As Scottish Ballet emerges from the depths of the past two years, the rewarding sight of positive press coverage around the company?s studios in Glasgow is greeting us all, writes Nick Parr.
Not once over the past few weeks has the word ?troubled? appeared before our name. Instead, the new look Scottish Ballet has gone though ?a jaw dropping transformation? according to the Sunday Herald, and the decision to change the company was declared to be the right move by the Sunday Times. So where does the marketing of Scotland?s national dance company go from here?
Our first public performance (since re-launch) at the end of September will be the beginning of the promised ?exciting new adventure? as the work of the past few months is brought to theatres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Dundee. We have announced two seasons ? a policy we aim to develop into annual season announcements from next year. One features four late-twentieth century classics, and the second is our first new version of the essential festive classic ?The Nutcracker? for 30 years (returning to the original Hoffman tale, ?Nutcracker and the King of Mice?). By making a dual announcement including a traditional programme for Christmas, we have overcome the potential problem of ?going too contemporary? in the autumn. Everyone seems happy. The repertoire for the autumn includes work by new Artistic Director Ashley Page, Stephen Petronio and two of Page?s mentors Siobhan Davies and Richard Alston. We?ve also hinted about future seasons, mentioning other great choreographers? names like Balanchine, MacMillan and Darrell (our founder choreographer).
Scottish Ballet has been forced to sell production by production for many years. Our research tells us that it is the repertoire, rather than the reputation of the company that sells tickets. This had to change. Our aim now is to develop ?Scottish Ballet ? the brand? and build an audience loyal to the company who, in an ideal world, will buy a ticket regardless of, or without even knowing details of, the repertoire. It?s the stuff of dreams, but it certainly focuses the mind!
How do we get there? The marketing and press team of three has been strengthened to five. A new Press and Marketing Assistant has been employed on a permanent basis to support the Press Manager and Marketing Officer, and thanks to the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Audience Development Fund, we have recruited a project manager to give our campaigns a new focus. This one-year post will develop new techniques for attracting under 35s to our performances using as many new media and high-tech gizmos as we can muster. While the rest of the team can focus on ensuring that our regular and lapsed customers are fully up to speed with our programmes, the Audience Development Project Manager will be chasing those elusive ?intenders? and finding creative ways to build a new, large, loyal and enthusiastic regular audience. Although the post will end in March 2004, the project must leave a legacy of sustained audience development initiatives.
The task ahead is enormous and no doubt if every performance of the autumn season isn?t packed to the rafters, the guns will be out for the marketing team! But the realities of audience development are that only a long-term approach will create the right results ? and we are focused on delivering that over the next few years. But for now, in the words of the Sunday Times, ?nine months after his [Page?s] arrival, the company has been reborn.?
Nick Parr is the Head of Marketing and Press at Scottish Ballet. t: 0141 331 2931;
e: nick.parr@scottishballet.co.uk; w: http://www.scottishballet.co.uk