When you think about it, it makes sense that there ought to be a connection between our Arts & Cultural audiences and the sustainability movement.
The parallels are there – a value on the unique, live experience over commodities, socially active and often community-minded, a broad cultural awareness and a slight political lean towards the Left, at least when it comes to the environment (I’m basing this last point on the number of client briefs I receive suggesting a preference for targeting Guardian readers).
It follows that arts organisations could benefit directly from engaging with their audiences on these issues, highlighting their own commitments and initiatives and using the issues as spring board to encourage further conversation around their brands as well as feeding directly into artistic projects.
It’s ideas like these that lie at the heart of our own Sustainable Communication drive, and we’re far from alone as the latest issue of Arts Professional happily illustrates. A welcome special edition focusing on Arts and Climate Change, the issue features articles from arts and business experts in the field including a piece on green audience segmentation by our own Andrew Moir.
I’ve posted the full article below and you can download a pdf copy of the issue here
“For most arts organisations chasing the green pound should have some relevance. In the past it has been hard to prove either way. But now we finally have some evidence that would suggest that there is a link between cultural audiences and a positive pre-disposition towards sustainability and green issues. London Calling has had a contract to supply the Mosaic audience segmentation analysis produced by Experian for a number of years. Therefore our understanding of who attends which types of events is very sophisticated and we can map out, to individual postcodes, the types of people who attend arts events throughout London. Now Experian have created a new segmentation analysis called “Green Aware” that segments the population by virtue of their behaviour and attitude towards green issues and even monitors individual household carbon footprints. We have contracted with Experian to sell this research to the Arts, Leisure and Tourist industry. As public consciousness of global warming has increased, so has the complexity of the issues surrounding the key drivers that influence people’s behaviour. This research identifies the drivers and barriers of current household behaviours including consumer’s understanding of green initiatives, sense of risk, accountability and an understanding of the terminology associated with carbon footprints and organisation’s claims to be green.
“Green Aware enables you to identify and target households in relation to their attitudes towards environmental issues. This means that we can identify environmental attitudes of Mosaic groups as part of our existing strategy for segmenting customer behaviour. Initial analysis has shown that there are patterns that suggest that those who are well educated, affluent and are generally switched on are more likely to take on an environmental focus in their daily lives. It would appear that “Symbols of Success” and “Urban Intelligence”, the two most prevalent Mosaic segmentations at arts venues and cultural events, have a high correlation with “Eco-evangelists” and “Convinced Consumers” the two most environmentally aware and actively supporting groups within the population.
“”Eco-evangelists” have the greenest attitudes of all and are major consumers of green products. They are trying to cut down on buying “stuff” and are mistrustful of companies. They tend to use public transport and many cycle, but on the negative side they tend to be frequent flyers and are not good at saving energy in the home.
“”Convinced Consumers” are highly aware of green issues and are very concerned to improve their behaviour. They are worried about other people not doing their bit and support Government compulsion. They have cut down on car use and some have even bought hybrid cars but they do fly often.
“The other types are “Green But Doubtful”, “Confused but Well Behaved”, “Doing Their Best”, “Sceptical Libertarians”, “Too Busy to Change”, “Why Should I Bother”, “Constrained by Price”, and finally “Wasteful and Unconvinced”
“Understanding the attitude of your audiences towards these issues can help you tailor the messages you give them as well as identify similar segments of the population who currently don’t attend your performances or events.
“Taking simple steps to “green” your marketing could have a significantly positive effect of the empathy and support you receive. Recycled paper, vegetable-based inks and environmentally friendly messages like “Please recycle this leaflet when you have finished with it”, can help organisations to contribute to improving sustainability and at the same time enhance the relationship with your audiences/visitors.”
