Early in 1988 the Sydney Opera House Trust initiated a fresh examination of the marketing practices which had been put in place over a number of years. As part of this examination, the Opera House commissioned Yann Campbell Hoare Wheeler to conduct a study to size the market for the performing arts: to understand the attitudes which prevail towards the performing arts; the manner in which the population segments in these attitudinal terms, as well as the image which each of the performing arts centres have in the minds of the Sydney market. This examination of the market led to the generation of a positioning platform for the Opera House as "ideal for a special night out". The comprehensive range of "entertainment" facilities available at the Opera House and the ambiance of this performing arts centre itself, was promoted in a press advertising campaign over a three month period. The performance of this campaign was monitored, which revealed that the advertising was able to strengthen the level of commitment to visiting the Opera House at a time characterised by declining general interest in attending the performing arts per se (due to seasonal and economic reasons). This was despite the fact that the campaign was hampered by a small advertising spend, a situation which marketers of the arts are no doubt familiar with. Further, there is evidence to suggest that the advertising was able to lift the Opera House's share of venue attendance, albeit marginally.
During 1984 advertisers in Australia began to be concerned that the video-cassette recorder (VCR) was eroding the size of the audience for live television, and as a result, reducing the frequency by which users of a VCR were being exposed to advertisements. Industry-based survey data at this time showed no changes in the size of audiences, and indeed showed that households who owned a VCR watched just as much live television as non-owners. Nevertheless this seemed implausible given the startling growth of the medium. The challenge facing researchers was to measure changes in consumption patterns without recourse to baseline data recorded before the introduction of the VCR.