Loyalty Is Not a Lost Cause

Repeat attendance has been declining for at least a decade. But new audience data suggests that decline may be slowing, creating an opportunity for arts and cultural organizations to revisit how they understand, measure, and build loyalty. In the US, the proportion of audience members returning to the same organization within a year has remained around 31% for the past three years. In Canada, that figure has settled at around 33.5% for the past two years, following an improvement in 2023. These findings feature in the new Spektrix report, Understanding Every Individual to Engage and Grow Your Audience , which brings together research across countries, art forms, and audience groups. Drawing on Spektrix data and expert insights from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, the report asks what matters to audiences today, what may drive audience behaviors in the next five years, and what ticketing and marketing teams can do about it. What Returning Audience Data Tells Us Before the pandemic, repeat attendance in the US and Canada was declining steadily. Across the combined dataset, the proportion of audience members returning within a year fell from just under 35% in 2013 to 32.4% in 2019. Among first-time audience members, it dropped faster, reaching 17.3% in 2019. Since 2023, separate datasets for the US and Canada reveal positive signs in both countries. In the US, overall return rates have plateaued at around 31%. First-time audience members’ return rates improved slightly in 2023, and their subsequent decline has been significantly slower than before the pandemic. Canada saw a more pronounced improvement in 2023. Overall return rates have since settled at around 33.5%, while first-time audience members’ return rates are also declining more slowly than before the pandemic. Meanwhile in the UK and Ireland, reattendance has leveled out around 30% for the past three years, and even increased slightly, to 32.3%, outside England. Audiences are still returning to the same arts organizations, and repeat attendance is more stable than it has been for years. That makes this a useful moment to reset benchmarks and explore what loyalty looks like today. Loyalty Develops Over Time When we try to analyze loyalty, we ask what proportion of audience members visited a single organization in one year, and again in the next. That definition gives us the ability to track change over time and compare it across organizations and audience groups. But in reality, “loyalty” is more than a static segment. It develops through an ongoing relationship, shaped by every interaction between your organization and your audience members. Attendance is an important part of that relationship. But someone may still feel connected to you during a period when they cannot visit. A new parent might stop attending for a few months or years, then return for family or weekend events.  An occasional visitor might have missed last year’s holiday show, but look forward to returning this winter. A young performer might move away for college or work, but stay loyal to the arts in their hometown. All of these people, and many more, might show up in your database as “lapsed bookers”. But each of them has different circumstances and different reasons to reconnect – and each of them feels loyal to your organization, even as their attendance dips. By understanding the individual factors influencing each member of your audience, and building rich, behavior-based segments and curated journeys, you can focus your efforts on people most likely to respond, while avoiding the assumption that temporary absence means the relationship has ended. Explore Global Data; Ask Local Questions That starts with understanding how your patrons’ loyalty compares to national and global benchmarks. Look at your own repeat attendance rates over at least three years. What proportion of one year’s audience returned the following year? Is that proportion changing? Then explore how the pattern differs among first-time visitors, occasional audience members, and frequent attendees. An overall figure can provide a benchmark, but those separate groups may reveal different opportunities. David Baker, founder of Spektrix partner Bolero, explains how new models for tracking groups of first-time ticket buyers across successive seasons can help you understand whether your retention efforts are building lasting relationships. Your program, location, and community will also influence booking patterns. A visitor might attend a Broadway venue once in a lifetime, while returning to a local arts center several times a year. The same definition of loyalty will not serve both organizations equally well. Bring ticketing, marketing, and fundraising teams together to interpret what you find. As JCA Arts Marketing explain in their guide to clean data and personalization , a patron’s ticket purchases, subscriptions, participation, and giving are all part of one relationship. Connecting those records helps you make the next invitation more relevant and realistic for each group you want to reach. For an annual visitor, encouraging a second visit may be a meaningful next step. For someone who has not attended recently, the priority may be understanding what is keeping them away. Two organizations revisited their approach to subscription design and sales to meet changing audience demand. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company introduced smaller, more flexible subscriptions to engage new patrons and adapt to changing expectations, leading to steady growth in flex pass sales. Salt Lake Acting Company took subscription sales out into their foyers, meeting audience members, inviting immediate signups, and uniting the power of personal interactions with the flexibility of mobile box office technology to engage over 300 subscribers. Make the Next Interaction Relevant As the year draws to a close, take a moment to review how existing loyalty programs – fixed or flexible subscriptions, memberships, and multi-buy offers – align with audience behavior at your organization. Read the report for new models, ideas, and initiatives to start or grow your relationship with every patron in your database. Then design a strategy for 2027 that gives that relationship room to grow, long term. Keep in touch, remind patrons of the experience they had in your space, and offer relevant reasons to return. Track ticket sales, donations, and engagement to learn what resonates, and use every datapoint to make the next interaction more useful and personal. Wider benchmarks can help you decide which questions to ask. Your own audience data, team knowledge, and conversations with patrons can help you answer them. Explore the full report, Understanding Every Individual to Engage and Grow Your Audience , for audience research, practical models, and examples to help you build lasting relationships. This article was sponsored by Spektrix.