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Announcing the 2024 Demographics and Buyer Behavior Survey Cohort

ISSUE 29 • May 2024

Attention: Marketing, Development, Board teams


Demographics and Buyer Behavior Survey Cohort

We invite you to attend an informational session on April 22, 2024, at 4:00 – 5:00 PM EDT | 1:00 – 2:00 PM PDT to learn about the survey cohort and ask us any questions. We’ll delve deeper into the survey’s features, how to maximize uptake, and answer any questions.

Register for the Informational Session


Open to all Performing Arts and Visitor-Based Organizations

Registration closes May 10

One of the four Basic Surveys offered each year, the Demographics and Buyer Behavior Survey provides detailed insights into the household characteristics and consumption behaviors of your patrons. Building a multi-dimensional profile of your ticket buyers is essential to departmental planning work and can help to fulfill reporting requirements to external stakeholders such as foundation funders and sponsors.

We recommend that cultural organizations deploy the Demographics and Buyer Behavior Survey every two or three years. 

Survey Topic Include: 

– Buyer behaviors: tenure, recency, frequency, series selection (customized), travel time/method of transportation, subscriber status, donor status, loyalty, social context of attendance, reasons for attending, barriers to more frequent attendance, price sensitivity, initiator status, late buying behavior, use of discount ticket brokers
– Household characteristics: household size, presence of children, length of residence, languages spoken, seasonal residence status
– Respondents’ demographic characteristics: age, gender, race/ethnicity, ancestral identity, relationship status, employment status, work location, occupation, artist status, educational attainment, household income, identification with LGBTQ+ communities, political values
– Accessibility needs: interest in accessibility services that address blindness or visual impairment, limited mobility or physical disabilities, deafness or hearing impairment, neurodiversity or differences in sensory processing, memory impairment

Last year’s cohort of 19 organizations included a diverse range of cultural institutions across the U.S. As with other Audience Outlook Monitor surveys, you’ll join a cohort of organizations and move through the process together as a cohort. Your survey results accumulate in a dashboard alongside results from other cohort members. As with all cohort surveys, WolfBrown staff will assist with deployment logistics and guide you through the sense-making process.

Highlights from the 2023 Findings

– Results showed clear demographic patterns associated with price sensitivity, leading to critical reflection on pricing policies and price accessibility policies for younger consumers
– Younger ticket buyers (especially Millennials) were more likely than older ticket buyers to say they wish to attend more often. In turn, this sparked fresh thinking about how perceptual and practical barriers differ for younger adults and how to lower them
 Artists (full-time or part-time) constitute a substantial share of the audience, which led some to consider what incentives or membership programs could be offered to more deeply serve the needs of artists in the community
– Social “initiators” – people who invite friends to cultural outings – are an attractive segment; what incentives might be implemented to reward them for doing what they instinctively love to do? 

We invite you to join the cohort and add your perspective and experience to the dialogue around audiences.

Learn More About the Demographics and Buyer Behavior Survey

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