Up Our Street Attitudes

Priorities

Modest in their habits and means, value for money and low-risk can be important factors in leisure decision making for this group.

• Cultural activities, which do provide some of this segment’s potential ‘treat’ opportunities, will need to have added value experiences attached to make them more attractive, as the artistic element itself is unlikely to compel over competing leisure offers.
• A developed retail offer could present an opportunity to enhance that 'treat' factor with access to food, shopping and all the trimmings.
• Enjoying a drink with friends is a common pastime, and making sure events have facilities to do so in comfortable surroundings may be important.
• A high proportion of mobility issues indicates a range of potential barriers or challenges that may need to be mindfully addressed through thoughtful access planning, in order for wider arts engagement to be successful.

Spending

Providing opportunities for Up Our Street to gain access to inexpensive tickets and being sure to foreground value for money in the offer are key.

• Incomes are not high and there is a leaning towards easily accessible, experiential events which may be free or low cost.
• There will be opportunities to boost spend for this group around catering and retail products, and people are apt to buy craft works and gift shop items, so associated products, if keenly priced, are likely to prove popular and add to the overall experience.
• Classical and contemporary events, with which many are not familiar, are much less likely to be taken up by this risk-averse segment, unless the risk can be highly mitigated, perhaps by pricing strategies like “pay what you want” or “money back” guarantees, or are part of taster events at free outdoor festivals.
• Membership, friends or loyalty schemes, as a means of incentivising increased attending, are unlikely to be effective as people from this group are unlikely to become frequent enough attenders fast enough to realise any of the financial benefits inherent in such schemes.

Philanthropy

While they don't generally consider arts as a 'worthy' cause, a small handful will drop money in the collection when visiting museums or heritage sites.

• They are amongst the least likely to make donations to arts and cultural organisations, which are not seen by the majority as worthy charitable causes.
• The small proportion who are open to giving, are three times more likely to give to museums or heritage sites than to arts organisations, with targeted campaigns designed to encourage infrequent, low level giving when visiting.

Cost-of-living concerns

Although their cultural attendance is almost back up to pre-Covid-19 levels, Up Our Street is the most likely segment to be put off by cost-of-living concerns, so their potential absence may contribute to a renewed downturn.

There is a significant difference for this group between different cost of living concerns, as 29% of them strongly agree that energy and inflation rates will make a difference, compared to 17% saying the same for interest rates.