Webinar: 2021 Digital Audience Engagement

Watch our Digital Audience Engagement webinar with Stuart Buchanan, Head of Digital Programming at the Sydney Opera House, where we discuss insights on audience participation in digital culture experiences. Hear how things are changing and the strategic choices we can make.

The webinar is live captioned and Auslan interpreted.

We share some of the key insights from the webinar below:

When it comes to online programming, we need to program for those that are already engaging with us online – but bear in mind that demographics are shifting

Data from the March 2021 Audience Outlook Monitor shows that different age groups are participating in different types of experiences at different rates. Older audiences are most likely to be participating in online tours and virtual exhibitions, while younger audiences are more likely to consumer online courses and tutorials. Older audiences were more likely to say they plan to continue engaging online than younger audiences, long-term.

Stuart cited data from Netflix which suggests that older audiences are their fastest growing segment, meaning that programming priorities may shift to meet the needs of this growing market.

As far as Sydney Opera House content is concerned, Stuart said that they have been seeing more digital engagement from younger audiences than older, and that the SOH’s digital audience was so far skewing younger than its traditional, in-person audience.

However, Stuart suggested that, when it comes to online programming, he would pay attention to current demographics, but “not be so dramatically inclined to skew programming” dramatically towards younger audiences. Instead, he advised everyone to “just be a little bit cautious and circumspect about [what we could see] the long term.”

The digital sector is maturing, and more digital experiences are now ticketed

In the early days of the pandemic, said Stuart, venues were experimenting with digital programming and using philanthropic or “honesty box” approaches to payment. Now, the digital sector is maturing, more institutions have put paywalls or box office infrastructure in place, and we’re seeing ticketing become more normalised for digital experiences.

In terms of the payment methods preferred by SOH audiences – in Q4 2020, a survey by the SOH found that roughly twice as many people preferred pay-per-view tickets, rather than subscription options. This is consistent with the September 2020 data from the Audience Outlook Monitor, which showed that 21% of online users were engaging in pay-per-view models, relative to 10% who were subscribing to platforms to access content on demand.

Stuart reflected that pay-per-view had been more commonplace and simpler to license, but that more volumes of work were coming online for streaming, and as that happens streaming platforms will be able to command higher values in the minds of audiences.

Since re-opening the venue, the approach they have taken at SOH to ensure inherent value in the digital space is to avoid making everything free. Their rule of thumb is that if an event or performance is ticketed in the physical world, it should also be ticketed online, and similarly that if a performance is free in-person, it should be free online too.

Digital content needs to be available on-demand (rather than just live) for it to be financially viable

The results from the March 2021 Audience Outlook Monitor suggest there is strong demand from audiences to see content available ‘on-demand'. This makes sense, said Stuart, but it hasn’t actually been borne out by the SOH’s programming, where the preference is mostly for live shows.

However, Stuart said that ‘evergreen’ on-demand content is only going to become more popular over time, meaning venues may need to experiment with making live content available on-demand, after the fact. This also makes sense from a financial perspective – the cost of recording, producing and broadcasting online content is high, and unlikely to be recouped from a one-off live digital performance. Stuart said, “it could be many years before digital costs are recouped – [digital programming is] certainly not a profit centre, given the expense it takes to record something.”

For this reason, the SOH is disinclined to invest in programs where the presentation window is less than 3 months. Instead, the standard they are asking for is a 12-month window.

There is a cascade of engagement from platform to platform - and we need to consider what type of content works for what context

Stuart shared some of the insights they have gleaned about dwell time for digital content. For instance, they noticed that when offered a similar experience on either YouTube or their own platform Stream, audiences watched content for three times as long on Stream.

Meanwhile, the watch time on YouTube was 10x as long as it was on Facebook. Stuart's take-away was that we need to think carefully about where we publish content, for instance, Facebook should be used as way to distribute 'teaser' or 'taster' content: 3-minute segments, rather than long-form content.

Through Stream, they are intending to serve audiences with a complete 'big screen' experience, that they can enjoy while relaxing, leaning back in their living rooms, more akin to watching a film on Netflix after dinner than pausing for a few minutes while scrolling social media.

We need to treat digital programming as a unique experience, rather than a replacement for live performances

Stuart suggested that he’d like to see digital programming treated as its own experience, rather than just the “poor second cousin of the live experience.” He suggested that some kinds of shows, like dance and physical theatre, could really benefit from post-production processes and editing to create something beyond the live performance.

Digital programming also gives us an opportunity to add new dimensions to the work and create new types of experiences. In the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recent digital theatrical production Dream, for example, audiences were given the opportunity to mingle with the performers in a virtual foyer – allowing them to connect with the artists in a new and exciting way.

You can also Download our Digital Engagement Fact Sheet to read about the findings in detail.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor is tracking how audiences feel about returning to events in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was initially collected between 6 and 14 May 2020, forming a baseline against which future changes are being tracked.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions about re-opening.

How to find out more

To receive news and updates directly into your inbox, as soon as they are available, you can opt in to receive Audience Outlook Monitor news below.

If you have a question, or an idea for using this data, please contact Patternmakers at info@thepatternmakers.com.au

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About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

Tandi is Founder and Managing Director of Patternmakers. She’s an arts research specialist and leader of the agency’s research projects.

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Webinar: Digital Audience Engagement