WolfBrown COVID-19 Audience Outlook Monitor

The purpose of the COVID-19 Audience Outlook Monitor is to provide arts and cultural organizations with timely information on audience attitudes about returning to live programs. For this reason, the study takes the form of a longitudinal tracking study, with data collected at regular intervals, in order to monitor trends in key indicators of demand. Survey results are immediately available to participating organizations through WolfBrown’s online dashboard.

During the first phase of the study, participating organizations used the information to calibrate their expectations for demand for live programs, gauge likely compliance with health safety protocols once venues are allowed to re-open, and understand more about audience concerns. The initial study also explored the emerging marketplace for digital content.

An ongoing conversation about the results continues on the study website, www.audienceoutlookmonitor.com.

A small group of orchestras participated as a cohort in the first phase of the study, and will continue into the second phase, including the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Nashville, and Oregon.

Our hope is to bring together a larger group of approximately twenty orchestras to participate in the second phase of the study as a cohort, and to leverage the cohort’s combined data for field-wide learning, so that the entire orchestra field can benefit from the results.

Participating orchestras will work with WolfBrown to devise a sampling plan at the start of the project, and then produce emails to patrons requesting cooperation with the survey according to pre-set schedule and sampling plan.

An orchestra must have a minimum of 15,000 email addresses of recent ticket buyers (three-year look-back period) to participate in the cohort. Those with larger databases (over 30,000) will deploy the survey monthly, March through November (nine deployments), while those with databases of fewer than 30,000 recent buyers will deploy the survey bi-monthly (five deployments in March, May, July, September, and November). Generally, the number of outbound emails for a given survey deployment will range from a low of 3,000 to a high of 10,000, depending on the organization’s list size.

Each deployment consists of an initial email message and one reminder message several days later. WolfBrown will provide recommended language and hyperlinks, and each orchestra will take responsibility for the design and deployment of its own email messages.

Results will be available immediately to cohort members through a shared dashboard. All cohort members will be able to see each other’s survey results, allowing for comparisons with a reference group of orchestras. Aggregated data (without organizational identifiers) will be made available to the larger membership of the League. In this fashion, the work of the cohort can pay dividends to the entire orchestra field.

In light of the recent roll-out of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and the likely roll-out of additional vaccines, as well as potential improvements in testing and treatment over the next year, the second phase of the study will focus on monitoring:

• audiences’ experience with vaccination,
• attitudes about vaccination among those who’ve not yet been vaccinated,
• readiness to return to live events post-vaccination,
• health safety concerns, and
• demand for digital programming.

All orchestras in the cohort will deploy the same survey—no customization is possible. However, the protocol includes a module of questions asked in reference to the specific organization sending the survey, so participating orchestras will see results that are specific to their institution, as well as results for other orchestras in the cohort and aggregated results. Alan Brown provided additional details about the protocol on the free informational webinar on Thursday, February 4.

According to Brown, “Our focus for 2021 will be on supporting the efforts of arts and cultural organizations to advocate for re-opening, communicate with their constituents about progress with vaccination in order to restore confidence in live events, and set expectations for health and safety measures that will still be required once venues are re-opened. Our goal is to help organizations reduce some of the uncertainties around reopening.”

The deadline for opting into the study is Friday, February 19. The first survey deployment date is Monday, March 15.

The flat fee cost to participate is stepped, according to budget size (based on FY 2019 budget figures), as follows:

• $2,500 for budgets under $3 million
• $3,500 for budgets between $3 million and $9 million
• $5,000 for budgets over $9 million

Fees will be invoiced in March.

Orchestras wishing to secure a spot in the cohort must complete an online registration process: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6156534/Audience-Outlook-Monitor-Orchestra-Cohort-Registration. In an effort to streamline the process, completion of the registration process represents a good faith commitment to participate in the study. There will be no other contracting process. Early registrants may back out of the commitment any time before Friday, February 19.

Before you register, please gather the following information:

• Contact information (email, phone) for the primary contact person, and a secondary contact person. (Generally, one of these should be the individual responsible for setting up emails.)
• The approximate size (count) of your database of email addresses for recent ticket buyers (defined as anyone with transaction activity since January 1, 2018).