AudienceDevelopment

Foreword

In an attempt to empower cultural organisations and enhance access to European and international funding opportunities, the Cultural Contact Point (Malta) has, in the past few years, strategically chosen to move away from the mere dissemination of information through formalised infodays to an approach which favoured direct coaching on project development and implementation.

Growth & Development

Strategic growth is at the heart of this process. With some organisations we had to work on organisational and internal growth whilst with others we focused more on developing their products and services. Before projecting targets and goals, an honest and realistic stocktaking of an organisation’s existing and potential resources is often required. In this context, CCP’s role is to enable a fresh outsider’s look at the organisation.

Our aim was to turn CCP workshops into real incubators of practical insights where peers share experiential knowledge and resources. In the process and in collaboration with stakeholders and colleagues, we have developed a number of reference notes and guiding questions, tips, tools and exercises. They are simple and fundamental.

The majority of these recommendations focus on analysis. The underpinning narrative, however, is that vision is king (or queen) and that one can never afford to stray from it.

Audience Development is a flexible term. Its meaning depends on a

specific need and context.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin”

Problem 1: The term audience development is ‘faceless’ and dehumanised; an abstraction.What does your audience look like right now?What would your ideal audience look like?

The assumption here is that, just like your organisation, your audience is also in a process of development. The audience you had at your initial stages is different (in some ways, maybe not in others) from the way it looks today. Without a process of analysis and of consciously addressing your goals in terms of which audience you want to attract, this crucial dimension of your organisation will be a drifting component which might be at odds with your plans and projections. If handled well, on the other hand, this can lead to a more effective and consistent operational experience.

Exercise 1: If your business were a person, what would it look like? What gender would it be? How old would s/he be? What company (network) does s/he keep? Who are his/her closest friends? Rivals? What pub does s/he drink at? Where does s/he spend his money? What good/bad habits would this person have? What political, ethical, religious beliefs would that person embrace? This series of questions can be extended to open up the exercise on a number of levels.

From the exercise above, how likely is it that these two people meet? Where? How? Why?

Points to ponder:1. Audience development could mean expanding one’s customer base or focusing on a yet-unreached segment of the market.

2. Are you interacting with the people you want to be interacting with? If not, why?

3. Audience development is about healthy relationships through which value is added to the organisation, individual players and customers alike. What capital can you generate through these relationships? Which new works, products, experiences can result from the development of this relationship?

Growth

The tree is the clichéd metaphor for growth. It can be useful but somewhat limiting if one perceives growth only in terms of what one sees above the ground. The branches growing outwards are a reminder of the expansion of the roots underground, away from public view. Healthy growth requires equilibrium.

Let us assume that the branches are the ‘products and services’ whilst the roots symbolise ‘internal organisational growth’.

The black stick drawing on page 14 represents the organisation’s core activities and resources. They have been reduced to three for the sake of simplicity and ease of reference. If you feel that your operation cannot be mapped on 3-5 core (external) activities and 3-5 core (internal) skills, then your organisation might be fragmented or heavy in administration. There are no rules about this but, in general, simplicity works.

Core principles should not be confused with organisational size. A very large organisation can still be focused enough to identify with a small number of core values, while a micro-organisation can possess a multitude of skills which, if not well-structured, may lead to internal confusion and lack of focus in its interaction with audiences.

“Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.

Robert Strauss”

Exercise 2: a) In this exercise we use a ‘tree diagram’ to map an organisation’s current position and its aspirations for the future. Label the black branches and roots with your current products and skills. This is a map of where the business is at right now. b) When (a) is done. Take a coloured pen and expand those three branches and three roots with labels that reflect needs directly associated with them. These could therefore be improvements to one’s products and/or skills that are lacking within the organisation.c) With a different coloured pen, once (a) and (b) have been done, add as many minor branches and roots as you wish. These would need to reflect either minor targets that can be achieved relatively easily or the very long-term vision of the organisation.

i. Permeability map of the organisation

Permeability: Audience development is about ‘reaching out’ as much as it is about ‘inviting in’.

Exercise 3: The maps below help us plot out the different levels of accessibility and permeability of our organisations and products.

Inside the keyhole goes the list of those who have direct access to the organisation, both in terms of people and space, and to our products and services. Outside of the keyhole goes the list of the ‘ideal audience’ as identified in Exercise 1.

ii. Permeability map of products & services

Points to ponder: 1. In considering accessibility, what level of organisational depth would you consider as accessible? 2. How far in your organisation can an outsider get? Can an outsider speak to all the employees? To frontdesk only? To all the workers including top management?3. How does your permeability map resonate with the core values (philosophy) and objectives of the organisation?4. Who would you like to keep out from your organisation (eg. time-wasters, competitors) or away from your products and services? 5. Is your operation’s access managed? 6. How can you capitalise on managed access?7. How accessible/tolerant is the organisation’s culture to failure and mistakes? How does that impact the development of its products?

“Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.

Tony Robbins

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Case Studies

Fictional Organisation Zero has been producing a theatre performance for an average audience of 500 people per night for about 10 years. Touring the performance is the main revenue of the organisation.

The revenue is stable but the price for this stability is a static audience portfolio which the company is eager to change without compromising revenues. Management is insisting on increasing bums on seats and revenues. How can a new production address all of these issues satisfactorily?

Points to Ponder:1. The performance is just one product. How is the organisation going to capitalise on the production process as a product? (eg. open rehearsal sessions, talks in educational institutions, commercial artist residencies, apprenticeships)2. What capital can be created if the new performance is not ‘expanded’ to a larger audience but ‘shrunk’ to a very intimate group? 3. Can a medium-sized organisation afford to ‘shrink’ its products? How does that affect its expenditure, audience reach, internal communications and work ethic, administration, skills, ancillary products, other aspects? 4. On the other hand, what capital can be created if the audience is really ‘expanded’, perhaps doubled in numbers? What is the growth there? What is the equilibrium between income and expenditure on an organisation’s internal structure?

Text (except quotes) by Glen Calleja, Design by Ritianne Muscat.Produced by the Cultural Contact Point (Malta) in collaboration

with the Culture and Audiovisual Unit, Parliamentary Secretariat for Culture and Local Government.

Printed 2013.www.culture.org.mt