Results just published from a major collaborative audience development project in the north west Midlands reveal that the ?Ticketware? scheme run last year by the Regent Theatre Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire?s New Vic Theatre, has achieved unprecedented success.
90,000 households were targeted with a £10 ?2 for 1? joint ticket offer for each theatre, a deal which aimed to attract more theatre-goers within a drive-time radius of 30 to 45 minutes. The areas targeted were chosen following earlier research which indicated that market penetration in the area was low, and attitudes towards the venues were predominantly negative. Fieldworkers hand-delivered and then collected back information packs containing the offer, providing qualitative feedback on customer response.
The project analysis has found that nearly 7,500 people in the target areas who had never been to either theatre took advantage of the joint ticket offer, buying nearly 15,000 tickets. Although musicals emerged as the most popular choice for the new attenders ? 66% at the New Vic and 72% at the Regent Theatre ? considerable gains were also made for drama and opera at both venues. Significantly, by the end of March 2002 20% of the new attenders had already returned to the 1,685-seat Regent, and 15% to the 635-seat New Vic. The buying behaviour of Ticketware participants will be tracked over a period of three years. Future initiatives will include a data-swap between the theatres, giving access to attenders who have visited one venue but not the other, and a venture targeting the under-25s.