Data and Audience Reach in the Cultural Sector in Utrecht

26 September 2017

Article written by Wouter van Gils, Senior Consultant

On Wednesday, 13 September 2017, Tivoli Vredenburg and VNPF held a conference for all parties involved in the cultural and entertainment sector to reflect on current issues and future developments in the sector. The day was about inspiration, the latest trends and developments and also in particular about opportunities for collaboration within the sector.

Wouter van Gils from Cmotions and David Langerak from the Cultural Affairs department of the Municipality of Utrecht gave a presentation about Data and Audience Reach in the Cultural Sector in Utrecht. The recurring theme of this session was their insight into how cultural institutions in Utrecht handle data and how data can help them to optimise their audience reach.

The Municipality of Utrecht asked Cmotions to support them with a project to look into the extent to which insights into audience data can help expand and widen their audience reach. The data from these institutions is enriched and then shared between them via a web report so that together they can build a clear picture of the audience and learn from each other.

Many cultural institutions want to do “something” with data, but because data is such a broad concept, they often don’t know what. The Municipality of Utrecht, a number of cultural institutions in Utrecht and Cmotions launched a project to look into how data can help optimise audience reach. Attracting a new and wider audience by sharing and studying attendance data is the top priority in this.

Key questions are:

• Who are we (not) attracting to what we put on?
• How can cultural institutions reach a wider and more diverse audience and how can we learn from one another?
• What has been the outcome?
• What were the difficulties?
• What is the outlook now?

It was an interactive session covering issues of privacy, the role of municipalities and the impact of data. Right now the focus is on institutions in a city, but there is also scope for cross-fertilisation elsewhere.

Good collaboration with a clear common goal and mutual trust are the factors for success in this project.