Advisory Board for the Arts

The Advisory Board for the Arts

In 2024 PAC Australia partnered with The Advisory Board for the Arts to provide access for PAC members to participate in two unprecedented global studies around audience attendance and attracting and retaining staff. These global research projects provided both national and international insights into crucial business aspects for Australian performing arts organisations.

The Advisory Board for the Arts is the largest, global network-based learning organisation in the cultural sector today. Using networks, research capabilities, and expertise, the Advisory Board for the Arts bring together the best ideas from around the globe to help organisations find breakthrough solutions and achieve lasting success.

The Compelling Employment Offer and Driving Attendance studies have concluded, and insights have been shared with PAC Australia members. The full Compelling Employment Offer report, along with recordings of the APAX session and webinar are also publicly available below.

The Compelling Employment Offer

At a time when the labour market is heating up, arts organisations must find ways to resonate better with the needs and expectations of employees in order to build employment offers capable of competing in a tight labour market.

PAC Australia partnered with the Advisory Board for the Arts to bring Australian performing arts organisations into the “Compelling Employment Offer”, the world’s largest ever survey to understand what staff want from their employers. The Advisory Board for the Arts use conjoint analysis (also known as trade-off analysis) in order to provide arts leaders a much clearer picture of what employees want, and what they are willing to trade off in order to get it. The results of conjoint analysis have provided employers a map for deploying available resources to create the most compelling employment offer possible.

The 2024 Compelling Employment Offer study in Australia collected insights from a record 500 participants.

Explore the full Compelling Employment Offer report, view the videos below for the PAC Australia member briefing webinar and also the APAX Melbourne session, presented by Nico Daswani from the Advisory Board for the Arts, followed by an engaging conversation between Nico and Jo Dyer, including a Q&A with APAX attendees.

Driving Attendance

In early 2024, PAC Australia members were invited to participate in an unprecedented global study, “Driving Attendance”, to understand the marketing factors that lead to higher ticket sales. The Advisory Board for the Arts deployed a survey of marketing resource use, activities and other behaviours in order to assess quantitatively the marketing drivers behind healthy attendance in Australia.

Indeed, many arts organisations are discovering that most of the patrons that are going to come back have come back already. Even organisations with healthy audiences right now are facing challenging budgeting environments, so the need to build a new base of customers and to increase attendance by casual audiences is acute.

This is the Advisory Board for the Arts’ 2023 Signature study, which was also deployed globally. Participating PAC Australia members have received results and insights specific to the Australian market, as well as a benchmark of the Australian market against global peers. The findings were presented and workshopped during a dedicated day-long session at ISPA Perth in April 2024 and through dedicated webinars.

Members can access the data and webinar recording via the members section of the website.