PRE-APPLICATION WORKSHOP Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme Arts Audiences 17th October 2013

DEADLINES Upcoming deadline for application to The Arts Council 1. Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme: Tours from July – December 2014 Tours from January – June 2015 Deadline for applications 14 th November 5pm

Application – general guidelines Read the guidance ! Health warning – guidance should be followed at all times

ARTS AUDIENCES AND TOURING Marketplace initiative Pre-application workshops on audience elements – Aimed at ensuring that when you get an award you have the right things in place Touring Marketing Training

ARTS AUDIENCES RESOURCES Guide to Marketing Your Production on Tour Digital Arts Marketing Training

The Arts Council - Touring Scheme and audience focus Amongst other things, The Arts Council is looking for – high artistic quality and that generally have a strong audience focus. – for a diverse range of audiences

What will we cover? If you get a grant what will you need to implement the audience elements – Demonstrating that your application meets the audience criteria (Q 2.4) – How to set an audience target for your tour ( Q.2.5) – How to set a marketing budget for your tour ( Q 3.1)

Q 2.4 How does your application meet the assessment criteria? Each artform has a slightly different set of criteria, slightly different around audience READ THE GUIDANCE Examples would be: – Architecture: Demonstrate ambition to show international or national exhibitions which would not otherwise be seen by Irish audiences – Literature: Build on long-term objectives around developing readership and audiences for contemporary literature

Q2.4 Research What information could help? Can you demonstrate a gap for what you are offering? Or a proven demand among audiences?

Q2.4 Have you toured before to the venues you are proposing to tour to? Is there information that might help? Have colleagues or friends in your artform toured to those venues before? Talk to the venues about previous experience

Q2.4 – resources available 1. Arts Attendance in Ireland report – Breaks down audiences for artforms by region 2. Information resource – Venues section

Regional audiences

Some examples of good applications Theatre XXXXXXX has an excellent track record in touring quality productions nationally having been involved in 5 successful tours in 4 years The production has a quality creative team that have all excelled in their field of expertise The production has had a previous life, receiving strong reviews and excellent audience response. The application shows ambition in presenting a play that has not been over exposed and yet will appeal to audiences The application has the support of 14 venue directors who all believe in the play and want the production for their venues The tour shows ambition in reaching 14 venues over 7 weeks The production is visually impressive and will succeed in touring a large scale production for venues, offering good value for money. The company and venues feel that with this production will get high audience turnout

Some examples of good applications Music This tour brings a world acclaimed artist to Irish audiences for the first time A major artist in intimate venues will drive audiences and create new interest This is an exceptional artist who would not otherwise be available to regional audiences and venues except through the use of specialist curatorial expertise

Some examples of good applications Film The programme, contextualised by expert staff and framed by a series of workshops, creates opportunities for active engagement by audiences with the art of film and music and encourages exploration of heritage.

Resources available Audience Review 2013 – published by Audiences NI Review-2013-now-published Review-2013-now-published

Audiences Review 2013

Q2. 5 How to set an audience target

What should the audience target be? Overestimation is the norm – dont do it Targets should be ambitious and realistic Agreed with co-promoters and others

How to set an audience target? 1. Talk to venues. Ask them what audience numbers have been achieved in the recent past in your artform or similar.* 2. Talk to colleagues and friends about what audience numbers they have achieved * These do not have to be venues you are touring to but ideally they would be

Use the information resources Results of the Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme to date – contact the relevant Head of Team in The Arts Council Arts Attendance in Ireland Census Highlights 2011 Theatre Forum benchmarking* Memory stick available for resources Members will have their own reports

Example – Dance Show proposed tour – Cork venue Average capacity for venues under 500 seats is 26% of capacity

Example – Dance Show – Cork venue 27% of the population : 37% of dance attenders; 87,000 dance attenders in Ireland once a year or more

Example – Dance Show – Cork Venue Contemporary dance attenders have more people in the age groups – 15 – 24 – year olds are 19% of the population and 25% of dance attenders 66% of contemporary dance attenders are women Venue attenders attend at a wide range of things

Example – Dance Show – Cork venue Census 2011

Example – Dance Show – Cork venue year olds are the largest section of the population

Sample calculation – for a venue with 400 seats Recently has achieved 14% average capacity for dance – 56 seats sold The average is about 26% There are 32,000 contemporary dance attenders in Munster Another dance company has sold 100 seats for a performance in another venue Target: 35% of seats to be sold – 140 seats

REMEMBER REALISTIC BUT AMBITIOUS

Q.2.5 – Planned audience Agree with the venue Attach the workings to your application if you wish You must attach the MOU with venues, signed by the venues You will submit a report post-tour

Q 3.1 Budget How to set a marketing budget

Marketing budget A marketing budget needs a marketing plan Application does not need a detailed plan How to ensure that you have allowed enough for marketing?

Marketing budget Applicant has been given the touring grant Is responsible for the audience numbers and the reporting

1. Negotiate an outline marketing agreement with the venue (s) Who is doing what? What will you have to provide? – basics of marketing eg images, text for brochure, logo Price those elements - dont guess Allow some travel and familiarisation – not much but some

Extract from Marketing Your Production on Tour Setting marketing budgets The budget you need will depend on these factors: · the size of venue: bigger venues have more tickets to sell and so need more marketing materials · the type of event: new or challenging work needs more time and money spent on it · past audiences: a company with a well-established audience at a particular venue will need to invest fewer resources · the promoters programme: if the promoter does not regularly present your art form or type of work, both you and they will need to invest more resources · the financial agreement: the level of risk your company is taking will influence the time and money you need to invest but even if the promoter is paying you a fee, you still have a responsibility to help them find an audience. The biggest cost to your company will be the time to carry out the tasks involved. Excluding salaries, most venues spend roughly 5% of their turnover on marketing while touring companies average around 9%.

Marketing budget Basic promoter costs – incurred even if the venue is doing the marketing – Images, usually photography – Press pack for venues – Text for brochure – Materials for the website (buttons, sized images, trailers etc.) – Familiarisation costs Other possible costs PR professional Flyers and/or posters

How to set a marketing budget What marketing channels do the audience respond to? – For the venue – for your artform in that region ASK What channels will you concentrate on and to reach how many people? Outline cost

Venues want Phg&feature=plcp Phg&feature=plcp

TOUGH

Resources Arts Audiences cannot help with individual applications but we can point you in the right direction.

Digital Arts Marketing Training