Aberdeen Performing Arts: Creating a common language for understanding audiences

Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA) manages three city centre venues and three festivals, and plays a vital part in Aberdeen and Scotland's cultural landscape, with over 800 performances and over 20,000 creative learning participants. 

Starting in 2019, APA began using  Audience Spectrum to:

• create a universal language for audiences
• support audience development planning and marketing campaigns 

Audience analysis - where are we now?

APA began by integrating Audience Spectrum into their Spektrix ticketing system - applying a segment 'tag' to each booker. (Find out more about this here >)

They were then able to create various customer reports in Spektrix, which included Audience Spectrum segmentation, and this helped created a clear view of who their audiences are across multiple venues with distinct programmes. The analysis revealed differences in artform engagement, spend, yield, and booking behaviour, and established a robust overview of the current audience profile. 

Identifying the segments to prioritise

Each Audience Spectrum segment was considered in the context of:

• attendance potential and growth targets
• motivations and key drivers
• social profile and behaviours
• current audience penetration vs. local opportunity

Geography and drive-time were also factored in to ensure targeting was practical and achievable.

This approach pinpointed clear growth opportunities: for example, engaging family-focused segments such as Dormitory Dependables and Trips & Treats, and increasing frequency and cross-artform attendance among Experience Seekers, including students and young professionals. 

Insight into action

Audience Spectrum is now used to inform planning, communications, and ongoing audience analysis, helping teams take a more structured and informed approach to engagement.

APA is building on the initial analysis by exploring greater personalisation, aligned with their audience development strategy and broader organisational objectives. 

In practice, this has already influenced activity across mailing lists, show reporting, and campaign planning. New approaches are being tested in areas such as remarketing, email campaigns, and media planning, using segment insight to guide decisions.

Ongoing use of the Audience Spectrum integration in Spektrix has supported this work by facilitating the creation of targeted customer lists, and providing a clear view of individual bookers by segment.