« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
CHAPTER FIVE EVENT ORGANISERS
Introduction
5.1 This chapter describes the impacts identified by event organisers, either through the evaluations submitted to the Scottish Executive or by the depth interviews carried out by the evaluation team. The evaluations submitted to the Scottish Executive were very variable in the depth of information provided, an issue that is discussed in Chapter Seven. Two event organisers were not required to submit evaluations: Silver of the Stars, which is part of a touring exhibition, and the British Memorial Garden, but impacts were identified in discussion with the organisers.
5.2 The Scottish Executive funded 13 event organisers to host events at Tartan Week 2007. Table 5.1 details the event organisers, a brief description of the events they hosted, funding received from the Scottish Executive and, where known, the impacts from their involvement with Tartan Week. The impacts exclude media impacts which are described in Table 5.2.
Table 5.1: Events funded at Tartan Week 2007
Event (s)/organiser(s) | Funding received | Number of attendees | Impacts |
|---|
The Isle of Jura Festival of Scottish Writing/ Scottish Book Trust | £80,000 | 870 people attended six events hosted by the Trust | - Vicki Feaver has been invited to submit her poems to The New Yorker
- Mark McNay has been included in Barnes and Nobles' Discover Great New Writers promotion
- Sales of Ian Rankin's latest novel and his backlist were greater than projected
|
Festivals' Showcase and Workshop/City of Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh Festival Fringe | £70,000 | 45 theatre companies (70 individuals) attended a workshop and showcase event. 200 people attended a showcase of acts. | - 35 of the 45 theatre companies who attended the workshop are attending Fringe 2007
- a joint festivals DVD was retained by the Public Theater and 59 East 59 th Street to screen throughout the year between shows at their venues
|
£5,000 | City of Edinburgh Council received an additional £5,000 to host a stand at the Scottish Village in Grand Central Station. |
"Journeys from Scotland to America"/ Scottish Museum Council and Scottish Screen | £62,000 | Four events entitled "Journeys from Scotland to America". 575 people attended the four events. | - events assisted with the development of relationships with American cultural organisations providing a springboard for the Scottish Emigration Museum 1 project.
- the three participating museums engaged with new audiences and raised awareness and profile of their museums.
- the band at the Island Tapes has been approached by promoters in the States and will tour there within the next year
|
Scotland Run/New York Road Runners Club ( NYRRC) | £40,000 | A 10k run in Central Park at the start of Tartan Week. The Run is a qualifier for the New York Marathon. In 2007, 7,092 runners registered for the event (5,718 completed the Run) and there were an estimated 4,000 observers. | - - increased number of runners and observers ensured the Tartan Week message reached a wide audience of people of mixed ages at the start of the Week's events.
|
Did you used to be RD Laing?/Mike Maran Productions | £25,000 | Nine performances of the play featuring the life and work of RD Laing. 535 attendees including health professionals. | - one firm offer to take production to Indianapolis
|
Scotland Rocks New York/Stranger Music | £20,000 | A Scottish contemporary music event featuring Scottish Bands live at the Bowery Ballroom. 656 attendees paid £7 per ticket | - 1990s were signed by US agent
- Live Nation are partnering with Stranger Music to produce a Scotland Rocks USA tour for 2008 covering 10 major cities. Selected artists will be asked to play college shows to promote Scottish universities to US students
|
New Scotland New York/Phil Fearns | £15,000 | Music event featuring folk artist Laura McGhee, Asian music artists Tigerstyle and DJMash. 173 attendees. | - Laura McGhee will perform at the Americana Awards in Nashville in October
- each of the artists who attended this Tartan Week event has witnessed a significant increase (20%) in traffic to their websites.
- the event introduced Scottish Asian music to the US for the first time.
|
Silver of the Stars/Incorporation of the City of Edinburgh | £10,000* | An exhibition of silverware designed in collaboration with Scottish celebrities. Whilst the event was launched at Tartan Week its run in New York continued until the end of May. 150 visitors per day during Tartan Week were noted by the Forbes Gallery. | - the exhibition introduced contemporary Scottish silverware to a New York audience
|
Tartan Week Luncheon/British Memorial Garden Trust Inc | £10,000 | 150 invited guests to a luncheon hosted by the British Memorial Garden Trust. A concert open to the public had to be cancelled due to bad weather conditions. This year's lunch included the CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland in New York. The Presiding Officer was a keynote speaker at this event. | - sustained relationships with key companies based in Lower Manhattan
|
We-entrepreneurs/Richard O'Connor | £10,000 | An event targeted at American entrepreneurs with an interest in Scotland to promote collaborations and links between the entrepreneur communities in the US and Scotland. Ticketed only event. 51 attendees. The Presiding Officer was a keynote speaker at this event. | - assisted Scottish firm Landlocator to launch in the US
- Steve Moffat from Gardeners' World will be launching in the US
- Scottish IT company in negotiation with US company to sell their software
|
Dressed to Kilt/Friends of Scotland | £7,000 | Fashion show featuring contemporary tartan wear worn by US and Scottish celebrities. 1,200 attendees. | - Dressed to Kilt was the Scottish Executive funded event most likely to be mentioned in US and domestic press
|
*Whilst Scotinform was asked to include Silver of the Stars in the evaluation of Tartan Week 2007, it should be noted that the funding of £10,000 did not come from the Tartan Week budget. The exhibition was launched at Tartan Week, but continued in New York until the end of May 2007 before exhibiting in Russia, China, Japan and Edinburgh.
Sponsorship
5.3 In addition to funding received from the Scottish Executive, organisers were encouraged to seek additional sponsorship. Some event organisers successfully achieved sponsorship from key companies. For instance, The Scottish Book Trust established its relationship with major sponsor Whyte and Mackay when it created Tartan Bites for Tartan Week 2006. Whyte and Mackay sponsored The Isle of Jura Festival of Scottish Writing in New York at Tartan Week 2007. The Scottish Museums Council and Scottish Screen received funding from Belhaven Brewery and sponsorship in kind from Walkers Shortbread and Irn Bru. Stranger Music received sponsorship from Glasgow City of Style as a direct result of the Scottish Executive funding.
Event Attendance
5.4 Event organisers expressed concerns, pre-event, that the timing of Tartan Week 2007 would impact negatively on the availability of New Yorkers to attend events. Tartan Week covered Passover (which took place on Monday 2 April) and Good Friday (Friday 6 April). Event organisers were advised by the Scottish Executive that these religious holidays would be taking place during Tartan Week and that they should take this into consideration when planning their events. The Scottish Book Trust held events in the second week due to the availability of key authors such as Ian Rankin.
5.5 The findings from the evaluation suggest that attendee numbers were not significantly affected by the timing of Tartan Week although a few event organisers have indicated that key business people and heads of cultural/tourism organisations were less likely to be available because of the holiday period.
5.6 Attendance at all Tartan Week events was good with a mix of ages and American/Scottish based audiences. It should be noted, however, that some event organisers hosted events which were not open to the general public but targeted to specific New York audiences including the tourism and business sectors, thereby meeting the Tartan Week objectives of promoting Scotland as a place to visit, to do business and invest in.
- The Edinburgh Festival Fringe workshop and showcase event were aimed at the press, producers, presenters, promoters, directors, venues, theatre companies, performers and performing arts students interested in bringing shows to Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
- The Edinburgh's Festivals preview screening event was created by the City of Edinburgh Council with Festivals Edinburgh and VisitScotland to establish a business to business event targeting the US travel trade and travel press with key City Region Brand messages and, in particular, the Edinburgh tourist product.
- we-entrepreneurs hosted a business event targeted at American entrepreneurs running fast growth companies.
- The British Memorial Garden lunch was targeted at key business people and individuals working in New York's financial sector within which the Garden is based. A free outdoor community concert of Scottish music accessible to the general public was cancelled due to bad weather.
Marketing/ PR
5.7 Each of the events funded by the Scottish Executive was promoted via the What's On Guide and www.tartanweekny.com both of which were co-funded with VisitScotland. Event organisers were asked to provide relevant details for the Guide and website such as timing of event/s, dates and content information.
5.8 The Scottish Executive's PR Agency in New York, MWW, provided PR support for the majority of events. Some event organisers, such as the Scottish Museums Council/Scottish Screen, sought assistance from other PR specialists in New York to ensure that key target audiences were attracted to their events.
5.9 Individual event organisers made significant efforts, with the assistance of New York based organisations and individuals, to market their events. Table 5.2 highlights the marketing/ PR achievements of individual event organisers who featured this information within their evaluations. It demonstrates how effective they were in gaining press and broadcast coverage for their events at Tartan Week and the relationships established during the process.
5.10 One key concern about event organisers using PR companies other than that commissioned by the Scottish Executive is that there may be missed opportunities to cross promote Tartan Week events. It is not surprising that PR companies commissioned by individual event organisers promote that organisation's events. However, it means that they are less likely to have an understanding of the range of events taking place at Tartan Week.
5.11 Five event organisers identified marketing/ PR impacts that they had achieved.
Table 5.2: Marketing/ PR achieved by event organisers
Event/event organiser | Marketing/ PR |
|---|
"Journeys from Scotland to America" Scottish Museums Council and Scottish Screen | - Print advertising included four advertisements in the Village Voice
- Radio advertising include 8 x 60 second spots on Irish Radio Network
- 23 spots over 6 days on WNYCAM and FM
- online advertising on the Smarttix website
- e-marketing (through known SMC contacts, members of the New York Historical Society, Village Voice, eventme.com)
- online marketing through a range of websites
- print marketing and distribution
- 60 minute discussion with Carl Watt on Adrian Flannelly Show for Irish Radio Network
- total number of individuals reached through e-marketing, advertising, PR and leaflet: 11,553,964
|
Scotland Rocks New York/Stranger Music | - Village Voice (circulation approx 250,000), was the event's media partners, provided a full page advertisement (worth $13,000) in the publication
- Village Voice also featured the event within its weekly competitions page and online
|
The Isle of Jura Festival of Scottish Writing/ Scottish Book Trust | - Press and online coverage ensured that an audience of 6 million New Yorkers were made aware of Scotland and its literature through the Isle of Jura Festival of Scottish Writing.
- Listings appeared in three consecutive issues of Time Out New York including two mentions in "Don't miss" column
- Three events included in the must see listings of New York Magazine
- Presence on flavorpill.net and three events were featured on the literary blog sites media bistro.com/galleycat, SarahWeinman.com, MaudNewton.com and villagevoice.com
- the online crime writing magazine, therapsheet.blogspot.com covered Tartan Week and the Ian Rankin event
- coverage featured in websites also
- marketing and promotion through the Isle of Jura Festival programme, the PEN World Voices programme, Time Out New York, New York Times, Barnes and Noble events calendar and event partner e-newsletters
- videocast of Ian Rankin and Aidan Moffat event available on Barnes and Noble website
|
Did you used to be R D Laing?/Mike Maran Productions | - Email/word of mouth communication to health professionals (psychiatrists, therapists and their patients) on a database held by Mike Maran
- The production was posted on YouTube and Mike Maran's website
- Postcards and posters were distributed by street teams throughout New York
- Received a positive review in the New York Times
|
5.12 The Celebrate Scotland marque was evident in the majority of venues at which Scottish Executive funded events took place. The guidance notes issued by the Scottish Executive which detailed the submission process for seeking funding at Tartan Week clearly stated " all events in receipt of Executive sponsorship must include the marque in all marketing activity and display the marque prominently at venues where events take place". In practice, the way in which the marque was displayed at venues differed considerably and the Executive may wish to consider how best it can assist event organisers in promoting the marque more effectively and consistently.
5.13 Many event organisers had gone to great efforts, with the help of the Scottish Executive's International Marketing team, to ensure that their venue promoted Scotland. Stranger Music's venue for Scotland Rocks included Saltires and a promotional film, as a backdrop between bands, featuring contemporary Scotland which had been specifically commissioned for the event. Similarly, the Scottish Book Trust's venues clearly identified that the events were part of Tartan Week and Scottish culture. However, none of the venues featured any external dressing communicating that a Tartan Week event was taking place inside. Whilst New York may have rules and regulations regarding buildings being dressed with promotional items, the Scottish Executive may wish to consider how each venue could more effectively be promoting its Tartan Week events.
Key conclusions
5.14 The majority of Scottish Executive funded Tartan Week events were well attended with a mix of audiences relevant to the events taking place. Not only were events targeted at members of the public, key events were targeted at the business and tourism sectors and were able to successfully encourage their attendance. This ensured that events targeted a range of attendees including the general public, the business community and tourism industry.
5.15 In addition to support from the Scottish Executive's PR agency, MWW, many event organisers were proactive in gaining support from organisations/individuals which could provide them with the necessary PR and marketing support required for promoting their events in New York.
5.16 For many event organisers there are tangible outcomes from their attendance at Tartan Week 2007 which will lead to long-term relations with organisations and individuals based in the United States. New contracts and increased coverage for musicians and authors means that the cultural aspects of Scotland are being promoted as a direct result of their attendance at Tartan Week.
« Previous | Contents | Next »