Balancing Art and Economics: How the Opera House Turns Revenue into Community Impact

In this interview, Jon Blackburn, CFO & Executive Director Corporate Services at Sydney Opera House discusses how post-COVID, the Sydney Opera House transitioned to a data-driven model to adapt to changing audience behaviours and to boost marketing efficacy. Prior to the pandemic, ticket sales were stable, with resident companies and tourism reliably driving revenue. However, post-lockdown, shifts in tourist demographics, ticket purchasing habits, and economic factors like the cost of living prompted the Opera House to rely heavily on data for insights. By tracking variables such as visitor origin, purchasing behaviours, and show preferences, they aim to tailor marketing efforts and identify both risks and growth opportunities. This requires employing data to segment customers and implement predictive analytics for personalised recommendations—similar to models used by companies like Amazon.

In the journey to improve personalisation, data democratisation has been a key focus, with tools like Power BI empowering various departments to…