How SentoVox works - Audience research, participation fee and reporting

The study is designed to survey both visitors and non-visitors of your venue. Visitors are people who have been to your venue in the past 12 months: regular and occasional visitors, but also those who accompany others without taking part in the core activity themselves, such as parents bringing their children to a performance.

If you wish, you can also involve lapsed visitors (who have not visited for more than 12 months) and non-visitors (who have never visited). The dynamic survey recognises these profiles and shows only the questions that are relevant to them. Separate communication materials are provided for these groups.

The survey is available in six languages. You choose which languages you offer; the number of languages does not affect the participation fee.

The study is based on a well-balanced questionnaire, designed specifically for the performing arts. Together with academic partners, sector organisations and professionals from the cultural sector, we developed a survey that covers the key concerns of cultural institutions. The questionnaire follows a European standard, adapted to the national context of each country and to the differences between theatres, cultural centres and concert halls.

Before the study starts, you can use the research platform to enter the details of your venue, add extra questions, remove questions or answer options that are not relevant, and personalise questions. In this way the research team builds a fully personalised survey, while benchmarking against other venues remains possible.

The survey system is dynamic and intelligent: based on each respondent’s profile and answers, only the relevant questions are shown. That way lapsed visitors and non-visitors can be included in the same survey, with questions tailored to them.

The study is supported by academics from several universities and research centres. Together they developed a balanced questionnaire and research tool that is used in every participating country, and ensured that the European standard was adapted to each national context and to the differences between theatres, cultural centres and concert halls.

National sector organisations and representatives from the field contributed to the development and evaluation of the questionnaire. At the end of the study, an overall analysis is carried out for each country on the basis of anonymised results. Alongside your personalised report, every participating venue also receives these national and European reports.

The pilot study involved more than 130 cultural institutions and more than 60,000 respondents. Around 80 percent of respondents completed the questionnaire in full, an exceptionally high rate for quantitative research.

The study produces a comprehensive individual research report with practical, actionable insights for your venue. The report gives detailed information on your own results and lets you compare them anonymously against a cluster of similar venues at home and abroad.

Clusters are groups of venues, put together on the basis of characteristics such as type, size, programming and location. In this way your own results are compared with those of similar venues, while your data always remains anonymous.

Your report is confidential: only your venue receives the individual results. You may publish your own results if you wish. In addition, you have access to an interactive online dashboard with filters, cross-tabulations and charts, which you can consult at any time via a personal login, during and after the research period.

Registration is open all year round. After registering, you choose the timing that suits you best to engage your audience and promote the study. You can run the study over a longer period or choose specific time windows that match your programming and visitor flow.

At the end of the study you receive your personalised research report. You also retain ongoing access to your online dashboard.

The study is carried out in accordance with the European GDPR. At no point is any personal data collected from respondents: the survey is completely anonymous and answers cannot be traced back to an individual. Prize winners receive a unique code so that they can contact the research team themselves; only their contact details are kept, temporarily, in order to deliver the prize.

For each participating venue, we ask for the contact details of one responsible person: name and email address, used solely for communication about the study and for access to the platform. You can view, update or delete these details at any time, and give colleagues access too.

Your research results remain confidential at all times and are shared only with the contacts you designate. To support sector-wide learning, the results of all participating venues are anonymised and aggregated in cluster analyses. All data is stored on secure servers within the European Union or the United Kingdom.

A professional helpdesk supports your venue throughout the study. Every question is logged as a ticket, guaranteeing efficient follow-up and personal support. Visitors with questions or comments about the survey are helped too; they can reach the helpdesk via the help button in the survey.