Leveraging Data and Dashboards to Transform Audience Engagement Strategies: A Kauffman Center Success Story
Seven years ago, The Economist published an article titled “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” The piece is a cautionary tale for how technology giants could leverage the network effects of their products and the data they produce to stifle competition — and one could argue their scenarios have largely proven out. However, a massive concern in the tech industry remains a glaring opportunity in another: ticketing.
In No Pain, All Gain, Tessitura estimates that many arts and culture organizations only know about a third of their audience. Knowing the rest of their audience — their shadow audience — is not only a challenge, but it’s critical to their long-term success. The story of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts exemplifies how leveraging data and technology can transform audience engagement and drive sustained growth.
Start with the Right Tools
In 2022, the Kauffman Center faced a pivotal moment. It was evident that they needed to understand and connect with their audience more deeply. By integrating True Tickets, a secure digital ticket delivery service, they embarked on a journey to enhance their patron experience and streamline operations. Before True Tickets, managing ticket issues was a labor-intensive process. Nights were often disrupted by unauthorized resellers, leading to frustrated patrons and exhausted staff.
True Tickets revolutionized this aspect of the experience by providing real-time ticket information, reducing box office lines, and enabling quick issue resolution. The system’s ability to capture data directly into the venue’s database allowed the Kauffman Center to gain valuable insights into their audience.
Consistent Messaging is Key
In the first year, the Kauffman Center was able to link ticket sharing to an additional $4K in ticket sales. While this was an improvement over the status quo, they knew they could be doing better. After analyzing their newfound patron data, the Kauffman Center felt they could achieve even greater results with a simple act — encouraging patrons to share tickets. By more consistently encouraging patrons to share tickets in marketing and pre-show emails, sharing not only increased from 15% in Year 1 to a target of 20% in Year 2, it also drove ~$20K in ticket sharing related sales — a 5x increase from Year 1!
Dashboards Make Data Digestible
The team at the Kauffman Center also leveraged Tessitura Analytics to make sense of the data obtained via ticket sharing. They created dashboards to visualize ticket sharing metrics over time to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and establish a baseline expectation of use. Additional dashboards helped them link accounts created via ticket sharing to ticket sales, parking purchases, and donor contributions.
All their efforts positioned them well to avoid a data rich, but information poor, situation. They did that by focusing on the question, “What do I want to learn?” In this case, their focus was specifically on learning how ticket sharing and the knowledge of their shadow audience drives revenue for the center.
A Real Patron’s Journey
Talking at a macro level is great, but let’s make this real with an actual patron’s journey. Let’s call this patron “L.T.” In October of 2023, L.T. accepted four tickets to a David Sedaris performance at the Kauffman Center — tickets he likely purchased from a secondary marketplace. In the past, the Center would know that those tickets were purchased by the ticket buyer and that they scanned in the night of the show. End of story. The Center would keep marketing to the broker assuming they were the one attending those performances.
In this case though, the share transaction created a new account for L.T. in the Kauffman Center’s system, and they were subsequently added to the center’s email marketing list. A month later, L.T. received an email promoting the new “Performing Arts Sampler Package.” Intrigued, they clicked through and purchased two packages, along with making a small donation of $25. This initial engagement marked the beginning of a deeper relationship with the Kauffman Center.
L.T. continued to receive targeted emails and took advantage of the Brett Goldstein presale opportunity, purchasing two tickets. These tickets were shared with another patron, likely their daughter or daughter-in-law, based on account information (network effects in action!). In February, L.T. received an email promoting the Spotlight Program, which encouraged him to join at a membership level of $125. They joined at the second highest level, contributing $1,000.
L.T.’s engagement didn’t stop there. With an email open rate of 78%, they remained highly connected with the Kauffman Center. Over time, they spent $483.82 on ticket sales (excluding the initial David Sedaris purchase) and donated a total of $1,025. These interactions were not the result of targeted campaigns. Rather, they were a reflection of the effective use of general email marketing, facilitated by True Tickets’ capabilities and the data insights delivered by Tessitura analytics.
Looking Ahead
As the Kauffman Center continues to harness the power of data-driven strategies, the potential for growth and success is immense. The insights gained from True Tickets and Tessitura Analytics provide a solid foundation for future initiatives. By maintaining a focus on audience engagement and leveraging technology, they can continue to build strong, lasting relationships with their patrons.
The story of the Kauffman Center and L.T. serves as the epitome of what can be achieved through innovative thinking and strategic use of data.
