Author: Amy Moon, Canberra Theatre Centre
Date published: 16 April, 2003
Copyright: Canberra Theatre Centre

This case study looks at Canberra Theatre Centre's (CTC) Under 27 (U27) new audience and market development scheme aimed at attracting youth audience attendance at the Centre, and other arts venues around the ACT.

Introduction

Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) introduced a New Audience and Market Development scheme in 2000 aimed at attracting youth audience attendance at the Centre, and other arts venues around the ACT. Partially funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Under 27 (U27) scheme aimed to encourage theatre attendance of Canberra’s youth by offering discounted tickets as well as other benefits, including a quarterly update magazine, discounts to selected local retailers, invites to U27 events and special offer emails. The CTC program of shows has been diversified as part of the U27 youth scheme to include more shows which appeal to a youth audience. 2000 included La Boite Theatre Company’s X-Stacy, the 2001 season included Arena Theatre Company’s Eat Your Young, both of which are shows with high youth appeal, and 2002 showcased Legs On The Wall’s Runner’s Up.

Market Research

Canberra Theatre Centre acknowledged the need to both build an audience for the future and to develop effective and attractive strategies to directly target new audiences. After researching the audiences and scrutinising the demographic results, it was found that the average patron was a 42 year old female. In response to these findings, a new youth scheme was developed to attract a younger audience and sustain their patronage for the future.

Isolating the main hindrances for young people in attending theatre as price, communication and programming, the CTC aimed to encourage young patrons to regularly attend theatre by specific targeting of arts attendees, non-theatre attenders, tertiary students and young business people.

CTC identified a target group as 18 – 27 year olds, and further split this demographic into tertiary students and young professionals.

In deciding a name for the scheme, CTC used the working title of Y27 until permission was granted from the Bell Shakespeare Company to use their title Under 27. Bell Shakespeare Marketing Director, Jill Berry, had stated Under 27 was to be a theatre pass recognised Australia-wide. Bell Shakespeare was happy to share the title with a program heralded as “Your Pass to the Arts” across Canberra.

Two focus groups, each with 12 youths, were conducted in February 2000. These consisted of a range of theatre attenders (regular and irregular) and non-theatre attenders of varying ages and professions. An outside facilitator asked participants to give their opinion on a series of possible images which would be used as U27 branding. Participants were also asked what the main obstacles were in their lack of theatre attendance in the past, what types of shows they would come and see, why they haven’t attended before and what their preconceived impression of theatre was.

Marketing Strategy

The U27 scheme was implemented as an integrated marketing campaign, utilising the following marketing strategies:

Price
U27 members receive access to discounted tickets not only at the CTC, but also to other arts venues around
Canberra.

Direct Mail
Upon joining, all members are entered into a database, where their details are made accessible for CTC promotional purposes. Members are asked to indicate on their application forms if they would like U27 updates via post or email (with the option of receiving both or neither), and this is recorded in the database. Members who requested updates are added to either a quarterly mail list, or a weekly email update list, both of which advertise special U27 discounts and offers.

Advertising
U27 was advertised in youth oriented publications such as BMA, Buzz and the university student diaries, as well as The Canberra Times.

Public Relations
Media kits were issued to local and regional media, which resulted in a variety of publicity for the scheme, including several radio interviews, stories on the launch and other articles in a range of local publications.

Website
A website was set up in the initial stages of the project, allowing people to apply online and listing upcoming shows. At present, the entire Canberra Theatre Centre website is under construction, with a more useful U27 page planned including regular updates, U27 show reviews, and a direct link to email the U27 Coordinator.

Launch
The U27 launch was held on April 18, 2000 in a pseudo-80’s nightclub atmosphere in The Playhouse. A media release was faxed the week prior to the launch to complement the personal invitations already sent to local media.

Target marketing
Intense marketing was carried out at the ACT’s local University and CIT campuses - poster displays, inserts in O-week showbags and stalls at O-week Market Days, in an attempt to reach a large proportion of the target market.

Annual event
An U27 event is scheduled each year to coincide with a show with particular youth appeal. 2001 saw the hugely successful dance party, Artbeat, held in the Canberra Theatre Link after a specially timed performance of Arena Theatre Company’s Eat Your Young.

Budget
A budget was set incorporating artwork design and printing, distribution, advertising, the project launch, development and maintenance of a webpage, and staffing costs for 3 years. CTC presented to the Australia Council, requesting partial funding for the U27 project. The Australia Council approved funding for 47% of the total direct costs for the first two years. U27 was expected to be self-funding after this time.

Partnerships
The initial Under27 proposal was presented to the Australia Council in conjunction with The Australian Choreographic Centre, Canberra Youth Theatre, Canberra Youth Music, Jigsaw Theatre, Ausdance ACT, Stopera & Tuggeranong Arts Centre. CTC realised that in order to effectively reach our Under27 target, all arts organisations in Canberra would need to work together. It would be advantageous if arts organisations could collaborate in their marketing efforts to strengthen their current patron base.

At present, Under27 has 17 partnering arts organisations across the ACT. In addition to those listed above, ACT Writers Centre, Canberra Repertory, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Free-Rain Theatre Company, Macquarie Trio, music FOR everyone, Musica Viva, National University Theatre Society, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and The Street Theatre offer discounted tickets to Under27 members.

Under27 partners receive free advertising through the quarterly under.current magazine sent to members who requested information upon joining.

Six local retailers; Antigo Café & Bar, Collins Booksellers, Hippo Lounge Bar, Impact Records, Tutu Tango and Next Hair each offer discounts to members, and in return, receive free promotion and advertising through member updates.

Pricing Policy
As cost was the number one restriction in young people attending Canberra Theatre Centre, the pricing policy would be a fundamental element of the project. Tertiary students have a less expendable income than young professionals (the two groups who make up the majority of the 18 – 27 demographic), and this difference in income was a large consideration when planning the ticket price.

In 2000, the CTC initiated $20 tickets for all our subscription season shows. In line with an overall price increase the 2003 U27 ticket price to subscription shows increased to $23. Initially, CTC did not offer U27 Subscriptions, as it was believed that U27 ticket buyers were last minute buyers. When later implemented as a result of patron demand, this proved successful, particularly with parents who purchased subscriptions for their U27 aged children.

Implementation Issues

The road to implementing the U27 scheme was intermittently disrupted. Staffing became an issue as the influx of memberships (totalling 2749 in 2000) quickly exceeded projected first year membership of 350. Time constraints lead to CTC reassessing the resources and budget committed to the scheme, and resulted in a casual U27 assistant being employed for 10 hours a week.

Difficulties arose in the Box Office as some company’s implemented children’s tickets at a higher price than the U27 tickets, which resulted in patron complaints. This was rectified through negotiation with venue hirer’s, and through the implementation of a CTC child price of $20.

There were delays in the production of the first issue of under.current. The deadline for submissions from external organisations was set for 30 January, as the first edition was to be sent out in March. After a long and tedious chasing process, information was finally received by 18 April, delaying production by 3 months.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the U27 scheme is essentially through membership numbers and U27 ticket sales.

Expecting a total of 750 members after 4 years, U27 has exceeded expectations, achieving over 2500 memberships each year for the last four years. 2003 membership currently stands at 2,387, and is growing by 100 members each week in the lead up to the Bell Shakespeare shows Hamlet and As You Like It (proven favourites with the U27 audience).

In 2003 to date 1627 U27 members are students, compared to 628 young professionals. While this is a healthy ratio, it does highlight the need to continue promoting U27 at Young Business Networks, a practice which has not yet been undertaken in 2003.

In 1999, the youth attendance to CTC productions was 1.2% of total patrons. In 2002 – 2003 the percentage of U27 tickets sold varied depending on the type of show and its appeal to the U27 audience. U27 members made up 7.29% of the total ticket buying audience for the hugely successful Circus Oz. The percentage of U27 members who purchase tickets to Bell Shakespeare Company productions is even higher.

This huge response, which has continued to grow over the last 18 months, indicates the importance of a youth arts scheme in Canberra and that CTC is successfully targeting the 18 – 27 age group.

In order to determine U27 response to our partners and retailers, yearly contact is made asking a series of questions regarding U27 activity at their store/ organisation. Overall, responses have been varied, but positive.

The majority of U27 retailers have continued their association with the project, and U27 partners are all benefiting from the free advertising they receive through under.current and weekly emails.

Plans for the Future

CTC has been committed to the success and longevity of U27, continuing the quarterly production of under.current and the annual U27 event. Stalls will continue to be held at university O-Week market days as a recruitment tool, and email, due to the ease with which it can be forwarded, will used in order to recruit members’ friends… “forward this email to any of your friends you think might be interested in joining!”

A bridging plan to keep ex-U27 member patronage has been introduced for people turning 27, by including exmembers on the mailing list of CTC’s quarterly What’s On brochure. Ex-U27 members are also encouraged to purchase subscriptions, as this is the most economical way they can come to the theatre as adults. This fulfils the U27 aim of securing an audience for the future.

Due to feedback regarding the overloaded nature of our weekly emails, the email format has recently been changed to be simple and easy to read. Feedback has been incredibly optimistic.