Creativity in Marketing A book of bright ideas

Creativity in Marketing A book of bright ideas

A&B is the world’s most successfuland widespread creative network.We help business people supportthe arts and the arts inspire businesspeople, because good business andgreat art enrich society.

Our dual mission is to enablebusiness and its people to be moresuccessful by engaging with the arts,and to increase resources for thearts from business and its people.

We are grateful to Unilever forsponsoring this book of ideas andcase studies and its companionsCreativity in Human Resourcesand Creativity in Corporate SocialResponsibility.

Businesses in the UK are particularly wellplaced to benefit from working with thearts. This country is a recognised worldleader in the creative, performing andvisual arts. A diversity of arts activitiesat local, regional, national andinternational level engage millions ofpeople from all walks of life. We havemany globally recognised arts brands,from Tate to the Hallé Orchestra, the Edinburgh International Festival to the RSC.

We have a wealth of world class artistsand arts organisations with extensiveexperience of contributing to companies’business performance, reputationand social impact. Nowhere is this more so than in the fields of marketingand communication. Arts sponsorship is a long-established part of manycompanies’ image management andcorporate hospitality programmes. A growing number of companies havegone further. They’ve met businessobjectives in brand development, sales,corporate communications and cause-related marketing projects with artsorganisations and social responsibility

programmes involving employees andlocal communities.

There are deeper benefits, too: the artsand culture embody values that enrichevery company that engages with them –whatever its size or business sector.

This book of case studies shows howsome companies are harnessing thepower of the arts to add value to theirbusinesses by:

- increasing brand loyalty- creating awareness and visibility- stimulating sales- creating opportunities to display

or showcase products- communicating commitment to

social responsibility- entertaining clients and prospects.

I hope you enjoy it.

Colin TweedyChief Executive, Arts & Business

01

Business and the arts enjoy a chicken-and-egg relationship.Which comes first? Neither. They’re interdependent.

A&B’s job is to strengthen thatrelationship and enhance themutual benefits it delivers.

Creativity in Marketing“We have seen the benefits at both acorporate and a product brand level of innovative partnerships with the arts.With careful management, these partnerships can add a newdimension to an established brand or make a bold statement about what a company stands for.”

Gavin NeathChairman, Unilever UK

02 / 03

For more bright ideas...Contact Arts & Business on 020 7378 8143or go to our website www.AandB.org.uk

Improve reputation, develop influenceThe arts can provide opportunities, often high-profile, to:

- sponsor imaginative and innovativeprojects that associate these qualities with your brand values

- generate eye-catching stories for themedia and good copy for advertising

- sponsor a unique event that would not otherwise have happened

- involve key clients and decision makers through high quality corporateentertainment – attracting higher levels of attendance and celebrity involvementthan sport

- engage staff and enlist them asambassadors for their employer.

Raise profile, build brand recognitionThe arts have unique emotional power.Association with major artists and artsinstitutions offers huge scope for brandrenovation and positioning, potentially onan international scale. The sheer breadthand diversity of projects available forsponsorship means that there areopportunities to suit all kinds of companies –bringing known brands to new markets and giving unknown brands higher visibility.

Encourage loyalty, increase salesMore Britons go to the theatre than watchfootball, and 87% are arts consumers. High attendance levels, and a majority viewthat the arts are a worthy cause, mean thatpartnering with arts organisations can helpyou reach a significant proportion of thepopulation and build lasting relationshipswith them. These factors are driving growthin corporate social marketing strategiesaimed at building and maintaining marketswhile being seen to make a positive social contribution.

Showcase commitment to corporatesocial responsibilityCompanies’ ethical reputations have anincreasing influence on consumer behaviour.Strong public support for the arts as avaluable part of national life makes theman ideal partner in CSR programmes. Their high media profile makes them idealfor demonstrating social responsibility toboth customers and key opinion formers.

Creativity in MarketingAdding emotional energy to brands

How can the arts add value to marketing, branding and corporate communications?

Look what other people have done...

ClientLEGO Educational DivisionArts partnerThinktankChallengeTo raise awareness of the LEGO brand in education

Benefits delivered- Shows schools and children the

educational value of LEGO products- Linked events increase brand exposure

for both Thinktank and the LEGOCompany

- Stimulating, hands-on learningenvironment that attracts many schoolsin a major population centre

Thinktank is an interactive museum and science showcase in Birmingham,designed to help children understandhow science and technology changethe way we live. Since 2002 it has beenhome to the LEGO Lab, an interactivelearning workshop that attracts thousandsof teachers, children and families eachyear. A hands-on showcase for LEGO’sinnovative educational products, includingcomputer-controlled robotics, the Lab is the product of an ongoing partnershipbetween LEGO Educational Divisionand Thinktank, supported by an Arts & Business New Partners investment.

For the LEGO Company, with a high profilein the toy market, the LEGO Lab is a wayof raising awareness of the brand in theeducation sector. It provides a friendly,non-threatening place to learn – as appealingto girls as it is to boys – in which childrencan explore science and technology throughplay. It has been particularly popular withBirmingham’s many inner city schools,giving them a stimulating environmentaway from the schoolroom.

Birmingham has proved the ideal location.It is a central and easily accessible cityoutside the south east (where the LEGOCompany already has a high profile thanksto LEGOLAND). It is also a major industrialcentre, reinforcing LEGO’s relationship with science and technology, and enablingdialogue with relevant local businesses.

The LEGO Lab has been the venue forhigh-profile events, including the finals of the FIRST LEGO League, an internationaltournament that encourages team-building,problem solving and creativity in 9-14 yearolds. Through initiatives such as the LEGOLab, LEGO is playing a part in giving childrenpractical and exciting ways to learn aboutscience and technology.

The LEGO Lab has certainly been good for business: sales of LEGO educationalproducts to schools in the Midlands haveincreased. And it’s no wonder. For anyonevisiting Thinktank, the message is loud andclear: LEGO isn’t just a toy brand, it iseducational – and it makes learning fun.

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Neil Rhind, Sales & Marketing Director, LEGO Educational Division

“The LEGO® Lab gives us a brilliantway of showcasing our educationalproducts – and demonstrating thatlearning with LEGO’s educationassortment is creative and fun.”

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ClientUnileverArts partnerTate ModernChallengeTo reinforce Unilever’s creativity to an audience of key opinion formers

Benefits delivered- Unilever widely identified as innovative

and creative- Increased employee pride in

the company- Tate Modern able to commission

bold new installation with a highinternational profile

- Winner of Arts & Business Champion of the Year Award

It is often said that the weather is aBritish obsession. The Weather Project,Olafur Eliasson’s installation at TateModern in London, certainly was.Spectacular both visually and emotionally,it drew over two million visitors in sixmonths. At one end of the gallery’s vastTurbine Hall, a giant semi-circular formmade up of hundreds of mono-frequencylamps was reflected in an overheadmirror the length of the hall, creating a giant sun and turning the Turbine Hall into a vast duotone landscape.Meanwhile, a fine mist hung in the air, accumulating into faint, cloud-like formations.

The Weather Project was the fourth workin The Unilever Series – the result of a£1.25m sponsorship from Unilever to fundfive years of newly commissioned art works.Creativity and innovation are linchpins ofUnilever’s strategy – qualities shared by theinstallations in The Unilever Series. For thecompany, which pledged its commitmenteven before the gallery opened in 2000,the sponsorship is a way of associating itscorporate brand and business strategywith these values – and communicatingthem to a high-level audience, includinggovernment, NGOs and the media.

The Unilever Series has been a big success –and Unilever has committed a further £1m toextend its sponsorship until 2008. Researchshows that three-quarters of the key opinionformers targeted by Unilever now associatethe company with supporting the arts – andthat people are significantly more likely todescribe Unilever as innovative, creative andcommunity spirited. Unilever employeesagree: according to research, they say thesponsorship strengthens the company’sassociation with creativity – and reinforcestheir pride in working for Unilever.

Unilever has organised well-attendedhospitality events at Tate Modern for itstarget audiences, as well as a number of special arts-based events for Unileveremployees. Meanwhile, all visitors to the gallery get to witness some highlyambitious works of modern art for free.And, for Tate Modern, the long-termcommitment of Unilever provides a solidfoundation for the risk-taking that isessential to powerful, new work – therebyattracting worldwide recognition for thegallery and its sponsor.

06 / 07


Gavin Neath, Chairman, Unilever UK

“The Unilever Series has fulfilled all our ambitions. To a high-levelaudience we’ve successfullyreaffirmed the link between theUnilever brand and the creativitythat is key to meeting consumerneeds and growing the business.”

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ClientSAP (UK)Arts partnerDonmar WarehouseChallengeTo differentiate SAP from its competitors in the marketplace

Benefits delivered- High-profile sponsorship deal with

an innovative, high-quality theatre- Major opportunities for client entertainment- Commitment to social responsibility

highlighted through education outreachprogrammes

- Arts-based training opportunities for SAP staff

Nicole Kidman’s appearance at theDonmar Warehouse in 1998 was famouslydescribed by one critic as ‘pure theatricalViagra’. The theatre has had a highprofile ever since, attracting audienceswith its innovative programme and big-name casts. That’s what made it the idealpartner for SAP (UK), the world’s leadingprovider of business software solutions.SAP began a three-year principalsponsorship deal with the theatre inNovember 2001 – a partnership thatextends the sponsorship by involvingcustomers, business partners andemployees.

SAP regularly uses the Donmar forentertaining hard-to-reach top executivesfrom blue-chip clients, seeing it as a uniqueway of building closer relationships – and one that is highly popular with theclients themselves, who have called it an ‘inspired’ sponsorship.

An investment from Arts & Business NewPartners has enabled the Donmar and SAPto develop a number of innovative audiencedevelopment initiatives.

These include a Student Rep scheme, whichrecruited university audiences through viralmarketing – recognised by Arts CouncilEngland as best practice for a scheme ofits kind. Meanwhile, the Donmar’s ongoingeducation outreach programmes have givenSAP a visible way of investing in the localcommunity: secondary school pupils in theFeltham area, where SAP is based, enjoyreduced price tickets, workshops and Q&Asessions with the Donmar’s creative team.

SAP employees have also received arts-based training from the Donmar, includinga writing workshop designed to help theSAP (UK) management team deliverbusiness messages in innovative ways.

The partnership has been so successfulthat SAP has decided on an encore,extending its sponsorship of the theatreuntil 2007. Michael Grandage, the Donmar’sArtistic Director, says: “We are particularlydelighted that SAP has found its sponsorshipto be the answer to many of its businessneeds – and we look forward to ourcontinued collaboration in seasons to come.”

08 / 09


Peter Robertshaw, Marketing Director, SAP (UK)

“Our collaboration has broadenedand deepened to encompass areas we never imagined when weset out. And we’re still only at thebeginning of what we can achieve.”

ClientSWEB EnergyArts partnerLightquest South WestChallengeTo raise awareness of the new SWEB Energy brand more widely

Benefits delivered- New brand identity extended into rural

areas of the south west- Extensive regional and national exposure

from TV and radio reaching millions- Visible support for one of the largest

community events in the south west- Opportunities for employees to

collaborate on the project

Getting your new brand seen is easy in towns and cities – but how do youraise awareness in rural areas? For SWEBEnergy, which covers large swathes of countryside in the south west, thechallenge was a particularly urgent one.The answer turned out to be a walk inthe dark – perhaps a surprising way for an electricity company to boostbrand visibility, but extremelysuccessful nevertheless.

SWEB Energy was lead sponsor ofDreamwalk, a spectacular, illuminatednight-time walk through the grounds of the Castle Hill Estate near Barnstaple inDevon. For two nights,100,000 flamingtorches and lanterns guided almost 20,000people along marked trails. Hundreds ofperformers, a spectacular light and waterfinale and the dramatically lit Devon scenerymade it an experience to remember.

Presented by Lightquest South West –specialist lighting designers andenvironmental artists – Dreamwalk was one of the most ambitious charity eventsever in the region, raising around £50,000for the North Devon Hospice.

A New Partners investment from Arts &Business enabled SWEB Energy to take a creative approach to its branding on thenight including a dramatic illuminated hillfigure and projection of its brand onto a150ft water ‘screen’ as part of the event’sfinale. Extensive media coverage meant the company achieved exposure far beyondthe thousands of people who attended the event itself.

Hilary Walkman, Marketing Manager, Sponsorship and PR, SWEB Energy

“Our sponsorship of Dreamwalk was an excellent opportunity toextend our new brand identity to customers in rural areas of the south west.”

ClientInnocent DrinksArts partnerFruitstockChallengeTo make Fruitstock 2004 even better than its predecessor – and extend thebenefits year-round

Benefits delivered- Wider exposure for the Innocent Drinks

brand and increased sales- Hugely successful, outdoor summer

music event- Stronger ties between colleagues thanks

to a weekly music club- Year-round commitment to the community

via music workshops in local schools

You’ve staged a hugely successfulsummer music festival. Around 38,000people have enjoyed a weekend ofgreat jazz, quality food and your ownbrand drinks in Regent’s Park in London.It’s been great – and you know you can do even better next year.

That’s how the guys at Innocent Drinks felt after the first ever Fruitstock festival in2003. They knew they couldn’t guaranteethe same record temperatures the followingyear, but with an investment from Arts & Business New Partners they weredetermined to make Fruitstock 2004 even bigger and better.

In the event, the weather turned out niceagain and Fruitstock 2004 attracted 81,000visitors, taking jazz to an even broadercross-section of people and raising“buckets full” of money for the festival’scharity, CHICKS (Country Holidays forInner City Kids).

Innocent has also been able to useFruitstock as a springboard for a weeklyoffice music club leading up to the festivalfor its employees and a series of drum and dance workshops with local schools.

The first ever Innocent smoothies weresold at London musical festival Jazz on the Green in 1998 – and the company’squirkiness, customer focus and love of jazz have been hallmarks ever since. So, for Innocent, Fruitstock isn’t just an opportunity to meet and entertain the people who buy its drinks – it is acelebration and reiteration of the valuesthat have shaped the company since it started out.

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Richard Reed, Marketing Director, Innocent Drinks

“Associating Innocent Drinks withFruitstock, a free festival thatwelcomes all, makes it even easier for people to perceive our brand as accessible and nice.”


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Some more people who are pretty chirpy about their experiences…

“Culture is at the heart of the Selfridgesbrand. Collaborating with artists ensuresour brand remains at the forefront ofinnovative retailing, creating an inspiringand exciting environment for ourcustomers. Our most recent culturalevent, Brasil 400, was an explosion ofBrasilian culture celebrating the mostaccomplished musicians, dancers, film-makers, designers, artists andphotographers. Not only are thesecultural events commercially successful – supporting the growth of the business –they also deliver great PR and ensurethe originality and energy of the brand.”Bev ChurchillMarketing DirectorSelfridges

“Arts sponsorship is a very effective wayof making your money work. A correctlytargeted sponsorship allows you toreally connect with your customers on an emotional level, which just isn’tpossible with advertising. It is a win-winsituation for both arts and business,and it is good for the community.”Sarah MackieDirector of SponsorshipBank of Scotland

“To improve our business we had to goback to the drawing board and thinkabout the things that were drivingbehaviours and results. What wediscovered is really what we alreadyknew – these were the attitudes, heritage,beliefs and experiences of our customersand our people. These are the veryqualities that the arts are best atbringing to business.”John RobertsChief ExecutiveUnited Utilities

“We are very focused on ourorganisational culture and corporatevalues and like many businesses workhard to communicate these with ourcustomers. The arts are one way we can communicate these and they form an important part of ourmarketing strategy.”Brian HadfieldManaging DirectorUnisys

Since we began in 1976 we’ve built a network of 20 offices across the UK.We’re now in regular contact with over21,000 businesses and over 6,000 artsorganisations. In the past three yearswe’ve helped to convert annualgovernment funding of just under £6minto over £100m worth of support forthe arts each year.

Helping businesses succeed Research shows that involvement with thearts increases motivation, builds teamworkand inspires people – factors that businessleaders identify as key profit drivers.

Our business members benefit from ourresearch and information, specialist advice,placements and networking events. We help them to:

- develop individuals and teams- build brand awareness and reputation- meet social responsibility and

sustainability objectives- devise innovative projects to meet

strategic goals – developing leadership,encouraging creativity, managing changeor enabling new ways of working.

Our New Partners programme givespractical and financial support to newpartnerships between businesses and thearts. On average, it adds £1 to every £2.50contributed by participating businesses.

Helping the arts mind their own businessOur Mentoring programme, Skills Bankand Board Bank help arts organisationsimprove their commercial performance.We’ve placed thousands of businesspeople to help arts organisations – and they’ve brought new learning andcreative techniques back to their ownwork. It’s a true symbiosis.

We’ve created the largest UK network of professionals raising money for the arts,with 1,000 members, and each year wedeliver nearly 200 specialist trainingcourses and seminars and around 1,300free one-to-one advice sessions.

Inspiring the next generationWe created the Prince of Wales Arts & KidsFoundation at the request of HRH ThePrince of Wales. In its first two years, it’s worked with businesses and artsorganisations to bring arts experiences to hundreds of thousands of children.

International influenceAs the most experienced organisation inour field, we deliver training and consultancyin 32 countries and advice and goodpractice models in 20 more.

What comes next?If you’re hatching a bright idea or just want to find out more, please contact me or one of my team. Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive, Arts & Business

Telephone: 020 7378 8143Email: [email protected]: www.AandB.org.uk

in collaboration with Heat design and Lang Communications. Printed by Empress Litho.

This brochure is available in other formats.Please contact Marketing at Arts & Businessshould you require another format on 020 7378 8143 or visit www.AandB.org.uk to download a pdf version.

Arts & BusinessNutmeg House60 Gainsford StreetButler’s WharfLondonSE1 2NY

T: 020 7378 8143E: [email protected]: www.AandB.org.ukCharity Number 274040

PresidentHRH The Prince of Wales

Chairman Robin Wight CVO

Chief Executive Colin Tweedy LVO OBE

Trustees Vernon Ellis Dr Chris Gibson-Smith Kate MosseAlan Smith Jonathan Mildenhall

Documents

Creativity in Marketing A book of bright ideas