I’m in an on/off relationship

Lucy Conlan

Barbican Centre

Scene setting: Outline of business

Scene 1: The audience

Scene 2: The website

Scene 3: The emails

Scene 4: Audience engagement

Scene 5: Summary results

Background

• Established arts centre

• 5 key product areas plus membership

• Sub brands and 600 product lines

My role:– To lead on the Barbican’s strategy for customer

relationships

The Barbican

A flavour…

The stars

Ralph Fiennes, Marianne Faithfull,

Damon Albarn, Cecilia Bartoli,

Ken Loach, Mike Leigh,

Deborah Warner, Courtney Pine,

Amy Winehouse, Dizzy Gillespie

Valery Gergiev, Roger Moore

and many many more…

Challenges

• Surplus of research information

• Deficit of direct and online information

• Membership scheme in decline

• No ‘joined up’ customer thinking; teams working in silos

• No testing structure

What marketing challenges did I face?

Scene 1

• The audience

Who does the Barbican attract?

How did we target such an audience?

• Didn’t look at them too hard

• Stepped back and used RFV parameters

• Gave accessible names – Active & Rusty

• Members isolated and at top of hierarchy

• Apply segmentation to email and direct mail

Do segments behave differently? ….Yes!

Open Click Forward52%

30%

Members/Non members

13%

6%6% 3%

Value difference

• Average annual spend per name on list

Non members

£63

£7

Members

CRM overview

For key product launches:

• Stage 1: Launch online to members first

• Stage 2: Follow up to non member online audience

• Stage 3: DM (where responders excluded)

• Stage 4: Email follow up– Non members, and offline customers

reminded of benefit of membership and online

Response by media

Launch email

Income

£0

£2,000

£4,000

£6,000

£8,000

£10,000

£12,000

£14,000

£16,000

12/06/2007

14/06/2007

16/06/2007

18/06/2007

20/06/2007

22/06/2007

24/06/2007

26/06/2007

28/06/2007

30/06/2007

02/07/2007

04/07/2007

06/07/2007

08/07/2007

10/07/2007

12/07/2007

14/07/2007

16/07/2007

18/07/2007

20/07/2007

22/07/2007

24/07/2007

26/07/2007

28/07/2007

30/07/2007

01/08/2007

03/08/2007

05/08/2007

Members’ email

Contemporary email list

Brochure LandMembers Brochure Land

Scene 2

• The website

Website

• Why change it?– Previous website ‘tired’– Difficult to navigate– Could end up in a cyber cul de sac– Limited cross selling opportunities– Prior to change online sales at 5%– Box office were too good! Needed to raise the

stakes online and gain more advance sales

The old website

What does the new website achieve?

• Personalisation

• Clear navigation

• Events coded- searchability

• Integrated promotion of membership

• Cross selling opportunity

• Podcast area

• Voting & reviews

The new

Does the audience love it?

• Recent emailed survey:– 87% state booking online is preferred– 65% use the website to find out more before

booking

• Main reasons for booking:Choosing their own seat

Flexibility

Scene 4

• The emails

The email audience

• Grows by 3% a month (at 130k)– prize draw and viral activity– Home page sign up

• Customised email system for ‘quick’ targeting solutions– Last purchase – Membership status

Loyalty encouraged by messaging

• Online offers – ‘exclusive’, ‘launch’

• Hear of event before the general public

• Listen to the artist – try before you buy

• Play the game – dinosaurs & all

Challenging apathy

• We haven’t heard from you

• We still haven’t heard from you

• Prize draw

• OK, we’ll just talk to you each week

Reactivates 5%

New customers

5%

Customers on email

list65%

Customers new to email30%

Prize draw – reward for existing

Email creative

• 3 Templates currently – mirror web look

• ‘Newsflash’

• Poster approach

• Weekly summary

• Membership monthly

Creative tested and reviewed

Keeping them regular

Bespoke E-flyers work better if they target specific audiences

A recent season launch flyer generated £180,000

Surprising them

Being seasonal

A consistent and managed relationship from the point of first booking

When they’re new

When they’re committed

When they’re renewing – Trigger!

Scene 4

• Audience engagement

All very well but do our customers have a voice?

• Vote for films• My first panto• Online surveys• Complaints via MD office

Jack & the Beanstalk

• Schools marketing – panto example– Bespoke panto microsite– Schools engagement (lessons/activities)– Children/adult engagement (game)

Promoting pantomime

Inspiring schools: teachers & pupils

Bean there, done that

Retention summary

• Key – repeat attendance

• Forwarding emails

• Participation online

• Becoming a member

• Rewarding members and key segments– Hearing first– Priority booking

Scene 5 the finale

• The all important results

Has it worked - overall?

• 58% repeat, 42% new

• Increase in repeat spend - £1.2 million

• DM – reduced by half:

re-investment in online marketing

Has it worked online?

• Online sales at 60% (5% in 2003)

• Email – we have 67% of bookers email addresses

• Membership base grown 11k to 15k

Has customer experience improved?

45% increase in positive comments

14% decrease in complaints

So much still to do!

• Our alternative venue: – The website; Barbican without walls

– Communities• On the website• Social networking• Involving the artists more

Establishing what is and isn’t in our control

To sum up

• On/off relationship set to continue, however ‘on’ is in ascendance

• Thank you

www.barbican.org.uk