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Auckland Theatre Company: Bridging the Real and Virtual Worlds is a strategy for dealing with a rapidly digitizing culture and business environment. One that aims to support ATC’s mission to create vital theatre experiences which enrich the lives of New Zealanders.

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In doing so it should be robust enough to act as a guide for future capital investment, allocation of human resource and assigning duties and responsibilities to positions across ATC.

I will talk about the research shortly when I talk about phases of the plan

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ATC envisions the final iteration of this strategy as a holistic plan that sees digital technology and opportunities placed at the core of all the company’s departments and operations: creative, production, business, development, marketing and box office.

What we have done:

Without buy-in you’ll risk developing a digital plan via a bitsy approach, there wont be a central driving idea behind it and your solution will really just be an assembly of campaign specific tactics and multiple independent and unintegrated systems that were developed to resolve particular problems

- this can be much more inefficient and frustrating for everyone in the long run

- this approach can be very expensive and time consuming (engaging specialists to try to resolve non-intergration issues and potentially having to rebuy systems.

Everyone needs to be aware of what the project his and how they can contribute and what they’ll get out of it

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I will discuss the interviews with everyone in the company when I am talking about the phases of the plan shortly

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Stage one – understanding the scope and developing the FRPs

Fundamental to successfully developing a digital strategy is dealing to the underlying database structure that supports all activity. In doing research for this strategy it immediately became evident that many companies overlook this stage as they rush toward the end gain of stages two and three. Without giving stage one adequate attention companies have not only had mixed results as they’ve developed inefficient systems they have also exposed themselves to expensive fixes as they try to make multiple systems compatible with each other and train staff.

To reap the full benefits that digital technology has to offer Auckland Theatre Company in stages two and three, the underlying database structure must be robust: the required capability carefully scoped and documented, protocols for data entry established and company staff regularly trained.

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The second stage deals with digital opportunities which are relevant to marketing, communications, box office processes, audience interactions and business operations.

On the business front each opportunity is considered according to its power to drive the strategic business aims of:

1. increasing revenue:

a. by pursuing a digital first approach to marketing and communications campaign planning;

b. through use of multiple digital platforms (digital broadcast media, internet, email, mobile) and channels (traditional media, company publishing, social media) to promote ATC’s programme of plays, events and activities;

c. incorporating and connecting all transactions, research and interactions with customers into a single view format in a CRM system; and,

d. ensuring transactions are maximized and easy to make by having eCommerce available on all relevant digital platforms, present on all channels, and in an optimized format for all devices (television, radio, desk top, lap top, tablet, smart phone).

2. improving audience satisfaction:

a. by delighting people with deep, engaging and relevant content;

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b. ensuring each touch point in ATC’s digital footprint provides an exceptional brand experience, namely we’re hospitable, we’re easy to access, we listen, we respond and we make people feel comfortable;

c. by personalizing communications with people, while ensuring privacy, through effective use of CRM;

d. by effectively using geo-fencing, near field communication and augmented reality capability around the new theatre to 1. speed up functional activities for patrons and 2. provide timely and relevant communications to people as a means of deepening their engagement with the company based upon a patron’s precise location around the theatre complex;

e. opening up an accessible channel for dialogue with the Company; and,

f. by developing a trusted online platform for performing arts reporting, editorial coverage and reviews.

3. reducing the cost of operating the business relative to income

a. by utlising digital platforms (CRM, venue management, financial management, production management, servers) to increase the efficiency of business operations;

b. by integrating systems to avoid double handling, duplication and accidental data loss; and,

b. by using digital systems in productions (lighting, sound, AV).

On the artistic front, aspects of the digital world present a particular and fundamental challenge to ATC, its particular brand of theatre presented in the main bill programme and the way it communicates to its various audiences. It is a challenge that goes to the heart of ATC’s art form and how it’s experienced. Theatre is an inherently social experience; a communion between performers and audience that takes place in real time and in real space. Furthermore, ATC’s main bill offering is text based narrative theatre where audiences largely passively listen and watch a performance taking place behind a “fourth-wall”. Digital platforms by their very nature mediate a person’s relationship to the world and other people. This remote consumption of the world and social experiences through digital platforms separates people from one another as individual users and detached consumers.

To unleash the power of the digital world for creation of a transmedia theatre experiences as well as to revise the way in which live theatre is distributed, ATC needs to successfully harness the democratic potential of digital media, giving audiences much greater control over content curation and narrative building according to their tastes. In doing so, ATC will be able to bridge:

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the real and the digital;

the social and the personal; and,

the intimate and the distant.

The key challenge in using digital platforms for the distribution of theatre is how to successfully monetize it so that the commercial argument for implementing such a strategy stacks up financially. This will take a substantial amount of work and partnering with other parties with the necessary skills and hardware to ensure ATC’s professionalism is upheld.

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I will return to this at the end

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The research ATC has done has included:

Audience surveying

Desk research – general database design, network design and available/appropriate systems

Meetings with other companies (upcoming Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Dance Company, Royal Opera House, Auckland Museum)

“Mapping” the use of digital technology in the c

Needs analysis

The needs analysis process will be specific to your organization but, at a minimum, should answer the following questions:

Who will be using the database and what tasks will they perform?

How often will the data be modified? Who will make these modifications?

Who will be providing IT support for the database?

What hardware is available? Is there a budget for purchasing additional hardware?

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Who will be responsible for maintaining the data?

Will data access be offered over the Internet? If so, what level of access should be supported?

reation and distribution of theatre (I will talk about this at the end)

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Actually understanding how your audience use technology in their day to day lives should be central to determining what you do.

If you can cross reference this with other ways of understanding audiences this is useful – eg demographics, segmentation (we have included the cultural segmentation questions so that if we use that in the future we already have useful data)

We have discovered for instance, that our core subscription audience uses digital technology for very functional things, eg banking and reading news from reputable and established news site etc they are very low level users of social media preferring nzherald.co.nz. When they recommend shows to people they would still prefer to do so via face to face internations. The most used digital platform used by these people is digital television. This informs our decision making – the functional benefit of digital technology in our service delivery to these people will focus on improving online booking and seat selection.

This is quite different from younger digital natives who use digital technology to find out about shows, talk about shows and book. We need to tailor our tactics and content accordingly.

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Interviewing your work mates can be diffcult.

If possible have a consultant who appears neutral

The aim is to listen and record. It’s not your role to comment on how things are done. Take an interest.

Read up on interviewing techniques specific to database or network design (not only does it help you ask the most pertinent questions but it means you record the most important information)

Ask people if they have thought about where things could be streamlined

Ask people if they have heard of solutions on the market

Thank people for their time.

Type up and deliver the notes and ask whether or not you have accurately recorded the conversation.

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Not only do you end up with great notes, this process will help you develop an Company Operation Document – very handy to have

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Once you have drawn up the current situation, it is really easy to draw up the idea solution – you’re just looking to simply things.

Once you’ve done this, it’s a great idea to whip up a prototype that you take back to one of your colleagues to say, if this was the sort of thing that could be done, would you find it useful? They’ll always say yes.

Access is great for building prototype databases and applications – if you can use the other MS Office products it is quite intuitive. You’ll need to know a little bit about database design. There are plenty of resources online.

Good ones include: Lynda.com, accesslearningzone.com, accessallinone.com or any number of books on the software

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If you group together your maps into a company wide map, you can start identify whether the solutions to your issues are things that can be bought off the shelf or will need a custom solution.

Furthermore, this will help you to develop a simple and clear Request for Proposals RFP

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This is more simple than it sounds.

It is just a list of the things that you need a system to be able to do.

If you’ve done surveys, interviews, diagramming of your current situation and a conceptual model of your ideal situation, you should be able to document your functional specification pretty easily.

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On the artistic front, aspects of the digital world present a particular and fundamental challenge to ATC, its particular brand of theatre presented in the main bill programme and the way it communicates to its various audiences. It is a challenge that goes to the heart of ATC’s art form and how it’s experienced. Theatre is an inherently social experience; a communion between performers and audience that takes place in real time and in real space. Furthermore, ATC’s main bill offering is text based narrative theatre where audiences largely passively listen and watch a performance taking place behind a “fourth-wall”. Digital platforms by their very nature mediate a person’s relationship to the world and other people. This remote consumption of the world and social experiences through digital platforms separates people from one another as individual users and detached consumers.

To unleash the power of the digital world for creation of a transmedia theatre experiences as well as to revise the way in which live theatre is distributed, ATC needs to successfully harness the democratic potential of digital media, giving audiences much greater control over content curation and narrative building according to their tastes. In doing so, ATC will be able to bridge:

the real and the digital;

the social and the personal; and,

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the intimate and the distant.

The key challenge in using digital platforms for the distribution of theatre is how to successfully monetize it so that the commercial argument for implementing such a strategy stacks up financially. This will take a substantial amount of work and partnering with other parties with the necessary skills and hardware to ensure ATC’s professionalism is upheld.

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When thinking about incorporating digital technology into your arts practice, you need to determine if it is adding value and enhance the experience of your art form. You still need to be true to your art form.

With each option we review we ask would this still mean we are Auckland Theatre Company or would we be trying to be the Auckland Digital Creative Content Company?

Think broadly about your other strategic goals – for instance, ATC has big creative development plans for youth and new audiences. Some of these innovations fit perfectly with those aims.

In the last two years, though, the young people participating in our youth development showcase have been totally uninterested in the digital stuff and more interested in the live stuff! That has been a really important learning for us, we can’t assume that interest in digital technology is a youth thing.

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