Founded in 1874, 92Y is a non-profit community and cultural centre, which connects people at every stage of life to the worlds of education, the arts, health and wellness and Jewish life.
More than 300,000 people visit 92Y’s New York City venue annually, and millions more engage through its broadcast and digital media presence. 92Y is a proudly Jewish organisation that welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives.
92Y wanted to move to a values-based psychographic approach to understanding their market and developing their patron base. Ultimately, they wanted to encourage deeper audience engagement, have greater cross-over between the different programmes on offer, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and drive revenue.
We used an e-survey to their bookers database to form a comprehensive picture of 92Y’s audience and establish the distribution and current levels of engagement of each of the Culture Segments. We then mapped this against our Audience Atlas New York dataset, which provides detailed information about the wider cultural market in New York.
The results were revelatory. The Essence, Expression and Enrichment segments all featured much more strongly in 92Y’s audience compared to the New York market overall.
However, 92Y’s marketing was more typical of Stimulation-targeted campaign. In other words, their marketing was targeting the wrong market. As a result of our work, 92Y underwent a complete shift in their approach.
To celebrate their 140th birthday, 92Y created the worldwide Giving Tuesday. This was a major fundraising campaign for the venue and offered a chance to test the power of Culture Segments when trying to connect with potential donors.
Expression is the segment most likely to donate so 92Y’s Giving Tuesday campaign focused in on its strong Expression audience. Visitors were encouraged to share their stories and feelings about the centre, which became part of the birthday celebrations.
The fundraising campaign focused on the sense of community building – a key driver for Expression – and highlighted the line ‘Powered by 92Y & You’.
Potential donors were targeted via email subscribers in Tessitura and across social media platforms most used by Expression. The results of Giving Tuesday surpassed expectations.
The differentiated campaign delivered a strong response. Among the donors, Expression was, as expected, the largest segment. Expression also far outstripped other segments in the amount of money they raised for 92Y.
"Before, when promoting an offer, we used to ask ‘Who is it for?’ and were often told ‘Everyone!’. That doesn’t happen anymore.” The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
MHM's expertise in audience research played a pivotal role in supporting the success of Auckland Zoo's South East Asia Jungle Track campaign. By leveraging insights from their Visitor 360˚ research project and utilising MHM’s Culture Segments framework, the Zoo developed a compelling campaign that resonated with visitors.
Early music was not, historically, an easy sell for RNCM. But, by using Culture Segments- tailored messaging delivered directly to their segmented Tessitura database, the marketing team significantly increased engagement and ticket sales.
