Audience Research for the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe shows both Strengths and Challenges

In May 2024, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe published the current audience study by the IKMW, the seventh in a long-term study that is unique in the German-speaking world since 2011. It combines results from the representative audience survey with 3,099 respondents (1,651 on site and 1,448 online) from May to July 2023 with in-depth findings from discussions with selected target groups that are particularly relevant for sustainable audience development: „inactive“ visitors whose last visits to the Badisches Staatstheater were more than a year ago, people with a migration background and representatives of schools and children’s and youth centers.

(Please find the study for download here.)

The results reflect trends across Germany as well as specific findings for the Badisches Staatstheater: The slightly increased proportion of people over 50 years of age (72.6%) shows the challenge of retaining younger people in the long term despite the pleasingly high proportion of first-time visitors (66.1% under 50).

The concert division shows one way to achieve this: Unlike in many other theaters, the Badisches Staatstheater succeeds in attracting an unusually large proportion of younger visitors (27.2% between 30 and 50) through the children’s, youth, special and jazz concerts that have been offered for a long time.

At the same time, the special care for subscribers during the CVID pandemic is paying off: An astonishing 34.8% of respondents stated that the visit on the evening of the survey was part of their subscription. Overall, however, the frequency of visits per respondent is decreasing, as is the national trend (8.3 % more than 12 visits in the last 12 months).

The challenge of decreasing visit frequencies is exacerbated by a fundamentally changed information and decision-making behavior, especially among inactive visitors and people with a migration background: cultural and leisure activities are increasingly being decided spontaneously within circles of friends and networks of „communities“. In the communication about this, increasingly purely via messengers such as WhatsApp or Telegram, more detailed information from providers such as the Badisches Staatstheater hardly appears anymore.

While communication and decisions are increasingly shifting to semi-private digital and hybrid spaces, there is also a strong need for an all-round fulfilling overall experience when visiting an institution such as the Badisches Staatstheater, for atmosphere and quality of stay, for spaces for „conviviality“ and community. Thus, with the lower satisfaction with the atmosphere in the wake of the construction work in the Badisches Staatstheater and criticisms regarding the catering, satisfaction with the house as a whole is also falling slightly.

At the same time, the study, shortly before Christian Firmbach’s directorship begins, also shows the solid anchoring of the house among its audience: Due to the largely stable satisfaction with the artistic offering and improved values ​​for some service areas, overall satisfaction remains at a satisfactory level despite the impairments caused by the renovation (90.0% are „satisfied“ or „very satisfied“).