Special Reports
Arts Patron Smartphone Use
Everybody’s got a smartphone these days, including three-year-olds whose hands are barely big enough to hold them. Even arts consumers—a full 70% of them use their smartphones to look up live performing arts events, according to a September 2012 survey by Group of Minds Arts and Technology Consultants. The firm canvassed 45,000 individuals on email lists for discounted tickets to arts events in six cities: San Jose, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Austin, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Boston, MA; and Nashville, TN. The goal was to ascertain the nature of, and preferences for, smartphone use.The survey had a response rate of 4.3 percent. Most respondents were in the 48 to 62 age bracket, and 72% of them were female.
The survey was a followup to one the firm conducted in September 2009, using the same cities, same numbers of discount ticket users, same kinds of arts events, and mostly the same questions. Comparing the results of the two, it’s clear that cell phone use is way up (and undoubtedly still rising) among arts consumers. Here are some of the specifics.
| 2009 | 2012 | |
| Own a smart phone | 50% | 79% |
| Don’t own a smart phone, not interested in getting one | 50% | 21% |
| Use it to search arts events | 45% | 70% |
| Access an organization’s mobile website | n/a | 16.50% |
| Access an organization’s mobile app | n/a | 2.40% |
| Use Facebook | 10% | 32% |
| Google Plus | n/a | 23% |
| n/a | 15% | |
| To take pictures | 24% | 50% |
| Shoot video | 5% | 21% |
| Send texts | 29% | 52% |
| Buy tickets | 0% | 21% |
| To check in at a location | n/a | 25% |
| Search for restaurants | 15% | 46% |
| Write reviews during concerts | 4% | 6% |
| “I don’t do these things” | 58% | 32% |
| Questions up roughly 25% in 2012 | 2009 | 2012 |
| Show me directions | 75% | |
| Show events near me | 78% | |
| Show me parking information | 79% |
| New to 2012 Survey | 2009 | 2012 |
| Provide me with content to post on social media | 25% | |
| Allow me to donate to the organization | 22% |
Read the Group of Minds full report.
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