Audience Engagement: It's All in the Timing
1/11/17
You book a fabulous vacation a month from now… 4 weeks to dream about relaxing.
Labor Day is 137 days away… what are you going to do with all that sun?
That month between Tony nominations and the telecast… waiting is total agony.
The Point? Anticipation is half the experience. According to a 2010 study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, just planning or anticipating a vacation can make you happier than actually taking it. And engagement with anything related to that trip increases significantly.
It stands to reason that Broadway audiences experience a similar increase in engagement leading up to a show. They are voracious in their interest in content, cross-selling, and engagement with the production and venue in the weeks (sometimes months) leading up to their performance.
How much more engaged? Up to 3X as much.
In 2016, Shubert tracked several key metrics across all multiple channels channels (email, retargeting display, pre-attendance incentive platforms, and in-theatre engagement) and compared pre-purchase with post-purchase/pre-attendance. Specifically, we tracked:
1.Content Click-Through Rates (CTR)
2.Marketing Opt-Ins for Future Communication
We were astonished at the shift in engagement.
Users clicked through marketing messages at an average rate of .8% before purchasing—on par with industry standards.
After a purchase, those numbers dramatically increased across multiple channels. Email click-throughs rise to between 1-3%; pre-attendance email incentives generated a 10% average CTR; in-venue digital app advertising yielded a 20% click-through rate.
Labor Day is 137 days away… what are you going to do with all that sun?
That month between Tony nominations and the telecast… waiting is total agony.
The Point? Anticipation is half the experience. According to a 2010 study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, just planning or anticipating a vacation can make you happier than actually taking it. And engagement with anything related to that trip increases significantly.
It stands to reason that Broadway audiences experience a similar increase in engagement leading up to a show. They are voracious in their interest in content, cross-selling, and engagement with the production and venue in the weeks (sometimes months) leading up to their performance.
How much more engaged? Up to 3X as much.
In 2016, Shubert tracked several key metrics across all multiple channels channels (email, retargeting display, pre-attendance incentive platforms, and in-theatre engagement) and compared pre-purchase with post-purchase/pre-attendance. Specifically, we tracked:
1.Content Click-Through Rates (CTR)
2.Marketing Opt-Ins for Future Communication
We were astonished at the shift in engagement.
Users clicked through marketing messages at an average rate of .8% before purchasing—on par with industry standards.
After a purchase, those numbers dramatically increased across multiple channels. Email click-throughs rise to between 1-3%; pre-attendance email incentives generated a 10% average CTR; in-venue digital app advertising yielded a 20% click-through rate.
Marketing opt-ins—typically around 50% (a large number by industry standards)—jump to an average of 85% for channels that engage with the audience before they attend and in-theatre before the performance.
These are impressive numbers and point to the need to give more thought to pre-experience messaging. By fine-tuning the way we communicate with consumers during this high-engagement period, we can achieve several key goals:
1.Create a dialogue that leads to the next Broadway visit
2.Engage NYC tourists with supplemental trip planning to enhance their visit
3.Encourage social sharing, recommendation making, and experience feedback (through closed channels)
Audiences excited about attending your show are our best advocates, fans, and sources of information; once the curtain comes down and they exit the theatre, such a high level of engagement is unlikely. So how are you talking to your most engaged segment?
Find out more about The Shubert Organization at www.shubert.nyc.
1.Create a dialogue that leads to the next Broadway visit
2.Engage NYC tourists with supplemental trip planning to enhance their visit
3.Encourage social sharing, recommendation making, and experience feedback (through closed channels)
Audiences excited about attending your show are our best advocates, fans, and sources of information; once the curtain comes down and they exit the theatre, such a high level of engagement is unlikely. So how are you talking to your most engaged segment?
Find out more about The Shubert Organization at www.shubert.nyc.