The Average Attendee Spent More at Arts Organizations in Washington, D.C., Than in Los Angeles or New York City
New Report Published March 2020
Our newest report, which examines the relationship between total reported program revenue and total reported in-person attendance, found that arts organizations located in Washington, D.C., averaged the highest net program revenue per attendee compared to all other markets across the nation in 2018.
In some cases, high net program revenue can be the result of low marketing expenses, including staff salaries, paired with the ability to generate sufficient revenue from in-person paid attendance. In D.C., this isn’t the case. What we found is that cultural organizations in this area are spending more on average in marketing expenses, including staff salaries, but averaging $34.85 in revenue per attendee. That’s $6.40 or more in revenue per attendee than any other market.
If your organization isn’t in D.C., or in one of the other major metropolitan cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, or San Francisco, this finding may seem vastly disparate from your lived experiences. We wanted to know, what is the average marketing cost to attract one visitor, and what is the average amount that visitor spends at the organization? Which findings are most relevant and meaningful to organizations of every discipline operating at vastly different budget sizes within any given market?
Based on information provided by 3,886 different arts and cultural organizations across the nation, we were able to assess the overall average program revenue and total in-person attendance to find average net program revenue per attendee. In 2018, arts and cultural organizations earned an average of $24.08 per person who participated in an organization’s program offerings. Our analysis also dives into three key perspectives to provide deeper insight into the data by market, by sector, and by size.
Location can play a major role in averages of net program revenue, and can fluctuate based on factors such as changes in the number of arts organizations, the number of residents, socio-demographics, etc., but data tracking and analysis can provide a general understanding of how community characteristics can affect an organization’s performance.
Communities that have a higher concentration of Hispanics/Latinos tend to generate higher levels of program revenue overall. This is also the case where socioeconomic characteristics are stronger, the median population age is higher, or the total population is higher. However, attendance in these communities tends to be lower. We have also found that more public broadcast activity tends to align with less generated program revenue, as does having a higher concentration of artists and arts organizations within the market.
As shown in the graph below, net program revenue varies drastically across identified geographic market clusters – ranging from $12.34 in large markets to $34.85 in D.C. Los Angeles has the second highest level of net program revenue per attendee at $29.92, due to both a relatively high level of program revenue per attendee and a fairly low level of marketing expenses per attendee. In general, the majority of the organizations in the U.S., from very small markets to large markets, all report net program revenue per attendee under $20.10.
Average Net Program Revenue per Attendee, by Market
Interestingly, competition with other organizations within the same market can impact an organization differently depending on the discipline. We found that having more head-to-head competition in the arts education, theatre, performing arts center, and music sectors tends to constrain total attendance for all organizations of these sectors within that market. By contrast, when there is more head-to-head competition for art museums, attendance tends to be higher for all art museums within that market.
Total program revenue varies by arts and cultural sector, but certain indicators show that an organization’s performance is affected by its own characteristics as well, such as size, target audience, and age. In general, program revenue tends to be higher for organizations as they increase total expenses and square footage, as well as for those that spend a greater proportion of their budget on programs, and for those that primarily serve Asian Americans or Hispanics/Latinos. In many cases, characteristics that drive higher levels of revenue also drive higher levels of attendance, with the exception of organizational age. As an organization ages, it tends to attract a higher number of participants to its programming, but lower levels of revenue.
The graph below clearly shows two outliers with very high performance, arts education organizations and symphony orchestras. Both of these sectors averaged a net program revenue per attendee of more than double the national average, at $57.33 and $57.75 respectively.
Average Net Program Revenue per Attendee, by Sector
Each market and each sector have organizations of various sizes, and size matters. We expect that small organizations face different pressures and challenges than medium size organizations, which in turn also perform differently than large organizations.
When we look at data according to reported annual budget, we see a big differentiator between medium and large size organizations. For medium size organizations, net program revenue per attendee averaged $8.33 in 2018. For large size organizations, that average was $30.34. Overall, as we review organizations from small to medium to large, the average marketing expenses per attendee and the program revenue earned per attendee both increase with the size of the organization.
Average Net Program Revenue per Attendee, By Size
In order for arts and cultural organizations to assess their own marketing efforts, it’s important to consider the averages and trends of similar organizations across the nation. Taking a step back to review the average performance results in organizations that are within the same or similar size market, of the same sector, and of similar budget size can provide more context about why your organization may be experiencing certain trends and help develop data-driven strategies that make sense for who you are and where you operate.
How To Find the Average Program Revenue per Attendee at Your Organization.
To find total program revenue, we include revenue from all activity provided to the organization in return for its provision of mission-related products or services that generate attendance or engage people as participants. In other words, we include all unrestricted earned revenue lines except those related to non-fundraising special events, rentals, royalties/rights and reproductions, investments, and interest and dividends.
Total in-person attendance accounts for the number of people who physically attended or participated in the organization’s activity, whether they paid or attended free of charge. This includes general visitors, ticket holders, members, subscribers, students taking classes, workshop participants, those attending outreach activities, etc.
To find the total cost of marketing efforts to attract one person, we include marketing salaries and fringe along with direct marketing spend, such as advertising, printing, and public relations, because employee efforts are part of the greater investment in marketing.
Use The Cultural Data Profile To Find Your Net Program Revenue Per Attendee
Your Cultural Data Profile survey already collects the information you need to find your net program revenue per attendee.
Total program revenue: The sum of earned operating revenue royalties, rights, and reproductions, gallery sales, contracted services, application fees, or other non-program revenue.
Total in-person attendance: All paid and free in-person attendees found under Program Activity Summary.
Total marketing expenses (including staff costs): The total marketing expenses found under Marketing Expense Details.
Don't Have a Profile?
Find Your Market And Compare
Rather than show the data for every city for which we have Cultural Data Profile data and Theatre Communications Group data, we do so for 9 clusters of markets. We all have a hunch about which other markets are similar to ours, but cluster analysis allows the data to tell us what markets are similar to one another given a set of traits.
| CBSA/Cluster Names | Number of Markets | Average 2014 Population | Spatially-Adjusted 2014 Population | Average Number of Arts Organizations | Spatially-Adjusted Number of Arts Organizations | Number of Arts Organizations per 100,000 people | Average A&C Organization Budget Size |
| New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ | 1 | 14,327,098 | 1,559,909 | 3,008 | 500 | 21 | $545,738 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale | 1 | 10,116,705 | 1,017,138 | 1,341 | 148 | 13 | $658,931 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights | 1 | 7,343,641 | 657,460 | 1,150 | 123 | 16 | $667,988 |
| San Francisco-Redwood City-So. San Francisco | 1 | 4,594,060 | 595,469 | 569 | 252 | 12 | $871,309 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria; Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville | 2 | 3,016,869 | 518,993 | 558 | 157 | 18 | $1,886,962 |
| Larger Markets (e.g., Dallas, TX; Santa Ana-Anaheim, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; Riverside, CA; San Diego, CA) | 8 | 4,442,965 | 378,193 | 367 | 42 | 8 | $579,488 |
| Medium-sized Markets (e.g., Boston, MA; Columbus, OH; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburg, PA) | 33 | 2,286,728 | 328,917 | 263 | 53 | 12 | $504,641 |
| Smaller Markets (e.g., Albany, NY; Allentown, PA; Bakersfield, CA; Tucson, AZ) | 38 | 1,061,615 | 189,188 | 116 | 28 | 11 | $436,534 |
| Very Small Markets (e.g., Akron, OH; Ann Arbor, MI; Auburn, AL; Santa Barbara, CA) | 852 | 128,089 | 47,582 | 15 | 6 | 11 | $290,482 |
Find Your Sector And Compare
We examined the data to see whether some arts and cultural disciplines hold similar enough characteristics to group them together into sectors for purposes of our analysis. For example, should all museums be studied together or are there significant differences to warrant a separate look at art museums versus other museums (e.g., history, science, children’s museums, etc.) in each analysis? Some sectors are clustered but some stand out as unique enough to report on separately. The number of sectors and their clustering may change in future reports as we collect more data.
We came up with 11 distinct categories of arts and cultural sectors.
- Arts Education: Arts Education/Schools and Performing Arts Schools
- Art Museums: Art Museums
- Community: Arts, Cultural Organizations – Multipurpose, Cultural & Ethnic Awareness, Folk Arts, Arts and Humanities Councils/Agencies, Community Celebrations, Visual Arts
- Dance: Dance and Ballet
- Music: Music, Singing and Choral Groups, and Bands and Ensembles
- Opera: Opera
- Performing Arts Centers: Performing Arts Centers
- Symphony Orchestra: Symphony Orchestras
- Theater: Theater
- Other Museums: Museums and Museum Activities, Children’s Museums, History Museums, Natural History and Natural Science Museums, and Science and Technology Museums
- General Performing Arts: Performing Arts
Find Your Organization Size And Compare
Rather than prescribe arbitrary cut-off points for assigning organizations into small, medium, and large categories based on their total expenditures, we turned to the data to tell us the point in each sector at which performance outcomes differ depending on the organization’s budget size – i.e., where the performance change point lies.
| Arts Sector | Small | Medium | Large | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Arts Education |
$318,183 or less |
$318,184 - $1,749,688 |
$1,749,689 or more |
||
|
Art Museums |
$845,228 or less |
$845,229 - $7,841,560 |
$7,841,561 or more |
||
|
Community |
$199,813 or less |
$199,814 - $1,296,200 |
$1,296,201 or more |
||
|
Dance Companies |
$139,947 or less |
$139,948 - $1,115,650 |
$1,115,651 or more |
||
|
Music |
$99,999 or less |
$100,000 - $488,916 |
$488,917 or more |
||
|
Opera Companies |
$274,405 or less |
$274,406 - $3,188,140 |
$3,188,141 or more |
||
|
Performing Arts Centers |
$845,228 or less |
$845,229 - $11,147,491 |
$11,147,492 or more |
||
|
Symphony Orchestras |
$295,777 or less |
$295,778 - $3,992,580 |
$3,992,581 or more |
||
|
Theater |
$219,116 or less |
$219,117- $1,749,688 |
$1,749,689 or more |
||
|
Other Museums |
$430,353 or less |
$430,354 - $3,704,090 |
$3,704,091 or more |
||
|
General Performing Arts |
$430,353 or less |
$164,462- $1,623,261 |
$1,623,262 or more |