Children & Young People's Services External Funding Team
Ensuring an Audience
Predicting the interest and take up of new activities or a new venue such as an arts centre, after-school club or sports centre, is an important element of planning and applying for funds. Time should be taken to define the potential market for an attraction in terms of:
- Visitor segments (resident catchment population, day-trippers, holidaymakers, schools, clubs, and businesses.
- Location - other features nearby which could encourage use; long term development proposals for the area etc. as well as its place within the attraction spectrum (i.e. competing activities).
- Quality of communications. Breaking down the market in terms of travel time, 30 minute, 30-60 minute, 60-90 minute.
- Scale of the audience for other projects in the same catchment area.
- Audience for role models elsewhere in the UK.
- Analysing the project in terms of contents, identity, image, branding etc. and attractiveness to potential audience.
What really matters is not year one figures but those achieved in year five say, and beyond. If like most projects you depend on locals, day-trippers, schools and visitors, you run the risk that by year five everyone who wants to come has been. Here are a few suggestions to prevent this:
- Do not spend all money on building works. People will not pay to see the outside. No more than 50% of costs should go on building work.
- Do not seek to maximise visitor numbers. Aim to achieve a sustainable audience, much lower but reliable.
- Play to your strengths. Visitors are attracted to the real and cannot be fooled when there is no relevance to the location.
- Take an audience led approach. This is about enhancing visitor understanding and appreciation, as well as improving the overall visitor experience.
- Work hard to attract return visitors. A good social outing, a new temporary exhibition each year and substantial alterations every three to five years. Design to renew easily, flexibly and cheaply.
- Build in educational projects targeted directly at the national curriculum. Involve a teacher advisory panel. You need the underpinning provided by a regular schools audience.
- Minimise revenue costs, design for low staff, low maintenance.
- Spread your income base. No more than 50% should be from admissions income and secondary spend.
- Appoint a Director who understands business.
