With hand wringing over empty seats and the “papering” arts organizations do to make a hall look respectable, the phrase “not worth the paper it’s written on” comes to mind. There is a golden opportunity to empower the audience to help recruit new audience members with a free ticket and/or referral program…..
Papering a house to make it look full can have a negative impact. When subscribers at a concert are told that donations are needed to help get an orchestra through the year, they might look around and see a full house, and that might lead them to believe that money is not being spent wisely possibly driving them to this thought: I’m not giving to a losing proposition! Or, a subscriber might start a conversation with a regular attendee only to find out that they are there courtesy of multiple free tickets. This might make them think twice about renewing if they realize they can get in for free! Granted an empty house can have a negative impact also, but it can be easily transformed by offering subscribers 2 seats to an upcoming concert free of charge for them to introduce new people to the concert experience. The audience member then is truly empowered as an advocate, and the people they would bring in might be more likely to become patrons in the future because they would be carefully selected and will have a personal connection with the “donor”. I can’t think of a more powerful group of advocates than those who are in the audience night after night! A wad of free tickets to random people gives us almost no chance of reciprocation, because there is no obligation perceived or otherwise.
Another idea I have had is to offer a referral discount program. For every new subscriber a current subscriber brings in, we could give the referrer a 10% discount. So if someone attracts 10 people (say 5 couples), their season ticket is then renewed for free! I have not implemented this idea anywhere, but I imagine someone has. How may Cable/Satellite/Cell phone companies give you a discount of f of your next bill if you refer someone who then becomes a customer. This is the same concept!
As I have said previously, simply selling or giving away tickets is short sighted, the goal should be to bring people value, so that they will eventually treasure it as part of their life, not just as something they do from time to time!
Next time: How a simple gesture to a deserving group turned into new audiences, donor support and sponsorship…..