The Eight Motivational Segments in the Arts

In Feb-Apr 2020, ABA surveyed arts patrons (N=4600) from several ABA members about their experiences around a notable performance, motivations & values, as well as other contextual factors surrounding overall attendance.

One of the biggest takeaways we found was that meeting the patron’s motivation for attending the performance (e.g. ‘see art performed at the highest level’; ‘have an entertaining escape’; ’be a part of something culturally significant) was the most important lever in influencing loyalty to your organization.

Knowing that motivations matter in the arts, we were able to mathematically cluster different motivations together, also taking into account attributes of people who had those motivations, including their values, so we could see the emotions behind their motivations. 

Here we present the 8 most common and important motivational segments in full detail, including each segment’s percent of your audience, motivations/values, demographics, and other loyalty characteristics.

(Click image to enlarge)