Built into the Red Cliffs of southern Utah, the Tuacahn Center for the Performing Arts has been an institution for Broadway caliber entertainment for miles (and miles) around for over 25 years. The team at Tuacahn stages over 300 performances each season, between their indoor Hafen Theatre and legendary outdoor amphitheater, which seats 2,500 people. From May through December every year, audiences from around the world come to Tuacahn to be dazzled.
The team at Tuacahn is now celebrating a new milestone – a record-breaking response to their annual 72-hour sale. This special promotion allows patrons to score discounted tickets for the upcoming season, and season ticket holders can purchase additional single tickets to supplement their regular seats. The promotion has proven a successful strategy to boost weekday ticket sales.
“While some venues run a Broadway show for a week, ours can run up to six months”, explains Stephanie Finck, Director of Marketing at Tuacahn, “so weekday shows don’t sell out. In previous years the sale was buy one, get 50% off and that applied to any day of the week, apart from a few blackout days. This year we switched it up and we made it buy one get 50% off Monday through Thursdays and buy one get 25% off on Fridays and Saturdays and we found that the percentage of weekend sales grew just as much as they did last year. So, we didn’t lose any weekend sales, but our Monday through Thursday sales grew a lot more than last year.”
With a touch of their sterling customer service, the box office team even created a step-by-step video explaining how to purchase tickets during the sale.
This year, our biggest day was over $1.5 million and the total for the whole sale was $3.3 million – over 1 million more than last year.”
To what does Finck credit this triumph of ticket sales? Here are the three main ingredients in their recipe for success:
1. Retention Programs
In the age of limitless at-home entertainment options, it is critical for venues like Tuacahn to build lasting relationships with their audiences. Annual membership and package sales allow for more accurate, reliable budgeting.
“For the past five years or so, we’ve been consistently working on building our patron loyalty. Before then, our season package holder renewal rate was only 16% and we had about 5,000 season package holders. Today our renewal rate is almost 60% and we’re planning to have 22,000 season package holders this year.”
A uniquely Utahan venue is, of course, a major draw for audiences, but Tuacahn also provides an unforgettable experience that keeps people coming back for more.
One such service is their ShowCare program. For just $30, parents can drop their child off for licensed care on-site, where kids enjoy themed crafts and activities.
To read more about the Tuacahn ShowCare click here.
2. Strategic Marketing
Beyond members and subscribers, being able to identify single-ticket purchasers and track data like audience demographics, purchase history, and attendee households provides invaluable data. Thanks to AudienceView Unlimited’s robust CRM and reporting features, Stephanie and her team were easily able to analyze their data and identify opportunities in new target markets.
“About 50% of [patrons] come down from Northern Utah, but this year we expanded our advertising to Southern California, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, and Las Vegas. It turns out we had audiences from 24 countries last season, from as far away as the United Arab Emirates.”
Since they know so many patrons come from out of town, Tuacahn has formed strategic relationships with local hotels. “They all have accounts where they can see live inventory and book tickets straight from their front desk, which is awesome.” This big-picture relationship building has proven a winning strategy for Tuacahn and surrounding businesses.
3. AudienceView Client Support
Thanks to their expanded marketing reach, this year’s sale attracted significantly more attention than expected. When the sale launched at midnight, Stephanie and her team needed to call on AudienceView to increase their website’s bandwidth ASAP. Thankfully our round the clock support team was ready to jump into action.
“Based on last year’s sales we thought that would be fine, but it was double the traffic from what we were expecting at midnight when [the sale] first opened. So, we contacted AudienceView support right away, and they were able to increase our bandwidth in about 30 minutes.”
Read more about AudienceView’s award-winning customer support here.
AudienceView is proud to play a supporting role as the Tuacahn Center for the Performing Arts continues to make live entertainment history.