I had a mixed reaction this morning to the following:

Arts Preview 2014-15: How to score cheap tickets

For audience development, cheap seats may be necessary to get people to dip their toe in the arts water.  We declare, “Come on in, the arts are fine, and it won’t break your wallet to jump off the diving board!”

I also was left a little ruffled.  We also declare, “The arts are valuable and are worth the price…Our pricing is comparable to other types of live events…Artists deserve to be paid too, etc.” 

I know this article had its heart in the right place:

Nonprofit arts groups are hurting for cash, just like we are. But they are realistic. They know not everyone can afford to go to concerts and theater and opera and museums.

But the arts groups still want us all to come and enjoy what they’ve worked so hard to produce.

Yes, we do still want people to be able to enjoy the arts of our labor.  Yet, we are still hurting for cash.  Before going the route of free to cheap seats, please consider the following:

1. Have you done your due diligence in finding out where your pricing stands within your community offerings?  It would be good to do your pricing homework to see how you compare to area pricing.  When in doubt, ask your audience what they can and cannot afford.

2. There may be ways to support the cash poor without serving everyone with discount pricing.  

3. You can get creative by making compelling offers that are not discount pricing schemes.  Social packaging with restaurants and other social activities could work as well as special programming that is well worth the regular ticket pricing.  I have often called out for the “I gotta see this” programming.  

We have had many conversations about free to cheap seats and the walmartization of the arts via pricing.  Discount programs may be a necessary evil to get people to try the arts again.  However, I want to express, one more time, the dangers of not following up and following through with these types of discount programs.  

Again, the low ticket price may get people in the door, but it is your building relationships with these new people that will get them to come back.  Do not expect miracles with discount programs.  Unless you want the continuous turnover and the disloyal audiences and the expensive marketing (low ticket pricing is eating into your bottom line), please do initiate a program that will help you retain these newcomers.  

Cheap seats can work for “butts in seats.”  On the flip-side, cheap seats might cheapen the arts and cause disloyalty and confusion about the value of the arts, but only if we let them.  There is a way to use a cheap seats strategy without being hung out to dry.

Cheers to happy and loyal audiences,
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder