Ditch the Kids!
Makes: Inspiration for first-time attendees to return for date night
Cooking time: 2 hours
This recipe card was created in collaboration with Indigo-Ltd
The Tomorrow's Audience research by Indigo-Ltd in partnership with Spektrix showed that an audience member’s first booking was often driven by wanting to treat someone special in their life, while a quarter of them were motivated to return if taken along by someone else.
Capitalise on this by inviting parents of younger children (who may have been to you to see a family show) back again as a couple.
Ingredients
Data
People who attend your organisation for the first time with children - either have attended a family show or have purchased child tickets.
Key messages
- Thanks for coming - it was great to see you bring your children to visit.
- Now it’s time to treat yourself and escape hectic everyday life.
- You don’t have much spare time, but we can guarantee you a great night out.
Optional extras
- A celebration package to add to any show
- Special offer specific to two adults
Prep
- Select (or create) photos of adults in your venue having a lovely time, for example enjoying a drink at the bar or sitting in the auditorium laughing (don’t use production shots)
- Create a web page tailored to adults attending as a couple, including practical information such as food and drink options to make the evening special. You could create a filtered list of what’s on or focus just on the overall experience of attending.
- Prep a concise content block for email and web which focuses on how easy the process of booking and the visit itself is. This could include ticket insurance, no booking fees, links to parking or transport, or information on access facilities.
- Gather testimonials of other parents talking about the joy of visiting you as a treat and a way to relax away from the children.
Cook
- Write a compelling email that can work for any production or event, using images of couples having a great time together in your venue.
- Send your email as a one-off to a customer list of people based on the criteria above who have attended in the last six months. (You could also look at the gap between their last attendance and their booking to try and find a sweet spot for when you send your email.)
- Measure how many people book tickets as a result.
- Schedule an ongoing automated email campaign to send to all family ticket bookers at a fixed interval after their visit, continuing to track click-throughs and bookings.
- Look at your audience survey data (for example, data gathered using Indigo Share: Subscription) to assess motivations to attend for those with children under 16 so you are continually learning and improving your campaign.