In our purposefully cross-genre, cross-region, and member-led conversation groups, we invited participants to share about their pandemic-era goals and expectations for digital content, packaging, and marketing. 

Below are some of the key themes that emerged over our two days of discussion.

Donations Were the Primary Goal of Many Monetization Efforts

When polled about their primary goals for digital monetization, a plurality of members (42%) said their primary goal was to solicit small donations from new and existing donors. To paraphrase the words of one member, the attention, energy, and donations of new viewers don’t “cover the effort, but they embolden the confidence of existing donors who have been making it happen all along — and that means bigger donations in the end.” Members agreed that they would be losing out if they did not attach bold and frequent asks to their digital efforts, and that donors are willing to be generous even in moments of crisis. 

Among those who solicited donations, a handful indicated that while donations were their primary focus, they had also sought income elsewhere, so their efforts did not fit cleanly into any one monetization model. One theatre said it combined individual donations, encouraged by a mayoral endorsement, with corporate sponsorship — generating some $100M (USD) in revenue. On the other hand, a ballet company repackaged the new content created during the pandemic to launch a password-protected, on-demand streaming platform. The platform was made available to donors at the $2K (USD) level or above, incentivizing substantial new income while keeping existing donors engaged. 

Others indicated that they had no ‘in-pandemic’ monetization goal, instead seeking to invite patrons to engage in a way that was most comfortable for them. Offering digital content for free enabled one member to recapture a number of supporters lost along the way, while still raising $250K (USD) across platforms. 

Digital Monetization Exceeded Expectations - Particularly In Reach

When polled about the performance of their digital initiatives relative to their expectations, 41% of participants said that performance moderately exceeded expectations. With digital being such a new space, there were many lessons to be learned, but also unexpected avenues for success.

Many of our members expressed being particularly excited about the numbers of new, smaller donors coming in from donation-based digital monetization efforts. During this time of innovations in online art forms, several organizations benefited from increased media exposure of their efforts, leading them to attract a wider range of audiences than they had anticipated. The important question moving forward will be, as one member said, “how to steward those people, find out who they are, and extend the donations.”

There were several viewpoints on exactly how to manage relationships with these new-to-file audiences. Several organizations shared that building more national and international brand awareness was a valuable end in itself. One opera member mentioned that a popular music lover could see their content and want to experience a visit to the opera, even just for a one-time visit, and that this could be a positive way to broaden the organization’s appeal.

Arts Organizations Learned Important Lessons About Audience Behavior

A key data point that members paid attention to during the pandemic was the way in which their audiences were engaging with content, particularly around length. One performing arts institution shared that they noticed their donors and subscribers spending much more time with their digital content, whereas new audiences only spent around 20 minutes engaging with any one piece -- a length that shrunk over the past year. Other members had similar experiences seeing closer audiences prefer longer-form content. For new audiences, some organizations have turned to social media like Tik Tok to accommodate those shorter attention spans.

It was also important for arts organizations to track the type and format of content that viewers responded to in digital. Several members highlighted stronger audience engagement with pieces that were clearly created for digital, rather than art intended for live consumption that was merely filmed and posted online. Elements of this “digital-first” work included:

• Interactivity: a theatre member emphasized how much audiences are craving “connectivity and community” during this time, and therefore responding well to interactive content

• Immediacy: one orchestra member discussed the excitement of sitting down to watch right as musicians were taking the stage as a strong draw for core audiences.

• Differentiation: a museum member shared the importance of “transformation” when shaping content, describing how people were much more engaged with digital offerings that were truly unique to the virtual space, and not just replicas of live: “content tailored to digital was better than content translated to digital.”

Digital Acted as a Tool for Accessibility

Several members shared the importance of using their digital content to advance their goals of enhancing accessibility within their organizations.

One orchestra shared that they chose to make all digital content fully accessible and free of charge to ensure that all could participate. As a result, they were able to gain a large new following of what they called “accidental tourists” from sites like Facebook, who they are now working to retain as loyal audiences through surveys and moderated chats.

Aside from gaining new audiences through accessible content, there are also benefits for loyal audiences. One opera member shared their experience hearing from audiences who, due to challenges such as age, mobility, and distance, had been unable to attend performances in person. Now, with digital options, these audiences could return to viewing the art that they love.

These positive advances in technology do come with some caveats, as one member mentioned. Not all households have access to high-speed internet, so it is important not to think of digital as a one-stop cure to increasing accessibility for all communities.

Digital Is Here To Stay - But in Different Ways

When polled about the role of digital efforts moving forward, 38% of members said their organization will use digital to enhance the value proposition for current audiences, while using digital to enhance marketing and communications to engage existing audiences closely followed, at 25%.

It will be important for arts organizations to listen to their audiences to understand where to position digital content in their offerings. For example, in one theatre’s survey of current subscribers, they discovered two trends for the digital future:

• Overwhelmingly, their subscribers want a continuation of behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast, crew, and creative team

• Subscribers also want to have recorded productions handy so they can watch performances at a later date

Although this theatre had produced digital behind-the-scenes content prior to the pandemic, it is clear that there has been a shift in what their subscribers find valuable since closure. Now, subscribers see digital content as an important benefit aspect of their membership. With this knowledge, the organization can use digital content as a true enhancement to their value proposition. 

Members also shared examples of using the digital medium to creatively supplement future live productions. One opera company is using the digital space to explore the intersection between opera and film, using film elements to digitally enhance a live production. Being in a city with avid film lovers, this opera can not only keep current and new audiences engaged, but can also lean into creative partnerships with existing film societies in the city, immediately opening up the door for innovation. Another theatre has launched a podcast on Spotify where they will provide dramaturgical conversations, Q&As with the director, and pre-show design talks — new and modern ways of preparing patrons to see live shows.

Overall, members agreed that digital should be an ongoing engagement tool after reopening, formulating digital packages around a particular in-person performance or exhibition. There are two implications behind this assertion:

1. Supplementary digital content, like behind-the-scenes interviews, can enhance the value proposition for particular motivations that audience members have, such as helping passionate arts audiences gain deeper insight into your art, or providing stimulating educational content for those who are life-long learners. 

2. Digital content has the potential to further heighten the emotional elements of art, which is rewarded with high loyalty and stickiness. 

In order to truly use these elements to our advantage, our digital objective must be uniquely different from that of our in-person events, most notably, bonding with our audiences in a more higher-order, emotional way above the artform itself. 

Key Questions Still Remain

While our members have learned many valuable lessons through their digital experimentation over the course of the pandemic, there are still areas where the arts world continues to explore. Some of the questions our members raised during the sessions and continue to think about are:

• What investment of effort, money, time, and more will be necessary to execute high quality digital content? How much of our organization’s resources are we willing/able to direct towards digital?

• Can digital be an opportunity to experiment with more innovative artistic content in an arena that is lower stakes than live?

• How will we think about digital ticket options when we reopen? Will we keep a digital-only revenue stream or tie to live performances? What will we charge?

• How do we navigate choosing a platform that works best for our digital offerings, especially if we plan to have less frequent digital content?

We look forward to continuing to support our members throughout these unprecedented experimentations in digital.