In today’s experience economy, assuming that all event attendees are the same is not only lazy—it’s costly. Audiences are more fragmented than ever, with varied motivations, values, and expectations (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2013, 2020). For instance, a sport mega-event like Brisbane 2032 will attract hardcore fans, casual spectators, local residents, cultural tourists, and even event-phobic sceptics. Each of these groups responds differently to marketing, programming, and logistics.

Ignoring these differences can lead to missed revenue, poor audience satisfaction, and reputational damage. At best, you get disengagement. At worst, you alienate entire segments. As Aaron Tkaczynski notes, “we can’t get absolutely everyone to come,” but we can make informed choices about who we design for and how.

Events are expensive, risky, and resource-hungry. When done well, market segmentation gives decision-makers a blueprint for strategic choices: who to attract, how to message, what infrastructure to build, and what partnerships to pursue (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2020). Take the example of the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers in Queensland. Once a quaint community celebration, it was transformed into a major drawcard by integrating a food and wine segment—based entirely on segmentation data revealing the overlap between flower lovers and culinary tourists (Tkaczynski, 2013a).

Whether you're bidding for a mega-event or programming a regional music festival, segmentation allows you to match programming with audience appetites and marketing spend with likely returns (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2020).

The digital transformation of event planning has opened a floodgate of data. From social media analytics and ticketing platforms to post-event surveys and QR code interactions, organisers now have access to real-time behavioural feedback (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2020). But collecting data is not the same as understanding people.

Too often, event teams rely on demographic stereotypes or vanity metrics. What's needed is an interpretive mindset that blends qualitative and quantitative tools. Why do fans flock to a beer tent but skip a sustainability stall? Why does one audience segment attend multiple times while another never returns? Without segmentation, data becomes noise.

Many assume segmentation is about advertising. But it’s just as powerful for designing onsite experiences. Understanding why someone attends shapes everything from signage and seating to food vendors and volunteering roles (Getz, 2008). At the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia, segmenting audiences by gender and family status enabled the development of family-friendly fan zones and female-centric safety planning—proving segmentation can serve inclusion and impact, not just sales.

Segmentation can also help understand and serve underserved stakeholders (Tkaczynski, 2013a). Residents, for example, are rarely considered an “audience,” yet their perceptions and experiences can make or break an event’s legacy (Tkaczynski et al., 2019, 2022). Segmenting resident attitudes—supportive, indifferent, sceptical—can inform how organisers engage with the local community long before the first ticket is sold (Tkaczynski, 2013a, b).

Events often treat attendees as one-off consumers (Getz, 2008). But segmentation encourages a long-view. By tracking behaviours over time, events can identify which groups are likely to return, promote the event, or engage in future volunteering or activism (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2011, 2020). Longitudinal segmentation research—like that led by Tkaczynski—shows that those with a high sense of belonging or motivation tied to values (not just entertainment) are more likely to stay involved post-event.

This is where segmentation links directly to legacy planning. Who do you want to stay connected to your event ecosystem? How do you build civic pride, community cohesion, or destination loyalty over the long term? Segmentation can help answer these questions with rigour and clarity.