Explore the NewAud toolkit for ideas and recommendations on audience development

Toolkit

The ensembles and consultants in the NewAud project have set together a toolkit for audience development throughout the project.The toolkit consists of recomendations, research summaries and articles, and presents knowledge and good practice in audience development.

In addition to the resources presented here, concert evaluation reports from a number of NewAud concerts can be found under each theme. There you can learn from the experiences gained by the 31 ensembles in the project, including audience feedback and lists of dos and don'ts.

 

Resources

  • NewAud Evaluation Report

    The final report sums up the outcome of the NewAud project. It evaluates the results regarding audience development, the cooperation of the ensembles, as well as the ensembles' artistic development throughout the project.

  • Young People and Learning

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on young people and learning.

  • What Makes a Good Venue?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on what makes a good venue.

  • What Makes a Good Venue?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on what makes a good venue.

  • Marketing to Young People

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on marketing to young people.

  • Making Facebook Work For You

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how to make Facebook work for you.

  • How Can We Keep New Audiences?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how to keep new audiences.

  • How Do Young People Engage WIth Music?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how young people engage with music.

  • How Do Audiences Engage With The Arts?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how audiences engage with the arts across genres and art forms.

  • How Can We Engage With Our Loyal Fans?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how to engage with your loyal fans.

  • How Can We Create a Social Experience?

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how to turn a concert into a social experience.

  • Getting Bigger Audiences by Mixing Art Forms

    This document contains the presentation slides from a talk by arts consultant Heather Maitland on how to gain a bigger audience by mixing art forms.

  • 10 Trends That are Transforming the World

    Arts consultant Heather Maitland outlines 10 trends that are currently transforming the world.

  • What Kinds of Venue Attract Audiences?

    In this article arts consultant Heather Maitland briefly describes how audiences prefer venues where they feel they belong. Research shows, that we all actively seek a third space, besides from home and work, where we spend most of our time, in which we can meet our social needs through creative interaction with others. Heather argues that art spaces and concert venues have the ability to be that kind of third space, if they strike a balance between informality and formality. Where that balance lies, however, depends on the type of music and individual preferences.

  • How To Be Social

    In this article arts consultant Heather Maitland describes how social context can be seen as key in potential audiences' approach to new music. She argues that we all juggle a series of identities evolving over time and depending on the situation. We make these identities believable to ourselves and other people through consumption – including the music we listen to. Social groups and relations are often formed around musical tastes. Going to a concert together adds value to the relationships between members of the group. The article sums up the factors involved in a group's decisions about what concerts to attend, how they influence each other, and how we can help them persuade friends and family through our descriptions of the concerts.

  • How Do People Listen To Music?

    In this article arts consultant Heather Maitland investigates how people listen to music as a way of marking their social identity and for achieving an emotional boost. She explores what this tells us about how to address a new audience most successfully. Heather divides listeners in two different groups: Analytical and emotional listeners. She points out, that reaching the inexperienced, emotional listeners requires publicity material with vivid verbal imagery to evoke emotional response.

  • How Do People Choose What To Listen To?

    In this article arts consultant Heather Maitland explores our musical preferences, addressing the challenge of attracting new audiences. Personality and demographic profile affect musical preferences, but not in a simple split between high culture against popular culture. Information with emotional and social relevance has more impact on potential audiences' interest in entering new musical territory than fact based musical knowledge. In conclusion Heather points out, that we should focus less on labelling musical genres and more on creating an image of the experience.

  • Alternative Concert Formats - What Works Best

    New World Symphony in the US wanted to develop new concert formats that attracted new, younger and less-experienced concert-goers. They developed four formats. To give them all a chance of success, all four were programmed each season for three years and carefully evaluated. The tested formats varied from 30-minutes mini-concerts to club night concerts ending with a full-on party. The general conclusion was that alternative concert formats do attract new audiences. This document sums up the results of the research.

  • Programming For 15 to 18 Year Olds

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Children meet music' met for a workshop discussing what kind of programme might appeal to 15 to 18 year olds. This document lists their recommendations for what to focus on when programming and presenting new music to the young audience.

  • Reaching Out to 19 to 35 Year Olds

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Young Audiences' met for a workshop discussing how to market their work to 19 to 35 year olds without alienating existing audiences. This document lists their recommendations regarding venue, concert format, communication and use of social media.

  • Live Streaming a Concert - Checklist

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Online with your audience' met for a workshop discussing how to engage an audience with live streaming. This document lists their recommendations for what to consider and how to proceed when streaming a concert online.

  • How Can Ditching the Concert Hall Help Us?

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Exploring Venues and Concert Formats’ met for a workshop discussing how ditching the traditional concert hall can help us. This document lists their arguments for staging concerts outside of the regular concert venue. The list includes claims that it can help you reach a new audience, get sponsorships and bring new inspiration and energy to the ensemble.

  • Engaging Children Age 7 to 12

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Children meet music' met for a workshop discussing how we can more meaningfully engage children age 7 to 12 in school and family settings? This document lists their recommendations in regards of the choice of repertoire, venue and atmosphere.

  • Engaging a Remote Audience

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community 'Online with your Audience' met for a workshop discussing how to better engage with a remote audience online. The recommendations listed here includes advise on specified emailing lists, feeding bloggers and timing Facebook posts.

  • Ditching the Concert Hall - What Works?

    The ensembles in the NewAud working community ‘Exploring Venues and Concert Formats’ met for a workshop discussing what makes an effective event outside the concert hall. This document lists their recommendations for what to focus on and aim for, when you meet your audience outside of the regular concert venue.

  • Wouter van Looy's Five Principles

    Wouter van Looy is a Dutch music festival leader and the artistic director of Music Theatre Transparant. He has years of experience in designing events, not least music festivals, with an appeal to the younger generation. In this document he presents five principles to guide you when organizing your event or concert: Alternate expression and impression; Get rid of barriers and conventions, Present activities on the boarder of the possibilities or skills; Authenticity based communication and Create an environment for wellbeing.

  • One Page Marketing Plan

    Arts consultant Heather Maitland has developed a one page marketing plan to help ensembles reach out to their audiences. The plan includes defining the product to promote, establishing the aims of the marketing, pinpointing the main elements of motivation for the audience, identifying the target groups and choosing the best communication methods to get the message across.

  • Critical Response Process

    The New:Aud network has used ‘Critical Response Process’ in the ensembles’ workshops on audience development. The method developed by American choreographer Liz Lerman has been used to discuss, give feedback on and develop the concert projects of the network’s ensembles, and it has proofed to be a very valuable tool for facilitating a qualified discussion on artistic work-in-progess and project development. This document describes the four-step process of the method.