All posts by Esther Batterham
Augmented Reality: May’s First Wednesday
May’s First Wednesday for Culture Republic Partners explored augmented reality. Trevor Jones and David Oxley of Creativtek explained how arts organisations can use the technology to connect with their audiences and boost engagement.
Podcast production
How do you get your audience to lend you their ears and listen to your story? For more and more brands today, podcasts are the answer. For the second in our series of Know How events we were joined by expert trainers at Inner Ear who showed us to create a podcast.
How to get started with Marketing Automation: April’s First Wednesday
Marketing Automation allows you to communicate with your clients in ways that are responsive, and build trust and loyalty amongst your users. But how does it work, and how do you get started? For April’s First Wednesday we invited digital marketing experts from Whitespace to show us how.
‘Accessibility is everything, but so is communication’
The Glasgow Refugee Asylum Migrant Network (GRAMNet) film series is a celebration of diversity in Scotland. We spoke to Poppy Kohner, who co-ordinates the series along with Rebecca Kay, to find out more about the aims behind the project and how they attract such a varied audience.
The recipe for success in 140 characters
According to the latest research from Culture Republic 95 percent of Scotland’s arts organisations are now active on Twitter. But how do you make the most of your tweets and ensure that your content stands out? For the first in our series of Know How events we invited Stephanie Lindsay, Head of Marketing at Dog, to show us how.
Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival
Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival, takes place across Scotland each October. We worked with the festival on a programme of research to evaluate their audiences and their experiences.
‘Take everyone with you’: Dundee Rep on embedding equalities in the arts
Dundee Rep Theatre’s inclusive production of Blood Wedding was an example of best practice in Creative Scotland’s EDI report. We sat down with Jemima Levick, Artistic Director at Dundee Rep, to learn more about their efforts to improve access.
Is your website working hard enough? February’s First Wednesday
When it comes to improving the performance of a website, finding where to start is often the hardest part of the process. At February’s First Wednesday Brian Tait took us through some of the most common questions and issues that trigger thoughts of a new website.
How to REALLY use Google Analytics
At our second Marketers’ Masterclass we were joined by Brian Tait, Founder and Director of Aillum Limited. This practical, hands-on session provided an overview of some of the more advanced, and often under used, features and tools available within Google Analytics.
Embedding equalities in the arts: Signdance Collective
Signdance Collective (SDC) have an impressive track record when it comes to access, inclusion and cultural diversity. We spoke to Isolte Avila, Dance Director at SDC, to find out more about how the organisation has managed to embed these principles in their work.
A Masterclass in Digital Engagement
At our Marketers’ Masterclass we were joined by Jasper Visser, who shared how arts organisations can refine their approach to digital engagement and make their online efforts work better.
Culture Republic secures funding from Creative Scotland
Culture Republic has received a welcome boost for the year end having been selected as one of five development agencies to secure guaranteed funding from Creative Scotland for 2016/17.
Embedding equalities in the arts: The Fruitmarket Gallery
Creative Scotland has asked that all Regularly Funded Organisations should have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion plan in place for April 2016. The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh set up their action plan in February 2014, and so we spoke to the Gallery’s Equality Officer Caitlin Page, to find out what we could learn from their approach.
Email marketing: what we learnt at November’s First Wednesday
November’s First Wednesday for Culture Republic partners was all about email marketing. Stephanie Lindsay of Dog Digital explained how creative and well planned email campaigns can produce significant results and be a complimentary channel for your marketing mix.
Celebrating partnership with Creative Lives
At the latest Creative Lives meeting, participants came together to share community focused practice. The examples highlighted some of the inspirational partnership work taking place across Edinburgh today.
Working with Glasgow Film Theatre
Glasgow Film Theatre is doing a great job of making themselves more accessible to a wide range of audiences. We worked with them to evaluate the success and reach of their existing access and equalities measures and to scope further audience groups with potential for increased engagement.
Accessing the Arts – October’s First Wednesday
Disabled Access Day is all about highlighting the accessibility of your venue, encouraging more people to visit and learning what you could do better. Antonia Lee-Bapty of Euan’s Guide was at October’s First Wednesday to talk about how arts and cultural venues can get involved, and why they should!
Creative Change September’s First Wednesday
Creativity is increasingly recognised as an essential higher order skill for learning, life and work. For September’s First Wednesday we were joined by Stephen Bullock from Education Scotland, exploring the ways in which arts and cultural organisations can engage creatively with the new Scottish Education system.
Implementing new data systems
Introducing any new system of data capture and management can feel overwhelming. Circle Interactive will be at our upcoming CRM event to discuss how to avoid the common challenges of database implementation.
CRM and the future of fundraising
Membership schemes can offer a sustainable funding stream, build a community of supporters and provide a source of regular repeat visitors for arts organisations. Successful membership schemes, however, need a strong CRM strategy behind them.
Is print dead? August’s First Wednesday
Historically, print has always been a major part of marketing spend in the cultural sector. But does it still have a place in the new digital age?
Innovative approaches to accessibility in the arts sector
This July we attended an AMA network meeting looking at accessibility in the arts. The session highlighted some of the creative ways Scottish organisations are responding to the challenges of serving a diverse audience.
UX Matters: key learnings from July’s First Wednesday
Designing products and services based on what your users need has a huge impact on customer engagement and satisfaction. For July’s First Wednesday we invited Wojtek Kutyla and Jason Kennedy of Storm ID to talk about the philosophy behind user-centred design and its potential business value to arts & cultural organisations
Top three tips for data cleansing – June’s First Wednesday
Data is one of your most precious resources and assets – but only if you look after it and make sure you keep it in good working order. June’s First Wednesday was all about cutting out the noise that surrounds data marketing, and making the right decisions to keep your database in order.
What’s next for museums?
MuseumNext is an international conference series which challenges the sector to discuss the future of museums. This year our Senior Executive Deborah Hair was in Geneva to find out what the speakers and delegates from around the world had to say.
Mapping Leith’s cultural resources and creative industries
Leith Creative is a cultural mapping research project being co-delivered by LeithLate and Citizen Curator, looking at cultural resources and creative industries within the Leith area.
Remarketing & retargeting for cultural organisations – May’s First Wednesday
For May’s First Wednesday we were joined by Stephanie Lindsay of Dog Digital, who spoke to Culture Republic partners about remarketing and retargeting for cultural organisations.
Uist Wool
This year Uist Wool ran a CPD course offering participants in-depth understanding of work practices in the wool production sector. As part of the course Culture Republic delivered a bespoke workshop focusing on communications development, channel marketing and storytelling.