gave away prizes, sold specially priced student tickets and informed
students about the work at the theatre.
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30. Twelfth Night Promotion at Sidney Smith
We leveraged our relationship with partners like Yelp to give away
unique prizes.
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31. Twelfth Night Promotion at Sidney Smith
Developed over 100 personal contacts with students and drove
awareness of student ticket prices and volunteer opportunities at the
theatre.
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33. Wedding Singer Photo-Booth Contest
For our winter musical, The Wedding Singer, we upped the ante with a tie-in
photo-contest. We built a custom photo-booth invited students to take their
best “wedding” photo, and offered prizes to the photos that received the
most likes on Facebook.
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34. Wedding Singer Photo-Booth Contest
The photo-album was the theatre’s highest reaching FB post for the whole
season seen by 1,300 unique visitors. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.
585532808192839.1073741833.113093908770067&type=1
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35. Other Applications of Customer
Data
1. Segment audiences based on past preferences and behaviour to
tailor future communications.
2. Identify lapsed subscribers to target for personal outreach
initiatives.
3. Survey audiences to test the viability of new programming
initiatives.
4. Celebrate customer milestones and loyalty.
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