John Slattery, Cynthia Nixon, Tyne Daly and Mary Catherine Garrison in the 2007 Pulitzer Winning Rabbit Hole. Photo by Joan Marcus.

When MTC was expanding its operations from two Off-Broadway stages on the lower level of City Center to three, and needed to bring customers from its home of 20 years to a new larger Broadway theatre (the Biltmore, recently renamed Samuel Friedman), it retained Audience Research & Analysis to find information that would help:

• Grow its subscription base
• Double sales of single tickets
• Understand the perception of its new location
• Refine MTC’s positioning
• Evaluate marketing tools

ARA conducted four focus groups with current MTC subscribers and single-ticket buyers, subscribers to other non-profit theatres, and theatregoers who attended MTC plays that had transferred from its City Center home to Broadway.

With regard to marketing materials, theatregoers wanted concise, useful information that was as complete as possible (at the time of publication) and included storylines, playwrights, and actors.  In terms of physical attributes, they responded best to a brochure that, even when unfolded, was not too large, not too busy, and use colors that reflected the experimental nature of the theatre.

In the groups, we reviewed marketing materials to see what informattion theatregoers found most useful to make a purchase decision and the layout and appearance that they responded to best and reflected their perception of the theatre.

ARA also tested several campaigns (developed by the ad agency) to announce the new theatre.  The results pointed to “I Want My MTC,” an obvious play-of-words that featured images of well-known actors associated with MTC such as Nathan Lane and Laura Linney.  The acquisition brochure similarly featured actors in upcoming productions.

We evaluated positioning statements, drilling down to the level of individual adjectives, to see which words and phrases were most persuasive and fit with MTC in describing the attributes of the theatre.  At the same time, we looked to see what language conveyed negative associations or were generally disliked.

The results informed MTC’s most successful print ad ever.  With the tag line “New York’s home for new theatre,” The New York Times ad resulted in 400 new subscriptions.  In the Biltmore’s first season, MTC attracted 10,000 first-time subscribers.

In addition to the focus groups, ARA conducted an in-theatre audience survey among 731 attendees at the eight productions presented on the two City Center stages.  In addition to demographics, sources of information and media habits, the survey identified the most important factors in ticket-buying and examined how theatregoers responded to corporate sponsorships in terms of their attitudes toward the companies and interest in buying their products and services.

ARA also mailed a questionnaire to several thousand MTC subscribers (achieving a 40% response rate) to better understand the factors that drove subscription and how subscribers perceived MTC.

In pursuit of the highest possible standards of service, MTC engaged ARA immediately after the Biltmore opened to conduct an onsite intercept study on a seat-by-seat basis to identify any previously undetected problems in the newly renovated space.

ARA continues to work with MTC to help the theatre position itself in response to changing times and programming.

Photo: agentmouthwashfanclubpresident

The annual River To River Festival has attracted visitors to Lower Manhattan every summer since 2002.  In 2008, ARA found that four out of five attendees neither lived nor worked Downtown.  In fact, two-thirds had made a special trip to Lower Manhattan that day primarily to attend the Festival.  One-third of the audience lived elsewhere in Manhattan, 43 percent came from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx or Staten Island, and 24 percent made their home outside of the City.

The Festival encourages greater arts participation.  Among the six out of ten who had attended the Festival in a prior year, 92 percent reported being encouraged to attend more live performances in the 12-month period following their Festival attendance.  Seventy-four percent had been introduced to a new performer or group.

Visitors spend time and money in Lower Manhattan.  Two-thirds dined out or bought a snack in connection with their Festival attendance.   One out of eight visited a Downtown museum or attraction.

ARA interviewed 2,323 attendees over 12 events between May 29th and September 5th at such memorable locations as Castle Clinton, South Street Seaport, Rockefeller Park, World Financial Center Winter Garden, and the lawn of Battery Park.  In addition to learning the motivational role the Festival played in bringing people Downtown and how Festival attendance impacted arts participation, the study profiled the audience demographically, described their sources of information, and provided information valuable to Festival sponsors.

Interior view of the Solomon R. Gugenheim Museum. Photo credit: Jim M. Goldstein

ARA is currently conducting a study for the Guggenheim Museum to better understand the needs and interests of its members.  Conducted online, by telephone, in person and by mail, the research project will explore visitors’ reasons for joining and renewing, how they value current and potential benefits, their use of all types of media (from print and online to social networking), and satisfaction with their experience as members.  It will also include a demographic profile.  A parallel survey of former members will explore their experience while members.  The quantitative survey was preceded by qualitative research that included focus groups with members and non-member visitors.

Since 2005, ARA has conducted a survey of attendees at the annual Festival covering all types of ticketed and free events including screenings, panel discussions, red carpet premieres, and the Family Festival Street Fair.  We have identified the local spending of out-of-town visitors specifically drawn to New York City to attend the Festival and, combined with the Festival’s own New York City production and labor expenses as well as local sponsor-activated expenditure.  Using this data, we calculated the annual economic and tax impacts on the City of New York.

Since its founding, the Festival has attracted over two million attendees from the U.S. and abroad, and has generated more than $425 million in economic activity for New York City.

Working with the Festival’s sponsorship team, ARA has measured the incidence of ownership of products and usage of services at the nexus of entertainment and technology.  These studies of habits and lifestyles have helped the Festival identify and respond to world-class sponsors who want to be connected with this entertainment-savvy audience.  The research showed that the Festival audience offers a unique opportunity to sponsors trying to reach cutting-edge, financial-empowered individuals.

Despite Harlem being world renown for nearly a century, ARA conducted the first-ever visitor count and economic impact study of Upper Manhattan. Released by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in 2000, ARA found that Upper Manhattan welcomed 434,000 out-of-town visitors (non-NYC residents) who went to an average of 1.74 different attractions per visit.

An additional 300,000 visitors traveled to Upper Manhattan by motor coach or hop-on hop-off bus including 115,000 who departed the bus to visit local sites including Sunday Gospel services. 

Including NYC residents, the number of unique visitors to Upper Manhattan totaled 817,000, comprised of 533,000 individuals at the cultural attarctions and 284,000 on bus tours. 

The economic impact of cultural attractions and their visitors amounted to $167 million (in 1999) and generated 1,674 jobs annually. 

To acquire the visitor and expenditure data, ARA interviewed 2,586 visitors in four seasonal waves at 17 institutions and talked with 1,169 passengers on tourist buses.  ARA also assessed the incidence of visitors arriving via public transportation including four subway lines, seven city bus routes, the Metro-North station at 125th Street and parking garages.   The questionnaires were administered in seven languages. 

ARA conducted a follow-up study for NYC & Company in 2003 which counted 473,000 visitors at sites in Upper Manhattan. Based on 1,145 interviews at seven cultural sites, ARA found that 60 percent of Upper Manhattan post 9/11 visitors lived outside of New York City.  They were visiting or planning to visit an average of 2.1 venues.  Their average income had risen to $80,200 from $66,000 in the previous study.

The Museum of Modern Art generated $2 billion in economic activity in the three years following its reopening in 2004. These results come from a study conducted by ARA that estimated the Museum would contribute $50 million in tax revenues for New York City and and $43 million for New York State.  The study, releasesd by the Museum on July 25, 2006, projected that from mid-2004 to mid-2007, MoMA would support an annual average of 4,252 full-time jobs in New York City through its own institional spending combined with the expenditures of the proportion of its visitors whose primary reason for being in New York City was to visit the Museum.

In 1998, ARA had conducted an economic impact study to estimate the impact of the proposed expansion.  The New York Times reported that, based on figures from the study conducted by ARA, MoMA received $65 million from the City’s capital budget, which represented about 10 percent of its $650 capital campaign.