Nowadays Orange Consulting · Case Study
Growing two film festivals by understanding their audiences
How audience data, sharper programming, and a redesigned organization grew attendance nearly 34% year over year.
Org & process design · Data & audience insights · Audience targeting
Filmmaker submissions
Attendance, year over year (since 2022)
Festival-day pain points
At a glance
| Client | Two North Texas film festivals — one niche, one of international renown (anonymized) |
| Services | Organizational design · Process design · Data & audience insights · Audience targeting |
| Focus | Audience profiling, programming strategy, org & process redesign, strategic planning |
| Engaged since | 2022 |
The challenge
Both festivals were making high-stakes decisions — what to program, who to reach, how to run the event — without a clear picture of their audiences. Audience data sat in disparate systems and was hard to turn into usable profiles. Programming didn’t always line up with the people most likely to attend. And the organizations and their processes weren’t structured in a way that matched how the festivals actually operated.
What we did
- Built audience clarity. We mapped and merged their scattered data sources into a report of audience segments and personas — a single, usable picture of who their attendees actually are.
- Retargeted the programming. We repositioned and retargeted programming to match the audiences most likely to show up, so the lineup and the outreach finally pulled in the same direction.
- Redesigned the organization. We restructured each festival’s organization and key processes to fit its reality, taking friction out of how the work gets done.
- Set the direction. We helped build a new strategic plan to guide growth.
The outcome
- Filmmaker submissions grew 30%.
- Audience attendance grew 33.7% year over year (since 2022).
- Festival-day pain points dropped from many to a handful.
What it shows
When the audience picture is clear and the organization is built to act on it, growth follows. We help cultural organizations turn scattered data into audience insight — then turn that insight into programming, structure, and strategy that measurably grow attendance and participation. If your festival or venue is making programming, membership, or operations decisions on instinct, this is the kind of clarity a short engagement can create.
Facing similar questions? Start with a Data & Insights Audit — a 2-week, $1,000 diagnostic, fully credited toward the next-step engagement.