1

Prepared by Insight Track Ltd.T: 01603 626800

E: intouch@insighttrack.co.uk

Pub Visitor Research

Research findings for Norwich City of Ale

June 2013

2Structure

Background Research Objectives Approach Findings

Respondent profile Reason for visiting Impact of City of Ale

Summary

3Background Norwich City of Ale Limited (NCoA) is a not-for-profit organisation with

the mission to promote Norwich, nationally and internationally, as the UK City of Ale

One of the key activities undertaken by the organisation is to organise an annual festival as a celebration of real ale from local breweries to be held throughout the city in real ale pubs and other venues selling real ale (between 23rd May and 2nd June 2013)

In order to evaluate the success of the event, NCoA wish to monitor performance against key performance indicators in respect to how awareness of the event is generated, distances visitors tend to travel to the event and overall impressions of it

  Therein the management team wished to undertake a modest research

programme amongst pub visitors during the week of the event, this being pragmatically conducted within the prescribed budget of approximately £500

4Research Objectives

The scope of the research covered the following in a brief interviewer conducted survey:

Basic profiling of visitor (gender, age, where travelled from) Role of NCoA in prompting pub visit Awareness of NCoA How heard of NCoA Frequency of drinking real ale Impact of NCoA on frequency of visiting pubs and real ale drinking habits over the

festival period Rating and impressions of NCoA Suggested improvements for NCoA 2014 Favourite ‘new beer’ of the festival

5Methodology 234 in-pub face-to-face interviews, spread across pub opening periods Using a brief fully-structured questionnaire (13 questions) Fieldwork conducted between 24th - 30th May 2013 (see slide 6)

Avoiding opening night No screening quotas were applied (i.e. all pub visitors qualify for survey), although

noting that we did aim to speak to Real Ale drinkers in the main Two interviewers worked simultaneously in-pub in respect to health and safety

considerations (notably evening work) Two lunchtime shifts (12-2) (Thursday and Friday) Two evening shifts (5-9) (Thursday and Friday)

We also had the help of a volunteer, Rob Whitmore, who carried out 40 of the interviews in pubs that Insight Track were not targeting (and to whom we are very grateful for the assistance)

6Sample: Pubs, time of day and date

  Pub

Number of interviews bytime of day Date

Lunchtime Evening1. Fat Cat - 47 Thursday 30th May2. Murderers - 42 Friday 24th May3. Wig & Pen 38 - Friday 24th May4. Kings Arms - 36 Friday 24th May5. Whalebone - 21 Thursday 30th May6. Unthank Arms - 13 Sunday 26th May7. Jubilee - 12 Thursday 30th May8. King’s Head 10 - Thursday 30th May9. Beehive 8 - Sunday 26th May

10.  The Plough 7 - Thursday 30th MaySub-total 63 171

TOTAL 234

7

Findings: Respondent profile

8Respondent profile: Gender & Age

The majority of respondents are male, with a good spread across ages 25+

84%

16%

MaleFemale

Refused65+

55-6445-5435-4425-3418-24

0 5 10 15 20 251

1617

2221

185

Base: 234 – all respondents; single responseQ: Note respondent genderQ Which of the following age brackets do you fall into?

9Respondent profile: Where do they come from? Two thirds of respondents are from Norwich/Greater Norwich and a further fifth

are from wider Norfolk 11% of respondents are from outside the county (17 of these 26 respondents said

later in the survey that they came to that pub specifically for the NCoA)3% 11%

20%66%

RefusedOutside NorfolkWider Norfolk (NR9-NR32)Norwich (NR1-NR8)

Base: 234 – all respondents; Open responseQ: Just so we can understand where people have travelled from, can I please ask what the first part of your postcode is e.g. NR1 NR13?

London (3) KirkwallRochester (2) LutonColchester (2) ManchesterBlackburn PeterboroughBelfast PortsmouthChelmsford PrestonDorchester StevenageGloucester SouthendHuddersfield SwindonIpswich

10

Reasons for visiting

11Impact of City of Ale on visiting the pub on that day A quarter were in the pub on that day specifically for NCoA Of those who did, the gender profile very much matches the overall sample

profile The ‘core’ age profile appears to be between ages 25-64 (and definitely ages

25+)

24%

76%

Came specifically for City of Ale festivalComing here anyway

65+55-6445-5435-4425-3418-24

0 5 10 15 20 25 3013

2025

1621

5

%Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response

Q: Did you come to this pub today for the City of Ale festival or were you coming here

anyway?

86%

14%

MaleFemale

Core

Base: 56 – all who came specifically for CoA; Single response

Profi

le o

f tho

se w

ho c

ame

spe

cific

ally

for

City

of A

le

12Impact of City of Ale on visiting the pub on that day A third of those who came to the pubs for NCoA were from outside Norfolk As a proportion, those interviewed in the Jubilee and The Plough were most likely to have

specifically gone to the pub for NCoA (although noting a small base for these pubs) 1 in 3 respondents had visited The Murderers, Fat Cat or King’s Head specifically for NCoA

Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response (‘Refused’ not shown)

Q: Did you come to this pub today for the City of Ale festival or were you coming here

anyway?

Base: 56 – all who came specifically for CoA; Single response

No. of ints.

Came here specifically for NCoA

(No. of ints.)

Coming here

anyway(No. of ints.)

% in pub who

came for NCoA

Jubilee 12 6 6 50%The Plough 7 3 4 43%Murderers 42 14 28 33%Fat Cat 47 14 33 30%King’s Head 10 3 7 30%Beehive 8 2 6 25%Wig & Pen 38 9 29 24%Unthank Arms 13 2 11 15%

Whalebone 21 2 19 10%King’s Arms 36 1 35 3%

Where live

Norwich (NR1-NR8)

(N=155)

Wider Norfolk (NR9-NR32)(N=47)

Outside Norfolk(N=26)

Came here specifically for

NCoA(N=55)

45% 22% 31%

Coming here anyway(N=179)

73% 20% 5%

13Awareness of City of Ale Over three quarters of respondents were aware of NCoA Ages 45+ were the most likely to be aware, particularly ages 55-64

Yes77%

No23%

65+ (N=30)55-64 (N=29)45-54 (N=37)35-44 (N=41)25-34 (N=30)18-24 (N=8)

0 20 40 60 80 10073

8681

5163

50% of each age bracket aware of

NCoA

Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response

Q: Had you heard about the City of Ale festival before coming to this pub today?

Base: 56 – all who came specifically for CoA; Single response

14How found out about City of Ale People who were aware of NCoA were most likely to have found out via a

newspaper article (either in the EDP or Eastern Evening News)

Beer matMagazine article

FacebookBookmark

Norfolk NipsVisited NCoA last year

LeafletPoster

Newspaper article

0 5 10 15 20 25 30111222344

67

111213

1821

24

%Base: 179 – all respondents who are aware of NCoA; Multiple response

Q: How did you find out about the Norwich City of Ale festival?

Friend (N=13)Pub staff (N=8)Family (N=4)

Fat Cat (N=6)

EEN (N=22)EDP (N=21)

EEN (N=22)EDP (N=21)

What’s Brewing (N=2)

No specific place emerging

Who/where/which (N=number of

responses)

15

All respondents were read the following information for consistent understanding:

Norwich City of Ale is a ten-day celebration of local pubs, breweries and real ale. Events are taking place between 23rd May and 2nd June across 41 pubs in Norwich. From barbecues to "meet the brewer" evenings, live gigs to pub quizzes there is a vibrant calendar of events with something for everyone.

Impact of City of Ale

16Real Ale drinking habits Nearly three quarters of the people we spoke to are regular real ale drinkers

NeverOnce a year or less

Once every 6 monthsOnce every 2-3 months

Once a monthOnce a week

2-3 times a weekDaily

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 4011

22

39

1935

19

%Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response

Q: Broadly speaking, how often do you usually drink real ale?

Regular ale

drinkers – 74%

Occasional ale drinkers –

12%

Irregular ale drinkers –

15%

17Impact of City of Ale on pub visiting/drinking habits The NCoA has clearly had an impact on the behaviour of the people we spoke to,

with almost half the sample saying they had been (or would be) visiting more pubs or drinking more real ale between 23rd May and 2nd June because of the City of Ale

...drinking more real ale in Norwich than usual because of the Norwich City of Ale festi-

val?

...visiting more pubs in Norwich than usual because of the

Norwich City of Ale festival?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1 56

56

43

44

Less The same More

Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response

Q: Between 23rd May and 2nd June have you been, or will you be…

18Impact on Real Ale drinking habits Around half of regular and occasional real ale drinkers said that they had, or

would be, drinking more real ale in Norwich than usual because of the NCoA festival

Irregular ale drinkers (N=35)

Occasional ale drinkers (N=27)

Regular ale drinkers (N=172)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

3 94

52

49

3

48

51

Less The same More

%Base: 234 – all respondents; Single response

Q: Broadly speaking, how often do you usually drink real ale?Vs.

Q: Between 23rd May and 2nd June have you been, or will you be drinking more real ale in Norwich than usual because of the City of Ale festival

19Rating of City of Ale Experience Of those who gave an opinion, 89% rated their experience of the City of Ale as

being ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ This rises to 98% amongst those who visited the pub specifically for NCoA

48

41

11

1

ExcellentGoodNeither good nor poorPoorVery poor

Base: 174 – all respondents who gave a rating; Single response

Q: How would you rate your experience of the City of Ale festival on the following scale?

Mean = 4.4 out of 5

20Positives about City of Ale

Base: 234 – all respondents; Open response

Q: What do you think are the best things about the Norwich City of Ale festival?

Promoting the pubs / encouraging people to try NEW pubs Variety of real ales available

More vibrant pubs / atmosphere / bringing people together Promoting Norwich / good for tourism

Highlighting / encouraging local breweries

Promoting real ales / trying new ales

Ale trail / pub crawl

Some of the key themes emerging as perceived positives…

21What could be improved about City of Ale Some of the key themes emerging as suggested improvements for City of

Ale 2014…

Base: 234 – all respondents; Open response

Q: What, if anything, could be improved about the City of Ale festival in the future?

Guide to what ales each pub is servingLast longer than 10 days (too many pubs to fit in)

Cheaper alesMore pubs quizzes

More samples

More advertising / promotion / advanced publicity

Transport/minibus

Loyalty cards

Learning about real ale

Don’t coincide with half term

22Favourite ‘New Beer’ of the festival so far Lacons’ ales come out on top in terms of the number of mentions of ‘favourite

new beer’ tried at City of Ale 2013; ‘Affinity’ was the most frequently mentioned ale

Base: 234 – all respondents; Open response

Q: What has been your favourite NEW beer so far that you hadn’t tried before this City of Ale festival?

Brancaster

Buffy's

Oldershaw

Tipples

Oakham

Golden Triangle

Fat Cat

Adnams

0 4 8 12 162233444

6666

9121213

165

mentions

No. of each brewery’s beers mentioned

23

Summary

24Summary Overall, 1 in 4 pub visitors were at the pub that day specifically for NCoA The majority of those visiting specifically for NCoA are male (around 1 in 7 are female) The core age profile of those visiting specifically for NCoA is 25-64 As might be expected, people visiting NCoA are most likely to be from Norwich;

however, of the 56 people specifically visiting for NCoA, 1 in 3 were from outside Norfolk

Over three quarters (77%) of people we spoke to in the pubs were aware of NCoA Newspaper articles, word of mouth and posters have been the most successful means

of spreading the word Almost half the sample said they had, or would be, both visiting more pubs and/or

drinking more real ale than usual over the NCoA period Almost half of regular and occasional real ale drinkers said they would be drinking

more real ale than usual over the NCoA period 9 out of 10 people rated their experience of NCoA as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’; 98% of those

who visited specifically for NCoA rated their experience as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ The objectives of NCoA are being well-received – pub-goers appreciate the promotion

of (an impact on) real ale, the pubs, local breweries and Norwich and like the variety of beers available

The key suggested improvement is actually a positive – promote the festival more Lacons is being welcomed back, with Affinity receiving the most mentions for ‘favourite

new beer tried so far’ and with the brewery receiving the most mentions overall

25

Good luck with Norwich City of Ale 2014!