Big Little Lies
9/28/17
A former Google employee published a book this summer called Everybody Lies, a compilation of discrepancies in what people say and what we search. One example? He compared statements made about husbands on social media, where the top terms were “the best,” “my best friend,” and “amazing,” with search terms on Google, where the top husband-related descriptions included “a jerk,” “annoying,” and “mean.”
We like to make ourselves (and our husbands) look good on social media, so what? Well, research has revealed for decades that we lie in anonymous surveys too. Back in 1950, researchers collected data on residents of Denver including voter participation, charitable giving, and library membership. Then they surveyed the residents and found… yep, they lied. The survey responses were very different than the data.
So we wondered: do people lie about Broadway? We compared self-reported survey responses published by the Broadway League to the hard numbers in the Audience Rewards database.
Here’s what we found:
-- When asked how many shows they’ve seen in the past year, survey respondents replied with an average of 5; our purchase data shows an average of 2. This doesn’t necessarily mean theatergoers are lying. It’s possible they don’t remember correctly or that they attended with a friend, and as such, the additional purchase isn’t associated with their name. And some may get tickets through unofficial sources not included in our data.
-- Buyer demographics look different in the data, too. Survey respondents reported a younger average age and higher average income than our information shows.
Lies or not, we see these results as an encouraging sign of how Broadway is valued by our customers. Along with wishing to be younger and richer than they are, people aspire to be more frequent theatergoers, and we’re not going to lie: we like the sound of that.
Learn more about Audience Rewards at www.AudienceRewards.com.
We like to make ourselves (and our husbands) look good on social media, so what? Well, research has revealed for decades that we lie in anonymous surveys too. Back in 1950, researchers collected data on residents of Denver including voter participation, charitable giving, and library membership. Then they surveyed the residents and found… yep, they lied. The survey responses were very different than the data.
So we wondered: do people lie about Broadway? We compared self-reported survey responses published by the Broadway League to the hard numbers in the Audience Rewards database.
Here’s what we found:
-- When asked how many shows they’ve seen in the past year, survey respondents replied with an average of 5; our purchase data shows an average of 2. This doesn’t necessarily mean theatergoers are lying. It’s possible they don’t remember correctly or that they attended with a friend, and as such, the additional purchase isn’t associated with their name. And some may get tickets through unofficial sources not included in our data.
-- Buyer demographics look different in the data, too. Survey respondents reported a younger average age and higher average income than our information shows.
Lies or not, we see these results as an encouraging sign of how Broadway is valued by our customers. Along with wishing to be younger and richer than they are, people aspire to be more frequent theatergoers, and we’re not going to lie: we like the sound of that.
Learn more about Audience Rewards at www.AudienceRewards.com.
Originally published in Broadway Briefing.