How to use the Audience Spectrum Segments in your Catchment Area chart on your Overview Dashboard

Comparing the Audience Spectrum profile of your audience to that of the wider population in your area can help you identify your best opportunities. Some ways it can be used are: audience development, marketing, fundraising and evaluation.

Perhaps just as importantly, it can also suggest where not to concentrate your precious time and resources.

In the chart on your Audience Answers Overview Dashboard, you’ll find each Audience Spectrum segment has two bars; one a solid colour, one shaded.

The solid colour bar represents your audience, with the segmentation being determined by the postcodes of your ticket bookers.

The red bars are segments considered generally higher engaged with arts and culture, yellow-green are medium, and blue/teal are lower engaged.

Meanwhile the shaded colour bar is the total population of your catchment area.

If the solid colour bar is longer than the shaded then you have a larger proportion of this segment in your audience, compared to the total population of your catchment area.

If a segment is strongly over-represented in your data then there is probably little room for growth. However, you don’t want to lose sight of this ‘core’ audience – they're your regular, dependable visitors who like what you’re doing and might be unsettled by any radical change in your offer.  

However, if the shaded bar is longer, you have an under-representation of this segment among your audience, compared to the wider population.

If it’s a usually-highly-engaged segment (towards the top of the chart, in red or yellow-green), then your offer, for whatever reason, is not breaking through and reaching this group. A look at the pen portraits may give a clue as to why this might be: for example Experience Seekers may not see your organisation as providing the social experiences they crave. Or perhaps your communications tactics may need a tweak to speak your target segment’s language.  

If the under-representation is evident for one or more of the blue/teal segments towards the lower half of the chart, then don’t be disheartened. This is normal and to be expected to some degree as after all, these segments are inherently more difficult to engage. If you’re seeing anything close to your audience in these segments being equal to your wider population (i.e. the bars the same length), then this is an achievement to be celebrated as your tactics to engage these groups are clearly working. 

This information helps you decide on what action to take.

You’re probably not going to have the resources to create tailored engagement plans for every segment, so narrowing it down to the top two or three will ensure your efforts are directed most effectively.

You’ll want to bear a couple of things in mind as you do this:

If your organisation’s top priority is boosting income, you may want to focus on those segments towards the top of the chart, (coloured red) who tend to be the most enthusiastic culture attenders, (even if these are already well-represented among your audiences). They’re likely to represent the best prospects for high-value ticket sales, loyalty and repeat attendance, and have the most potential to become donors.  

On the other hand, if you want to reach those who are not traditionally highly engaged with arts and culture, your focus may be best applied towards the segments in the lower half of the chart (coloured blue/teal).

There’s no point picking a segment to focus on if there isn’t a large population of this type to be found in your catchment area. For example, Metroculturals may seem an obvious target: they’re affluent, keen consumers of culture. However there simply aren’t very many of them outside London – so do check there’s actually a good-sized local population for you to work with.

Here are a few examples of how various organisations could put all of the above into practice: