Five Big Opportunities for Arts & Entertainment Industry from B&A

With some lockdown restrictions set to be lifted next week and the country continues to adapt to a post-Covid world, B&A looks at some of the challenges and opportunities faced by key sectors in the economy. In its latest report, it examines the entertainment and the arts sector and identifies five big insights.

Opportunity 1:  Love Not Lost 

There’s a lot of pent-up demand for live events as and when they are able to recommence.

In a regular year, 93% of us attend some kind of live events (3.4 million). Since the pandemic, only 50,000 of us have been able to avail of live events (socially distanced, for as long as they were allowed).

Entirely in synch with the current zeitgeist, one of things we are most missing is the arts’ ability to ‘take us away from our day to day lives‘ (53%)

Opportunity 2:  The Streaming Stop Gap

Streaming live events has been a good way of tiding us over for the minute with 37% of us having watched a live streamed event with 9% paying to do so.

The popular music industry is dominating the world of streaming accounting for 74% of all streamed events attended.

Suggesting significant opportunities for other types of live events that are accounting for a smaller percentage right now.

While streaming has its limitations, it’s delivering the goods to some degree with 55% of those partaking describing themselves as ‘delighted’ with the event itself.

 Opportunity 3:  Bringing Back the Buzz

While live streaming is a good way of staying connected with live event, it doesn’t deliver everything we enjoy about live performances.

Of those that have live streamed an event, the elements that disappointed were:

• 52% less of a shared experience
• 50% lack of buzz with other attendees

Opportunity 4:  Making Space

Almost half the population would be happy to go back to live events before all restrictions are lifted.

Opportunity 5:  Little and Often

There is a clear desire to support the arts/entertainment sector at this challenging time.

32% of those attending a live streaming event list their desire to support the arts as a reason for doing so and a source of delight.

The trick in maximising revenue for the arts is to charge small amounts for popular shows

• 40% would pay €5 to stream a variety show with proceeds going to the arts.
• While, 31% would pay €7.50 for streaming of a professional play/ musical.

Once-off payments are more popular with consumers than subscriptions and they’re very interested in easy ways to pay (text/Revolut).

Opportunities for all 5 key areas

• There is a strong desire among consumers to get back to live events, so it’s important to be ready to hit the ground running as soon as it’s possible – the demand will be there.
• Escaping the everyday is a huge driver for attending events anyway – and the experiences of 2020 have sharpened that considerably – so escapism is something to think about when designing upcoming events for spectators.
• Half capacity is the point where the majority of audiences feel comfortable as restrictions lift, so planning should factor that in.  Ample safety measures will drive confidence, particularly for older customers.   Face masks aren’t a barrier to attendance for the vast majority .
• In the meantime, streaming is a good fall back and there are clearly opportunities for subsectors like classical music and comedy to take a larger share of the market here.
• There are some needs however, that streaming struggles to meet.  Socialising with friends and creating a sense of buzz around the event are naturally difficult to do.   It’s worth thinking about how we can think outside the box to deliver these missing pieces.  Social media could be utilised to bring people together when experiencing live streaming.  Partnerships with food/drink/takeaway companies could be considered as a means of making these occasions more special and important for those participating.
• There is a clear desire among the people to support the arts/entertainment sector financially.  A central campaign for this may be useful, as the goodwill is not necessarily being channeled in an effective way.
• Little and often seems to be the right approach with charging for streaming.  There is good appetite to pay small to medium fees for shows with broad appeal in terms of content.  Establishing habits and routines with this kind of content would really pay Making payment easy for viewers is also an important consideration.

For more information on this report and for the full  data presentation contact maggie@banda.ie