Case study: Opera for All? Scottish Opera Mosaic
Background
Scottish Opera, Scotland’s national opera company, is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. The company performs in theatres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as presenting two annual touring programmes, Opera Highlights and Pop-up Opera, for smaller venues and locations across Scotland. Community programming includes Scottish Opera’s Primary Schools Tour and unticketed pop-up performances in community venues. The Disney Musicals in Schools Programme delivers both performance opportunities for children and professional development opportunities for teachers in areas of multiple deprivation.
Purpose
Scottish Opera wished to understand more about the characteristics and demographics of its audiences. Whilst this was originally a commission to inform marketing and advertising activity (working with Lane Media Agency), there was also a requirement to demonstrate the extent to which the portfolio of performance and community activity was engaging different audiences, in terms of geography and socio-economic characteristics.
Methodology
Scotinform began the work by profiling ticket buyers using Mosaic UK. This allowed us to generate a profile of audiences at mainstage productions in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as those paying to attend the touring programme. Further interrogation of pre- and post-pandemic audiences identified the impact of lockdown on particular Mosaic Groups, and a review of audiences for outdoor productions during 2021 helped to tell the story of audience recovery and resilience.
This profiling exercise identified the core Mosaic Groups and Types for each performance format and location, allowing Lane to build detailed targeting strategies across the portfolio, drawing on Mosaic’s rich propensity data to identify where there was potential to grow audiences, and where advertising would best be placed for optimum return.
Scotinform presented the results on a ‘Scoreboard’, which allowed Scottish Opera to demonstrate which locations and performance formats were working for which Mosaic Groups – where Scottish Opera was succeeding in reaching the population, and where there were gaps and targets for future audience development.
During this exercise it was recognised that many of the gaps were potentially being addressed through the community and educational programmes, which were unticketed and therefore provided no database for us to profile. Here we were able to draw on Mosaic’s universal application to profile each local community population where the activity was taking place. A particular shout-out to Scotinformer Viv, who mapped the catchment areas of 139 primary schools!
The resulting community profiles, presented in the same language as the database profiles, allowed us to update the Scoreboard to demonstrate the impact and reach of the community and educational programmes. Across the whole portfolio of activity, Scottish Opera was able to demonstrate that it was successfully reaching every Mosaic Group in Scotland.
Impacts
Scottish Opera has used the analysis in a number of different ways:
- Lane Agency was able to apply the findings to develop targeted, informed and effective advertising strategies, including options for linking the community and schools programme to potential paying audience members in the local area
- The extent and diversity of audiences identified through the research provided senior management and Directors with a closer understanding of the importance of each activity strand in reaching different audiences, both in terms of geography and audience profile. This is not only essential in fulfilling the remit of a national arts organisation, but has already been used to inform decisions on future activity.
- The research was also used to demonstrate the impact of Scottish Opera activity, and particularly the community work, to core stakeholders, including at the Scottish Parliament.
“Working with Scotinform has been such a good experience. This project has given us invaluable insights into our audiences, and the confidence to be really targeted with our advertising strategies, knowing that our decisions are backed up by data. The results are now being used across the Company to inform all kinds of decisions. Helen and her team brought so much knowledge and enthusiasm to the process – we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend working with them.”
Caroline Dooley, Director of Marketing and Communications
Catriona Downie, Head of Audience Development
Why Scotinform?
We love using Mosaic! We are passionate about using it to profile your current customers and identify potential new ones, whether for commercial or social objectives.
We present the findings in a way that is easy to understand and share, from your media agency to your funders.
We are flexible; happy to work in stages and to accommodate organisational capacity.
Our work covers the commercial and the social and we understand the importance of bringing these together to demonstrate the whole.
Photo Credit: The cast of ‘The Barber of Seville’. Scottish Opera 2023. Credit James Glossop.