After the interval - Five thoughts
What will the public need from us on the 'other side' of the Covid-19 crisis? 5 thoughts for marketing and communications teams:
1
Many people, even those who have only a passing love of music or theatre, will realise how much they miss sharing experiences with others in a live setting, and how central it is to their lives. We won't need to spell out anymore why experiencing something 'live' is better than Netflix or Classic FM (lovely though they are). People will UNDERSTAND.
We need to read the zeitgeist and be ready with open arms to offer them a cornucopia of experiences at that point, and no sooner. Offering people these choices when they are still fearful and apprehensive may make us appear insensitive and opportunistic.
2
Elderly patrons may take a lot longer to come back to concerts in a confined concert hall or theatre environment – so OUTDOOR and ONLINE formats may be particularly important in the medium term.
3
We will need to give strong reassurances and guarantees to people when asking them to book for performances in advance – eg. we may need to offer free exchanges to other performances if they decide they shouldn’t attend, encourage or introduce ticket protection insurance, and remind people that they will always receive a refund for cancelled performances. We may also need to be more upfront with payment plans to allow people to spread payments across the months.
4
We need to find opportunities to allow multiple generations to celebrate being together again. Any cultural events that encourage the old and the young to engage together will be particularly important I think, given our enforced separation at the moment.
5
We need to shout loudly about all the many ways we contribute to the Health and Education of our nation, as these will be the things uppermost in the minds of the public
Flexibly retired Head of Procurement - blue chip experience with FTSE250 organisations within public transport & engineering. Still interested in opportunities to use a great professional skill set.
4yFab post, Katy - personal re-engagement will be hugely challenging after all this is over & accessibility to live performance will play an essential role...hope you’re keeping well
PhD awarded following research funded by Midlands4Cities (M4C) Doctoral Training Partnership at Birmingham City University
4yThanks for your insights. One barrier to re-engaging with older audiences is how to offer the visual as well as audio experience to those who do not use or have access to smart phones or the internet. I'm coming across this problem as I try to set up support links via WhatsApp etc with older people in our local community.
Helping cultural organisations make the most of their websites and digital tools
4yI love this, so nice to be looking forward with optimism and ideas that we can start to plan now, thank you!
Head of Marketing & Sales (Leisure & Heritage)
4yThank you Katy, this is excellent and very much appreciated. I feel despite the situation we’re all in, optimistic about the future. At West Suffolk council Heritage & Leisure it’s going to be a good time to do all the things we know are important, but in reality we don’t do enough of: data cleaning, lots of data analysis, benchmarking, learning to implement new skills (retargeting and social media sentiment analysis for example) reading articles like yours and thinking more. This will lead to a greater knowledge of our existing and potential customers, our market position and ultimately allow us to decide our next objectives before looking at tactics - and we’ll improve individually and as a team for it! It’s all rather exciting really. By the way, all of my team have over the last year read your white paper, Leaky Bucket. x
Chief Operating Officer at Midlands Air Ambulance Charity
4yThanks Katy, this is useful from a non-cultural charity perspective as well, where engagement post-corona is key!