Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

What is the focus of the study?

Driving Attendance is the largest-ever quantitative initiative examining marketing activity, resource deployment and behaviors in arts and culture organizations. Its purpose is to determine the most effective marketing actions organizations can take right now to drive higher attendance levels in their performance- and exhibition-halls. ABA will deploy a survey tool to simplify data collection for marketing departments. The results of the studies will give organizations examples of the marketing investments that are most likely to lead to attendance gains, as well as the marketing activities that should be protected in difficult budget environments.

What output can I expect?

The study will have a quantitative component and a qualitative component. From the quantitative work, we expect to identify marketing activities, resource allocation and practices associated with organizations that have successfully driven higher attendance numbers. From the qualitative component, members will get practical tools and cases to drive effective marketing efforts.

Among other things, members can use the study to make decisions about how to allocate marketing resources (and identify what most needs protecting in challenging budgeting environments) and to gain inspiration from successful practices of peer organizations.

Will there be more to the study than the quantitative findings?

Yes. At a minimum, we will provide case studies, implementations tools and other support resources to help members implement best-practices surfaced in the course of research. Depending on member interest and insight provided by the quantitative findings, we may solicit nominations for marketing awards, which we will share in webinars and in-person meetings in the winter.

What will happen with the data I provide?

We will store the data in a secure Dropbox or Google Drive account. Organizational data will be deleted at the conclusion of the study. To conduct follow-up analysis, ABA will keep the survey response data, scrubbed of connection to source organizations.

Reporting Results

What data will I receive at the end of the study?

In addition to overall insights from the aggregate analysis of marketing benchmarks, participants in the quantitative phase will receive custom benchmarks of their own survey results versus other organizations.

Do you have a question that was not answered here? Email Brynn Johnson at brynn.johnson@advisoryarts.com.