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RMA Feature Focus: Reports to Use After Season Announce

Jennifer Sowinski Nemeth

Senior Consultant & Analyst

Jennifer enjoys working with arts and culture clients to help them increase revenue and grow audience through data-driven strategies including pricing studies, venue re-scaling, customer behavior analyses, and segmentation.
May 16, 2018

Over the past few weeks, folks from several different organizations have asked me which RMA reports they should use to keep an eye on their newly announced, upcoming seasons. So, here are some suggestions for reports that may be useful for you, even if that first performance is still a long way off.

Subscription Sales Curve – by Production

I recommend using sales curves all the time, grouped by production season or by performance, to keep track of a particular show as it approaches. But the sales curve in the RMA can also be extremely useful for tracking the bigger picture of your season. If you want to see how your productions/performances are selling compared to one another, try this: Set your curve anchor to “Weeks from Onsale,” and choose whichever measure you prefer.

Then, filter for all of the productions in your upcoming season using the applicable filters.

Next, group by Production Season (or Production, if appropriate for your organization). The result will give you a visual for how your productions are selling compared to one another.   This will be particularly interesting if you sell flexible subscriptions or allow your subscribers to buy additional tickets with their renewal.

Subscription Sales Curve – by Season

Another great use of the sales curve is to see a comparison of subscription tickets sold by season. This time, filter for all of the performances in the last several seasons. Then, add a Price Type Groupings filter to view only subscription tickets, if applicable.

Then, group by Season. This view will let you see how many total subscription tickets (or amount of subscription income) you’ve sold, as compared to the same point in your sales cycle during previous seasons.

Comparator Sales Curves

One final note on sales curves—it’s never too early to create comparator sales curves! For each of your upcoming productions or performances, try creating a sales curve that includes the upcoming production, as well as past comparable productions. Instead of anchoring the curve by Weeks to/from Run Start or Weeks before Performance, try the Weeks from Onsale anchor for those curves, just like we did above, and see how your productions compare early in the sales cycle. You may find some opportunities to adjust prices that you didn’t notice before!

Season Level Monitoring Dashboard

Another useful tool early in the sales cycle (not to mention, throughout the season!) is the Season Level Monitoring Dashboard. With elements that will be familiar if you usually use Configurable Monitoring Dashboards, the Season Level Monitoring Dashboard lets you keep an eye on many productions at once—ideal when you’re selling tickets to many different productions at the same time!

Do you need to know which productions subscribers are buying add-on tickets for? Make sure to include the price type chart on your Season Level Dashboard. Need to know the total income per production? Use the Income element. Which production is selling at the highest price? Check the Average Yield.

This report is a great place to see how your whole season is doing, at a glance.