A TASTE OF THE GUILD
How might we create an experience to attract younger audience members to Menlo Park's The Guild Theatre?
at a glance
Upon talking with employees of The Guild Theatre to discuss the direction they would like to take in the future, we interviewed a diverse group of students regarding the space and concert going in general. We then narrowed in on a point of view and generated prototypes for our top ideas. After having users complete feedback surveys, we created an experience that benefits both this point of view and The Guild: A Taste of The Guild. To help the venue implement this experience, we also created The Recipe, a comprehensive document with information on ticketing, sourcing talent, marketing, and more.
timeline
November 2022
team
Divyesh Khatri
Emmy Sharp
Nhi Nguyen
process
user interviews synthesis point of view brainstorming prototyping feedback surveys implementation
problem
If you were to attend a concert at The Guild in 2022, the demographic you would find there are patrons in their 50s looking to enjoy a chiller night of music. Through talking to some employees during our trip to The Guild we were even told that it is rare that someone in their 20s is at the theater and that they had never seen children around. Recognizing their location is in close vicinity to a vibrant college campus, The Guild looked to us for ways to bring in that younger demographic as they currently have trouble doing so.
user interviews
We first interviewed a diverse group of young people, such as highschoolers, musicians, college students, and regular strangers on campus. We found that most of the younger demographic have a diverse music taste, wanted to explore new music, and love to have fun with friends on the weekends. We compiled these takeaways and more from their interviews here:
synthesis
Through these interviews we came away with 3 surprising findings:
1
Learning about and getting to see the venue was a huge draw to actually go.
2
Viewing the band/event posters on the website or Instagram did not impact how likely they were to attend.
3
Covid has essentially killed theater groups on campus. Fingers crossed there may be a chance for reboots!
point of view
We considered and based a variety of user POVs from the patterns that emerged in our interviews. We found that going through different options allowed us to decide who and what we wanted to approach in our final choice of POV.
For our chosen POV we decided on students that are low on transportation ability and are unsure of their space in the music scene.
We arrived at this POV because we felt it best represents the issues we wanted to take on in terms of bringing in young people to The Guild, starting with Stanford students. Many young people don’t have a car or have financial restrictions that discourages them from attending an event due to transportation difficulties. Thus, transportation to The Guild is a idea that needs to be addressed, especially if we want to attract the younger demographic, such as high schoolers and college students.
Additionally, The Guild is known for their high quality experience, from their amazing technical systems to their wonderful architectural design. By focusing on guests that are not certain of their space in the music scene, we can help encourage their want to go to concerts through providing a top notch experience and therefore creating a loyal customer base.
brainstorming
With our narrowed POV, we brainstormed ways to ease the burden of transportation and make guests feel welcomed into the music scene. Then we bucketed our ideas into 4 categories: marketing, social/music experience, design/ technical experience, and transportation. Making sure we touched on each category, we narrowed our ideas to five:
1
provide a shuttle that is well advertised
2
Nomad style social event- making the walk/bike there fun
3
make concert experiences seem like other familiar experiences (coffee shops, etc.)
4
concert with multiple artists that are on for a shortened amount of time
5
install bike/skateboarding racks
prototyping & feedback surveys
We went forward with 2 ideas to prototype:
1
A Taste of the Guild
2
The Stanford Student Experience Checklist
We then tested our prototypes with other students, asking them to complete an anonymous feedback survey on their thoughts of our prototypes.
Regarding A Taste of the Guild, 70% of those surveyed said they would attend this event right off the bat. Some reasons people said they would attend include the variety, food opportunity, they could see themselves going with their friends, and simply “I like new things.” Around 70% of respondents also said that this Sunday early evening time generally works for them but many offered Thursday/Friday/Saturday as alternate days they would prefer as they “reserve Sunday for work.”
For The Stanford Student Experience Checklist, most said that they would partake in this activity, but only if their friends were doing it. Few were willing to put in the effort to get their friends to do it but many would use the checklist as inspiration for places to check out
implementation
Through the feedback surveys, we decided to implement A Taste of the Guild.
A Taste of the Guild is a new style of event to bring in new user groups. We plan to offer an event of 4 different show types across 3 hours with a break in the middle for dinner at local restaurants. The package will include a discount at a local recommended restaurant (and possibly dessert spot).
In addition, we will be offering cheap 1 hour entry wristbands. This will be available for tentative individuals and passerby to pop in and enjoy the atmosphere of The Guild, without making a large investment of time or money. These time limits will be enforced with announcements upon the finishing of an act notifying those with a wristband of that corresponding color that their time is up.
We also created a deliverable titled The Recipe to leave with employees of The Guild. The Recipe includes the elements to host a great show of this type like tickets & pricing, finding a date & time, and marketing. To conclude, we also have ways to elevate this experience even more.
Take a look at the proposed flyer and The Recipe:
