Page 59 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

witnessed a constant restructuring of ticketing, going from a bank-controlled model to in-house formats. But, once again, in most cases the part has been mistaken for the whole. The key doesn’t lie solely in how you control the ticket o ce and public access but mainly in having a thorough knowledge of audiences through CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems that allow strategies to be devised for segmenting and retaining audiences and ensuring their loyalty, and where data from ticketing, email marketing and social media chats, use of apps and online navigation via Google Analytics can and should converge. If to these processes we add the possibility of having BI (Business Intelligence) tools for carrying out a comprehensive analysis of this information with a view to decision making, it is not far-fetched to envisage the possibility of smart systems of warnings and automation of marketing actions. At the end of the day, as Marc Vidal states, ‘the strategy will be human and the tactics pure arti cial intelligence’.76Knowledge of the audience can be gleaned through CRM systems for devising strategies for segmenting and retaining audiences and ensuring their loyalty, including ticketing, marketing social media and browsing.So, it is a question of normalising the sector, which should enable us to question issues such as: is the sector’s environment properly analysed, is it actively listed to, is it truly connected?Are we familiar enough with the audience’s motivations? Do performing arts managers deliver what audiences and artists reallywant? And what is more... does that make us necessary?But let’s now go one step further and consider how technology makes it possible to think about new ways of distributing shows, especially inan environment with many communication channels and where transmedia storytelling o ers huge possibilities for interconnection and interrelation.• An up-and-coming alternative is harnessing the potential of digital to reach bigger and more diverse audiences than usual through projects for transporting plays from stage to big screen. An illustrative example is Miracle Theatre,77 a modest English company which has explored ways of boosting its income through ‘theatre for screen’ productions. This method shuns B2B and fully espouses B2C, as creations are delivered directly to the audience while revenues are earned from stage performances. For example, showing one of their productions, Tin,78 in cinemas, as well as the sale of merchandise, has enabled them to explore the earning potential of the project, as a result of which revenues have exceeded production costs. The ‘theatre for screen’ experience has been so successful that they have even published a Manual for Bringing Theatre to the Screen79 explaining this good example of optimised use of digital technology.• Live-streaming shows of all kinds bring a host of possibilities for global distribution. Such is the case of the National Theatre Live80 programme, which includes the Behind the scenes section81 for discovering additional videos of the making-of of shows.Homepage of the website of ‘Globe Player’• The system of video on demand can also be applied to the sector, as in the fascinating ‘Globe Player’82 project linked to theAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 201659