With less than 20% of ticket sales happening online and a bounce rate over 50%, the COC’s website was not adequately supporting its business goals of driving subscriptions and donations.

Insight

Delvinia leveraged its proprietary digital audience segmentation model as a means to gain insights into the COC subscriber and single ticket purchase base. Based on our segmentation methodology, we identified two key audiences for COC to target in the effort to meet its business objectives. The first segment consisted of time-starved professionals who prioritized efficiency in their transactions. The second segment consisted of young urban opera fans interested in everything from libretto to sets. These two audiences needed different online experiences.

Strategy

With a deeper understanding of the audience, Delvinia developed a two-pronged digital strategy for the COC to empower more customers to use the website to transact and to increase engagement.

The new, clean design for the site incorporated enhanced site components layered on top of a sensible re-architecture. The path to purchase online was streamlined make it easier to buy tickets and subscriptions and therefore allow time-pressed consumers to purchase more efficiently. For the young urban target group, the new design integrated more interactive features, leveraging behind the scenes stories, encourage conversation, and deepen the relationship with the audience while satisfying their need for information about performances. Overall, the new design better met user needs and interests and encouraged their return.

Action

Delvinia has transformed every aspect of the COC’s digital presence. Since its relaunch we’ve seen:

• Online sales increased 30%, and COC.ca became the primary channel for single ticket purchase
• Website bounce rates decreased from 56% to 26% in the same period, proving that users are more engaged with content and can easily navigate toward their intended goals
• Email subscribers increased by 30%

Evolution

The launch of the Canadian Opera Company’s new brand provided the perfect opportunity to refresh the website by incorporating strategic improvements rooted in an understanding of the digital behaviours of the COC’s audience and the key performance indicators built into the site. Through the collection of more than two years of transactional data and behavioural insights from Delvinia’s proprietary AskingCanadians™ online research community, we were able to determine which features of the site were performing well.

Based on that data, we designed a new homepage with prominent links to purchase tickets and online subscriptions, as well as tabs directing visitors to information about upcoming operas, the blog and what’s happening behind the scenes. The site also integrates more content-rich imagery, designed to match the confidence of the new brand while illustrating the essence of operatic theatre.

Based on Delvinia’s knowledge of the opera customer, and through continued measurement analysis, we continue to provide COC customers with content and tools to engage and activate.

Recognition

The COC.ca website has received the following awards and recognition:

• Outstanding Achievement Award Interactive Media Awards competition
• Winner of a Stevie Award in the International Business Awards
• Honoured by the Web Marketing Association in its 15th annual WebAward Competition with a Standard of Excellence Award
• Silver Award in the W³ Awards
• Silver Award in the Davey Awards
• Best Arts Website in the Web Marketing Association’s Internet Advertising Competition Awards