Using Evidence To... Engage Family Audiences

What can help you be more prepared for engaging family audiences – both online and as you start to reopen physical spaces? We present and signpost data and resources, structured through 5 key steps, to support more considered, strategic and evidence based approaches.

Five Key Steps to Follow:

1. Understand your family audiences – existing and potential – and their relationship with arts and culture.
2. Understand families’ experiences of COVID-19.
3. Guidance to support planning and delivering your family programming going forward.
4. Guidance to support reopening, including practical and safeguarding concerns.
5. Monitor visitors’ profiles, experience and feedback once they attend.

1. Understand your family audiences – existing and potential – and their relationship with arts and culture.

• Question | Who are your family visitors and what has their experience been prior to COVID-19?
• Evidence | Review your own visitor research and family programme evaluation to give you a strong picture of the types of families you have engaged and the nature of their experience prior to COVID-19. Alternatively, explore these case studies from the Family Arts Campaign.

• Question | Who are your local families and what is their relationship with arts, culture and creativity?
• Evidence | Families make up a large proportion of certain Audience Spectrum segments (Commuterland Culturebuffs, Dormitory Dependables, Trips & Trips, as well as Facebook Families and Kaleidoscope Creativity). Use the Audience Finder National Mapping tool to understand which segments are close to you and read the detailed pen portraits to understand more about these groups; Fantastic Audiences and Where to Find Them; Family Engagement Snapshot; You can find out more about family leisure time on the Office of National Statistics website.

• Question | Where can I access general resources about the needs of different audiences within family groups, from intergenerational groups, grandparents, adults, children, early years, teenagers, carers, guardians, schools and family organisations such as children’s centres?
• Evidence | Elders Engagement Snapshot; Family Arts Campaign Resources; Culturehive resources; Family Arts Campaign Standards and Age Friendly Standards; Kids in Museums; COMING SOON: Engaging Young People and Schools Route Map.

• Question | Who are the families in my local area who might attend, even if they don’t already and what might their barriers be?
• Evidence | You can drill down into your local demographics and find family audiences using either a standard Area Profile Report or a more specific Engagement Area Profile ReportYou can also explore the Office for National Statistics website.

• Question | How can you use your previous Audience Finder audience data (if you use it) to look at the profile and experiences of your visitors to *Family and Children Events?
• Evidence | Use the Audience Finder dashboard and download of responses for further specific filtering and analysis.

* Here, we are defining Family and Children events as those where the primary focus is getting children and families to attend; from plays and drama to outdoor arts events and concerts – both those produced by professionals and amateurs. If you already have Audience Finder ticketing data, you can filter your responses and compare audience profile, group composition and experience of visitors to your Family and Children events to your overall profile and the national benchmark.

2. Understand families’ experiences of COVID-19

• Question | Where can I access research around how families have been affected by COVID-19?
• Evidence | Children’s Activities Association website; The Audience Agency’s Research Round Up; National Youth Agency’s list of research around COVID and young people; Children’s Commissioner; Audience Spectrum in the time of Covid.

• Question | How have your family audiences found lockdown? When and how are family audiences likely to reattend? What are the key factors that would affect that (e.g. mitigations that are most important to them)? What issues have affected them and how could you connect with them around these – from wellbeing, creativity, escapism, to learning and entertainment? How would they like to consume online resources and experiences?
• Evidence | Survey them yourself; see our Family Audience Engagement Consultancy and Research Services.

• Question | What were the experiences of your digital audiences during lockdown?
• Evidence | Digital Audience Survey; Guide to Evaluating Online Audiences.

3. Guidance to support planning and delivering your family programming going forward

• Question | How can I understand how families want to engage with us?
• Evidence | Survey them yourself; consult your communities; see our Family Audience Engagement Consultancy and Research Services; Revenue Tracker – explore the Back Light and Ghost Light reports to see the booking habits of family focussed Audience Spectrum

• Question | Where can I find inspiration?
• Evidence | Family Arts Campaign share Arts Award Discover at Home; Learning That Lasts in Lockdown and Later; Creative People and Place Digital Opportunities report; Kids in Museums examples; Forestry Commission Guidance to Engaging Families Outdoors in Wild Space by The Audience Agency; Fun Palaces Tiny Revolutions of Connection; March Network Creative Isolation; Delivering Participatory Theatre During Social Distancing.

• Question | Where can I learn more about good virtual facilitation and the most appropriate digital channels and platforms to deliver family activities online?
• Evidence | Online Community Participation Masterclass; Parent Zone.

• Question | Where can I find out more about rethinking our approaches and developing our audiences?
• Evidence | The Audience Agency Audience Development Planning Guide 2020; Introduction to Design Thinking for Audience Development Webinar.

• Question | How can I evaluate my online family offer?
• Evidence | Guide to Measuring Online Activity; Free Digital Audience Survey; Evaluation planning top tips.

4. Guidance to support reopening, including practical and safeguarding concerns – both on and offline

• Question | Where can I find guidance around reopening?
• Evidence | Introduction to NHS Test and Trace webinar; The Audience Agency’s Re-opening and Recovery Route-Maps; Children’s Association Guidelines; The Audience Agency Recovery Research Round-up; Association of Children’s Museums; We Will Recover; Arts Professional; Using Kids in Museums Manifesto to plan for reopening.

• Question | Where can I access advice around digital safeguarding?
• Evidence | Digital Culture Network resources; Introduction to NHS Test and Trace webinar; The Catalyst’s guide; NSPCC’s Netaware; The National Lottery Heritage Fund Digital Guide Working With Children and Young People Online.

• Question | How can I consider accessibility?
• Evidence | Engagement Area Profile Report; User-centred Access Review; Embed guidance to welcoming disabled audiences; Digital exclusion Good Things Foundation Motivational Barriers report; The Space access resources.

• Question | Where can I access information to support staff training around new health & safety measures relating to COVID-19 once we reopen? How can I find out how safety measures impact on GDPR requirements, especially with children?
• Evidence | Introduction to NHS Test and Trace webinar; Undertaking safe data collection post-lockdown.

5. Monitor visitors’ profiles experience and feedback once they begin re-attending

• Question | Which types of visitor and group types reattend first? How does that change over time?
• Evidence | Audience Finder survey, comparisons in the Audience Finder dashboard by quarter, or download of responses and analysis by date, including Audience Spectrum profiles, previous attendance, group type. The group composition question in the Audience Finder survey reveals the nature of your family audiences, whilst other insight can tell you more about motivations.

• Question | How do your post-COVID-19 visitors compare to your previous visitors?
• Evidence | Audience Finder survey, comparisons in the Audience Finder dashboard to the same quarter in a previous year, or more detailed timescale splits in Enhanced Dashboard. Comparing and contrasting data about size and age of family audiences pre and post COVID-19 may reveal changes that inform your programming and marketing.

• Question | How satisfied are your visitors when they attend? Is this different for first-time or repeat attenders? How does it compare to before?
• Evidence | Audience Finder survey, comparisons in the Audience Finder dashboard, including Audience Spectrum profiles, previous attendance, satisfaction, front of house staff feedback, other customer feedback processes, social media and online reviews, including sites like Tripadvisor etc.

• Question | What is the likely word-of-mouth response? What may you need to change in your new configuration?
• Evidence | Audience Finder survey download of free text response, satisfaction, likelihood to recommend.

These are just some of the many things you may want to find out: see The Audience Agency’s Bounce Forwards COVID-19 Response Hub for more suggestions, or get in touch for further advice and support about how to act on what you find out via workwithus@theaudienceagency.org

If you have suggested additions or amends, do also get in touch at the same address.