New NAC study divides people into 12 kinds of arts consumers, some more willing to pay than others

SINGAPORE – A new study by the National Arts Council (NAC) divides Singaporeans and permanent residents into 12 types of culture consumers, from discerning connoisseurs – forming 1 per cent of the population – to pragmatic silvers, at 13 per cent.

The 12 personas identified in the report, in decreasing order of engagement with the arts, are: discerning connoisseurs (1.3 per cent), culture seekers (1.9 per cent), young explorers (3.8 per cent), supportive parents (4.5 per cent), carefree explorers (9.2 per cent), social seekers (6.6 per cent), nostalgia seekers (11.4 per cent), sentimental silvers (7.8 per cent), preoccupied parents (8.8 per cent), occasional fans (16.2 per cent), pragmatic parents (15.8 per cent) and pragmatic silvers (12.5 per cent).

Each is dependent on their age, whether they have children, and their existing interest in and attendance of arts events. The granular data also includes statistics on which neighbourhood each group visits most, their level of interest in different art forms, social media habits and reasons that would spur or put them off going to events.

This building of detailed profiles is meant to help Singapore’s arts groups better reach out to new audiences as part of NAC’s push to make arts and culture an integral part of life here. It also complicates the false binary that people simply are or are not interested in arts and culture.

Titled the Audience Development Playbook, the 235-page report is the result of talking to 120 people from the arts community about their needs, as well as door-to-door and street surveys of more than 3,000 people.

The sample size is representative of Singapore’s citizen and permanent resident population. Broadly, 21 per cent of people can be categorised as enthusiasts, highly interested and frequenting arts events; 26 per cent are neutrals who go to events, but do not show a keen interest; and 53 per cent are passives, who neither attend nor are generally interested in the arts.

There are surprising findings. For one, watching musicals and visiting historical districts are the arts activities people said they are most interested in, with ratings of 3.9 out of 5. Art exhibitions score highly at 3.8, marginally higher than popular rock, indie and alternative music at 3.7. Events related to books is also at 3.7 versus watching non-musical plays at 3.5.

As expected, people’s willingness to attend events falls with each $5 increment in ticket price. But among the two groups of people most interested in the arts – the discerning connoisseurs and the culture seekers, together making up 3 per cent of Singaporeans and permanent residents – attendance rates actually goes up when ticket prices are raised from free to $5 or from $5 to $10.

The report attributed this anomaly to these groups being more financially comfortable and associating price with quality. In both cases, this open-handedness ends abruptly when prices are raised over $20.

NAC said the data from the study will help arts groups more consciously tweak their strategies along multiple axes to reach the audiences they want, without having to always aim for mass appeal. Reaching just 1 per cent more of audiences already represents an increase of some 42,000 people.

Beyond pricing, arts groups might alter their events’ place and time, change their programming, introduce elements of co-creation, target different social media platforms and tweak their tone on marketing materials, or engage particular communities such as workplace groups or recreational clubs.

As an example, NAC cited how the National Gallery of Denmark started events on Friday evenings with live music and dance to attract younger people who viewed the Copenhagen museum as staid and uninviting.

In Singapore, Chinese music company The Teng Company worked with Shangri-La Singapore on an “immersive lie-down wellness concert” that fused Chinese and Western music elements with ancient Chinese wellness principles and guided meditation. Almost 60 per cent of those who signed up were first-time participants.

The major industry report forms a prong of NAC’s trident of recent initiatives to get more locals involved in the arts, the other two being the SG Culture Pass and Catch.sg, an online directory of local arts and culture events.

According to the report, a major impediment to participation remains people not being aware of arts events that are happening. Other key reasons cited are a lack of companions to go to events with and, as people mature, family commitments.