Patternmakers' Privacy Policy

Patternmakers Pty Ltd (ABN 97 627 469 649)

First published: 09 August 2022

Last reviewed: 16 October 2026

Effective date: 15 October 2026

Introduction

Patternmakers Pty Ltd (ABN 97 627 469 649) respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act"). Patternmakers Pty Ltd also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles click here.

This Privacy Policy for Patternmakers Pty Ltd (“Patternmakers”) lets you know what personal information of yours we hold, what we do with it, who we will disclose it to and how you can access the personal information we hold about you. You can also find out here how to change inaccurate personal information and how to opt out of receiving communications from us.

What personal information about you does Patternmakers collect and hold?

The information Patternmakers collect could include name, email address, IP address, age, gender, postcode, household income, opinions and feedback in relation to cultural experiences. When providing personal information you have the option of remaining anonymous or to use a pseudonym to be identified by. However, in certain circumstances, such as where we receive your contact details from a third party or where the research data itself may potentially allow for identification, this may not be practicable.

Depending on the nature of the research we conduct, we may also collect sensitive information from you, including country of birth, health and family information.

Where we collect sensitive information for research purposes, we do so only with consent and where reasonably necessary for the relevant research project. Sensitive information may be collected in identifiable, confidential or de-identified form depending on the research design and ethics requirements.

How does Patternmakers collect and hold your personal information?

Patternmakers will generally collect your personal information directly from you in the course of you participating in our research and/or online surveys. However, we may also from time to time collect personal information about you from third parties, such as supporting partners. If so, we will inform you as soon as practicable of this collection and the circumstances of this collection. 

If you are a respondent to a survey, Patternmakers will generally collect your personal information via Checkbox Survey at www.checkbox.com , Web Survey Creator at www.websurveycreator.com or via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) at www.alchemer.com. The information collected is only for research purposes, and no personally identifiable information will ever be used for marketing.

Checkbox Survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Checkbox Privacy Policy here: www.checkbox.com/privacy_policy/ and their data hosting in AWS centres here.

Web Survey Creator data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Web Survey Creator Privacy Policy here: www.websurveycreator.com/privacy_policy.aspx.

Alchemer survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in the USA. Alchemer is committed to complying with international regulations including GDPR. You can read more about Alchemer’s Privacy Policy here: www.alchemer.com/privacy/.

We may also collect personal information in Brevo (previously Sendinblue at www.brevo.com, MailChimp at www.mailchimp.com and Beehiiv at www.beehiiv.com if you opt-in to join our database of research participants or if you subscribe to a newsletter from our website, www.thepatternmakers.com.au.

You can read more about Brevo’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/ Brevo upholds your privacy rights and comply with privacy regulations under the GDPR.

You can read more about MailChimp’s Privacy Policy here: www.mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. MailChimp complies with Australian Privacy Law (Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) for its storage of customer data.

You can read more about Beehiiv’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.beehiiv.com/privacy.

If you register to attend a Patternmakers event your information may be collected via EventBrite, www.eventbrite.com.au.

What are the purposes for which Patternmakers use, handle and disclose your personal information?

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information provided for research for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. If you declined to participate in our research, there are limited circumstances where we may use your personal information to re-contact you for a research purpose, but only if we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed of this, opt-ed in, or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact.

Patternmakers may also collect personal information (name, email address or postal address) when you provide it to receive specific services, such as contracting us to deliver research services, or buying a ticket to an event. This information is stored in secure databases. As a customer of Patternmakers, your email address may be added to a mailing list, as purchasing from us is an indication that you want to hear about our services. However, you can unsubscribe at any time. The information you provide will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. You can choose not to receive such information.

Who will Patternmakers disclose your personal information to?

We will not disclose any personally identifiable research information we collect from you unless we have your express prior consent and will only report the information you provide in an aggregate form that will not personally identify you. We will not disclose any personal information or personally identifiable research information to a third party for a purpose other than conducting our research unless we have your express prior consent or are required to do so by an Australian law or court/tribunal order. 

Personal information may be stored or processed in Australia, the United States and other countries where our service providers operate. In the course of conducting our research we may rely on third party service providers to host or store the data we collect who are located overseas. While we take reasonable steps to ensure service providers maintain appropriate privacy safeguards, information transferred overseas may be subject to the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.

The names and locations of key suppliers are:

Checkbox Survey Inc., based in the U.S., data stored on servers hosted in Australia.

Alchemer LLC, based in the U.S.

WolfBrown LLC, based in the U.S.

Brevo Inc, based in Europe.

MailChimp, The Rocket Science Group LLC, based in the U.S.

Microsoft, based in the U.S.

We will also take reasonable steps to ensure any service providers (and their employees and contractors) comply with relevant privacy regulations in their jurisdiction, as well as this Privacy Policy.

Data retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for research, contractual, legal and business purposes. When personal information is no longer required, it is securely deleted or de-identified.

Data security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Security measures may include password protection, encryption, access controls, secure cloud storage and staff confidentiality obligations.

Notifiable data breaches

If we become aware of a data breach involving personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will comply with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, including notifying affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where required.

Research with children

Where research involves children or young people under 16, consent will be obtained from a parent, guardian or authorised representative where required by law or research ethics standards.

Young people over 16 may be invited to participate in research, with consent processes designed in plain English

Openness

You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details listed below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how access is provided (e.g, emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However this fee will not be excessive and will only apply to the facilitation of your request.

If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following email: info@thepatternmakers.com.au

We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint or not.  If we do not agree, we will provide reasons.  If we do agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider it appropriate to take in response.  If you are still not satisfied after having contacted us and given us a reasonable time to respond, then we suggest that you contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:

Phone: 1300 363 992 (local call cost, but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If calling from overseas:+61 2 9284 9749

TTY: 1800 620 241 (this number is dedicated to the hearing impaired only, no voice calls)

TIS: Translating and Interpreting Service: 131 450 (If you don’t speak English or English is your second language and you need assistance and ask for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)

Post: GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601

Fax: +61 2 9284 9666

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

We aim to acknowledge privacy complaints within 7 business days and respond substantively within 30 days where practicable.

Patternmakers Website

When you visit our website, we may collect information about your use of the site through cookies and similar technologies.

We use Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our website, improve performance and enhance the user experience. Google Analytics may collect information such as:

• IP address (which may be anonymised by Google Analytics settings)

• Device type and operating system

• Browser type

• Pages viewed and time spent on pages

• Referring websites and search terms

• General geographic location

This information is collected in aggregated form and is not used by Patternmakers to personally identify individual visitors.

Google Analytics may store information on servers located outside Australia. For more information about how Google handles personal information, please refer to Google's Privacy Policy.

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through browser settings. You can choose to disable cookies, although some website functionality may be affected.

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When Art Sparks Change

All around Australia, artists are sparking social change, working with communities to tell their stories, tackle big issues and create common ground.

Community arts and cultural development (CACD) is a specialist art form, where professional artist facilitators work with communities to co-create projects with purpose.

Here, you can read the stories of local CACD artists and their projects.

As Australia grapples with a 'civic crisis', their work has never been more needed.

Image: Georges Riverkeeper, STARTTS & Jiva Parthipan’s The River Project

UNESCO says that culture is an under-utilised resource for building social cohesion, with 'a high capacity to stimulate effective engagement of local communities across all generations in public life.'

In 2023, social cohesion in Australia was the lowest it’s been since measurement began in 2007, according to the Scanlon Institute’s Social Cohesion Index.

The Australian Government is aware that the country is facing a crisis in terms of civic engagement.

"We've seen a collapse in the number of people volunteering and a decline in the share of people who are donating to charities. Compared with the mid-1980s, Australians have half as many close friends, and know half as many of their neighbours. We have become more disconnected."

Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

Engaging in arts, culture and creativity are shown to have powerful social and emotional effects.

One study by the University of Western Australia found that people engaging with arts and creative activities for two or more hours a week had significantly better wellbeing, after controlling for a range of other behavioural and demographic factors.

Creative arts practices can also help alleviate social challenges by addressing disadvantages and bringing people together.

According to Creative Australia’s Towards Equity report, CACD is ‘a specific type of socially engaged arts practice where, as a group, community members and professional artists collaborate to create art that is reflective of that place and community.'

Key examples:

• Milk Crate Theatre used devised theatre to facilitate social inclusion for people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness

• All The Queens Men curated a lavish party to facilitate pride, celebration and visibility for LGBTIQ+ elders

• Carclew addressed isolation amongst youth in regional South Australia through facilitating the opportunity for emerging young writers to develop their own monologues

• Jiva Parthipan and the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) engaged with place-making and cross-cultural understanding through a creative experience along the Georges River in Casula NSW

The impacts are profound.

Download the PDF to read their stories.

“Art is powerful. It can change things: perspectives, politics, people. Humans have an inherent need to be creative, to express themselves beyond the practical; we have an inherent right to be creative.”

— Time Out, Review of Milk Crate Theatre's DUST

CACD was pioneered in the 1960s and 1970s during a period of social upheaval, and it remains distinct from other art forms, guided by the principle of cultural democracy.

Author of ‘A Restless Art’, François Matarasso, describes community art as ‘the creation of art as a human right, by professional and non-professional artists, co-operating as equals, for purposes and to standards they set together, and whose processes, products and outcomes cannot be known in advance.’

In 2016, 14% of Australians were involved in CACD activities, which actively engaged community members in decision-making and the co-creation of art with professional artists (National Arts Participation Survey, Creative Australia).

Participation rates in CACD were higher among people in regional Australia (13%) that year, along with Australians aged 15 to 24 years (28%), those with disability (31%), those from CALD backgrounds (26%); and First Nations people (55%).

These strong engagement figures show that the CACD sector is a leader in the use of the arts to support social inclusion and cohesion, enabling diverse voices to be heard and stories to be shared through creating art.

However, of all the surveyed artforms, Australians had a particularly limited understanding of the benefits of CACD. In 2022, after two years of the pandemic, participation had fallen to 9% of Australians.

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Authors

Peta Petrakis, Senior Research Analyst

Melanie Raveendran, Digital Marketing Coordinator

Tandi Palmer Williams, Managing Director

Categories

Archive

• Research 99
• Audience development 79
• Innovation 78
• Evaluation 75
• Arts 73
• Culture 72
• COVID-19 70
• Data culture 69
• About Patternmakers 35
• Project updates 25
• 2022 23
• 2023 21
• Thought leadership 16
• Tips & Tricks 13
• 2018 12
• 2019 11
• Career Advice 9
• 2017 8
• Beyond the Bio 8
• 2021 7
• Tandi Palmer Williams 7
• Privacy 6
• Resources 6
• Year in review 6
• 2016 5
• Performing Arts 5
• Strategic Planning 5
• Toolkit 5
• Accessibility 4
• Digital art 4
• Opportunities 4
• Our services 4
• Visual arts 4
• Youth 4
• 2020 3
• Capacity building 3
• Dance 3
• First Nations 3
• Interviews 3
• Touring 3
• Trends 3
• Case Studies 2
• Coronavirus 2
• Data art 2
• Education 2
• Indigenous 2
• Top 5 2
• 2024 1
• Culture Panel 1
• Manifesto 1

If you’re a CACD practitioner, artist or arts organisation looking to create your own case studies, check out our template for some recommendations on format and flow.

If you have any thoughts or questions about this resource, or about how digital storytelling can spread the message about good causes, get in touch with us via info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Image: Robert Catto, Milk Crate Theatre’s DUST.

Acknowledgements

These resources are dedicated to CACD practitioners everywhere, working to address disadvantage and bring Australians together.

They have been created by research agency Patternmakers, with assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Thank you to the practitioners who participated in the creation of this resource and to the many partners involved in each of the projects profiled.

From stadium gigs to screen-time: Looking back at the top audience moments of 2023

We cast our mind back to the sell-out stadiums, packed movie theatres, and record-breaking festivals of 2023, to bring you the biggest moments shared by Australian audiences.

As 2023 was nearing its close, our team got chatting about the top audience moments of the year — and what we learned along the way.

It seems obvious but it’s actually pretty special: many of us have loved being in crowds again. After the awkwardness and isolation of the pandemic, 2023 was about having that collective experience: the feeling of being 100% in the moment alongside thousands of other people.

In this article, we take a look back at a year marked by sell-out stadium performances, shock cancellations, packed movie theatres, and record-breaking festivals.

The Matildas didn’t win the World Cup but, instead, changed women’s sport for good

The Matildas drew in record-breaking viewership for their incredible run at the Women’s World Cup - capturing the hearts of audiences around the globe but especially here at home.

Our team has some insight into the complex funding decisions behind major events (hint: they ain’t cheap), but this one set a new precedent for the enormous intangible value that results from hosting global events like the World Cup.

Cost-benefit ratios aside, the iconic semi-finals shootout cemented Sam Kerr’s legendary status, and the Matildas keen following saw the team become Australia’s most valuable brand in sports. The start of a new chapter, not just for women in sport, but for Australian society, period.

Barbenheimer brought us back to the cinema, on the double!

Perhaps the biggest comeback in 2023 saw audiences returning to the big screen in swathes, driven by Barbie and Oppenheimer’s competing release dates (as well as an unprecedented marketing effort and press tour by Warner Bros.).

Like other kinds of cultural events, cinema attendances took a big hit during the pandemic, but things began looking a lot rosier as these two films approached our shores.

Fuelled by the viral ‘Barbenheimer’ meme, a new phenomenon emerged, leading audiences across the globe to purchase tickets to both films as a double feature. This unlikely combo showed that, when done right, audiences are up for both uplifting and challenging stories.

We loved seeing people dressing up again for a new release (who doesn’t love an excuse to wear head-to-toe pink?) and sharing their experience on socials. It was also interesting to see movie-goers purchasing tickets pre-release. Some research showed that 43% of Barbie audiences were infrequent moviegoers, meaning they hadn’t been to the movies in the last 6 months.  

Blockbuster stadium tours showed us how to make friends with strangers

After a patchy 2022, demand for concert tickets was back in full force, with international acts taking centre stage (and emptying wallets everywhere).

There are signs this hasn’t been good news for everyone – with indie gigs hurting at box offices across the country – and continuing the tough times for many small and medium companies.

Most newsworthy was the internet-breaking presales for Taylor Swift’s 2024 ERAS Tour (some of our team were lucky to snap up tickets).

Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour was her highest-grossing tour yet, and Swift’s revenue surpassed the billion-dollar mark.

Putting the market distortion aside, we’ve been amazed by the stadium experiences these acts are putting on for the crowds – and how adorable is the friendship bracelet trend? Swifties are bringing new levels of sweet to concerts, and heralding in a new era of connection through shared experiences.

Disability activism inspired new levels of access at events

It’s been a long time coming but in 2023, it was great to see some incredible examples of accessibility at events.

We’ve watched as events outdid each other with new access and inclusion initiatives, welcoming broader audiences than ever before.

Our friend Morwenna Collett reported back from Ability Fest: ‘There were Auslan interpreters on both stages all day (including the incredible Mikey Webb), captioning on the Main Stage, Bindi Maps for site navigation, a nicely kitted out sensory room, a chill out space, two accessible viewing platforms, ample first aid, a well-being tent, a service animal toileting area, accessible buggies to move people between the two stage areas, loads of helpful volunteers, a fab access liaison contact officer with lived experience, good signage, loads of track matting, shaded areas, strobe warnings, an awesome disabled photographer documenting the event and of course multiple disabled musicians on the bill.’ Wow.

We’re seeing more and more great initiatives popping up, like Auslan Santa at Westfield – and amazing acts by disabled artists at festivals around the country.  

In January, our team launched a new research report – showing that its not just disabled and immunocompromised audiences who benefit from these changes, but the friends, families, support workers and groups that accompany them, so hear hear!

A big thank you to all the tireless advocates who have championed change for a long time.

Festivals brought the fun (and crowds) back into cities

We’re still talking about Adelaide Fringe’s huge achievement in selling 1 million tickets for their 2023 festival and topping their pre-COVID ticket sales from 2019. In possibly the biggest ticketing comeback of 2023, Adelaide Fringe was able to swing a miracle through strategic coordination across updated databases, a healthy mix of free and cheap offerings, an optimised box office experience and a sponsor-backed ticket flash sale.

Sydney WorldPride 2023 drew over 1 million audience members to the festival (double what was expected), with around 70,000 people coming to NSW especially to attend. It was the first time WorldPride, the largest LGBTQIA+ festival in the world, was hosted in the Southern Hemisphere. This history-making event was the biggest in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics!

It’s not all roses in festival world, with Dark Mofo breaking news as they announced a fallow year in 2024. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder so we’ll be watching with interest to see what audiences do when it returns to Hobart in 2025.

Major institutions turned up the volume on free events

In August, our major report Audiences 2023+ showed that cost is now the top barrier limiting people’s attendance at cultural events. Luckily, the arts sector is responding with an amazing array of free events.

The beloved Sydney Opera House celebrated it’s 50th birthday in 2023, and hosted a month-long Birthday Festival in October where audiences were treated to a broad range of ticketed and free events from theatre to contemporary music and lectures. They produced ‘Play It Safe’, a 50th Anniversary film showcasing dance, music and theatre, and shared 50 iconic Sydney Opera House film recordings for free over 3 months to celebrate 5 iconic decades.

The history-making Melbourne Now returned for the first time since 2013 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. The exhibition took over NGV’s Fed Square gallery and included more than 200 Victorian practitioners across disciplines. The exhibition and programming saw audience attendance records break, with success factors from the unique mix of local creatives on show as well as the breadth of public programming – all enjoyed for free!

Thank you to all of the amazing artists, event organisers and cultural venues that worked so hard to make 2023 such a special year for audiences.

May the good times roll in 2024!

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About the Author

Peta Petrakis
Research Analyst

Categories

Archive

• Research 99
• Audience development 79
• Innovation 78
• Evaluation 75
• Arts 73
• Culture 72
• COVID-19 70
• Data culture 69
• About Patternmakers 35
• Project updates 25
• 2022 23
• 2023 21
• Thought leadership 16
• Tips & Tricks 13
• 2018 12
• 2019 11
• Career Advice 9
• 2017 8
• Beyond the Bio 8
• 2021 7
• Tandi Palmer Williams 7
• Privacy 6
• Resources 6
• Year in review 6
• 2016 5
• Performing Arts 5
• Strategic Planning 5
• Toolkit 5
• Accessibility 4
• Digital art 4
• Opportunities 4
• Our services 4
• Visual arts 4
• Youth 4
• 2020 3
• Capacity building 3
• Dance 3
• First Nations 3
• Interviews 3
• Touring 3
• Trends 3
• Case Studies 2
• Coronavirus 2
• Data art 2
• Education 2
• Indigenous 2
• Top 5 2
• 2024 1
• Culture Panel 1
• Manifesto 1

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Dance Sector Uplift

In 2023, Arts Northern Rivers commissioned Patternmakers to assist with the Dance Sector Uplift project, designed to reactivate dance, physical theatre and experimental performance across the region.

This partnership stretches back to the Creative Industries Recovery Forum in 2022, which we attended and developed a report to identify sector priorities in order for the creative industries to flourish again after the severe storms and flooding hit communities across Northern NSW and Southern QLD.

Arts Northern Rivers undertook three streams of focus to support the region’s activation, recovery and renewal, identified as Public Art, First Nations Arts, and Dance/Physical Theatre.

In consultation with local artists, Arts Northern Rivers was committed to stimulating the region with a revitalisation of the dance sector by supporting activities which nourish and promote the region as a creative, thriving and growing centre of diverse embodied practice.

Local dance maker and producer, Philip Channells managed the delivery of the project. Philip works across art forms including dance/theatre, film, performance installation, community art projects, site-specific work and artist residencies with collaborators who value, challenge, redefine and inform our different perspectives of contemporary life.

“Approaching the Dance Sector Uplift (DSU) research project through a broad lens of diversity and inclusion enabled conversations amongst the sector, acknowledging the diverse cultural influences, creative practices and lived experiences of practising artists.

This conversational approach led us to realise the need for various stages of research to ensure a broad set of important voices were caught in the process.”

— Philip Channells

This project was informed by a multiplicity of consultation methodologies with members of the Northern Rivers performing arts sector, including local Bundjalung, Yaegl and Gumbaynggirr leaders, knowledge keepers of dance, dance makers and performers and global Indigenous and CALD artists living in the region.

Arts Northern Rivers conducted a survey inviting all artists working across an embodied practice to contribute to the research and design process for the reactivation of dance.

We analysed and compiled the results of these surveys and consultations into a full report in order to inform the direction and outcomes of the project. The report identifies the strengths and challenges, supported with evidence and data, and recommendations on how to plan ahead, to create a vision, and help independent artists realise their creative potential while working collectively within the community.

Download the Dance Sector Uplift report below for the full story.

Click below to watch the webinar where the findings from the report were delivered to all the participants from the local dance sector.

Image | Dancers: Omer Backley-Astrachan, Kirsty Kiloh, Charemaine Seet in The Draw IN by Geraldine Balcazar. Photograph by Shane Rozario.

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About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

Categories

Archive

• Research 99
• Audience development 79
• Innovation 78
• Evaluation 75
• Arts 73
• Culture 72
• COVID-19 70
• Data culture 69
• About Patternmakers 35
• Project updates 25
• 2022 23
• 2023 21
• Thought leadership 16
• Tips & Tricks 13
• 2018 12
• 2019 11
• Career Advice 9
• 2017 8
• Beyond the Bio 8
• 2021 7
• Tandi Palmer Williams 7
• Privacy 6
• Resources 6
• Year in review 6
• 2016 5
• Performing Arts 5
• Strategic Planning 5
• Toolkit 5
• Accessibility 4
• Digital art 4
• Opportunities 4
• Our services 4
• Visual arts 4
• Youth 4
• 2020 3
• Capacity building 3
• Dance 3
• First Nations 3
• Interviews 3
• Touring 3
• Trends 3
• Case Studies 2
• Coronavirus 2
• Data art 2
• Education 2
• Indigenous 2
• Top 5 2
• 2024 1
• Culture Panel 1
• Manifesto 1

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City lights to red dirt: Connecting with audiences across Australia

Our cities, suburbs and regions are different places today and audiences are responding in interesting ways.

Attendees of arts and cultural events are feeling the pressure of the housing crisis, changing work and commuting patterns, navigating weather events and approaching travel and leisure differently.

In this new report, ‘City Lights to Red Dirt’, we look at the geographic trends in data collected from past audiences of cultural events.

Click the buttons below to download the report, as a PDF or accessible Word version, or read on for more of the findings.

Three chapters, three geographic audience segments

The report compares audiences in three main geographic areas, providing insights for connecting people with culture where they live and the places they visit.

Download the chapters as separate fact sheets below.

Audiences in Big Cities

Arts audiences in big cities are experiencing the arts at high levels, but with market saturation and the shifting dynamics of Australia's CBDs post-pandemic, new challenges have emerged for organisations to cut through.

• Read more about big city audiences

  In Australia’s big cities, more people are attending arts events more often, but resident arts organisations are competing in a congested market. The data from past attendees shows that:

  • 85% of big city audiences said they attended at least one kind of cultural event in the fortnight before data collection. Attendance is also more frequent amongst big city arts audiences: 38% attend a gallery or museum at least once a month, compared to outer suburbs (27%) and regional audiences (29%).

  • Arts audiences living in big cities are spending more on tickets to in-person live events and cultural activities: 7 in 10 spent more than $50 the fortnight before data collection (69%), compared to 65% of outer suburb audiences and 57% of regional audiences.

  • While most audiences are drawn to fun, uplifting and even escapist content right now, big city audiences are showing a greater appetite for challenging, topical content in the next 12 months (52%), compared to audiences living in outer suburbs and regional areas (both 41%). With more options on offer, they are also more likely to tune into reviews when considering what to attend.

Audiences in Outer Suburbs

Outer suburbs are the biggest growth areas in Australia right now, and have an expanding arts audience looking for more cultural experiences closer to home — but don't yet have enough venues nearby to accommodate.

• Read more about outer suburbs audiences

  In the outskirts and outer suburbs of big cities, the rate and frequency of attendance are slightly lower than big cities, but the market is growing, as more people move to more affordable areas where families can enjoy different lifestyles. The data from past attendees of events shows:

  • Audiences in outer suburbs are feeling slightly more pessimistic than optimistic about their financial situation, with almost half (46%) say they’re worse off than they were a year ago, and 25% expect to be financially worse off in the coming year.

  • Audiences in outer suburbs (combining both residents and visitors) were most likely to attend a cinema locally (59%), whereas big city audiences were comparatively more likely to attend a local live performance. Audiences in the regions were most likely to attend a fair/festival locally (40%) or visit a museum or gallery (51%).

  • Audiences in outer suburban areas are the least likely to be participating in online events right now. Half of outer suburbs residents say online arts events and experiences are playing a small (43%) or substantial role (8%) in their life, while another 49% say they play no role.

Audiences in the Regions

Across Australia's diverse regions, audiences are experiencing access to arts and culture differently. Factoring in extra time and travel costs means heightened barriers in 2023, but with a decentralising trend, more options could be on the cards.

• Read more about regional audiences

  Regional Australia is changing, with demographic shifts seeing some regional places grow dramatically in recent years – but rising costs of travel are leaving some isolated. There are different patterns for large towns, smaller villages and bush or outback areas, but on average, the data shows that:

  • Regional audiences indicated feeling less stable financially and more pessimistic about their future finances than those in outer suburbs and big cities, and many are being selective about what they attend right now. Almost half (47%) say they are ‘worse off’ financially than they were one year ago, and 26% expect to be ‘worse off’ in the coming year.

  • Regional audiences have lower levels of access to some types of events, like live performances, and therefore attend less often: 52% of audiences in the regions said they attend performing arts events at least once a month or more, lower than proportions in big cities (77%) and outer suburbs (63%).

  • Some art forms appear to reach audiences in regional areas better than others. For instance, in the past 12 months, 51% of regional audiences have attended contemporary music and 57% have attended libraries, which are similar to attendance rates in urban areas.

  • Four in ten regional audience members say that in the coming year, they’ll be most attracted to stories that are ‘about or from my local community’ (39%), slightly higher than the rate in big cities (32%) and outer suburbs (28%).

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Get the data at a glance

Click the button below to download our Fast Facts for attendance, inflationary pressures, programming preferences and ticketing and marketing behaviour.

Read the ‘Audiences 2023+’ report

In case you missed it, click the button below for the key insights from the August 2023 National Snapshot.

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from Phase 9, which heard from over 8,800 respondents, has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from over 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state/territory, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive new releases directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive updates below.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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About the Author

Peta Petrakis
Research Analyst

Programming, price and planning: What the latest research means for audiences

Unpacking our latest audience research for audiences themselves.

We’ve emerged from some serious analysis, made possible thanks to all 8,816 arts audience members that participated in the latest round of our Audience Outlook Monitor. 

If you’re keen to get into the nitty gritty, you can read the full Audiences 2023+ report here. If you’re just looking for the key takeaways, and what the findings mean for audiences just like you, keep reading.

Let’s get into it!  

In the mood for fun and uplifting events right now? You’re not alone.

Following the past two years and current cost-of-living pressures, there’s no wonder that most arts audiences are looking for fun and uplifting things (77%), while reviews (63%) and trying new things (55%) are also key drivers.   

If you’re not at the stage of email fatigue (and we know many audiences are), it’s worth considering subscribing to your favourite arts venues and organisations – because we found this is really the best way to avoid missing out on programming you’re sure to love.  

Arts orgs are a lot more aware of the strain of email marketing than before and are really limiting when they reach out to you – and most are waiting to for the right moment to connect when it’s necessary.   

Right now, some audiences are getting their fix without spending big.

Many audiences are looking for free or cheap things to do (55%), and some are keeping it local to enjoy live arts experiences (47%) and staying closer to home to avoid paying the premium of travel and larger productions.  

You have likely seen the many reports on Australia’s cost-of-living crisis, especially its impact on young people. Financial pressures are hitting under 35s the most, coming through in our latest Audience Outlook Monitor round, so look out for special concession offers that are likely aimed at the younger age groups.  

Financial reasons continue to be the top barrier for audiences to attend arts experiences, affecting 4 in 10 audience members (38%). Keep updated on the ticketing policy changes from your favourite arts organisations, as many are trying to adapt to your changing needs.  

Feeling like your plans are getting a bit last minute? Here’s why booking early helps you and the organisations you care about:

Maybe it’s you, your sister or your friend, but audiences are taking longer to make decisions as they weigh up their options. If this sounds like you, you’re likely one of our ‘last-minute bookers’ – 45% of you reported booking in the last 2 weeks before an event and 12% book on the day!  

Late booking can mean missing out on tickets, risking schedule clashes with your crew, but also has got the sector a *little* extra under the pump. And the longer audiences wait, the more life gets in the way. Almost a third (30%) of arts audiences said that prioritising other things was a key barrier for them to attend arts and cultural activities.  

So, if you really want to go – you should really book it in (it’s a win-win!), and if it’s flexibility you’re after, make sure you’re across the ticketing policies of your favourite venues. 

P.S. Opinions matter, so share them! 

If you’re curious about the most affordable way to support your favourite arts and cultural organisations - we found that the #1 awareness channel for you arts audiences is…word of mouth! Don’t underestimate the value of talking about your experiences and sharing your thoughts to those around you (and online), because it’s a sure-fire way of supporting the arts. 

If you’re interested in exploring how arts audiences are faring in different areas, be sure to keep an eye out on our website for our upcoming report ‘City light to red dirt: Connecting with audiences across Australia’ — launching November 30th.

Thank you to our partners WolfBrown, Creative Australia, and state arts agencies around the country for their support with the Audience Outlook Monitor publications.

Image Credit: Jamie Williams, courtesy of Sydney Writers Festival.

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About the Author

Peta Petrakis
Research Analyst

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Audiences at the Heart: Key takeaways from the AMA Conference 2023

I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend the 2023 AMA Conference in Leeds, UK. Industry professionals from around the UK gathered for a two-day melting pot of ideas and teabags, delving into this year’s theme: audiences at the heart.  

Today I’m sharing just a few of the insights from the jam-packed programme that struck me. As an Aussie in a sea of British accents, I’m grateful for the friendly faces and inspiring speakers I encountered who are paving the way for arts marketers, researchers and comms professionals in all stages of their career. 

Scroll on for my highlights from four sessions. 

Catching feelings 

In “Exploring Emotion and Audience Behaviour”, cultural researcher Dr Ron Evans uncovered the integral role of emotion in the audience experience. 

Audiences attend performances with the expectation of having an emotional experience – but only 43% report that they achieved that goal, raising a crucial question for organisations: Are your audiences finding the emotional experiences they seek? 

We might get this information from a post-show survey, but this only captures part of it. Over the length of a performance there might be a range of things experienced. So, do you measure the most recent emotion? The strongest? 

Dr Evans presented new research in measuring audience emotion during live performance. Participants wore a wristband that collected physiological data over the course of the show, including heart rate, skin conductivity and skin temperature, and at the end they were interviewed about their emotional experience at various points in the performance. 

The experiment revealed that there was an increase in physiological reaction during the climax of the performance, most people predominately felt surprise and sadness – and there was crying. Moreover, the tools revealed some valuable insights for arts organisations: 

• Triggering content has the potential to captivate audiences and spark discussions and reflections about their own life experiences – and we cannot always predict what topics will be sensitive for individuals 

• Encouraging post-show discussions and feedback through digital or face to face talkbacks can be an effective audience engagement tactic 

• Organisations can experiment with innovative tools like live word clouds, asking “What do you think the main character was feeling at the end of the first act?”  

• Monitoring the return of audiences, such as those with access needs, can help organisations tailor their content and offerings. 

The future of audiences

The Audience Agency presented the latest findings from the Cultural Participation Monitor (CPM) on what audiences are saying about how they engage with arts and culture. Similarly to our Audience Outlook Monitor, the CPM started out tracking audience sentiment throughout the pandemic and has since evolved to capture further insights around programming preferences, cost-of-living concerns and more. 

The recent wave of research shed light on some of the generational differences in audience segments and opportunities look out for when engaging future audiences, as well as insights around the rise of participatory experience and digital/hybrid formats. 

The session presented new patterns in values, taste and experiences, underscoring the prevalence of generational and life-stage factors. As the Audience Agency says, “Our future audiences are already here, they’re just younger.” 

Here’s what they found about values, tastes and experiences: 

• Young audiences care about issues like climate change and social justice in a way that people always have – but they’re going to care whether or not the organisations they engage with care about those things (almost double that of older groups - see the British Social Attitudes survey)  

• Arts organisations should think about how they can transition to being a community resource and a part of the conversations that are already happening 

• The next generation are shifting from hierarchical traditional artforms to having a more eclectic and unpredictable taste and this is heightened with algorithm-driven content 

• The experience is going to become more important as we continue to be engulfed in content. Audiences will be more discerning about the ‘how’ than the ‘what’, and there will be emphasis on things worth getting out for. 

• The post-pandemic era means having a mix of FOMO (fear of missing out) and FOGO (fear of going out). If people are going out it needs to be something different - liveness, presence in a place, intensity: “It’s just a bit harder to get around to doing things. In the past if it was 6.5/10 it would be worth going to – and now it needs to be an 8/10, it has to really grab you”.

What it means for arts organisations: 

• Don’t shy away from prototyping, testing and experimenting with different audience experience formats, alongside your new content ideas. As the experience takes centre-stage, it’s worthwhile to trial what works for different audience segments.  

• Become a place of conversation and engage in dialogue with your audiences. Asking “Do you enjoy things that feel and look like this?” instead of “do you like opera?” could reveal more about your audiences habits, desires and interests. 

• Keep being curious, creative and courageous! 

AI: friend, not foe? 

AI is demanding our attention, whether we love it or loathe it. Marketing consultant Jo Burnham described how we’re currently in a golden moment to acquaint ourselves with the nuances of AI - even if it's just a few minutes of trialling and testing here and there. Burnham’s session delved into the pragmatic uses of different AI tools to empower arts marketing professionals, along with delving into the crucial aspects of its ethics and challenges. 

Burnham asserted that arts marketers hold a distinctive advantage to embolden how we communicate with our audiences in new and captivating ways – and encouraged them to: 

• Be curious: Most AI tools are free to use – don’t let yourself be sold. A key platform Burnham shared is www.futuretools.io, which collects all the emerging AI software in a user-friendly interface, equipped with categories and audience up-votes. Don’t get deterred by the ‘taboo’ – experiment to build up your own knowledge and even explore how using multiple tools together could empower your work. 

• Be creative: GPT4, Ask Your PDF, Bing Chat, MidJourney and DALL-E2 are just a few examples of tools that Burnham says arts marketers should be aware of. In terms of what they’re good for, getting a handle on prompt engineering for GPT4, for instance, can assist you with creating social media posts to signpost longform content, critiquing your own copywriting, reducing copy length, directing your own learning and helping you plan marketing outputs. 

• Be critical: As with any new way of working, it’s important to continually interrogate AI and weigh up its costs and benefits. When traversing this unfamiliar path, some aspects and questions Burnham invited us to start think about include: Is this tool actually producing good content? What’s real and what’s hype? What am I being sold? Data security (when in doubt – don’t!) and systemic bias. 

Here are a few reflections from arts marketers shared via Burnham’s presentation: 

“These tools are useful for getting keyword and hashtags without paying for an expensive service. It often comes out with answers that are far too verbose. You must be specific.” – Anna Whelan, Head of Marketing and Communications at Tara Theatre 

“AI speeds up writing and it sounds more engaging than what I write, but you have to be careful with the accuracy of info and plagiarism.” – Marketing and Communications Manager at a theatre in Wales. 

“There is potential that in 10 years’ time, people will look back on his moment and see AI as a transformative event in culture. It feels like there are huge developments happening at phenomenal speed. It feels like a refocusing or a re-framing taking place.” – Steven Franklin, Social Media Manager at the National Archives. 

Be Bold; Be Brave 

The Conference keynote by Leeds5 – a group of female black and brown cultural leaders – underscored the importance of getting to know your audience before inviting them to buy your tickets. 

An analogy by Keranjeet Kaur Virdee, from South Asian Arts and one-fifth of Leeds5, summed it up perfectly: Would you accept an invitation to a wedding if you didn’t know the bride and groom? (Short answer: no.) 

It takes time, effort and energy to develop relationships with diverse communities that you want to reach, ensuring you’re conscious of cultural sensitivities requires an on-stage and off-stage approach. Here are some things to consider: 

• Ditch the familiar: Cultural exchange thrives when we step outside of our comfort zones and reach beyond our safe space. Complacency keeps us tethered to what we know – and hampers our ability to understand the unique needs and perspectives of diverse audiences. 

• Unlock new perspectives: Kully Thiari of Leeds5 said ‘We know audiences are at the heart, but we continue to make assumptions about them.’ Listening and understanding the community you want to engage with is more than ticking a box – it’s an invitation to take part in real dialogue, absorb diverse experiences and foster meaningful connections. 

• Solutions over symbols: Leeds5 used the example of Blackout Tuesday to remind us of the importance of moving beyond grand gestures towards concrete actions – and be proactive to foster positive change in our accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability goals. 

Despite the challenges of post-pandemic rebuilding and cost-of-living pressures, I left the AMA conference feeling affirmed that the future is as promising as it is dynamic. Armed with inspiration from our colleagues across the pond, I’m excited about how Patternmakers can help shift and shape the landscape of audience research as we look to the next chapter. 

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About the Author

Bianca Mulet
Senior Research Analyst

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A state-specific breakdown of Australian audiences in 2023 and beyond

Read our State Snapshots to discover the top trends in audience behaviour at a state-by-state level.

Based on data from the August 2023 Audience Outlook Monitor, the State Snapshots explore how audience behaviour is impacted across different parts of the country, especially as economic pressures persist. 

Attendance levels have stabilised across the states since the pandemic began, with three states reaching their highest rate of attendance since 2020. However, as disposable income gets squeezed, audiences nationwide are grappling with tough decisions about what, how and when to attend. 

There are some important distinctions. New South Wales audiences are attending the most and spending the highest on cultural events. Meanwhile, those in Victoria and Queensland are most likely to be acting more frugal and taking longer to make decisions, staying closer to home and looking for cheap/free things to do. In Western Australia and South Australia, the outlook appears most stable, with audiences the most likely to say their rate of attendance will stay the same in the next 12 months. 

Download the NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT and WA reports below for the latest look — including the story on last-minute booking, subscriptions/memberships and online participation — and to explore the opportunities for strategic thinking in 2023 and beyond.

Download the snapshots

Click the buttons below to access the snapshots for each state.

Thank you to the following state arts agencies for their support in delivering the State Snapshots: Creative Victoria, Create NSW, Arts Queensland, Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Arts SA), Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (WA) and ArtsACT.

Cover Image Credit: Cecilia Martin, courtesy of Spaghetti Circus.

Read the ‘Audiences 2023+’ report

In case you missed it, click the button below for the key insights from the August 2023 National Snapshot.

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from over 8,800 respondents has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive new releases directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

Subscribers to our regular Culture Insight & Innovation Updates will need to update their preferences to receive all updates about the Audience Outlook Monitor. Just enter your email below and follow the instructions provided.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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About the Author

Peta Petrakis
Research Analyst

Privacy Collection Statement for the Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet School research participants

About the study

The Australian Ballet in partnership with the Australian Ballet School are conducting research into participation and career pathways for Australian dancers.

The study aims to better understand dance participation in Australia in the current, post COVID landscape, identify motivations and barriers and investigate how wider and more diverse participation in ballet can be encouraged.

This survey is for current teachers or owners of dance schools in Australia, and past or current dance school students and their parents. We want to hear from people from all backgrounds.

This survey is being delivered by the Australian Ballet and the Australian Ballet School’s research partner for this study, Patternmakers Pty Ltd (Australia, ABN 97 627 469 649). Patternmakers is a research agency based in Sydney, Australia. It specialises in research related to culture, creativity and community. You can read more about its work here.

Participating is completely optional. Your survey responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Below, you can read the privacy collection statement for the study.

Privacy collection statement

Introduction

Patternmakers respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act"). As an Australian research organisation, Patternmakers also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2014 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles and the Code click here.

On the first page of the survey, you will be presented with a privacy statement. By clicking ‘Next’ to Start the survey, you are indicating that you acknowledge the statement and consent to this Privacy Collection Statement.

The survey will ask about your views on dance in Australia. To help interpret responses, the survey will also ask you some questions about your demographic information, however it will not ask for any personally-identifiable information like your name or email address.

Your survey responses will be anonymous.

This anonymous data will be collected and stored offshore via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) at www.alchemer.com, a well-known survey software platform based in the USA. Alchemer LLC is committed to complying with international regulations including GDPR. You can read more about Alchemers’ Privacy Policy here www.alchemer.com/privacy.

At no point, will Alchemer ask for your name, phone number or email address or any personally identifiable information. Please take care in your written answers that you don’t provide personalised information.

The survey is set up to stop the storage of any type of identifying information like Geodata, IP address, and email invite data.

If the survey is anonymous, how will I enter the prize draw?

At the end of the survey, you will be given the option to go in the draw to win a prize. Running a prize helps us motivate participation and hear from a range of people.

If you click next, you will be taken to a separate, and secure platform Checkbox Survey at www.checkbox.com, where you will have the option to enter the draw by providing your email address. Your email address will be stored separately from your survey response, so your responses will remain anonymous and confidential. This is being administered via Checkbox Survey (Australia), which complies with the Australian Privacy Act. Once the prize draw is complete, we dispose of the email addresses that were opted into the draw.

Checkbox Survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Checkbox Privacy Policy here: www.checkbox.com/privacy_policy/ and their data hosting in AWS centres here.

You may also be asked if you are open to participating in further research on this topic, as the researchers, Patternmakers, maintain a Research Participant Database, which you can join to participate in future audience research projects. Communications will be sent to your email via Sendinblue (EU) or MailChimp (US) who uphold your privacy rights and comply with international privacy regulations including GDPR. You can read more about the privacy policies here; Checkbox Survey (Australia), Sendinblue (EU) and MailChimp (US). Your email address will only ever be used for research, and will never be used, or sold, for any other purpose.

What are the purposes for which Patternmakers use, handle and disclose your personal information?

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with our company’s overall Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information provided for research for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities.

If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed of this, opt-ed in, or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. You can opt-out or unsubscribe at any time.

Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Collection Statement or our Privacy Policy then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following email: info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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The top trends shaping Australian audiences in 2023 and beyond

1. Attendance trajectories

Attendance rates across the country continue their slow recovery since the pandemic, and with a challenging year ahead, it’s wise to set sights on the right targets.

• Read more about attendance trajectories

  • In 2023, attendance is reaching its highest point since 2020, and the frequency of attendance is increasing, but the recovery process continues.

  • Strategic investment and programming shifts have helped many organisations sustain or increase their capacity in 2022 and 2023, but charting recovery is complex, with mixed attendance results across the market.

  • Big jumps in attendance appear unlikely in the next 12 months, with 2 in 3 audience members expecting their attendance levels will stay the same amid a challenging economic outlook.

  • Making space to review measures of success and share learnings – internally and externally – may help organisations focus on the right challenges over the coming year.

Click the buttons below to download the August 2023 Snapshot Report, as a PDF, accessible Word version or RTF, or read on for more of the findings.

2. Inflationary pressures and pricing

Economic conditions are limiting what Australian audiences can spend on events, and some segments need targeted thinking to ensure access to arts and culture.

• Read more about inflationary pressures and pricing

  • Financial reasons are the top barrier to attendance, and inflationary pressures are expected to continue in 2023 and 2024.

  • Spending levels at arts and culture events are not growing, as audiences weigh up value for money and take longer to make decisions.

  • Younger audiences and families continue to be the most impacted.

  • A key opportunity is developing sustainable strategies for targeting disadvantaged segments.

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3. The desire to inspire

In the wake of the pandemic, audiences are in the mood for uplifting experiences — requiring event organisers to think strategically about creating meaning and building trust in difficult times.

• Read more about the desire to inspire

  • Australian audiences are showing significant appetite for a wide range of content, though budget pressures are leading some audiences towards ‘safer’ bets or ‘guaranteed fun’.

  • Social, uplifting experiences and events with great reviews will continue to reach the widest audience in the coming year.

  • Many audiences are hungry for meaning, but care and tact may be needed to when approaching challenging topics.

  • Organisations that understand the mood can please crowds today while building trust for tomorrow.

“The arts are so important to keeping my spirits up and my mental health well.

It’s really challenging when you can’t afford to go to an event every now and again that you know will keep you well.”

— Audience member

4. Three segments to know

Younger audiences, families and older audiences are thinking and behaving very differently in 2023, and organisations must build capacity for new ways of working.

• Read more about these three key segments

  • Social and economic pressures impact different generations in different ways, and this is reflected in three key audience segments.

  • Young people, families and older audiences show stark differences in mood, entertainment priorities, spending patterns and media consumption.

  • Organisations must consider how to create and execute strategies for different segments and build in flexibility to adapt as conditions evolve.

For easy viewing, click below to download the summary of all three key segments.

5. Online trends

Audiences continue engaging online in large numbers, and in 2023, online content is helping audiences find out about events, discover new artists and participate in digital experiences.

• Read more about online trends

  • Digital channels are paramount to audience engagement – with 75% of recent attendees finding out about arts and culture events online.

  • Preferred platforms look very different across age groups: email marketing is the priority for 55+, while word-of-mouth and socials are key for under 35s.

  • 4 in 10 audiences continue to engage in online arts and culture, and half say digital cultural activities still play a role in their lives, despite spending less.

  • It might be time to review online offerings, scrapping what's not working and freeing up resources for more targeted approaches.

“Australian arts audiences are intelligent and open to be challenged...

...This is essential for the future health and development of arts in this country.”

— Audience member

6. Late decision-making

In 2023, last-minute decision making persists, with audiences facing more choices, and busier lives, as commuting, travel and social events pick up. Organisations need to prepare for new phases in campaigns, to reach people at the right time.

• Read more about late decision-making

  • Half are booking less than two weeks out, with 12% on the day of the event

  • Analysis of ‘early bookers’, ‘mid-term bookers’ and ‘last-minute bookers’ shows that last-minute ticket buying is most common among younger audiences and lower spenders. Those booking later are also more likely to rely on word-of- mouth.

  • Ticketing initiatives to support more price sensitive audiences are important, but last- minute discounting may not be the answer.

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7. Subscriptions and memberships

Subscribers and members are vital for many arts organisations, but their needs vary dramatically across age groups, and organisations are adjusting their packages to suit new needs.

• Read more about subscriptions and memberships

  • 4 in 10 audiences are members or subscribers– with performing arts subscriptions more common than other types.

  • Subscriptions uptake and motivations are very different across audiences in different stages of life.

  • Older audiences want to lock their plans in early and show financial support, while younger audiences are more likely to want access to discounted tickets.

  • There is a case to test different offers and models, using messaging to target the unique needs of different audience segments.

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Cover Image Credit: Jacquie Manning, courtesy of Sydney Writers Festival.

Watch us launch the findings at APAX 2023

Our Managing Director, Tandi Palmer Williams, and Research Analyst, Peta Petrakis, travelled to Cairns to present the data from Audiences 2023+ at APAX 2023, PAC Australia’s annual conference.

Click the image below to watch the recording of the livestream. Simply register to make a free account and press play!

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from over 8,800 respondents has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from over 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state/territory, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive new releases directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

Subscribers to our regular Culture Insight & Innovation Updates will need to update their preferences to receive all updates about the Audience Outlook Monitor. Just enter your email below and follow the instructions provided.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Subscribe for updates

* indicates required

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About the Author

Bianca Mulet
Senior Research Analyst

The 3 audience segments you need to know about in 2023 (and how to reach them!)

In 2023, inflationary pressures are impacting audiences in different ways, with some continuing to spend and attend and others making careful choices.

The data from our latest Pulse Check revealed that audiences are behaving differently right now in response to the current economic climate. More than ever before, this requires targeted strategies for programming, ticketing and marketing.

Read on for the key facts about three key audience segments: Older and Bolder, Family Frugality, and Young and Restless, and suggestions on what to do to ensure no one gets left behind.

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Older and Bolder

Arts audiences aged 55+

After several years shaped by the virus and mask-wearing, older audiences are now enjoying higher attendance levels and spending.

• As the most likely audiences to experience no barriers to attending right now, this group is open to a range of experiences and are the most likely to seek out challenging, topical works in the next 12 months.

• They are spending at higher levels than they were 6 months ago. 40% spent more than $100, compared to 37% in August 2022.

• 8 in 10 attended a cultural event in the past fortnight, the highest rate seen in the study since it began in March 2020.

• Although most see the country’s economic outlook as uncertain, they also generally believe their financial situation will be stable in the year ahead.

• Email is the top way they find out about events, so consider ways to continually improve your databases and eDMs.

One such audience member told us what they’ve been attending and why, saying:

“Musicals - Mary Poppins, & Juliet and an art exhibition as well as an open-air rock concert; after COVID lockdown I think I’m more inclined to not miss out on anything.”

— Audience member

Family Frugality

Arts audiences aged 35-55 with children living at home

Rising housing costs are affecting families more than households without children, and audiences with kids at home have reduced their arts spending more than others.

• Parents are more likely to cite financial barriers (56% vs 35%) and/or prioritising other things in their life (36% vs 22%) than other audiences.

• High numbers are staying closer to home, looking for free/cheap things to do and taking longer to commit, as they weigh up costs for 3 or more people.

• Families see the arts as important for their children – and many are prioritising it within their budget.

• For Kids and Family shows, consider a pricing and promotion strategy tailored to this group (they’re the most likely group to find out about events on Facebook!).

One survey respondent commented on ticket pricing, saying:

“Over the last year we’ve been to a number of big concerts and shows but I’d seriously reconsider spending more than about $75 a ticket for anything at this point. We just saw Into the Woods at Belvoir St and adult tickets were $82 but they had a student rate of $47 which made it doable as a family.”

— Audience member

Young and Restless

Arts audiences under 35

Young people tend to have lower incomes, and are among the most affected by financial barriers right now.

• Although they’re eager to get out and about, young people are attending at slightly lower levels than they did 12 months ago.

• They’re facing financial barriers at twice the rate of their parents’ generations – and feel more down about their economic future.

• They say other barriers are also inhibiting their attendance – such as ‘lacking energy to go out’ (36%) and ‘prioritising other things in my life’ (31%).

• They’re eager to connect socially, attend fun/uplifting events and try new things they haven’t experienced before, but may need support to attend.

• Some are looking with keen eyes for student or youth discounts – and ways to cover the costs of travel and eating out.

One audience member mentioned discounts and seeking more for their money, saying:

“I have been to several Melbourne International Comedy Festival acts in the last month as well as the cinema a few times. That was prioritised due to the availability of discount codes and cheaper tickets for certain nights, plus the fact that many variety shows are available where multiple acts can be seen.”

— Audience member

Summary of segments

For easy viewing, click below to download the summary of all three segments as an infographic.

Catch up on the data

In case you missed it, we have a suite of audience research and resources available from our April 2023 Pulse Check. Check it out below!

National Snapshot Report

Read the report for key national insights and the detailed breakdown of the three audience segments.

State Snapshots

Read the snapshot reports for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and WA to discover the nuances in audience behaviour at a state-level.

Webinar

Watch Tandi Palmer Williams, Managing Director at Patternmakers, and Ella Huisman, Executive Director - Audience at Adelaide Fringe discuss the main findings and results from the Pulse Check.

Case Study: Adelaide Fringe

Read our article ‘How Adelaide Fringe sold 1 million tickets in the face of rising inflation’ for the key takeaways from one of the most successful campaigns of the year.

Cover Image Credit: Samuel Graves, The Garden of Unearthly Delights at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2023, courtesy of Adelaide Fringe.

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Author

Melanie Raveendran
Digital Marketing Associate

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Privacy Collection Statement for Australian Chamber Orchestra research participants

About the study

In 2023, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) is working with Patternmakers to gather new insights about Australian audiences.

This survey represents a landmark research project for the company, which will inspire and inform its work in years to come. Its goal is to reach a broad and diverse audience and remain at the forefront of chamber music internationally.

This survey is for past attendees of the ACO, including those who haven’t attended an ACO event recently. We want to hear from people from all backgrounds.

This survey is being delivered by the ACO’s research partner for this study, Patternmakers Pty Ltd (Australia, ABN 97 627 469 649). Patternmakers is a research agency based in Sydney, Australia. It specialises in research related to culture, creativity and community. You can read more about its work here.

Participating is completely optional. Your survey responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Below, you can read the privacy collection statement for the study.

Privacy collection statement

Introduction

Patternmakers respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act"). As an Australian research organisation, Patternmakers also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2014 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles and the Code click here.

On the first page of the survey, you will be presented with a privacy statement. By clicking ‘Next’ to Start the survey, you are indicating that you acknowledge the statement and consent to this Privacy Collection Statement.

The survey will ask about your views on attending art exhibitions, as well as your general behaviours and level of interest in attending arts and culture events. To help interpret responses, the survey will also ask you some questions about your demographic and health information, however it will not ask for any personally-identifiable information like your name or email address.

Your survey responses will be anonymous.

This anonymous data will be collected and stored offshore via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) at www.alchemer.com, a well-known survey software platform based in the USA. Alchemer LLC is committed to complying with international regulations including GDPR. You can read more about Alchemers’ Privacy Policy here www.alchemer.com/privacy.

At no point, will Alchemer ask for your name, phone number or email address or any personally identifiable information. Please take care in your written answers that you don’t provide personalised information.

The survey is set up to stop the storage of any type of identifying information like Geodata, IP address, and email invite data.

If the survey is anonymous, how will I enter the prize draw?

At the end of the survey, you will be given the option to go in the draw to win a prize. Running a prize helps us motivate participation and hear from a range of people.

If you click next, you will be taken to a separate, and secure platform Checkbox Survey at www.checkbox.com, where you will have the option to enter the draw by providing your email address. Your email address will be stored separately from your survey response, so your responses will remain anonymous and confidential. This is being administered via Checkbox Survey (Australia), which complies with the Australian Privacy Act. Once the prize draw is complete, we dispose of the email addresses that were opted into the draw.

Checkbox Survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Checkbox Privacy Policy here: www.checkbox.com/privacy_policy/ and their data hosting in AWS centres here.

You may also be asked if you are open to participating in further research on this topic, as the researchers, Patternmakers, maintain a Research Participant Database, which you can join to participate in future audience research projects. Communications will be sent to your email via Sendinblue (EU) or MailChimp (US) who uphold your privacy rights and comply with international privacy regulations including GDPR. You can read more about the privacy policies here; Checkbox Survey (Australia), Sendinblue (EU) and MailChimp (US). Your email address will only ever be used for research, and will never be used, or sold, for any other purpose.

What are the purposes for which Patternmakers use, handle and disclose your personal information?

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with our company’s overall Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information provided for research for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities.

If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed of this, opt-ed in, or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. You can opt-out or unsubscribe at any time.

Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Collection Statement or our Privacy Policy then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following email: info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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State Snapshots on cost-of-living pressures

Read our snapshot reports to discover the nuances in audience behaviour at a state-level.

Based on data from the April 2023 Audience Outlook Monitor, find out how audiences across Australia’s states are responding to increasing interest rates and cost-of-living pressures.

While audiences in New South Wales are spoiled for choice right now – almost half are taking longer to make decisions about attending, and they’re taking into account 3 key factors more than usual.

Victorian and South Australian audiences are the most likely to be staying closer to home to keep costs down. There are certain offers marketers need to be aware of.

Things appear most stable in Queensland and Western Australia, with these audiences feeling the most optimistic about the country’s economic outlook. However, half are looking for cheap/free things to do currently, validating the need for certain ticketing initiatives.

Scroll down to access the snapshot reports for key states, VIC, QLD, NSW and SA. Keep an eye out for news about the WA snapshot in the coming weeks.

Download the snapshots

Click the buttons below to access the snapshots for each state.

The state snapshots are also available to download in an accessible version:

Thank you to the following state arts agencies for their support in delivering the State Snapshots: Creative Victoria, Create NSW, Arts Queensland, Department of the Premier and Cabinet (Arts SA) and Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (WA).

Cover Image Credit: Concert for the Planet, courtesy of HOTA.

Read the National Snapshot Report

In case you missed it, click the button below for the key national insights from the April 2023 Pulse Check.

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from over 1,300 respondents has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive new releases directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

Subscribers to our regular Culture Insight & Innovation Updates will need to update their preferences to receive all updates about the Audience Outlook Monitor. Just enter your email below and follow the instructions provided.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Subscribe for updates

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About the Author

Bianca Mulet
Senior Research Analyst

Delivery partners:

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Privacy Collection Statement for National Gallery of Australia research participants

About the study

Patternmakers is undertaking an evaluation study to understand the impact of the National Gallery of Australia’s (“National Gallery”) exhibition touring program, and identify opportunities for improving the program in future.

This survey is for past attendees of the galleries around Australia (including National Gallery and participating focus venues), including those who haven’t attended an exhibition recently. We want to hear from people from all backgrounds.

This survey is being delivered by the National Gallery’s research partner for this study, Patternmakers Pty Ltd (Australia, ABN 97 627 469 649). Patternmakers is a research agency based in Sydney, Australia. It specialises in research related to culture, creativity and community. You can read more about its work here.

Participating is completely optional. Your survey responses will be anonymous and confidential. If you elect to share your email address as part of the prize draw, this will not be linked to your responses in any way.

Below, you can read the detailed privacy collection statement for the study.

Privacy collection statement

Introduction

Patternmakers respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act"). As an Australian research organisation, Patternmakers also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2014 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles and the Code click here.

On the first page of the survey, you will be presented with a privacy statement. By clicking ‘Next’ to Start the survey, you are indicating that you acknowledge the statement and consent to this Privacy Collection Statement.

The survey will ask about your views on attending art exhibitions, as well as your general behaviours and level of interest in attending arts and culture events. To help interpret responses, the survey will also as you some questions about your demographic information, however it will not as for any personally-identifiable information like your name or email address.

Your survey responses will be anonymous. This is ensured via survey settings which prevent IP addresses being stored.

This anonymous data will be collected and stored offshore via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) at www.alchemer.com, a respected survey software platform based in the USA. Alchemer LLC is committed to complying with international regulations including GDPR. You can read more about Alchemers’ Privacy Policy here www.alchemer.com/privacy.

At no point, will Alchemer ask for your name, phone number or email address or any personally identifiable information. Please take care in your written answers that you don’t provide personalised information.

The survey is set up to stop the storage of any type of identifying information like Geodata, IP address, and contact details.

If the survey is anonymous, how will I enter the prize draw?

At the end of the survey, you will be given the option to go in the draw to win a prize. Running a prize helps us motivate participation and hear from a range of people.

If you click next, you will be taken to a separate, and secure platform Checkbox Survey at www.checkbox.com, where you will have the option to enter the draw by providing your email address. Your email address will be stored separately from your survey response, so your responses will remain anonymous and confidential. This is being administered via Checkbox Survey (Australia), which complies with the Australian Privacy Act. Once the prize draw is complete, we dispose of the email addresses that were opted into the draw.

Checkbox Survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Checkbox Privacy Policy here: www.checkbox.com/privacy_policy/ and their data hosting in AWS centres here.

You may also be asked if you are open to participating in further research on this topic, as the researchers, Patternmakers, maintain a Research Participant Database, which you can join to participate in future audience research projects. Communications will be sent to your email via Sendinblue (EU) or MailChimp (US) who uphold your privacy rights and comply with international privacy regulations including GDPR. You can read more about the privacy policies here; Checkbox Survey (Australia), Sendinblue (EU) and MailChimp (US). Your email address will only ever be used for research, and will never be used, or sold, for any other purpose.

What are the purposes for which Patternmakers use, handle and disclose your personal information?

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and administering the prize draw in accordance with our company’s overall Privacy Policy and the Prize Draw terms and conditions. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information provided for research for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities.

Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Collection Statement or our Privacy Policy then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following email: info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Prize draw terms & conditions:

Eligibility

• Entry is open to anyone over 16 who has completed the National Gallery of Australia Exhibition Touring Impact Evaluation audience survey in June 2024

• Employees or immediate family members of employees, associated with the National Gallery of Australia, participating regional galleries or Patternmakers are ineligible to enter. 

Entry

• The Promotion commences at 01:00AM AEDT 1/6/2024 and entries close at 11:59PM AEDT 30/6/2024 (Promotion Period).

• To enter, Eligible Entrants must provide their email address at the end of the survey during the Promotion Period.

• Only one entry per person.

Winning and prize conditions

• The total value of the prize draw is AUD$600. This includes 3 x $200 Mastercard e-gift cards.

• The winner will be randomly selected at 12:00pm AEDT on 15/07/2024 at 223 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010.

• The winner will be notified by phone/email within two (2) business days of the draw and prizes must be claimed within seven days after notification.

• If there are any unclaimed or unwanted prizes within seven days, a subsequent prize draw will be conducted seven days later, at the same time and place as the original draw. Draws will be repeated as needed until a winner accepts the prize.

Further information:

For any further questions, please contact the research organisation at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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How Adelaide Fringe sold 1 million tickets in the face of rising inflation

In our latest Audience Outlook Monitor webinar, discussing the April 2023 results on how rising inflation is impacting audiences, Tandi Palmer Williams spoke to Ella Huisman, Executive Director – Audience at Adelaide Fringe, about one of the most successful campaigns of the year so far.

At the Adelaide Fringe program launch, CEO Heather Croall announced a goal to sell 1 million tickets in 2023. With 828,563 tickets sold in 2019, they had been on track to reach 1 million by 2024, but while the festival was able to go ahead throughout the pandemic, progress was stalled, with sales dropping to 623,667 in 2021.

Despite this, the Fringe team got on board and rolled out a ‘mission to 1 million campaign’. At 10pm on the final night of the festival, Ella (who had spent the campaign furiously analysing ticketing data and refreshing dashboards) and her team watched sales tick over to 1,000,000.

So, how did they do it? Watch the recording of the webinar here, or read on for our key takeaways.

Flash sales can help curb last-minute ticket buying behaviour – and corporate sponsorships can ease the financial impact of discounting tickets 

The Audience Outlook Monitor has highlighted a trend of last-minute ticket buying. In August 2022, 26% of audience members were most likely to have been booking for events within the next seven days or the next 2-3 weeks (43%) – and qualitative data in April 2023 suggests this trend could be here to stay.

Ella says Adelaide Fringe has observed this trend, calling watching ticket sales crawl in ‘everyone’s worst nightmare’.

One of the tactics they employed was a sponsored flash sale, where audiences get access to cheaper tickets and the sponsor pays the artist the difference – rewarding early ticket-buyers without impacting the artists’ box office return.

All types of audiences are seeking free or cheap events – which the Adelaide Fringe Festival had in the hundreds

The average ticket price at 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival was $35.25, and there are hundreds of free events available – meaning the Festival had plenty of affordable options for those who are opting to limit their arts spending at the moment.

This is a plus for arts audiences, many of whom have reduced spending or actively sought free/cheap activities in the last 6 months. The proportion spending over $50 on tickets to in-person cultural events has decreased from 63% in August and October 2022 to 59% in April 2023, and 54% of arts audiences say they’ve looked for free/cheap cultural activities to attend over the past 6 months.

With economic conditions affecting segments of arts audiences differently, targeted marketing strategies help sell more tickets, to more people

According to the April Pulse Check results, audiences in different age and households are behaving quite distinctly. In terms of cost-of-living pressures, older audiences are the most likely to say their situation is the same (58%), while parents are the most likely to say they are ‘worse off’ (57%) – and young audiences under 35 are feeling the most negative about the economic outlook. Different groups have different programming preferences too, for example audiences over 55 are more likely to be attracted to challenging, topical things (44% vs 39% of those under 35) – and the best places to reach them differ (over 55s are all over email, parents aged 35-55 are on Facebook and under 35s are best reached through Word of Mouth).

Adelaide Fringe used a range of tactics during their ticket sales campaign, such as eDMs and targeted advertising, based on which genres and themes audiences have purchased in the past, as well as post code targeting for shows outside the CBD to speak directly to the people at the local level.

Ella says they also regularly audit their database so that they’re only targeting engaged people, which involves a series of reengagement emails, including allowing them to choose specific genres or subjects they’re interested in hearing about. Even though it can seem counterintuitive to regularly delete subscribers, Ella says it has many benefits, like increasing open and click through rates, helping them to sell advertising among other things. Ella says,

‘It’s great to say you’ve got 500,000 subscribers but if they’re not actually engaging it’s expensive to have them on your system, your open rates aren’t as good, and you’re wasting time sending messaging to people that aren’t interested.’

The location of events is also impacting 33% of audiences more than usual,  and 45% say they are staying closer to home – highlighting a need for campaigns and programming outside metro areas

With costs of parking, fuel, air tickets and hospitality all increasing, qualitative data from the April Pulse Check suggests that proximity to events plays an important role in audiences’ ticket buying decisions.

To tackle this, Adelaide Fringe developed a Near Me Now function on their website, allowing audiences to easily access a list of shows near their current location, ordered by time. The also launched a Fringe Across the State campaign to promote Fringe events outside Adelaide, and provided grant funding to artists to add regional SA locations on a mini-tour.

With cost-of-living and other pressures piling up, clear and simple marketing and ticketing processes can help get indecisive audiences over the line

Being sent to another website to buy tickets, or having to click one too many times to find the information they’re looking, for can be enough to make anyone close the browser and move on. With many audiences prioritising other things or being stricter when choosing where to spend their money, it’s important to make it as easy as possible to find information, buy a ticket and get to your event.

The Adelaide Fringe team have invested in perfecting the user journey to purchase tickets. Ella says,

‘We’ve spent a lot of time and energy to make our platforms really intuitive, focusing on user journey and making the experience of buying a ticket on our website seamless to create a higher box office return for artists.’

With all festival events on sale through the Adelaide Fringe’s website, regardless of the venue, audiences can easily access everything in one place (and Fringe gets access to bucketloads of audience data, helping them deliver their targeted campaigns. Win-win!).

To hear more about the factors in Adelaide Fringe’s success, and how you might apply them in your own campaigns, watch the April Pulse Check Webinar. To dive deeper into the data, download the National Snapshot report.

Cover Image Credit: Veronique Balege. French performance art company Les Commandos Percu’s 'Silence!', performed at Adelaide Fringe, 2023.

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About the Author

Caitlin McNaughton
Manager, Research and Insights

Categories

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How rising inflation is impacting audiences

Rising inflation has put pressure on household budgets, with audiences attending slightly fewer events and spending less

• Read more about economic uncertainty

  • Increasing interest rates and cost-of-living pressures are impacting consumer confidence around the country. This ‘Pulse Check’ explores how Australian arts audiences are responding to changing economic conditions, based on data from 1,318 past attendees.

  • Around 4 in 10 (42%) audience members surveyed say they are ‘worse off’ financially compared to one year ago. 1 in 10 (7%) are ‘better off’ and 5 in 10 (51%) are ‘the same'.

  • Arts attendees appear to be faring slightly better than the general population, on average, but are more cautious about the country’s economic outlook, based on comparison of the results with the ANZ-Roy Morgan' Consumer Confidence index.

  • Trends vary across segments, confirming the need to tailor strategies for different audiences and events. Older audiences are the most likely to say their situation is the same (58%), while parents are the most likely to say they are ‘worse off’ (57%). Young audiences under 35 are most negative about the economic outlook.

  • While three-quarters of past attendees (76%) attended a cultural event in the fortnight before data collection (19-23 April), consistent with October (75%) and August 2022 (76%), the profile of those attending, and their attendance preferences are changing.

  • Average spending levels are decreasing, with 6 in 10 (59%) of those attending in the past fortnight spending over $50 or more, down slightly from August (63%) and October 2022 (63%). However, averages should be interpreted with caution, as some segments are actually spending more, and others less.

  • Read on or download the report for details on how different segments are behaving.

Click the buttons below to download the April 2023 Snapshot Report, as a PDF or the accessible Word version, or read on for more of the findings.

With financial limitations top of mind, many audiences are deliberating longer on factors such as price, location and overall value

• Read more about barriers to attendance

  • As COVID-related concerns continue to fade, financial reasons are the top barrier to attendance, affecting 4 in 10 audience members.

  • A lack of money is not the only consideration – the data also suggests a perceived lack of time and a lack of energy, as lifestyles continue to evolve after the pandemic. Many report feeling busier with the return of office working, commuting, travel and social events – and 24% say they are inhibited by ‘prioritising other things’.

  • When asked about their cultural spending over the past 6 months, sizeable numbers say the price they are willing to pay to attend (35%) and/or their frequency of attendance (48%) have decreased.

  • When reflecting on the most recent event they attended, 4 in 10 audiences said that price influenced them ‘more than usual’ (39%).

  • Around half are looking for free and cheap things to attend (54%) and qualitative data shows that discounts and pricing offers are factoring into a high number of decisions, particulary among families and young people.

  • People from different socio-economic backgrounds are ‘splurging’ and ‘saving’ to different degrees – and some are doing both, opting to splash out on events that are important to them, while making savings elsewhere by looking for free or low-cost alternatives.

  • Audiences say they have decreased spending on events (50%), donations (36%) and subscriptions/memberships (31%) – though many who engage in these forms of support say they plan to continue, acknowledging tough conditions for artists and a desire to show their support in tough times.

The uncertain economic outlook requires tailored strategies for different segments and scenarios

• Read more about the current attendance outlook

  • Many are taking longer to make decisions (50%), and last-minute ticket-buying appears here to stay for the time being.

  • The location of events is also impacting 33% of audiences more than usual and 45% say they are staying closer to home. Qualitative data suggests that proximity to events plays an important role – with costs of parking, fuel, air tickets and hospitality all increasing.

  • Some segments are more disadvantaged by travel costs than others, and logistical considerations in scheduling events will be important for catering to a range of audiences.

  • When asked about the next 12 months, audience responses confirm enduring appetites for new (53%), uplifting (68%) and challenging arts experiences (42%). Balanced programs are as important as ever.

  • When asked to share what they’ve attended recently, and why they prioritised those things, some common themes include a desire to support artists and organisations they value and wanting to return to the works they know and love. Some appear to want a ‘safe bet’ that they will have an enjoyable experience with friends/family.

  • Economic conditions are complex, and affect every household differently. However, looking at the trends in three key segments can assist with understanding some of the differences and identifying practical implications (overleaf).

  • With an uncertain outlook, and the possibility of a recession, it’s wise to stay flexible and consider how strategies and tactics can be adjusted as conditions change.

Our April 2023 survey received responses from 1,318 past attendees. (Copy)

Swipe to see how inflationary pressures are impacting audiences in different ways

4 in 10 say they are worse off than they were a year ago (Copy)

Financial reasons are the top barrier to attending. As a result, people are: (Copy)

- Looking for free/cheap things to do (54%)

- Staying close to home (45%)

- Taking longer to make decisions (50%)

59% of audiences are spending over $50 on tickets to in-person cultural events, decreased from 63% in August and October 2022 (Copy)

Summary of segments

Inflationary pressures are experienced differently across the population. Three key audience segments are presented below.

• Older and bolder

  Arts audiences aged 55+

  • After several years shaped by virus concerns and mask-wearing, older audiences are now enjoying higher attendance levels and spending.

  • As the most likely audiences to experience no barriers to attending right now, this group is open to a range of experiences and are the most likely to seek out challenging, topical works in the next 12 months.

  • Email is the top way they find out about events, so consider ways to continually improve your databases and eDMs.

• Family frugality

  Arts audiences aged 35-55 with children living at home

  • Rising housing costs are affecting families more than households without children, and audiences with children at home have reduced their cultural spending more than other adults.

  • High numbers are staying closer to home, looking for free/cheap things to do and taking longer to commit, as they weigh up costs for 3 or more people.

  • Families see the arts as important for their children – and many are prioritising it within their budget.

  • For Kids and Family shows, consider a pricing and promotion strategy tailored to this group (they’re the most likely group to find out about events on Facebook!).

• Young and restless

  Arts audiences under 35

  • Despite being eager to get out and about, young people are attending at slightly lower levels than they did 12 months ago and are spending less too.

  • They’re facing financial barriers at twice the rate of their parents’ generations – and feel more down about their economic future.

  • They’re eager to connect socially, attend fun/uplifting events and try new things they haven’t experienced before, but may need support to attend.

  • Some are looking with keen eyes for student or youth discounts – and ways to cover the costs of travel and eating out.

With concerns about the virus fading, audiences over 55 are now attending and spending more (Copy)

Families are facing higher housing costs, and now factor in ticket prices to a greater degree. Parents are the most likely to prefer a different day, time or location to previously (Copy)

Despite being early returners to cultural events, under 35s feel most negative about their financial prospects, and are actively looking for low-cost attendance opportunities (Copy)

Opportunities

As conditions continue to change, opportunities exist in terms of programming, marketing and ticketing. However, the right solutions will look different for every organisation. The ideas outlined below are put forward to get you thinking, and any action should be considered in terms of what’s right for you and your audience.

Programs featuring diverse topics and different price points are likely to reach the broadest audiences.

• Programming and scheduling opportunities

  • Keep in mind audiences’ desire for fun, uplifting events in the post-pandemic era, but don’t forget there are sizeable numbers wanting new, topical and/or challenging things – some audiences have expressed wariness of commercialisation or softening of the cultural activities they love at the expense of creative innovation

  • Review the price points of your offerings and consider how audiences in different segments will assess value for money

  • Research the demographic shifts affecting your area and explore as a team how behaviours like working from home, commuting and travel are changing

  • Keep on top of transport options to your area, such as public transport schedules and initiatives, and consider these when scheduling events

  • Consider programming earlier event options/matinees to encourage attendance among cost-conscious parents or outer metro/regional audiences who might catch public transport or drive but want to avoid travel rush or late-night travel

  • Looking ahead, consider the right frequency and volume of events for the economic conditions. It might be helpful to plan for different scenarios such as a fast rebound or prolonged recession.

Clear and helpful marketing campaigns can help get indecisive audiences over the line.

• Marketing opportunities

  • Look at ways to take pressure off audiences by spelling out instructions on how to get to and from events, on your websites, newsletters or pre-event emails

  • Consider researching and promoting any money saving transport or parking initiatives, to encourage regional or outer metro attendance at inner city events, or metropolitan attendance at regional or outer metro events

  • Consider creating and promoting itineraries for a ‘night out’ based on different budgets e.g., suggested transport, pre-show drink destination and post-show dinner destination

  • Take time to get digital marketing right and wherever possible tailor the words, imagery and channel, based on things like prior attendance, post code, age, family status or income (sometimes reaching a smaller group with the right campaign will deliver better engagement than a broad campaign to a bigger group)

  • Where one event ticks various boxes, consider A/B marketing tactics to communicate the same event to different segments in different ways – for example, highlight the ‘challenging, topical’ content of a show in an email to over 55s, while featuring any ‘big name artists’ in an email to under 55s.

Ticketing initiatives to support more price sensitive audiences are important, but last-minute discounting may not be the answer. Also, with some arts audiences doing well financially and others struggling, it might be time to introduce alternative payment models.

• Ticketing opportunities

  • Look at ways of rewarding early bookers with earlybird discounts or newsletter subscriber pre-sales, rather than resorting to last minute ‘panic’ discounting

  • Consider offering cheaper ticket prices for young audiences and reviewing age limits – i.e. under 35 may be more appropriate than under 30 or under 25 given current conditions, and some artforms may have a case to extend this to under 40

  • Consider offering group discounts or family ticket offers (e.g., 2 adults, 2 kids or 1 adult, 3 kids) to relieve cost pressures from price sensitive parents and caregivers, and encourage group bookings

  • Review the approach to booking fees and consider a per ticket fee or a scaled offer e.g. percentage of total purchase instead of a set per transaction fee, which has a higher impact on single ticket purchasers

  • Clearly communicate where booking fee money is going, and consider investigating a payments solution like ArtsPay, – some audiences are put off by high booking fees but many are keen to support the arts and artists

  • Investigate ways to facilitate ‘pay it forward’ tickets, where people in more comfortable financial positions can purchase or subsidise tickets for people more affected by cost of living pressure

  • If feasible, options to pay in instalments could take the pressure off audiences splashing out big purchases, and encourage more to book in advance

  • For lower cost events, consider a ‘pay what you want’ model with a small pre-purchase deposit to encourage more risktaking from audiences to see something new, topical or challenging, but avoiding risks around no-shows

Cover Image Credit: Audience at Future History Runway. Melbourne Fringe Festival 2022. Photo by Duncan Jacob, courtesy of Melbourne Fringe.

Want to hear more about the findings? Join us for a webinar with the Australia Council on 17 May, 12:00 PM AEST.

Click the button below to register your attendance.

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from over 1,300 respondents has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state/territory, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive new releases directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

Subscribers to our regular Culture Insight & Innovation Updates will need to update their preferences to receive all updates about the Audience Outlook Monitor. Just enter your email below and follow the instructions provided.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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About the Author

Bianca Mulet
Senior Research Analyst

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Visitor Research, Interactive Technology and Sausage Rolls

How are museums in Australia and Aotearoa conducting visitor research? Read on for our insights on tried and tested methods, such as surveying, to newer strategies like interactive technology.

Recently I headed to Canberra for the Visitor Research Forum at Geoscience Australia. As well as watching earthquake monitoring in action and touching a 3.8-billion-year-old piece of the moon on loan from NASA, it was great to get insight into the ways that museums in Australia and Aotearoa are tackling visitor research.

I was particularly excited to hear from my hometown museum, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. As a kid, I remember wanting to tick off the same things during every visit to Te Papa: the interactive house that recreated the experience of an earthquake, Golden Days, a short film that brought you into an old junk shop to highlight some key historical moments, Time Warp, a high tech (for the 90s) exhibit where a girl with a cool haircut called Rima took you virtual snowboarding in the future, and of course a visit to the café for a sausage roll and hot choc. These experiences are seared into my brain – and I remember feeling a strong sense of ownership and belonging, especially when bringing someone new to the museum.

The State of Visitor Surveying in Australia and Aotearoa

At the forum, Te Papa spoke about their in-house evaluation framework in 2018 called the 'Audience Impact Model (AIM)'. Created out of a drive to move away from 'vanity metrics' and a recognition that 'numbers are only the beginning', the model evaluates impact from visitor experience, looking at metrics like wonder, awe, emotion, learning, influence and change.

Other presenters talked through their different surveying models which ranged from basic on-site surveys capturing key KPIs for reporting to instruments that contribute to impact evaluation such as DoVE (Dimensions of Visitor Experience), an adjective checklist designed by Jan Packer, Roy Ballantyne and Nigel Bond.

While visitor surveys provide important understanding of who is visiting museums, why they’re visiting and how satisfied they are with their experience, most presenters acknowledged that, on their own, surveys are rarely enough.

Image Credit: James Henry, courtesy of ACMI.

Alternative and complementary methods

The Australian War Memorial spoke about a rigorous iterative design process they are undertaking as part of their $500 million dollar redevelopment. The methodology includes a national survey, as well as focus groups and reference/advisory groups formed from people with lived experience, described as ‘story owners’, offering vital qualitative insights from visitors and stakeholders.

At Patternmakers, we’re conscious of survey fatigue and only use surveying strategically. We’re also committed to the idea of ‘collect once, use often’ – such as with the Audience Outlook Monitor, where each phase of data collection is reported in multiple formats, distributed to over 100 participating organisations and shared publicly online.

For us the answer to less surveying often lies in stronger qualitative research. Often, we’re using focus groups and interviews in an exploratory phase, to help design a framework for surveys. Other times, we’re using focus groups to dive deeper into findings identified in quantitative research.

For example, we offer focus groups to our museum and gallery clients, in addition to on-site exit intercept surveying, to help give colour and deeper insight on certain emerging trends or questions we can’t quite interpret from the survey data alone.

Leveraging interactive technology in museums to gather quantitative data

The main thing my formative museum experiences had in common was an interactive or multi-sensory element (and the promise of a snack). Young people are generally more easily engaged by digital and interactive experiences, and more museums and galleries are leaning into interactive and digital elements in their curation – even something as simple as a QR code on an exhibit label is a starting point.

Image Credit: Courtesy of ACMI.

ACMI’s new Strategic Research Lead, Dr Indigo Holcombe-Jones, spoke to this point at the Forum. With a focus on digital and screen culture, ACMI is in a good position to lead in this area, and one exciting innovation is ACMI’s Lens, a free handheld device which allows visitors to tap and ‘collect’ things they saw during their visit and revisit them online later.

As well as encouraging visitors to engage in multi-sensory ways, the Lens has potential to improve understanding of how people are actually interacting with exhibition content. Even if a visitor doesn’t register their lens online, anonymous data can be captured with every tap. This alone might not give a full picture of visitor behaviour – but paired with other data sources like observations, surveying and actual attendance figures, a more complete picture of visitor experience can be painted.

Equally, interactive digital labels on exhibitions can help track who is clicking what, or even QR codes can provide Google Analytics data on which exhibits make people want to read further.

When Te Papa opened in the late 90s it was an exciting and contemporary reimagining of what many New Zealanders thought museums could be. It wasn't just the sausage rolls that got me through the door again and again, and I think 90s Caitlin would have loved a special card to tap every time she visited Te Papa’s Time Warp, or the ability to log in online and hang out with her virtual buddy Rima. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, elements of her visitor journey could have been tracked over the years, and contributed to Te Papa's understanding of its impact.

Cover Image Credit: Shannon McGrath, courtesy of ACMI.

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About the Author

Caitlin McNaughton
Manager, Research and Insights

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Webinar: How rising inflation is impacting audiences

Economic uncertainty, being the current top barrier to attending, is impacting audiences in different ways.

This webinar explored how various audience segments are responding to rising cost-of-living pressures and dive into suggestions for how arts organisations can augment their marketing, programming and ticketing initiatives to best engage audiences at this time. 

Watch Tandi Palmer Williams, Managing Director at Patternmakers, and Ella Huisman, Executive Director - Audience at Adelaide Fringe, as they discuss the main findings and results from the April 2023 phase of data collection.

This round of data collection was conducted between 19 - 23 April 2023.

The webinar is live captioned and Auslan interpreted.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.

How to find out more

To receive news and updates directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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Tandi Palmer Williams
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Tandi is Founder and Managing Director of Patternmakers. She’s an arts research specialist and leader of the agency’s research projects.

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Evolving the Audience Outlook Monitor in 2023

The wild ride of the lockdown era is now behind us, so it’s time for a clear-eyed look at where we’ve landed.

In this article, I share the topics that we’ll be researching this year, to ensure you can plan for the challenges and opportunities of the post-pandemic years. 

Over the past few months, our team has been out and about at performances, museums and festivals.

In Sydney alone, it’s been sensational to see the city come alive with World Pride and the excitement of a new flagship gallery Sydney Modern.

Around the country, we’ve seen record sales in the Adelaide festival season, new projects funded and of course Revive, the National Cultural Policy.  

So, things have vastly improved over the past 3 years.

But not all parts of the sector are recovering at the same pace. Some concert halls remain stubbornly hard to fill, and some tours are still being cut short after cancelled shows.

In the US, forecasting by IMPACTS Experience projects that while the museum sector may reach almost back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023, performing arts attendances will only reach 78% of 2019 levels. 

Our own research shows that some segments in our community are behaving very differently right now. For instance:

• Disabled and immunocompromised audiences are the most likely to be participating in online cultural activities (47%, compared to 39% of audiences without access needs)

• Young people under 25 are participating in most types of cultural activities more than older audiences — particularly live performance (85%, compared to 75% of older audiences)

• Families are more likely to be facing financial barriers at the moment (49%, compared to 38% of other audiences) – and this trend is likely to continue into 2023.

While there’s lots to celebrate, the picture is complex, and I believe it’s vital we look at where we are with clear eyes. Simply waiting for attendances to build further is not a sound strategy.

This year we will be undertaking three projects as part of the Audience Outlook Monitor. We’re delighted to be working with US agency WolfBrown for the fourth year, with support from the Australia Council for the Arts and state arts agencies around Australia.

1. Pulse Check on audiences amid cost-of-living pressures

Right now, our primary interest is the economic outlook, and how Australian audiences are responding amid cost of living pressures.

Before the autumn is out, we’ll be conducting a ‘Pulse Check’ survey of past participants to get an updated picture of their spending, and explore how arts and culture events are faring in a range of household budgets. 

It will be interesting to see the segments that are continuing to spend, who is feeling pained but patient, and who is out of the market altogether. 

Our sector has been through recessions before, but this situation is unique in that it comes following three years of a pandemic. 

As reported in HBR, ‘The deeper and more prolonged a recession is, the greater the possibility that there will be profound transformations in consumers’ attitudes and values.’

The smartest organisations will stay flexible, strategising on the assumption of a worsening slump, but being ready to respond when the upturn comes. Past downturns suggest audiences may be likely to branch out and try a variety of new experiences once the economy improves.

Make sure you’re subscribed to our Culture Insight & Innovation Updates to hear when the insights are available. 

2. Full round of the AOM, tracking audience sentiment on a wide range of topics

Alongside the Pulse Check, we’ll also begin working towards a full round of the AOM in July. Full rounds are where we execute a survey in partnership with around 100 Participating organisations nationally. In contrast with our more targeted Pulse checks, our full rounds explore a broad range of topics, from digital attendance to cultural tourism and subscriptions and memberships.

Organisations that have participated in the past will be invited to continue - and we’ll be reaching out to some new organisations to join the cohort. 

This year, participating organisations will also be invited to share their situation in an optional benchmarking exercise. By anonymously sharing their attendance results, top challenges and strategies, we’re aiming to provide a stronger picture of recovery across the arts.

We’re excited to see what emerges when we combine audience data with organisation statistics - and hope it will deliver a useful resource for everyone working on audience development. 

3. Pulse Check on diverse audiences

For us at Patternmakers, it’s vital that we continue reaching out to different parts of our audience and community, and we’re excited to see what we can learn this year. 

Later in the year, we’ll be exploring audience sentiment in a new segment of our audience - stay tuned for that announcement soon.

Research with diverse audiences requires extra time and care, and it’s important not to shy away from challenging topics. We seek advice and input from those with lived experience to ensure our process is appropriate, accessible and ethically sound.

In 2023, I feel like it’s time to tabulate our gains and losses, take stock of everything that we have learned, and strategise for the next chapter. We have left our ‘panic stations’, and are charting a new course in calmer waters. 

A lot of organisations will be forming new strategic plans, or updating old ones. It’s a good time for leaders to be recharging their batteries, thinking deeply and marshalling their resources for the next charge. 

It feels like there is A LOT going on, a lot of volume returning to our plates and we are wise to pace ourselves. 

I hope the research we provide will be helpful to you. 

If you have any suggestions or questions for us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

Image Credit: Nicole Reed and Michael Oulton, courtesy of ACMI.

Beyond the Bio: Caitlin McNaughton

Meet our Manager of Research and Insights, Caitlin McNaughton! Join us as we take a few moments to go beyond the bio and get to know our team's newest addition.

Tell us a bit about your background, Caitlin!

Going back to the very beginning, my Mum was a writer and my Dad was a Statistics teacher so I grew up surrounded by words and numbers.

Jumping forward a few years, I’ve joined the team from my previous role as Marketing and Communications Manager at Chunky Move, where I learned to love the oft-misunderstood art form of contemporary dance.

Before that I was at Melbourne Fringe, where I worked in management roles across ticketing, communications and development. Melbourne Fringe was a real learning and playing ground for me as an arts manager, and it was where I really honed my passion for data and my analytical skills.

What is your role at Patternmakers?  

I’m in the newly created role of Manager, Research and Insights, where I’ll take a lead role in overseeing client projects, designing methodologies and managing the research team to ensure high quality insights for our clients.

What is your favourite type of cultural experience and why? 

I gravitate towards experimental art in non-traditional spaces.

But I also love sitting in a comfy seat for three hours to watch a big-budget, cheesy musical.

Favourite city or the most interesting place you’ve visited or travelled? 

All of my travelling highlights centre around food. Porto is a beautiful city, and they also have this ridiculous sandwich called a Francesinha - Google it. Also…Portuguese tarts…

What do you do outside of Patternmakers?

Outside of Patternmakers I keep busy playing basketball and netball a few nights a week, as well as going to plenty of arts events around Melbourne: especially theatre, cinema and gigs. Otherwise, you can find me on my couch reading a good book or watching whatever prestige TV drama (or questionable reality show) I'm currently obsessed with.

What's your working style?

Years working in festivals and events have made me pretty proactive and willing to roll up my sleeves and get stuck into any task thrown my way! I tend to approach my work in a methodical and detail-oriented way, while always leaving some room for creativity and spontaneity. I'm also a collaborative worker and communicator, and I really value people's individual skillsets – I reckon everyone brings a unique point of view to the table, no matter their experience level.

Why are you excited to work for Patternmakers?

With over ten years’ experience working in the arts, I have seen firsthand the importance of research, evaluation and data-led decision making. Patternmakers is doing vital work to ensure the sustainability of our sector, and the Audience Outlook Monitor has been a lifeline throughout the pandemic and beyond.

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About the Author

Melanie Raveendran
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