Knowing how to adapt to expectations

The health crisis has highlighted the importance of truly understanding the client. According to Simon Wigley, head of business intelligence and analytics at NEC Group, during this pandemic it is unlikely that consumer tastes have changed, what has changed is their behaviour. "Our research has shown that although there is some anxiety about live events, people want to go back.

Studies on the return to restaurants and bars in the UK have shown that young audiences wanted a quick return to normality and went straight back to having fun, while other age groups took about six weeks to feel confident enough to do the same. "A similar pattern will certainly be seen for live events," predicts Wigley, but he adds that it's hard to tell until the industry picks up again.

Between 90 and 95 per cent of fans at NEC Group stadiums have retained their tickets for postponed events, which he says is "a really positive sign that fans are open to the idea of participating in live events as early as the end of 2020 and into 2021".

Wigley adds: "We have always used data on past consumer behaviour to define our targets based on preferences. Now we need to understand their expectations of live event feedback. This segmentation would then allow us to send more messages about the health measures in place in the venues to the most anxious segments to reassure them. The better we understand our audience, the more we can adapt our approach and reassure them.

As a result of the reduction in the capacity of the locations in the short term, the Customer Lifetime Value will decrease for a certain period of time. It is therefore essential to make it easy for spectators to be aware of events that might interest them so that they can access them despite a limited number of tickets. This is why it is important toimprove the personalization of your website and communications.