Three experiments analysing the effect of survey design features on survey response in audience research

In audience research, surveys enjoy a steadily increasing popularity when it comes to the on site collection of data on a film or theatre audience – especially within arts and humanities oriented research. The unique setting of audience research however, seriously hampers the obvious advantages of surveys to be exploited to their maximum: the on site collection of data involves severe time and spacial limitations impeding survey cooperation. In this paper a method for the on site collection of data on a theatre audience is introduced and a number of techniques, acknowledged to reduce unit nonresponse in household surveys, are applied and – for the first time – their effectiveness in minimising nonresponse within this unique context is assessed. More particularly, three experimental designs are used to test the impact of a number of survey design features on response rates, response quality and sample composition. The various survey design features included are the way in which the sample units are contacted on site, the use of incentives and the specific sequence of the questions in the questionnaire