Boilerhouse Theatre Company
| Organisation |
boilerhouse theatre company |
| Project |
Pilot action research project providing information about the boilerhouse audience |
| Artform |
Drama |
| Location |
Edinburgh |
| Application type |
Project development |
| Date |
2000/01 |
| Status |
Completed |
| Grant |
£6,914 |
| Total project cost |
£10,792 |
boilerhouse is a touring theatre company that seeks to challenge the conventions of what is understood by theatre and expand the environments in which performance is witnessed and experienced. It creates unique performance work aimed at audiences unused to attending theatres, especially younger ones, staging its productions in non-traditional locations. boilerhouse currently produces two tours a year.
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Pilot action research project designed to provide boilerhouse with information about its target audience of young, non-regular theatre attending audiences - the ‘club generation’ of 18 to 24 year olds who attend live music, clubs and cinemas. |
boilerhouse has found that market research tends to focus on audiences of more traditional artforms with the result that there is little available data on their target audience of ‘club-goers’. Through desk and action research, the company seeks to:
- Gather information on the demographics, attitudes and lifestyle preferences of its target audience
- Identify research methods that are appropriate for reaching this type of audience and explore new methods or those that have not been used previously by theatre companies
- Test the identified methods and create a detailed attender database
- Identify the most effective methods of establishing two way communication between boilerhouse and its target audience
Ballantyne Mackay Consultants were commissioned by boilerhouse to undertake the research. They began by looking at existing studies looking at the lifestyles and attitudes of young people, and identified the following three reports as being particularly useful: The Youth Audience Research Report by The Arts Council of England (1994), Youth Research by Marketing the Arts in Oxfordshire, and The Roar Panel – Gaining Admission to Young People’s Lives, MRS 1997 Conference Papers.
Research into boilerhouse’s audience was then undertaken using a self-completion questionnaire which was handed out at nine venues during their autumn tour of their new production RED. To gather information about lifestyle and attitudes, two focus groups were held with boilerhouse attenders. Using internet focus groups and lifestyle categorisation research was considered but the more traditional focus group format was felt to be more appropriate given the desk research findings. Email was used successfully to recruit participants. A detailed research report was produced by the consultants.
Desk research
- Research methodologies: As an age group, 16-24 year olds are particularly open to market research. The key difficulties in researching young people is not persuading them to take part but making initial contact with a relevant sample, maintaining their interest, and being sensitive to their possible lack of confidence. Focus groups are particularly effective when an in-depth discussion is required. Offering a small monetary incentive can increase participation significantly.
- Lifestyle preferences: The most popular venues for a night out are the pub, cinema and nightclub, with Fridays and Saturdays being the most popular nights for going out. Peer pressure is particularly strong at this age.
- Attitudes towards the theatre: These are dependant on factors such as age, gender, social class, education and experience. Cost is a key deterrent, with many young people perceiving the theatre to be expensive in comparison with alternatives such as the cinema. Other identified barriers include the event itself, the venue and lack of awareness of the event. Offering young persons’ discounts and a free drink with their ticket are popular incentives to attend.
boilerhouse audience research
- The response rate to the self-completion questionnaire varied between venues, being highest in Edinburgh (75%) where researchers actively handed out the questionnaires.
- Key findings included: the boilerhouse audience is older than expected - 51% are aged 26-40 and only 36% aged under 25 – but still younger than the UK average for theatre attenders. Around a third (36%) are non-regular theatregoers. RED attracted a substantial new audience –68% had not attended a boilerhouse show before. Cinema, listening to or playing music, meeting with friends/going to the pub and eating out are the four most popular leisure activities, with going to the theatre cited as the fifth. Word of mouth is an important way of finding out about events.
- A total of 13 people took part in the focus groups. The majority were either working in some form of the arts or studying them. The boilerhouse audience profile built up from these indicated that they were adventurous, individualistic, sociable, interested in creative and physical activities, frequent attenders of live events and high internet users. They could be reached through publications like The List and Metro, flyers (with prominent company name) in preferred pubs and venues, leaflet drops in ‘flat land’ such as Marchmont, and word of mouth.
- Develop the boilerhouse mailing list through actively encouraging people to join at performances, offering incentives etc
- Target potential audiences through promotions in targeted pubs and coffee houses, joint promotions with arts organisations with similar audience profiles, buying into The Audience Business student email address list etc
- Develop the use of the boilerhouse website and email to increase two-way communications between boilerhouse and its audiences
- Explore ways of taking the existing research forward through, for instance, segmenting the boilerhouse market on the basis of lifestyle and attitude characteristics
boilerhouse theatre company
45 Moray Place
Edinburgh
EH3 6BQ
Tel: 0131 476 7584
Fax: 0131 467 5472
Web: www.boilerhouse.org.uk |