CSE & CAP Strike a New Chord with Concertgoers by Improving Their Festival Experiences
Music Festival Producers Turn to Inquisite's Data Gathering Capabilities to Aid in Their Decision-Making Process
The Challenge:
As a producer of some of the country's largest music festivals, including the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin's Zilker Park and Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park, Capital Sports & Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents have been dedicated to creating superior customer experiences and have aggressively sought fan feedback to test their efforts. Early on, they realized their point tool for online surveys didn't deliver enough accurate customer data in order to make informed decisions. The survey tool lacked the capability that allowed CSE & CAP to get an accurate representation of its customers and it could only be administered online after the event, when concertgoers' opinions about their festival experience were not top of mind. The tool's capabilities also lacked sophisticated reporting mechanisms and the ability to compare data gathered over time.
"We needed a more robust and flexible service that allowed us to collect data both on location and post-event. Inquisite's services enable us to really get to know our customers and to understand their event experience," commented Michael Feferman, head of Brand Development at CSE, who oversaw the implementation of the surveys. "We needed a powerful data collection system, not just a survey tool, and that's what we got from Inquisite."
The Solution:
CSE & CAP turned to Inquisite, the human insight software company, providing Web-based software and data collection applications that make it easy to collect, understand, and manage the perspectives, feedback, and profiles of critical business audiences. Inquisite offered CSE & CAP a number of benefits not found in their previous solution:
- Professional Consulting and Administrative Services: Inquisite first consulted with CSE & CAP in early 2005 to determine their business objectives and develop both the right survey methodology and the right questions to ensure they captured a much more accurate representation of their customers. The survey was administered on location at both the 2005 and 2006 Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits festivals, allowing CSE & CAP to collect feedback from the events as they were happening. A post-event web based version of the survey was also sent to a larger sample of concertgoers a few days after their festival experience. Once combined, the real-time and post-event data provided CSE & CAP with a comprehensive understanding of the concertgoer's festival experience.
- Advanced Collection Capabilities: To achieve real-time on-site event evaluation, the surveys were loaded onto laptops and conducted using an in-person intercept methodology. The concertgoer's response data from the various laptops were merged into a single database after the event so that CSE & CAP could conduct a complete analysis.
- Reporting and Analytical Tools: CSE & CAP could easily store, retrieve, and compare data to analyze changes year over year. The system also allowed CSE & CAP to easily share the data throughout the company.
The Outcome:
At the 2005 Austin City Limits Music Festival, temperatures soared to a record-breaking 108 degrees in mid-September. Additionally, extremely high winds from the aftermath of Hurricane Rita caused dust clouds to encircle the more than 65,000 music fans. Data collected using Inquisite's software showed that the heat was a huge problem for concertgoers. "As you might imagine, we received a lot of feedback from our customers that pointed to problems with the heat in 2005," commented Feferman. "While this weather was highly unusual, we wanted to respond to the fans and be better prepared for high temperatures. We took significant steps to provide as much heat relief as possible for our concertgoers."
CSE began working with the Austin Parks Department to develop an irrigation system for Zilker Park that increased the amount of grass and provided an additional 48 water spigots. Other changes that CSE & CAP made included the addition of twice the amount of shaded area and triple the amount of misting stations and free water.
"With our survey data, we were able to quantify the major improvements to the ACL Festival customer experience in 2006," commented Feferman. "The number of ACL concertgoers who said we did a good job at heat relief increased by 63%."
In addition to providing critical data about customer experiences, CSE & CAP was able to gather data that proved the effectiveness of the millions of dollars that event sponsors spent in 2005 and 2006. For instance, one of the on-location survey questions focused on which sponsors concert attendees could recall off the top of their heads. Based on responses to this question, CSE & CAP were able to demonstrate above average aided and unaided recall numbers for their major sponsors.
Inquisite also helped CSE & CAP quantify the benefits of the Lollapalooza festival for the City of Chicago. Data showed that 20% of the people attending the concert had never been to Chicago before and 74% left with a better opinion about Chicago than they had before traveling there. CSE & CAP were also able to capture important information on how out-of-town visitors traveled to the event, where they stayed, and what they did while they were in town. This data was crucial in demonstrating the positive economic impact that the concert had for Chicago, which helped CSE & CAP to secure a five-year contract deal to continue producing the Lollapalooza event in Chicago through 2011.
About Capital Sports Entertainment
Based in Austin, Texas, Capital Sports & Entertainment is an integrated marketing and management firm that creates and produces live experiences and provides marketing and PR services to sports and entertainment personalities and brands. CSE's athlete roster includes NFL players, Olympic athletes, and musicians and entertainers. Marquee clients include seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, Blues Traveler, Ben Kweller, Jack Ingram, Sparklehorse, Austin City Limits and the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Lollapalooza. CSE's PR partner, Fresh and Clean Media, offers publicity and marketing services. Clients include Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, and surf legend Kelly Slater, to name a few.
About Charles Attal Presents
Charles Attal Presents is an independent promotion company based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1997 by Charles Attal, CAP currently books, promotes, and markets more than 800 shows a year. CAP co-produces the Austin City Limits Music Festival, the Austin City Limits television show, and Lollapalooza, and is the exclusive talent buyer for Stubb's BBQ (Austin), Gypsy Tea Room (Dallas), Trees (Dallas), Harrah's, and other global clients. In 2005, Charles won the Bill Graham Award/Promoter of the Year award has been nominated numerous times for Promoter of the Year, Music Festival of the Year (ACLMF, 2005 winner), Independent Promoter of the Year, and Nightclub of the Year in the prestigious Pollstar CIC awards.