Focus on the Arts

27% of Canadians bought tickets to a hockey game last year - and 29% of Canadians bought tickets to a play.

That's just one of the facts included in an exhaustive survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid and Business for the Arts. The market research firm conducted 25-minute interviews with 3,000 Canadians in order to get a representative sample of Canadian attendance patterns and attitudes towards sports and the arts. The result is a special research study, Focus on the Arts 2000, which looks in more detail at Canadians' attitudes toward the arts and the implications for corporations of sponsoring arts activities.

"We wanted to have a better understanding of arts audiences," says Business for the Arts President & CEO, Sarah Iley, "who are they, what they think and feel with respect to various arts activities. It's clear from this study that by sponsoring arts events, corporations can reach a number of attractive consumer target groups. But it's also clear that sponsors and their arts partners need to work on strengthening sponsor identification and consumer awareness: less than a third of the motivated arts patrons were able to name even one sponsor involved with art galleries, museums, dance, opera or theatre performances."

The study shows that just over half of all Canadians over the age of 12 are arts patrons, while just over a third are sports fans - and the overlap between the two is relatively low.

"If businesses need proof that a good sponsorship portfolio requires a good mix of both sports and arts events, this study provides it," says Iley. "Only 18% of Canadians are both arts patrons and sports fans, but, on a combined basis, motivated arts patrons and avid sports fans comprise 70% of the Canadian population. And they are passionate. Canadians use descriptors such as "exciting" to characterize hockey, and describe theatre as "riveting" - connecting your brand effectively to such activities has got to have a halo effect."

Highlights from Focus on the Arts are available through Business for the Arts. Click here to order.