News
The latest projects, publications, news and views from the team at Culture Republic.
The Paper Trail
What are the dos and don’ts for the look and feel of your print? and How can arts organisations make the most of print distribution? Angus White from Direct Distribution along with Fiona Garry from Tartan Ink facilitated an information-packed discussion on what role print plays today, in the digital age at October’s #1stWed. Here’s what you need to know…
Celebrating Diversity with our team
We all see the world differently and that’s a good thing. Sharing ideas helps us grow as individuals and as a collective group. Our ‘Learn with Us week’ series has been all about celebrating the diverse nature within the arts and culture world – diversity in our audience, diversity in our message and the rich diversity […]
The Learning Week Audience Development Series
The Learning Week series is an opportunity to open up to fresh ways of thinking from global audience development expert Matt Lehrman.
Equality, Diversity and Access
At September’s #1stWed, Jodie Wilkinson, drew from her experience as Glasgow Film’s Public Engagement Coordinator and shed some light on how to pro-actively overcome equality, diversity and access challenges in the arts and culture in Scotland. Here are some of the key points from her talk. What is equality? Equality is ensuring individuals or groups of individuals […]
A Budget for NOT MORE OF THE SAME
A blog on organisational change by Matt Lehrman, reproduced by kind permission. Matt reflects on how an arts organisation resists the “more of the same” mentality.
We’re on Facebook!
Here are some top tips that we’ve found useful on Facebook so far #sharingiscaring 😄
Crossing Borders
Culture Republic is delighted to host a networking and drinks reception in partnership with our sister agencies The Audience Agency and Audience Northern Ireland at this year’s AMA Conference On a Mission to Matter. We’ll have delicious mojitos and cool jazz from the acclaimed Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.
Impacts of non-traditional performance spaces at the Playhouse
Last year Edinburgh Playhouse started using their The Boards restaurant area as a regular Fringe venue during the festival. We worked with them to identify what impact this had.The research showed that it is possible to attract an entirely new audience for events.
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.
Visual Arts Scotland: grow your audience with our new research project
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This new pilot project to map, measure and grow audiences for museums and galleries in Scotland launches in January 2016. Now’s the time to get involved! Start the New Year with new audience insights, and compare your visitor profile with peer venues throughout the UK.
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.
New Partnership for Wider Engagement – Access All Areas
This video features the first Access All Areas breakout session, New Partnerships for Wider Engagement. Chaired by Culture Republic Board member Sue Crossman and featured short talks from: Kevin Harrison of Artlink Central, Jackie Shearer of Platform and Dr. Rami Ousta of BEMIS Scotland.
New Approaches to Community Engagement – Access All Areas
This video features the second Access All Areas breakout session, New Approaches to Community Engagement. Chaired by Culture Republic Board member Nick Parr and featured short talks from: Sarah Drummond of Snook, Amanda Brown of Glasgow Life, Jan-Bert van den Berg of Artlink Edinburgh.
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.
How digitally capable are Scotland’s arts?
Culture Republic is undertaking an ambitious piece of research looking at public facing operational functions carried out by arts organisations – things like whether or not an arts organisations’ website is optimised for mobile browsing, if they offer online ticket sales or if they are doing online fundraising.
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.
Making a Splash with online sales
Using targeted social media Pauline exceeded her sales targets and built a loyal social media fan base that has put her freelance artist’s enterprise on firm financial footing. Here’s how she did it.
Efficient target marketing
Asking the right questions and gathering useful information is key to creating efficient market segmentation. PatronBase were our Future of CRM & Ticketing event sharing their knowledge and experiences of audience segmentation for target marketing and getting the best use out of CRM systems.
Data Protection – what you need to know
Data protection is an ongoing responsibility that arts and cultural organisations need to keep on top of. The Information Commissioner’s Office were at our CRM event discussing the eight principles of the Data Protection Act 1998, and how you can put them into practice to keep both the regulator and audiences happy.
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?
Introducing the Culture Republic Conference: ACCESS ALL AREAS
Access All Areas is a one-day conference from Culture Republic, bringing speakers from across the UK to show that when cultural leaders, artists and entrepreneurs act in the interests of everyone, creative inspiration and engagement grows.
Edinburgh | 29 October | #CRConf15 | #OneAudience
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.
Access advice for arts organisations from Euan’s Guide
According to Euan’s Guide, many arts and cultural organisations are already doing a good job of making their spaces accessible to a range of audiences. Unfortunately, in many cases, arts organisations are doing a poor job of letting these audiences know about the resources that are in place to serve them.
Disability in Scotland
Based on data from the last Scottish census, 20% of people living in Scotland have a long-term activity-limiting health issue or disability. This equals about 1.04 million people.
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
VIDEO Intro to CRM (Thinking Out of the Box 2 of 5)
This video summarises Thinking Out of the Box’s first session of the day. It introduces and demystifies data collection techniques.
VIDEO Realistic Data Collection (Thinking Out of the Box 5 of 5)
The Realistic Data Collection video includes a workshop session on data collection techniques and highlights some of the pitfalls that can result from poor data collection or flawed assumptions.
VIDEO Data Utopia (Thinking Out of the Box 4 of 5)
The key issues in Data Utopia were how arts organisations could put the data they are holding to work, how and why to join up data.
VIDEO Dispelling Myths and Defining CRM (Thinking Out of the Box 3 of 5)
This video highlights that CRM is really about the audiences that arts organisations are serving. It is about people not about systems or technology.
VIDEO Thinking Out of the Box Trailer (Thinking Out of the Box 1 of 5)
A three minute video that summarises the key issues and learnings from Culture Republic’s Thinking Out of the Box event. It includes perspectives from the participants and highlights from the day’s events.
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.
Marketing that Works – the brains behind the campaigns
On 12 May 2015 Scotland’s marketers heard from six leading practitioners who shared the stories of their success, provided behind-the-scenes insights into the campaigns they ran and the tactics they used to achieve the right results.
Arts & Business Development Forum (Edinburgh)
Culture Republic is pleased to be speaking at the upcoming Arts & Business Scotland Development Forum in Edinburgh. Join us Thursday 11 June 2015 at Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh.
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.
Arts & Business Scotland Development Forum (Borders)
Culture Republic is pleased to be speaking at the upcoming Arts & Business Scotland Development Forum in the Borders. Join us Thursday 21 May 2015 at Volunteer Hall, St John Street, Galashiels TD1 3JX.
Coming soon to a venue near you – four workshops from Culture Republic
We’re delighted to introduce our 2015 programme of practical touring workshops, bringing essential training and networking opportunities to a venue near you.
Family Friendly Arts in Focus
Culture Republic recently partnered with the Family Arts Campaign, hosting two briefing sessions in Glasgow and Edinburgh on what we know about family arts engagement in Scotland and to gauge the appetite for the Campaign in Scotland. Culture Republic set the context for the conversation by giving an in-depth look at the arts attendance patterns for […]
Thinking Out of the Box
Our recent CRM and ticketing event was to convened a full day event to look practically at customer relationship management systems use to find ways for organisations to use the systems and information that they already have better.
Unexpected bedfellows – how 80s hair metal and a Scottish library twitter account are the perfect combination
When we look at the Orkney Library’s Twitter statistics in context its clear that what they are doing is working. The Orkney Library account is significantly out performing the average Scottish arts or cultural Twitter account.
Six questions for the man behind Orkney Library’s Twitter success
After looking into Orkney Library’s phenomenal performance on Twitter we wanted to know more. We reached out to the library’s Tweeter-In-Chief Stewart Bain to understand the library’s motivation as well as learn more about what Twitter success means for the library.
New Mosaic For the New Scotland Revisited – March’s First Wednesday
March’s First Wednesday for Culture Republic Partners revisited the New Mosaic Scotland classifications and types at this sell out event – proving once again that the key to understanding your audience is understanding the population your audience is drawn from.
Shaping the future with Creative Lives
On 14 January 2015 Culture Republic hosted a session with the Creative Lives participants, inviting them to feed back on their experience of the project and to take an active role in shaping the vision for Creative Lives’ future development as we head into 2015.
Family Arts Network Briefing Events
We’re partnering with the Family Arts Campaign to bring two briefing sessions on family engagement to Scotland.
New Mosaic For The New Scotland – February’s First Wednesday
If you want to understand your audience, you need to understand the population that your audience is drawn from. February’s First Wednesday event for Culture Republic partners explored the new Mosaic classifications, revealing how getting to know the new groups and types can help you design your programming and activity to meet and match the needs of specific population groups around you.
Location, Location, Location
The Collective Gallery’s move has transformed their audience profile, drawing in brand new audience segments and driving a vast increase in the overall visitor numbers.
Event Evaluation 360 for events & festivals
In response to increasing demand, we’ve created the Event Evaluation 360 package: an affordable four-part research solution developed with the specific needs of Scotland’s events and festival producers in mind.
Widening Audiences and Deepening Relationships
Armed with the right market intelligence, every cultural organisation in Scotland has the potential to understand and engage with the public more widely and more deeply in ways that get results.
The Centre for the Moving Image’s Understanding Cinema Programme
Understanding Cinema is a creative learning project from the Centre for the Moving Image in Edinburgh. The project worked with almost 500 young people between the ages of 9 – 19 in eight Scottish local authorities.
National Theatre of Scotland’s Tin Forest Digital Engagement
The Tin Forest was one of the National Theatre of Scotland’s (NTS) most ambitious projects to date. Part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, it invited the people of Glasgow to retell the city’s story and to reimagine its future.
Festivals In Fife Economic Impact Research
Festivals in Fife’s research project is mapping the economic and social impact of ten festivals and demonstrating the range of impacts the festivals have in the community and local economy.
Glasgow Life’s Festivals 2014 Digital Marketing Case Study
In summer 2014 Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games. In parallel with the Games an ambitious line up of cultural events and activities was programmed, supported by creative digital communications from the team behind the scenes.
Video Content Creation Resources
All of AmbITion Scotland’s video creation resources gathered in one handy place, to support you in getting started with video production.
No box office? No problem.
Catherine Wheels is a great example of a touring company that have found effective ways of getting to know their audiences without having their own box office.
Cross Channel Communications – September’s First Wednesday
Julie McGarvey of 3×1 Public Relations on effective cross channel communications and the importance of message consistency.
Fresh Thinking from #FreshCreations
The West Dunbartonshire Youth Arts Hub, #FreshCreations, is getting young people intimately involved in the devising and delivering of their own youth arts activities from the project’s outset.
If data is currency, how much have you got in the bank?
Data is currency. Handled with purpose and a little creativity, it can help you tell stories, solve problems and make new connections.
The missing millions: breaking down barriers to access
We’ve taken a closer look at some of the practical tools and creative solutions that organisations are using to understand and connect with groups that have historically been absent or under-represented in their audience profiles.
Festival facts: spotlight on East Neuk Festival
We talk to Svend Brown, Artistic Director of the East Neuk Festival, about audience data and what it means for him.
Timespan – Digital Engagement in Sutherland
Sutherland’s Timespan Museum and Arts Centre is leading the way in digital audience engagement practice. Learn about two inspiring recent projects.
More than 1000 words – visual engagement on social channels
MoMA PS1’s communications director tell arts organisations how to use visual materials on social channels make connections with their audiences online.
Not just bums on seats – CRM & Ticketing masterclass
Everything you always wanted to know about the power and potential for customer relationship management tools from the experts at the Ticketing Institute.
Singing makes people feel good
The Big Big Sing’s big idea was to have a positive impact on participants’ well being and the results from Culture Republic research are cause for optimism.
Widening access to the youth market
Interested in connecting with young people? The findings from Culture Republic’s research with Scottish Ballet tell a story relevant to all art forms.
Arts Engagement Thrives in Edinburgh Schools
Research from Culture Republic shows that every City of Edinburgh Council-funded primary and secondary school took part in some form of arts engagement activity in the academic year 2013-14.
Who lives in a house like this?
Accessing really good quality, reliable information about the population around your organisation or venue is not as difficult as you might think.