Research on Covid-19 and audiences
Last week I attended an online webinar on ALVA’s (the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions) latest research tracking the attractions-visiting public’s attitudes to returning when they re-open, conducted by Decision House.
They are one of the organisations who have been generously sharing their audience research for free over the past year. This has been enormously beneficial, in particular to small and medium-sized organisations that don’t have the funds to commission their own, and consultants who are supporting them.
The key research on the impact of Covid-19 on audiences I’ve found really valuable over the past year that’s available to view for free is:
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA): Attractions Recovery Trackers, including their latest January 2021 Wave;
The Audience Agency’s Covid-19 Cultural Participation Monitor (a new regular research survey of changing views about participating in creative and cultural activities through the pandemic) – November 2020 and onwards;
The Insights Alliance’s Culture Restart audience tracker Wave 1 research in October 2020, Wave 2 research from November 2020 and January 2020 update looking at performing arts audiences’ engagement during, and attitudes to Covid and returning (a partnership between Indigo, Baker Richards and One Further). The data is also available in an interactive dashboard where you can filter criteria (e.g. age, region) to probe the data further;
The Audience Agency’s Digital Audience Survey, with findings from a 5-minute online survey on cultural organisations’ websites, social media and other e-communications about their digital audiences – November 2020;
Indigo’s National Audience Research – After the Interval and Act 2 (covering performing arts) – April-May 2020 and June-July 2020;
The Audience Agency’s Between Lockdown Report – summarising results from cultural organisations that opened up between the 2020 lockdowns, looking at Audience Spectrum profiling, attendance, travel patterns and potential future behaviour;
The Audience Agency’s Audience Spectrum in the context of Covid-19 – summaries to help you understand the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown on the different Audience Spectrum groups;
Family Arts Campaign and Indigo’s research on families and engagement with the Arts – July 2020;
ScotInform’s Cultural Survey aiming to understand how audiences were engaging with cultural organisations across Scotland before and during the first lockdown and expectations for when restrictions are eased - May-June 2020;
YouGov public monitor surveys on Covid-19 e.g. looking at willingness to be vaccinated – ongoing;
Covidsitor – a Twitter account to follow that shares data, methods, insights and issues relating to audience research and/or museum visitors during Covid-19 run by Marie Hobson, audience research and insight manager at the Natural History Museum, London – ongoing.
I’d love to hear if there are other sources I’ve missed and should add to the list.