Performing arts organizations around the globe are struggling to achieve sustainability in a shifting marketplace. In Canada, these challenges include changes in audience behaviours, engagement patterns, and purchasing trends.

In November 2024, Orchestras Canada, PACT, the National Arts Centre, and CAPACOA brought together representatives from across the country to explore innovative approaches to fostering audience loyalty. This meeting marked the launch of the Re-imagining Customer Relationships project — a collaborative effort aimed at strengthening the resilience and dependability of Canadian audiences in the post-COVID era.

Structured as a multi-year, national open-access research initiative, the project is supported by a university-linked postgraduate course at HEC Montréal and builds on recent findings from WolfBrown and David Maggs (George Cedric Metcalf Foundation). The strategies explored in this project are primarily broken down into field studies.

Goal of Project

To design and test new strategies to deepen loyalty among regular arts goers and develop affiliation among occasional arts goers.

Supporting Initiators Field Study

The Supporting Initiators field study examines the role of initiators (individuals who organize outings to cultural events for their friends and family) through qualitative interviews and experiments.

Its key objectives are to:

Understand how performing arts organizations identify and engage initiators
Explore the motivations and goals of cultural outing organizers
Identify challenges and opportunities in building relationships with initiators
Develop strategies to enhance initiator engagement, strengthening their loyalty and that of their networks

In addition, the study produced a handbook filled with practical recommendations to help performing arts organizations more effectively involve initiators in their coordination and purchasing processes.

Read the Handbook

Trialing Membership Offers Field Study

The Trialing Membership Offers field study investigates how membership programs can foster loyalty and affiliation through qualitative interviews and experiments.

Its key objectives are to:

Explore the successes and challenges of membership models
Examine the balance between transactional and relational approaches
Assess how these programs create value for members
Evaluate their effectiveness in fostering loyalty

The study will also generate practical recommendations for membership models that performing arts organizations can test in real-world contexts.

Survey on Affiliation and Membership in the Performing Arts

The purpose of the survey is to explore arts goers’ current forms and levels of affiliation with performing arts organizations, as well as their attitudes towards various membership offerings. It will help performing arts organizations get answers to highly relevant questions: