A levar l’ombra da terra: audience study

The A Levar L’Ombra da Terra festival has brought theatre, cinema, dance and music to towns across the province of Bergamo since 2008. Every summer, in partnership with the local councils, the festival draws up a programme of free outdoor initiatives that combine entertainment with opportunities for coming together, discussion and fun, making the most of cultural and social spaces and places of interest.

The festival has worked hard over the years to reach a broad audience that is not necessarily accustomed to attending cultural events. It strives to ensure a top-quality programme, focusing specifically on groups and companies that operate outside the main circuits. Its thirteenth edition in 2019 featured thirty-six shows in twenty different towns. It even reached a number of mountain huts in the Bergamo Alps thanks to its collaboration with the Bergamo branch of the CAI and the Fondazione Cariplo.

The Associazione A levar l’ombra da terra decided that it needed to learn more about the tastes and consumer habits of its festival audience, which had grown and changed over the years, reaching different corners of the province every time. It wanted to draw up a more accurate audience profile so that it could plan a festival that was more in line with the area and its requirements. It also wanted to get feedback and listen to the opinions of its audience after so many years.

BAM! developed an audience analysis plan for the festival, which is being implemented in 2019 and 2021.

The questionnaire and the survey

We developed a survey campaign for the 2019 festival, working with the Associazione to come up with the best system for surveying data. We ended up creating a paper questionnaire to be administered on every evening of the festival by a group of volunteers trained by BAM! to ensure high data capture standards.

The questionnaire explored the relationship between spectators and the festival (knowledge about the event, how often they attend and why), looking at their level of interest and asking for feedback on specific cultural offerings and content at the festival. It profiled their general cultural consumption, how they spend their spare time and how often they attend other cultural events or institutions in Bergamo and province.

The data collected will be analysed by BAM! during the last few months of 2019 and will help the festival to develop effective audience segmentation, steer the programme for 2021 and implement specific audience development and engagement actions for the coming years.

Communication

BAM! also looked after the branding, copywriting and communication campaign targeted at the surveyed audience, renamed I’ve been waiting for you for years: some special pages in the festival programme announced the survey to the audience and a series of posts on the festival’s social media pages invited spectators to give their opinion and take part in the initiative.