Issue 66 Festivals - Passion, Provision, Participation - bOing! - Sadler's Wells at Latitude - Marketing multi-location festivals - Evaluating ...
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Issue 66
Festivals
—— Passion, Provision, Participation
—— bOing!
—— Sadler’s Wells at Latitude
—— Marketing multi-location festivals
—— Evaluating festivals
a-m-a.co.uk 1
—— Festival rebrand
editorial
Something for everyone
1. Something for everyone 10. AMA member reps Festivals have always played an explains how taking contemporary We take a glimpse into the AMA
editorial membership important role in bringing people dance direct to festival goers conference 2017 with Jane Cordell,
together and are key part of the has helped the theatre grow new put the spotlight on the AMA’s
Creative accounting 12. Marketing multi-location festivals cultural landscape. In this issue of audiences. Senior Finance Manager, Elza Cloete,
spotlight feature JAM we look at the different ways and celebrate the AMA Member
festivals support the work of the Coordinating a multi-location Rep scheme with Bea Udeh, AMA’s
2. Passion, Provision, Participation 15. A glimpse into AMA conference arts, cultural and heritage sector festival is challenging and complex. Programme Producer.
feature interview in growing and engaging with Sarah Burry-Hayes and Rosie Clarke
audiences. discuss their experiences of working Jacqueline Haxton
5. bOing! 16. Evaluating festivals respectively on the Festival of Senior Programme Officer
case study case study Mel Larsen reflects on the benefits Museums and Museums at Night. and JAM editor
of festivals developing new and AMA
8. Sadler’s Wells at Latitude 18. Festival rebrand diverse audiences; putting a diverse A collaborative approach to the
case study connect, discover, inspire range of cultures, issues and faces research and evaluation of the
on the map. British Ceramics Biennial has played
an important part in the planning of
Over the past three years the future festivals. Helen Palmer and
Gulbenkian’s bOing! International Vishalakshi Roy describe how this is
Family Festival has grown its achieved.
audience from 2,500 to 11,000.
David Yard shares an insight into Rachael Biggs explains how the jacqueline@a-m-a.co.uk
bOing’s success. rebrand of the Liverpool Arab Arts a-m-a.co.uk
Festival has created an accessible @amadigital
Sadler’s Wells has been headlining and engaging brand that’s helped to
the Waterfront stage at Latitude reinvigorate the festival.
Festival since 2008. Lucy White
spotlight
This edition of JAM was compiled and edited by Jacqueline Haxton.
Designed by Jake Young.
Visit
a-m-a.co.uk Creative accounting
Write for JAM Contact
If you would like to contribute a case study, feature or have an idea for JAM @amadigital
please email jacqueline@a-m-a.co.uk info@a-m-a.co.uk I’ve almost always had a room with a by mountainside walks, wine tours research; two mini Cloetes in tow —
+44 (0) 1223 578 078 view: vineyards, mountains, oceans, and seaside escapes. I continued my role as Senior Finance Manager
Subscribe to JAM the River Cam, an English meadow. with informal contemporary dance, at the AMA is a prayer answered.
£39 — one year’s subscription AMA ballet and drawing classes; and, Supporting the team, and indirectly
UK rate 7a Clifton Court As a South African, I was raised to during my first years of work, pottery our members, I can be part of a
Cambridge not only appreciate the view from at the studio of Debbie de Beer. sector I love. Bringing arts, heritage
£59 — one year’s subscription CB1 7BN afar, but to get involved and try and culture to wider audiences, I
Overseas rate my hand at everything. A typical On my first day of articles at have found a very homely room,
Registered in England 2814725 week of after-school activities could PricewaterhouseCoopers, I met with a wonderful view.
£60 +VAT — AMA six-month trial membership include ballet, art, swimming, netball, my husband to be. After studying
Including JAM and all other membership benefits. a maths Olympiad, a school rally, together, our paths never crossing, Elza Cloete CA(SA)
Visit a-m-a.co.uk/membership or contact membership@a-m-a.co.uk piano and choir. In Paarl Girls High the heavens finally decided our Senior Finance Manager
School we did everything on a grand eyes would meet, sparks would fly, AMA
This publication is available in large print, electronic scale: inter-schools sports, drama, butterflies would sing — we all know
musicals, talent shows, fundraising this story.
format and on the AMA website. Contact events.
jacqueline@a-m-a.co.uk or call 01223 578078. The ink was barely dry on my final
South Africa went through many qualifying exam paper, when I was
positive changes during my seconded to Miami, Florida for
Cover image courtesy of Phil Wilkinson for Festival of Museums. childhood. The world was opening Sarbanes-Oxley work. From the US,
JAM is published by the AMA
Festival of Museums at Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh. up to us. I wanted to see it, and Cambridge was the next base for
All rights are reserved and reproduction of any parts is not allowed without the written permission of chartered accountancy was my further travels. elza@a-m-a.co.uk
the publishers. Opinions expressed in JAM are not necessarily those of the AMA and no responsibility is ticket. Studying accounting at the a-m-a.co.uk
accepted for advertising content. Any material submitted for publication may be edited for reasons of
style, content or available space. Meanings will not be altered without permission from the author. University of Stellenbosch, the usual Ten years later — a good run as @amadigital
ISSN 1474-1172 perks of student life were enriched senior accountant in technology
© Arts Marketing Association 2017 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 1
feature
Festivals are a great way of bringing diverse groups of people together. Having
founded three festivals and led the Streatham Festival for five years, AMA Board
member Mel Larsen reflects on the benefits of festivals in developing new and
diverse audiences.
From the earliest harvest gatherings, festivals have A visionary festival director I admire greatly is Mark
served to bring folk together to celebrate seasons, Ball who has championed value and respect for the
culture and community. For every activity you can think marginalized since the days back in 1998 when he
of, there’s probably a festival dedicated to it somewhere. founded the groundbreaking Queerfest, later to
Cheese rolling, fireball whirling and gurning are just for become Fierce!. In an interview with Performing Arts
starters. We’re spoilt for choice by the thousands of Network Japan last year he said: “part of the job of
festivals available in the UK. They vary enormously in being a Festival Director, is that you have to be a
scale and focus across many genres including music, futurologist”. Formerly Artistic Director and CEO of
performance, literature, film and science. LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), where
he championed artists from Middle Eastern Arabic
A festival can be niche or broad, one-off or lasting, countries to showcase exciting new work and to
mammoth or micro. They are flexible tools to address challenge Islamophobia, Ball has just become Associate
the multiple demands of audience engagement in a Artistic Director at Manchester International Festival. I’m
world of super-diversity. Festivals can shine a spotlight looking forward to seeing what he creates next.
on an issue, location, audience or all of the above.
The Women of the World (WOW) festival founded by
I’ve founded three small festivals in Streatham, South Jude Kelly also springs to mind, tackling as it does the
London focusing on respectively, arts, food and peace. massive contribution and potential of women and girls
Once I discovered that a festival is a powerful way to globally. I have been a ‘speed mentor’ several times at
bring a diverse group of people together around a core this excellent week-long event held at the South Bank
theme I was hooked. The Streatham Festival, which I Centre as well as four other countries and counting. Last
led for five years, was founded on a shoestring in 2002 year I attended their programme development meeting
and is now in its fifteenth year. The catalyst for me was and enjoyed the open and consultative approach where
reading an Evening Standard article which claimed around 50 women from a wide range of backgrounds
that the Streatham postcode was high on a list of “least spoke about what they would like to see at future WOW
desirable places to live in London”. I wanted to disprove festivals.
this notion and show what was great about the people
in this highly ethnically diverse area. Another visionary is Ajay Chhabra, founder of The
London Mela in 2002, which has attracted 92,000
During my five year directorship, along with a dedicated people at its peak. Chhabra is also founder of The
team of volunteers, we created an annual programme Mela Partnership of seven melas around Britain, which
of activities in response to what the local community together last year entertained a total of 286,000
wanted to produce or see. It was an interesting audience members across six melas, of which an
approach that led to many great moments, and only a estimated 65% were BAME (Black, Asian, and minority
handful of creative disasters. Setting up and running ethnic). He says mela has a long history in the UK which
these demanding annual events showed me the power has gone largely unrecognized:
Nutkhut’s Carnival Finale at the London Mela, 2013.
Image courtesy of Nutkhut. Photo Hayley Madden.
and challenge of teamwork, diversity, community and
most of all, of vision. “Festivals are at the heart of our [South Asian] culture.
The reality is that those that are charged with gathering
Visionaires audience evidence have ignored the Mela sector. They
While some major arts festivals still seem oblivious to are now coming to realise it and it’s a great big statistics
the notion of diversity, many others have emerged as hole! And of course there is the view that festivals are
the brainchild of a savvy producer who saw an eager connected with a certain type of ‘Britishness’ which
but untapped market. Mela doesn’t belong to.”
2 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 3
case study
Since bOing! International Family Festival was born in 2014 it has seen its audience
grow from 2,500 to 11,000. Managed by the Gulbenkian, the festival takes place
every year in Canterbury on the last weekend of August. AMA member David Yard
shares an insight into bOing!’s success.
The Gulbenkian started bOing! as and an international tour planned for Kent — as a cultural destination that
a way to showcase some of the 2017/18. Pinocchio sparked a debate attracts some of the world’s leading
great companies out there who about what we show to children artists.”
are creating imaginative work for and who decides age suitability. We
Nutkhut/Cirque Bijou performing Khoj at Sandwell Mela, June 2016. Image courtesy of Nutkhut. Photo Dee Patel, Outroslide. families. We programme family aim to further develop bOing! as a Professor Siri Dybwik, Artistic
theatre year-round, but the festival space for international debate, for Director, Dybwikdans (Norway) said:
format is really accessible and professional practitioners to share “Compared with a lot of other
Festival figures —— DaDaFest attracts thousands of people who and discuss issues. festivals in Norway and Europe
Festivals are generally thought to be good for the Promotes high quality disability and deaf arts working would not think of themselves as we find bOing! very special. The
reputation of the host location, boosting community to the Social Model of Disability. ‘theatre goers’. Each year, we programme artistic programme is of high
cohesion and tourism. The economic impact of —— WOW festival elements of bOing! offsite, reaching quality, the hospitality is great. The
Manchester International Festival on the city was A global festival celebrating women and girls. As a free to enter festival there are thousands of people and promoting most important observation we
estimated at £38.8m in 2015 and Liverpool’s DaDaFest —— AfroPunk Fest challenges in data collection, but the main festival content to new did under our visit, was about how
reports that it brought £5m into the economy in 2012. Champions “the other Black experience, the one we since launching bOing!, audiences to audiences. We deliver targeted the festival managed to create
The biggest festivals can be extremely influential: don’t see in our media.” our family programme have doubled, lead-in activity with local partners, a total experience for the whole
broadcast audiences for the Edinburgh International —— London Mela and we see bOing! as a vital profile using bOing! to promote arts across family. Our producer became so
Book Festival in 2014 for example, exceeded 60 million. Europe’s largest mela. raiser regionally, nationally and Kent to new and diverse audiences. inspired after this visit that she has
So any large festival that takes the effort to champion —— Africa Oyé, Liverpool within the industry internationally. Last year this included a Home applied for funding in Norway to
diversity has the power to make a significant difference. The largest festival of African and Caribbean music in project in partnership with a local make something similar happen in
Britain. Funded by Arts Council England, museum responding to local and Stavanger.”
Setting up and sustaining a festival year after year is —— Notting Hill Carnival University of Kent and Kent County global issues around displacement.
not for the faint-hearted. It’s hard work to get one off The largest street festival in Europe and part of the Council, bOing! aims to present A photography project also took Audiences love bOing! too. “Brilliant
the ground, it requires intense focus building up to cultural landscape for over half a century. international work of the highest place with Kent Refugee Action performances and selection of
just one big day or week of the year and its costly to —— SHOUT quality alongside the best UK Network giving young refugees events for families and adults,
keep it going. Inclement weather is a particular issue Birmingham’s LGBT History festival. companies and artists. The festival the opportunity to share their bOing! is unbelievably great” was
for outdoor events. Famously, the summer of 2012 —— GFEST has engaged families with artists impressions of Kent. a comment from last year, but we
was particularly rainy resulting in the cancellation of a London’s leading LGBTQI cross-arts festival. from Finland, Spain, France, Norway, know that this is shared widely.
whopping 57 live music festivals. Add in the effort to —— SICK! Festival Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Austria and Engaging with the local community
maintain a relationship with an audience you may only An international arts and health programme. the UK. and offering young people Audiences appreciate the fact
be able to programme for once a year and the challenge —— Bestival opportunities through the festival is that bOing! is free to enter and
increases. Award-winning family-friendly festival. We include work not only created key to our ambitions. Our pioneering has lots of free content, making
for young audiences but work youth leadership project, ART31, it very accessible. It also means
Diversity stars Mel Larsen that is engaging for all such as gives young people a central role in that families plan to spend the
Creating an annual mass gathering may not be the Consultant and Coach Willi Dorner’s (Austria) fitting in planning, promoting and delivering day with us combining a couple of
easiest route to ensuring diversity in the arts but it is 2015. The same year, in partnership key elements of the festival. Young ticketed shows with time outside,
one powerful, agile solution to making sure certain with Conflux in Glasgow, we people programme, manage and picnicking, playing and catching
issues are heard and certain faces are seen by many. commissioned a large scale outdoor perform on their own stage at the free performances. It is a lovely
Here’s my salute to just a handful of the hundreds of show with Motionhouse — Fragile. bOing! atmosphere that many families
festivals that have had the foresight to put a diverse comment on.
range of cultures, issues and faces on the map. Support bOing! has had a direct impact on Hedley Swain, Area Director South
them and learn from them: the creation of work for families. East, Arts Council England said: From a marketing perspective,
In 2016 we commissioned Jasmin “Led by Gulbenkian, which is run by bOing! is packed with potential.
—— Unlimited Festival mellymango@mac.com Vardimon to create her first the University of Kent, bOing! has There is plenty to excite the press,
Celebrating the artistic vision and originality of mellarsen.com dreamprojectcoach.com show — Pinocchio — for younger an important role in establishing and to build campaigns around,
disabled artists. @VisionAndVibes audiences prior to a national tour Canterbury — and more widely and for a venue used to promoting
4 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 5
Left: The Princess and the Pea by Dybwikdans (Norway) in 2016. Right: Phone Box by Corey Baker Dance in 2016 © Manu Palomeque.
Images courtesy of bOing! International Family Festival.
individual shows, it’s refreshing for Bears With Brochures was a surprise David Yard
us to be able to promote a festival hit, we had performers choosing Head of Marketing
and grow the ‘brand of bOing!’. Even their favourite superpowers, and we Gulbenkian
so, it takes time to get a new festival put in place a dedicated member
onto people’s radars and we have of staff to run social media across
seen audiences grow from 2,500 in the festival itself (essential). We also
2014, to 6,000 in 2015 and 11,000 found that Facebook adverts work
last year. for family audiences.
There are some key marketing Running social media channels
lessons we have learned along the for the festival does lead to extra
way. work, but it allows bOing! to have its d.yard@kent.ac.uk
own voice, separate to Gulbenkian, boingfestival.com
Different marketing content works helping us not to flood our own @boingfestival
for different audiences. While some channels with bOing! focused thegulbenkian.co.uk
of our audience are attracted to the material — annoying our non-family @TheGulbenkian
beautiful performance imagery in audiences.
our festival guide, there is also the
need for a flyer, which focuses more Our relationship with the press has
on images of sunshine, outdoors, been key. We have a great media
and festival crowds having fun. We partnership with a regional news
tested this in 2015 with a series group that spans print, radio and
of Facebook adverts in which the digital platforms, and we get valuable
little boy with a bOing! balloon coverage from BBC South East.
outperformed all the acts, including
the Dancing Diggers. We need to talk about data. We Key takeaways
attract thousands of new families to
Taking the festival off campus works. bOing!, but given the open nature of ——Different marketing content
Last year we took Protein’s the site we have had limited success works for different audiences.
(In)visible Dancing into Canterbury in collecting data on who they are.
The Dancing Diggers of Motionhouse’s Fragile in 2015. © Manu Palomeque.
city centre for a week of flashmob- bOing! forms only part of our family ——Taking the festival off
style dances along the high street. offer through the year, and we need campus with flashmob-style
This was seen by over 3,500 people to work harder to get our bOing! events works.
— a brilliant marketing opportunity visitors to come back to us. For that
in addition to being an amazing reason a key focus in 2017 is to find ——Advertising on Facebook
cultural event for the city in itself. new ways to entice bOing! visitors to works for family audiences.
Image courtesy of bOing! International Family Festival.
leave their details with us and stay
People share the strangest things. in touch. (All suggestions from JAM ——Running separate social
In 2015 we had a focus on digital readers welcome). media channels for bOing!
promotion of bOing! and joined the gives the festival its own
AMA’s Digital Marketing Academy. Given the great audiences at bOing! voice separate to Gulbenkian.
Working with mentor Ron Evans, 2016 the pressure is on for 2017, but
we launched bOing!’s own website we are excited and confident that ——A good relationship with the
— boingfestival.com, and trailed a we can grow our new family arts press is key.
range of tactics across social media. festival even further.
6 JAM 65 — winter 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 7
case study
Since 2008, Sadler’s Wells has been headlining the
Waterfront stage at Latitude festival. AMA member
Lucy White explains how taking contemporary dance
out of the theatre and direct to festival goers has
helped grow new audiences.
Sadler’s Wells present BBC Young Dancer 2015 at Latitude Festival. Image courtesy of Latitude Festival © Carys Lavin.
Set in the heart of Suffolk, Festival Republic’s Latitude festival, which festival. We programme work that For Sadler’s Wells, getting our brand in front of an average audience of Lucy White
started in 2006, is renowned for combining a main stage line-up of exciting is dynamic, engaging, and will approximately 8,000 a year (that’s 80,000 since we first presented work at Marketing Manager (Touring)
music with an eclectic array of additional stages presenting everything from translate well to an open stage with the festival) is really important for us. To maximize our brand awareness we Sadler’s Wells
poetry to puppetry, comedy to cabaret and even contemporary dance. simple technical facilities. As well hand out fan-shaped flyers enabling spectators to cool down in the summer
as big name touring companies, it’s heat — and of course include a hashtag. We also generate social media
We are always looking for new ways to demystify been important for us to include in content with a member of the marketing team on-site, who can photograph
the mix choreographers, companies and film the events, and post live from the heart of the action.
dance by challenging expectations and taking dance and performers they were unlikely to
to unexpected environments. come across in their local theatres. As a brand building and audience development
Conjure up an image in your head of the average festival goer and you’ll be Our programming team work exercise, programming dance out of our traditional
forgiven for thinking that they might not be the prime target audience for with Festival Republic to carefully venues is a really important way for us to find future lucy.white@sadlerswells.com
a contemporary dance theatre based miles away in Angel, central London. select companies and artists who sadlerswells.com
Latitude audiences tend to come mainly from outside London, so why are presenting some of the most audiences and develop dance companies’ profiles. @Sadlers_Wells
did we get involved? As the largest dedicated venue for dance in the UK, exciting dance at the time, which
Sadler’s Wells is strongly committed to growing dance audiences in the gives audiences a good snapshot So what’s next? This year will be our tenth Latitude festival and we are
regions and beyond, and we have been touring our own productions in the of dance today in all its forms. This looking forward to presenting some really exciting companies again Key takeaways
UK and abroad since 2007. makes the programme very eclectic including Boy Blue, National Youth Dance Company, New Adventures,
as we are able to present everything Sisters Grimm and the finalists of BBC Young Dancer. We will also be going ——Joining forces with Latitude
We are always looking for new ways to demystify dance by challenging from salsa to street dance, flamenco back to Wilderness festival for the second time after a successful trial last has taken dance out of the
expectations and taking dance to unexpected environments. The to tango, ballet, b-boying and year. theatre and brought it to new
Waterfront stage is an open, accessible space positioned on a lake and more. Over the last few years we’ve audiences.
visible from multiple vantage points. When the sun is shining and the music programmed BalletBoyz, Rambert, As a brand building and audience development exercise, programming
is turned up loud, it attracts large audiences, many on their way to another National Youth Dance Company, dance out of our traditional venues is a really important way for us to find ——The festival has given
stage, and the setting makes it a beautiful, unique experience. Those people New Adventures, Vamos Cuba!, future audiences and develop dance companies’ profiles. We know people Sadler’s Wells an additional
who thought ‘dance isn’t for them’ have their prejudices challenged, and Boy Blue, Gauri Sharma Tripathi, are responding warmly to what we are doing, as we monitor the positive audience of 80,000 over the
often fall under the spell of the magic combination of dance in a stunning ZooNation, English National Ballet responses the dance performances get on social media from people live last 10 years.
outdoor setting. and the finalists of the BBC Young posting.
Dancer competition among others. ——Live social media posting
How do you programme a dance stage for audiences with potentially This broad range of styles means If you’ve only ever seen dance in a darkened theatre, we thoroughly and fan-shaped flyers has
limited dance experience? The primary focus is work that doesn’t require that audiences are exposed to recommend you get your wellies on and get out of the city to enjoy it in the maximised exposure at the
big production values, and whether it involves a simple duet or a large performances they may never have open air, in a beautiful setting, with the sun going down, and a pint of cider festival.
ensemble piece, the work ultimately has to embody the spirit of the thought to try and access before. in your hand.
8 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 9
membership
Over the past 11 years Member Reps have been assigned to share the ethos of the
AMA and be the local contact in their region. AMA’s Programme Producer
Bea Udeh celebrates the work of Member Reps and reflects on the shape and
future direction of the Member Rep scheme. Esther Blaine Karen Goddard Sam Morton Felix Mussell Monique
Eastern England Eastern England London London Baptiste-Brown
London
The most exciting element about my job at the AMA — is all of it. It’s the “I think what all of the
liaising with the members, organising development events for them and Member Reps have
sharing ideas across the different arts, cultural and heritage sectors. I have
witnessed AMA members giving blood to the organisation with not a hint achieved since the
of apathy. This is a big deal that is reflected in the AMA Member Reps who inception of the scheme
are the conduits that pass the ethos, information and skills sharing from the
AMA’s humble operation in Cambridge to members on the ground across just over a decade ago is
the various regions of the UK. brilliant. Their contribution
to the AMA is invaluable
In December 2016, the AMA introduced the development of our 360° Sanjit Chudha Ellie Puckering Anna Kelner Afshan Lauren Davies
Diversity Strategy, a working plan to increase the ways that people across and I’m excited to see how London North East Yorkshire & D’souza-Lodhi South East
the whole of society engage with the arts. This was an appropriate time the work of the Member Humberside North West
to look at the shape and direction of the Member Rep scheme. Our annual
evaluation of the scheme points to having a variety of themes, topics and Reps continues to
speakers at the Networking Meetings that the Member Reps organise. They empower, widen and grow
also point to a need to address how the protected characteristics inform
our thinking and activities when we’re engaging with our members, our
our membership.”
audiences and artists.
Cath Hume
The privilege of being a Member Rep is embedded in a two-year role in CEO
which time they attend a Member Rep training day and receive either a free AMA
AMA membership or conference place. A Member Rep is then expected to
pass on their baton to the next member who wishes to be an AMA ‘vein’ or Andy Sheppard Beckie Smith Suzanne Bull Helga Brandt Ray Clenshaw
anchor or tree root. South East South West South West South West West Midlands
Yes, there is more work to do. We want to continue to help Member Reps
widen their pool of contacts and venues, to engage with members and non-
members beyond their network. My job is to help Member Reps eliminate
that feeling of challenge when their role is applied in this way.
I am inspired by our members in cities and rural areas across UK’s many
regions and I want to share an appreciation of how we talk to a broader
range of members. As we increase cross-cultural understanding, awareness
of our intersectionality and appreciate different experiences then this
should result in an increase in the access to members and the diversity of
the types of members. Sairah Rehman Tom Jeavons Una Casement Lucy Liddell Rebecca Davis
West Midlands East Midlands Northern Ireland Northern Ireland East Scotland
Bea Udeh
Programme Producer
AMA
bea@a-m-a.co.uk Sarah Catriona Andrew Raffan Jodi Bennett Siobhan Neil
a-m-a.co.uk Burry-Hayes McQuiggan Northern South Wales South Wales
@amadigital East Scotland West Scotland Scotland
10 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 11
feature
Running any festival is challenging, but coordinating a multi-location festival is
even more complex. Sarah Burry-Hayes and Rosie Clarke discuss their respective
experiences of working on the Festival of Museums and Museums at Night.
Sum up your festivals for us. How do you support participating organisations?
S: Festival of Museums runs in multiple museum venues S: Each of our festivals involve a hugely diverse
across Scotland, offering a packed programme of range of cultural and heritage organisations, large
activities over one weekend in May (this year 19–21 May). and small, some with existing marketing officers but
It encourages museums to stage exciting and unusual others needing more support. We give them the
events while benefiting from national publicity under tools to market and promote their events individually,
the festival banner. raising event management and marketing skills across
the sector while ensuring that each venue’s event is
R: The twice-yearly Museums at Night festival is an promoted based on their own target audiences and
opportunity for all of the UK’s cultural and heritage budgets.
organisations to do something different and throw their
doors open after hours to attract new audiences. R: Museums at Night shares years of case studies,
resources and training through workshops and one-
Both festivals’ May dates coincide with Nuit des Musées on-one event marketing surgery sessions over the
across Europe and International Museums Day on 18 phone. Our most popular resource is our Big List of
May, while Museums at Night returns at the end of Event Ideas*, and we provide logos, poster and flyer
October, coinciding with Halloween. templates as free downloads, which individual venues
can customise to promote their events, giving a unified
Who comes to your festivals? feel to the branding.
S & R: The Festival of Museums mostly attracts families, We don’t know everything ourselves, but we help make
while Museums at Night also has a lot of evening events connections — for instance, a mining museum was
that delight the ‘Fun, Fashion and Friends’ audience keen to take part but had never held an after-hours
segment. event before, so we connected them with another
participating mining museum for informal mentorship.
What’s your role in the events?
How do you communicate with the museums?
R: We don’t actually programme the events ourselves —
that’s completely up to the participating venues, though S: Working with a large number of museums, many
we share guidance to help them plan creative events of whom are short-staffed or volunteer-run, can
that will attract their target audiences. be a challenge. We use a multi-pronged approach,
communicating with the sector primarily via email,
We don’t have official themes for our festivals other social media, and sharing calls to action via umbrella
than to give visitors the chance to do something bodies who also regularly communicate with these
different (although many October Museums at Night organisations.
events are spooky, to coincide with Halloween.)
Direct phone calls usually get the best response, but
S: This year we’re encouraging museums to be more they’re very time-consuming and we have tiny teams.
financially sustainable in the ways they run their events, The Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) team has two
promoting sponsorship, ticket sales and other income to four people who work on Festival of Museums year-
generation to mainstream running events into their year- round but not exclusively, while Culture24 has just one
round activity. and a half people delivering Museums at Night.
Image courtesy of Phil Wilkinson for Festival of Museums.
Both festivals also offer help with copywriting; Both your festivals are growing — how are you scaling
Festival of Museums at Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh.
describing the events and venues so they sound more up the support you provide?
attractive to prospective visitors. Our overall role is to
build brand recognition and raise the public’s awareness R: We’ve installed live chat on the Museums at Night
of our festivals, running a national marketing, PR and website to help us handle the volume of incoming
social media campaign to drive people to the festival enquiries and answer questions more quickly.
websites to find out what they can visit in their area.
Although advertising is great for brand recognition, PR S: The Festival of Museums team has just done our first
supports trust and engagement with local audiences. webinar on the subject of ‘perfect PR’, which reached
12 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 13
interview
How do you inspire 600+ people in just eight minutes? Jane Cordell, Director at
social enterprise Result CIC, is up for the challenge. Jane is one of five prominent
thought leaders to feature in a quick-fire keynote at AMA conference 2017 — The
Value of Everything. In this one-to-one she gives us the lowdown of her session.
Twilight at the Roman Baths in Bath. Image courtesy of Museums at Night © Bath & North East Somerset Council.
the same number of people that used to attend two of Sarah Burry-Hayes
our physical training courses, all from the comfort of our Marketing Manager
own offices. Museums Galleries Scotland
How important is social media?
R: It’s really helpful both as a communication channel
with participants and as a promotional tool. Twitter is
great for answering questions and retweeting museums’
own publicity, and tweets shared by happy visitors at
events; Facebook helps us raise awareness of what’s
happening and target specific audience segments sarahbh@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
with boosted posts; and the Festival of Museums also museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
uses Instagram to regram images from participating @FestofMuseums
museums.
Rosie Clarke Jane Cordell giving the Corporate Wisdom speech at Leeds Business School in January 2017. Images courtesy of Leeds University Business School © Anthony Glossop
S: Social media also means we can be playful, using gifs Communications & Sector Support Manager
and images to capture attention. Buffer’s a godsend: we Culture24
find a mix of programmed and live tweets work before Tell us your story in under 50 What are the key trends and ideas What are the three key things
the festival, but primarily rely on live tweets over the words. that you are thinking about at the delegates will take away from your
weekend. moment? session?
I am a musician who became deaf
What are your main challenges, and how do you as an adult, a coach and social —— The rebirth of grassroots activism. —— New ways to look at people who
overcome them? entrepreneur. I chaired DaDaFest —— The growth of the social enterprise are not (yet) your customers.
2012–17. I campaign for greater sector. —— The perspective of an arts ‘insider-
R: Marketing scheduling is an issue: although we’ve equality and access because it —— The alarming increase in UK outsider’.
shared all the Museums at Night festival dates up until rosie@culture24.org.uk makes society happier and healthier. inequality and poverty. —— Self-coaching as a way to keep
2019 to help venues plan, the sooner they register culture24org.uk —— The need for new ways to exploring.
their event listings on our database the more publicity @MuseumsAtNight How does this year’s AMA understand the bewildering new
opportunities they get. We share listings data with other conference theme — The Value of political order. Jane Cordell
partners to maximise exposure opportunities, and run *http://museumsatnight.org.uk/festival-resources/resources-and-downloads/ Everything — speak to you? —— The likelihood that real life Director
competitions in magazines and newsletters to raise successful-museums-at-night-event-ideas-big-list/ experiences (not virtual) will Result CIC
awareness of the festival. I smiled at its allusion to Oscar become even more prized.
Wilde’s line for Lord Darlington
S: We use our campaign milestones to both generate defining a cynic: someone “who How will you decide what to share
activity from the press and public, but also as incentives knows the price of everything and in just eight minutes?
for our museums to register their events. Festival Key takeaways the value of nothing”. This is partly
of Museums generally hold a press launch photo because as a deaf professional I By considering:
opportunity at one participating venue, and regional ——Help participating venues to do their own local regularly feel that I am not given —— Who are you and what is likely to
photo calls as a hook for local press. If events aren’t marketing and promotion. the opportunity to obtain the full be on your minds?
registered by our deadline, the organisers won’t be value that the arts has to offer. I am —— Which new perspectives will excite JCordell.Office@gmail.com
considered as launch venues. ——Create publicity resources that are available intrigued by what this conference, at and challenge you most? gettingequal.com
online or free to download, in response to a time of ever great cuts to budgets, —— What questions can help you resultcic.com
R: Both festivals find that getting great publicity photos demand. will make of this. open new ways of thinking? @CordellJane
can be a challenge — we recommend to every museum @ResultCIC
and gallery that when they’re holding events, they take ——Plan how you’ll handle rapid growth without What are you most looking forward
high-res photos showing visitors having a great time getting overwhelmed. to about AMA conference 2017?
and getting involved in their activities which they can
use for publicity in future. ——Collaborate with partners as much as possible. The opportunity to meet new people
with varied experience and share
To find out more about festival events in your area, go to ——Use marketing deadlines as a carrot and stick. ideas. When a group like this gets
museumsatnight.org.uk and festivalofmuseums.co.uk. together, magical things can happen.
14 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 15
case study
Understanding the social and economic impact of a festival and its key areas of
success and development is important to the planning of future festivals. AMA
members Helen Palmer and Vishalakshi Roy describe the collaborative approach
to the research and evaluation of the British Ceramics Biennial.
This year will see the fifth iteration of the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) numbers of local residents from
in Stoke-on-Trent — a city often billed as the world capital of ceramics across the six towns that make up
and the heart of The Potteries. Contrary to popular belief ceramics are still the city, and nearby areas. It has
produced in the city, with approximately 10,000 people working in the local always been important to BCB
ceramics industry. that local residents feel that the
festival is for them as much as it is
The festival was originally established in response to a call-out by the for visitors, and not just those with
city for creative ways to contribute towards its regeneration plans. BCB a historic or current connection
celebrates the best of contemporary ceramics by emerging and established to the ceramics industry. The
artists working with clay through exhibitions, artist commissions, artist evaluation shows that local residents’
residencies and hands-on activities. This year, as the city bids to win the attendance is growing and in 2015 it
designation of UK City of Culture 2021, we are expanding the reach of the achieved a fifty-fifty, local/non-local
festival working with over 100 artists across multiple traditional and non- attendance.
traditional spaces and locations throughout the city. In addition to the
biannual festival, BCB now creates and delivers a year-round programme of A key benefit of having a consistent
engagement with schoolchildren, teachers and community groups. approach has been the ability to
demonstrate the growing economic
The voices of various stakeholders and their feedback impact of the festival. This is
incredibly valuable in making
through the evaluation process have been critical to the case with funders, especially Left: The Hub at British Ceramics Biennial 2015. Image courtesy of British Ceramics Biennial © Chris Pointon.
inform the future planning of each festival. with the local authority at a time Right: Nao Matsunaga at British Ceramics Biennial 2015. Image courtesy of British Ceramics Biennial © Joel Chester Fildes.
of increased pressure on limited
The team at BCB is committed to using the festival to explore how clay can resources. It’s been surprising and the positive feedback received from volunteers about their experiences,
play a central role in the changing identity of the city — and how it can be rewarding for the team and local particularly relating to improving their personal health and wellbeing Key takeaways
interacted with to improve well-being, place-making and pride. With such stakeholders to witness the positive including self-confidence, learning new skills and contributing towards their
ambitious objectives at heart, the team took a conscious decision to build change in perception of the city by pride in the city. ——Building a core research
in a simple yet effective evaluation mechanism right from the inception of both locals and visitors, as a direct framework to assess the
the festival. Since 2009 the festival team has consistently worked with the result of their festival experience. What would the team miss out on if it did not take this consistent approach impact of the festival and
same team of researchers to understand the social and economic impact of This along with the social impacts to its evaluation activities? BCB would certainly not be able to show areas of development at
the festival and its key areas of success and development. Earthen Lamp, a generated by the programme of progression in more ways than simply quantitative measures; it would not the start is invaluable to
specialist consultancy with a core strength in devising tailored evaluation education and community projects be able to attract the funders, partners or visitors as effectively, and overall understand how the festival
frameworks for festivals and events, is the research partner for BCB and has continues to support fundraising, it would not have had the rate of growth it has enjoyed over the last eight needs to grow.
worked with the team in devising and interpreting information to help the board development and the years.
festival grow over the last eight years. ongoing collaborative approach to ——Impact on and perceptions of
partner relationships. We take great pride in inviting you to the festival this year — launching on place is a crucial measure for
The festival overall thrives on a partnership approach: civic, education, arts 23 September. Look out for the programme announcement in May, and festivals.
and culture, community, museums and business. To generate demonstrable A crucial part of any festival’s while you are here, please do not forget to leave us some feedback.
evidence that such an approach works, the bespoke research framework successful delivery is volunteers ——Consistency is key to
has included consultation with residents, visitors, participants, artists, and BCB is no exception. While Helen Palmer Vishalakshi Roy understanding how the
makers, local businesses and funders. Having a consistent research partner the city has limited volunteering Joint Director of Marketing Director festival is developing
agency and known faces has ensured both a level of objectivity to the schemes and opportunities, BCB British Ceramics Biennial Earthen Lamp and highlighting the
process, and at the same time a sense of trust that these diverse voices will attracts students, former ceramics important areas for further
be heard. The voices of various stakeholders and their feedback through industry workers and local residents development.
the evaluation process have been critical to inform the future planning to volunteer. They provide a
of each festival. In addition, the extensive year-round programme of vital service in ensuring a quality ——You will never please
community and education work is also evaluated using the same ethos. This visitor welcome, invigilation, visitor everyone — there is always
mix of formative and summative evaluation helps to shape the delivery of information and navigation and someone that will complain
the programme year-on-year. providing the team with valuable about signage, toilets and
on-the-ground feedback, both the food. Aim to ensure that
One of the misconceptions that BCB has to deal with is that some local informally and formally through the helen@palmersquared.co.uk v.roy@earthenlamp.com your core target audience is
stakeholders and local residents assume that the festival is just for visitors. evaluation programme. The BCB britishceramicsbiennial.com earthenlamp.com happy.
What the evaluation shows is that the festival is attracting significant team has been overwhelmed by @BCBfestival @Earthen_Lamp
16 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 17connect
discover
inspire
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) is the UK’s longest running and biggest
annual celebration of Arab arts and culture. AMA member Rachael Biggs explains
how the rebrand of LAAF has reinvigorated its identity to reflect both traditional
and contemporary Arab culture, creating an accessible and engaging brand for all
audiences.
Founded in 1998, Liverpool Arab As the festival grew year-on- local, national and international
Arts Festival (LAAF) is a registered year, there were some interesting level.
charity delivering arts and tensions emerging within LAAF’s —— Create a brand that is engaging
community programmes that bring identity as both an organisation for multiple audiences, especially
diverse cultures together; increasing rooted in the community, but young people.
appreciation and awareness of Arab with an internationally significant —— Improve the dialogue between the
culture and arts at a local, national impact. Expressing this dual identity festival and the different Arabic
and international level. successfully was a key driver for the communities that exist both within
repositioning of the LAAF brand, Liverpool and further afield.
A year-round programme of events the challenge being to strengthen
and community projects is built the hugely valuable and valued Target audience
around the focal point for the year existing relationships with audiences,
— LAAF’s annual summer festival. artists, funders and partners, while Although we want to attract a
Now in its sixteenth year, the festival also attracting the new. broad range of audiences, we also A performer entertains crowds with traditional Yemeni dancing during LAAF Big Sunday at Bluecoat — Liverpool’s centre for contemporary arts.
brings a series of around 35 events have some very specific audience Image courtesy of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival © AB Photography.
to multiple venues, over a packed Another factor in the drive to development targets. We aim to
10-day period, including over 140 strengthen and reposition the brand increase the number of women from
UK and international artists and was the external environment. Arab/Muslim ethnicity and faith, and
performers. With news from Arab countries to increase the number of audience
continuing to dominate media, members identifying as disabled —
Background understanding of the region and Deaf, and also the percentage of
its people is invariably framed by younger audience members.
Since the first festival in 2002, images of war and conflict; yet, it
LAAF has made it part of its core is a region extraordinarily rich in Marketing audit, streamlining
business to be an inclusive festival music, dance, literature, film and operations and removing silos
and introduce both Arab and other cultural expressions. The
non-Arab UK audiences to the festival serves as a celebratory, The LAAF board and executive team
extraordinarily rich cultural heritage joyous and inclusive event that recognised the need to streamline
and expressions from the Arab welcomes everybody, and positively strategic and operational marketing,
world and its diaspora. promotes Arab culture and people, PR and design activities. In order to
while presenting challenging achieve this LAAF commissioned
By 2015, the award-winning and thought-provoking work by Nonconform, who had previously
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) contemporary artists responding to provided some graphic design
had established itself as an excellent the circumstances they experience services, as a full-service marketing
model of how the celebration of or observe. and PR provider — an extension
Arab arts and culture challenges of the in-house team, acting as an
prejudice and fosters understanding Objectives outsourced marketing department.
between people.
—— Increase audience numbers, This meant that the small LAAF
But the festival’s scope and reflecting LAAF’s ambition to team were less burdened with
ambition had also grown ensure as many people as possible the task of managing multiple
significantly in recent years. In are engaged with Arab arts and relationships with various agencies
order to build on past successes culture. and freelancers, each working within
and respond to current and future —— Increase a sustained positive their own silos.
challenges, the LAAF board and image of Arab arts.
executive team recognised that —— Improve the perception of Arab The advantage of this was that
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival needed people and culture within other the campaign was creative and
to strengthen and reposition its communities in the UK. coherent, and pulled together key Performer and audience member dance at LAAF Family Day, a long-standing highlight of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, which brings up to 3,000 people to see
status in the marketplace. —— Increase brand awareness at a messages, strands and themes, to international acts perform at Sefton Park Palm House. Image courtesy of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival © AB Photography.
18 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 19tell a high impact story for LAAF integrated press, social media and audience growth year-on-year.
2015 and beyond. email campaigns, rather than on We’ve also increased both the
high print and distribution runs. Our amount of press coverage and VISUAL AR TS
Nonconform were tasked with aim was to create opportunities for the quality of coverage on a local, PE R F O R M I N G A R TS
performing a full marketing audit, partners to share information within national and international basis. M US I C
and given the power to question their large networks, providing M US EU MS
and challenge previous decisions. endorsement for the festival and Key takeaways GALLE R I E S
We wanted to discover where there its events. Rich content such as H E R ITAG E
were opportunities to improve. images, image galleries, articles and —— LAAF is all about working in FAS H I O N
The idea was that LAAF would
not undertake any activities just
animations were used to enhance
this engagement.
partnership and collaboration.
—— LAAF remains authentic to THE OFFICIAL NETWORK FI L M
TE L E VIS I O N
because ‘that is what we’ve always its roots, while growing and
done’. Brand alignment and unexpected branching out further each year. FOR UK CULTURE & VI D EO GAM E S
E XH I B ITI O N S
partnerships —— Rigorous monitoring of social
‘Madam Butterfly’ Welsh National Opera / Image: Welsh National Opera
Brand redevelopment
Part of the repositioning of the
media platforms and having a
senior management team ready
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES F E S TIVA L S
I NTE R N ATI O N AL TO U R
We decided to retain the name of brand was about expanding to respond and advise ensures we U K TO U R
the festival, but we wanted to go for collaborations with key partners can manage the unexpected. CO N F E R E N CE
a completely new look. One of the
first things we worked on was the
and making bold collaborative
programming decisions. For
—— Audience data is central to LAAF
increasing reach, maintaining
SIGN UP NOW TO: I N D US TRY TALKS
N E T WO R K I N G
visual identity. The challenge was to example, in 2016 we partnered existing audience and reaching • Upload your events & news stories F U N D R AIS I N G
create a brand that reflected both with Liverpool International Music those who are under-represented. F O O D AN D D R I N K
the contemporary and traditional Festival, one of Europe’s biggest • Showcase your work internationally LITE R ATU R E
nature of the festival. We wanted free music festivals (attended We’ve had many challenges along CR A F TS
to have something that you could by over 30,000 people over one the way. Particularly about some • Be connected to government opportunities
look at and immediately know what weekend), programming our finale perceptions of Arab culture that
the festival was all about. We also event on the same date and in the exist. But that just makes the festival
wanted it to reflect a new exciting same venue (Liverpool’s iconic even more important. It is both a
era for the festival. We completed Sefton Park), with the aim of both challenge and an opportunity to
a brand overhaul, including festivals engaging with each other’s make a genuine change.
corporate logo redesign. The logo audiences and creating crossover
was designed using the grid in brand opportunities. Rachael Biggs
arabesque geometric patterns. This Director
grid was used as the basis for all the Benefits Nonconform
festival’s collateral.
—— We provide a platform for
We also brought the artists and emerging new talent and create
performers to the fore, rather than PR, marketing and press coverage
relying heavily on a graphic theme that they wouldn’t normally
for all collateral. For example, we receive.
created ‘performer led’ ladder-style —— Enable up-and-coming artists to
25 — 27 July
flyers and double sided posters, build upon career opportunities.
traditionally used for music festivals —— Increase positive news stories of rachael@nonconform.co.uk
Activating resilience and growth for the
and gig venues, rather than a Arab people reducing negative arabartsfestival.com Do you want to:
generic ‘festival graphic’ flyer. attitudes. nonconform.co.uk arts, museums and libraries
—— Generate international coverage @Biggs_Rachael — Connect, network and raise your
Audience-led PR strategy attracting some of the Arab Nine months of free, impactful brand awareness with over 600 arts,
community’s most celebrated business support culture and heritage professionals?
We developed a completely artists, which has also been The full version of this — Align your brand with the latest
revamped PR strategy, designed instrumental in bringing case study can be read on thinking in digital marketing, audience
Improve your confidence and
around the audience development communities together. culturehive.co.uk development and arts marketing?
plan. Publications were targeted —— Contribute to building a sense capabilities with business strategy
on the basis of the kinds of of belonging among Arab Join us at CultureHive Day — Help drive and shape the arts
audiences they service, as much as communities and generated unity — sharing the learning on Increase your knowledge of marketing sector?
for their potential reach, creating with diverse ethnic groups. Monday 8 May at 2.00pm. routes to funding and finance Then contact fiona@a-m-a.co.uk about
opportunities for in-depth artist —— Enable young people and exhibiting at AMA conference 2017.
profiles and interviews with members of Arab communities For more information go to
members of the LAAF team. This to work through and overcome a-m-a.co.uk/culturehive-day
resulted in unprecedented levels barriers to participation in the APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN media partner headline supporter
of coverage locally, nationally and arts and increase their confidence
internationally and extremely high in reaching outside their
quality. communities and cultural groups. Go to: www.creativeunited.org.uk
supported by
supported by
Digital focus Results
We wanted a much stronger The biggest result for us is that
digital presence. We focused on we have exceeded our targets for
20 JAM 66 — spring 2017 a-m-a.co.uk 21You can also read
