#TBF25 Q&A: Helping the arts and culture sector on the whole

The award-winning Indigo has built an impressive reputation for itself in the arts and cultural industry with its ability to help companies understand their audiences better.

This is becoming increasingly valuable as the arts face a difficult economic climate, and Indigo has identified the opportunity for it to come to the aid of organisations across the sector.

Ahead of TheTicketingBusiness Forum 2025, which begins in Manchester on April 28, we spoke to Indigo CEO Katy Raines to find out how she plans to navigate the industry’s difficulties.

What’s the next challenge for you and your team?

KR: “Clearly the funding situation in the Arts, and the challenging economic climate are affecting all our clients – so our challenge is to support the sector with data and insight about audiences that can put them in a stronger position to tackle these challenges.

“Typically that’s about using our collective research to identify sector trends and opportunities, and then to work with organisations to translate that into attendances for their venue.”

What projects are you currently working on?

KR: “Some of our current projects include: working with the Southbank Centre and all its resident orchestras to test ways of creating new formats for orchestral music that will engage younger and more diverse audiences.

“We’re helping the National Theatre and RSC develop a toolkit for marketing theatre performances to schools.

“We’re also developing a new place-based audience insight tool in the West Midlands to ensure that culture is put at the heart of the ‘inclusive growth’ agenda being driven by the new mayor of the WM, Richard Parker.”

What are your aims for 2025?

KR: “We have exciting plans to keep building out our ‘insight-as-a-service’ product, Indigo Share.

“We will launch our new platform, which enables the organisations using our audience tracker, not only track their own audience attitudes, but benchmark them with others.

“We’ll also launch a 20K strong UK cultural audience panel, which will enable organisations test and de-risk their ideas with quick polls, creative testing and brand testing.”

What is the most exciting development in the industry for you right now?

KR: “AI – but in our field of research and insight we are very conscious of the need to explore this ethically and responsibly.

“How do we ensure that we can ensure unbiased evidence, and ‘trust’ the AI tools to reflect the nuances and idiosyncrasies in our lovely audiences? Both exciting and a bit daunting.”

Explore the future of ticketing with Katy Raines and hundreds of other industry leaders at #TBF25 at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, from April 28-30. BOOK TODAY.