Digital Culture survey: what we've learnt

Since 2013, we have collaborated with Nesta on Digital Culture, a long-term study into how arts and cultural organisations are using digital technology, the impact it’s having, and what barriers are standing in the way of their aspirations.

Nearly 1,200 organisations responded to our latest survey, which took place in 2019, allowing us to identify major trends over the past seven years. Here are our top three takeaways:

1. There’s plenty of untapped potential to increase revenue using digital technology

Since the survey was first carried out in 2013, the number of organisations telling us that digital is important to their business models has grown from 34% to 49%. However, only 22% of organisations report that digital technology is making a major positive impact on their revenue and profitability. There are reasons to be positive, as the latter figure has doubled since 2013, but it’s clear there’s room for growth in this area. 

2. Knowledge of digital technology is declining among senior managers  

In 2013, 22% of respondents felt their senior management were knowledgeable about digital technology, but this figure dropped to just 13% in 2019. 

This is supported by other findings too: 11% of respondents agreed that coming up with new digital ideas was a priority for their senior management teams (down from 17% in 2013); and 17% agreed that their senior management teams were more focused on innovation in non-digital areas (up from 12% in 2013).

At board level, a similar picture emerges. 57% of organisations told us they don’t have board members who make a significant contribution to their digital strategy, while only 19% report that they do (the latter figure is down from 21% in 2017).  The apparent decline in digital expertise at senior levels is a concern to us and addressing this issue is of pressing importance.

3. Organisations are becoming less willing to experiment with digital technology

Only 13% of organisations experiment with digital technologies, a decrease from 18% in 2013. Meanwhile, more organisations now prefer to let others experiment and then adopt the ideas that work best – this up from 8% in 2013 to 18% in 2019. You could argue this is a smarter way to work and that organisations have adjusted to the realities of experimentation, but we think there’s a balance to be found to ensure there’s a healthy number of early and late adopters within the sector.

Reflecting on our findings

When we presented our findings earlier this year, a panel of experts discussed how people working at arts and cultural organisations can make better use of data and the challenges our sector uniquely face when we try to evaluate our digital activities.

How do we benchmark something such as conversion rates, for example, when the events and experiences we are marketing are not always comparable to each other? Rishi Coupland, Head of Data Intelligence at the National Theatre, suggests we could find measures of success which better reflect the values of our sector, rather than importing them from more commercial, metrics-driven sectors like retail or even the wider creative industries. Gaining confidence and building consensus in this area seems to be a key challenge moving forward.

We also can’t overlook where digital sits within the rest of our organisations. Is a retreat in experimenting with digital technology part of a wider decline in risk-taking by organisations? Meanwhile, when it comes to an organisation’s values, panellists Anra Kennedy from Culture24 and Sarah Madden an Arts Council England Tech Champion point out that the digital space is one where values can be amplified but not necessarily created – it can help pursue values in a new way but not drive them overall.

Getting the work done

Seven years of the Digital Culture survey has truly been invaluable in helping us track confidence when it comes to using digital technology in arts and cultural organisations. Even more importantly, by identifying where those challenges remain, we’re able to offer the sector the support they need.

In the last year we’ve launched the Digital Culture Network and Digital Culture Compass, both designed to offer you tailored support in growing your digital skills. We really hope these new resources can help cultural and creative organisations combat those key challenges the survey’s shown us still remain.