Creative New Zealand | Move on Up - 21st Century Audience-Focus Coaching Programme 2010
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“Move on Up has provided a catalyst to bring all staff
on board through a creative strategic process that has
revealed a confidence and excitement about our
future.”
Euan Murdoch, CEO, Chamber Music New Zealand
Creative New Zealand | Move on Up
21st Century Audience-Focus Coaching Programme 2010
A Creative New Zealand National Audience and Market Development initiative
in partnership with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
Introduction
Creative New Zealand, in partnership with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM),
launched Move on Up, a 21st Century Audience Focus Coaching Programme,
in 2007 to enable organisations to move through a change process to
become increasingly vision-led and audience focused.
The aim of Move on Up is for participant organisations, by making this
transition, to understand, reach out to, communicate and engage with more
people, more effectively and, in doing so, to be more successful and stable
organisations.
This exemplar programme is designed to take four organisations through
this development process in 2010. For the programme to work as an
exemplar, it is important that the three organisations selected to participate
are able to embrace and deliver a project that other organisations can
emulate. To do this, selected organisations must have the following five
characteristics:
Financially solvent / strong financial management
Strong leadership
Strong artistic vision
Open to change
Access to their own audience data
Context
The Evolution of Arts Marketing
Research by MHM shows that the development of arts organisations, the
kinds of objectives they set and the changing relationship they seek with the
audience can be mapped onto four distinct stages of evolution described in
the following model:
2PRODUCT FOCUS SELLING FOCUS MARKETING FOCUS AUDIENCE FOCUS
PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT
Assume product is Won’t sell without Enhanced by services Audience focused:
desirable. substantial effort. and responsive product differentiated
relationship. by segments.
MARKETING FUNCTION MARKETING FUNCTION MARKETING FUNCTION
MARKETING FUNCTION Important to sell Communicating Philosophy shared
Information and benefits and build efficiently with throughout
promotion. brand. customers. Feeding organisation.
market intelligence into Organisation
MARKETING the company. responsive and
MARKETING RESOURCES MARKETING communicating
RESOURCES Increasing resources. RESOURCES effectively.
Low resources, low Tactical management Increasing resources. MARKETING
status. status. Research budgets. RESOURCES
Strategic management Allocated as
MARKET KNOWLEDGE status. appropriate to achieve
MARKET KNOWLEDGE Needed to know where MARKET KNOWLEDGE objectives. Research
Irrelevant. to find the market. Understanding of budgets.
location, profile and MARKET KNOWLEDGE
behaviour of existing Understanding of
market. needs, wants, attitudes
and benefits sought.
In each successive stage, the organisation becomes increasingly focused on
its desired relationship with the audience, the impacts that constitute
success and the infrastructure necessary to achieve that success.
In the UK, many performing arts organisations moved away from their
original ‘product’ focus and had initial commercial success in adopting a
‘selling’ or ‘marketing’ focus. Much of the sales and marketing practice they
adopted was imported from the USA. However, most have found that they
were unable to sustain this initial success and that the inevitable increasing
focus on financial targets has produced short-termism and low planning
horizons in both audience and artistic development. Ultimately, they’ve
found that this sales-driven approach conflicts with their artistic vision and
audience development ambitions.
During recent work in New Zealand, MHM found similar patterns and trends;
organisations adopting common practices in international arts marketing
that they do not regard as good practice and which are not routes to ultimate
artistic or audience success.
Move on Up helps arts organisations move swiftly through his evolutionary
curve, reaping the benefits of good sales and marketing practice but
3focusing clearly on the strategic benefits of an artistically-led but audience
focused approach.
Box Office Data
The most significant characteristic of New Zealand performing arts
organisations is that, historically, many do not have control over or
ownership of their Box Office data. This is because many reply on third party
ticketing agencies. Ticket agencies restrict access to the data and therefore
organisations cannot interrogate their own booking records, nor build close
relationships with their patrons. This situation restricts the ability of
organisations to operate as anything other than selling-focused operations.
Use of third party ticket agents, therefore, engenders a passive approach to
audience development. This development programme aims to help
organisations become more proactive in building and conducting
relationships with their customers.
Arts organisations in New Zealand are already recognising the need for
control of their data. Creative New Zealand has taken the initiative here in the
commissioning of FULL HOUSE: Turning Data into Audiences. A number of
recent developments include the installation of PatronBase and Tessitura
systems in leading organisations and Creative New Zealand’s Vital Statistics
Agency project.
What is the process of change?
Real strategic change requires a fundamental process of review and planning.
It needs to involve everyone in the organisation, from board members to
front of house and draw in funders and other stakeholders. It requires
organisations to revisit and re-articulate their vision and purpose, to
describe how they want to work and how they want to relate to their
audience. It challenges them to define the impact they want to have and to
measure that impact. It requires leadership from the most senior staff and
the re-engineering of the business and its practices.
The external management consultancy that MHM will provide combines the
role of challenger, critical friend, mentor, coach and advocate. It is an
opportunity for professional as well as organisational growth.
4Programme Schedule for 2010
Overview
The Move on Up Audience Focus Coaching Programme provides the only
opportunity of its kind in New Zealand.
Participants concentrate on all aspects of the audience focus process,
benefiting from expert coaching and sharing experiences with one another,
away from the everyday working environment.
The aim is to introduce participants to a set of concepts that will facilitate a
process of change to become an audience focused organisation. This will
involve a seven-stage process:
1 Review
2 Concept, Vision and Objectives
3 Strategy development
4 Performance measurement
5 Implications and planning
6 Implementation
7 Evaluation
Creative New Zealand also requires the organisation to evidence progress
and disseminate learnings to other arts organisations in their role as
exemplars.
The model below illustrates the process:
5Stage 1 | Review
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM) will provide an induction manual and a
template for the organisation to undertake a thorough self-audit, drawing
together data about their market, competition, audience, patterns of
attendance, their marketing and its effectiveness. MHM will request a report
on staff and governance structures and their skill base. Finally MHM will ask
the organisation for existing and previous planning documentation – mission
and vision statements, forward, business and marketing plans, budgets,
details of communication spend, subscription schemes etc. although the
organisation will have thorough guidance notes (paper and web), MHM will
also provide advice, support and clarification by phone and email.
While the organisation is undertaking its own audits, MHM will undertake a
broader situational analysis, looking at any broader market data available;
estimating the size of the market for various art forms; exploring the
political, economic, social, geographical and technological context in which
arts organisations in New Zealand are operating.
Stage 2 | Concept, Vision & Objectives
MHM will spend a full day with the organisation first meeting
with/interviewing key senior managers and then facilitating a day-long
workshop for staff and stakeholders. The workshop will introduce the
concept of audience focus and challenge the organisation to apply the seven
characteristics of an audience focused organisation to its own situation. MHM
will lead participants through a process of re-visiting and re-articulating its
vision and objectives to ensure that audience focus is embedded.
Stage 3 | Strategy development
The organisation will then review its existing strategies and plans and
identify the changes to practices, product, marketing and audience
development required to achieve its audience-focused objectives. MHM will
support this review process remotely with advice and guidance and then
spend a second day with the organisation to help finalise key decisions and
identify any changes to structures and practices that may be required.
6Stage 4 | Performance measurement
MHM will guide the organisation through the process of identifying measures
and targets that will constitute a framework of performance indicators for the
development process.
Stage 5 | Implications and planning
The organisation will then turn the agreed strategy into specific detailed
plans that allocate responsibility, resources and timescales. Again MHM will
review these and offer feedback, support, advice and guidance as necessary.
Stage 6 | Implementation
The organisation will implement its plans. MHM will monitor their progress
and provide advice on how to keep their development programme on-track.
MHM will spend a third day with the organisation, reviewing progress and
helping to resolve problems that are a risk to the programme’s success.
Stage 7 | Evaluation
Using the performance indicator framework, the process and its outcomes
will be documented. MHM will help the organisation to gather and evaluate
three types of information:
impacts of Move on Up on the audience
impacts of Move on Up on the organisation
reflections on the operation of the Move on Up programme itself
The latter two will have meaningful results by the end of June 2010.
The organisation is required to continue reporting the first two over a longer
timescale (2 – 3 years).
7Consultancy Team
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre is a creative and intelligent UK-based arts
management consultancy working in the interests of audience and
organisational development.
The company combines thorough project planning with incisive, deep
analysis, lateral thinking and detailed, intelligent strategic planning to
produce relevant, helpful and high quality reports with practical
recommendations.
Their services include:
• strategic analysis, planning, and development
• product and service development
• feasibility studies
• market appraisals
• marketing audits, strategies and plans
• audience development strategies and implementation
• access strategies
• in-service training
• training needs analysis
• training programmes
• organisational development
• change management.
Most of their projects are research-based. They have a fully integrated
market research service that undertakes:
• quantitative research
• qualitative research
• telephone marketing
• community consultation
Move on Up will be led by Andrew McIntyre Co-Director of Morris Hargreaves
McIntyre with input from his colleagues. Andrew is one of the UK’s leading
authorities on arts marketing and audience development. He has devised
some of the most innovative techniques, led highly successful projects and
published widely read texts on how to attract, retain and develop audiences.
8Andrew is a popular speaker and trainer, giving arts professionals real
insight into the minds of the audience, a toolkit of skills and techniques and
the inspiration and confidence to try them out. He doesn’t just do theory – he
is best known for devising the Audience Builder system and powerful tools
such as TestDrive, TelePrompt and Audience Atlas.
Andrew has served as Chair of the Visitor Studies Group UK and teaches
cultural policy at Goldsmiths College, London. Earlier this year, Andrew was a
speaker at Creative New Zealand’s 21st Century Arts Conference and in 2006
he helped set-up the Test Drive pilot initiative with Auckland Theatre
Company, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, The Court Theatre and
Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
Fees
The programme fee is $5,000 plus GST. In return each organisation will
receive a consultancy to the value of $20,000 plus GST through input and
support in three ways:
direct contact (workshops, interviews, coaching)
telephone and email support
written materials (audit structures, planning framework, conceptual
models, insights)
As the programme develops, the organisation may also gain access to
tactical funding for Test Drive, data or other implementation costs.
9Timetable of Outputs
Module Date
Stage 1: Review January ‘10
Stage 2: Concept, Vision, w/c 8
Objectives February ’10
Andrew McIntyre visit to NZ
Stage 3: Strategy w/c 9 April ‘10
Development
Andrew McIntyre visit to NZ
Stage 4: Performance *
measurement
Stage 5: Planning *
Stage 6: Implementation w/c 14 June ‘10
Andrew McIntyre to visit NZ
Stage 7: Evaluation *
* further dates to be advised
Testimonials from 2008 Participants
Chamber Music New Zealand, Centrepoint Theatre and the Fortune Theatre
were the participant organisations in the inaugural Move on Up programme.
Comments from these organisations on the programme include:
“On a daily basis we using the terms 'on-brand', 'outcomes', 'essence' as a
shared vocabulary which is very useful. We are now refining and developing
the identified 'strategies' and 'actions' as constant reference for priorities /
planning / programming.” Rhana Devenport – Gallery Director, Govett-
Brewster Art Gallery
“Move on Up has provided a catalyst to bring all staff on board through a
creative strategic process that has revealed a confidence and excitement about
our future.” Euan Murdoch, CEO, Chamber Music New Zealand
“Profound. The programme has personally come at a time that management
was in need of inspiration and encouragement. It has also provided us with the
10tools to start developing thought and discussion with board, artists and
partners. Response has been uniformly creative, reciprocal and positive. Move
On Up has reintroduced us to our vocation.” James Ashcroft – Creative Director,
Taki Rua Productions
"Move on Up has revolutionised and revitalised our company. We feel like a
bottle of Fanta, given an almighty shake, with the cap ready to blow! Through
Move on Up we have gone from an introspective, dependent company that
chased multiple strategies in the aim of fulfilling shifting objectives to an
audience focused, vision led company that is determined to create its own
future. The brand focus has had an immediate effect; it shapes every decision
we make, from where we invest our financial resources to what loo paper we
choose. Our strategic plan was a document of 35 pages that sat in the drawer. It
is now a one page visual, living document that sits above my desk. I use it daily
to guide my decision making and measure my success. It works for me, not me
for it." Simon Ferry, Artistic Director Centrepoint
“[Move on Up] has taught me that the business and creative sides of arts
management come from the same impulse and it has clarified for me the
purpose and importance of a strategic audience focus in a practical and useable
way.” Simon Vincent – Council Member, Circa Theatre
“I feel that if we knew then what we know now about the process, we would
have been more diligent about the level of Board involvement. I was lucky
enough to attend all three sessions and despite the 100's of these sorts of
things I have been to over the last 20 years, I would rate this as one of the
best.” Scott Mason, Treasurer, Fortune Theatre
“If I have a dilemma or question about what action to take in a situation, a
glance at the plan helps clarify my decision making. When allocating
resources, the plan is clear. It is brilliant having the plan on the wall in front
of me instead of having to leaf through a multi-paged boring document that,
generally, I didn't even believe in that much.” Julie Barnes, Business Manager,
Centrepoint Theatre
“It has given me a new way of looking at how we work and more importantly –
the people we do the work for – our audience.” Janice Marthen, CEO, Fortune
Theatre
Further Information
If you have any questions, please contact Jooles Clements, Senior Adviser
Audience Development, on 09 377 8750 or
jooles.clements@creativenz.govt.nz
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