Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council Quo at The
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MERTHYR TYDFIL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL DATE WRITTEN 5th November 2008 REPORT AUTHOR Richard Marsh / Lee-anne Leyshon HEAD OF SERVICE Gary Thomas / Jill Shuker / Gareth Chapman / Hugh O’Sullivan COMMITTEE DIVISION Portfolio COMMITTEE Cabinet COMMITTEE DATE 26 th November 2008 TO: Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen QUO AT THE CASTLE PURPOSE OF REPORT: To advise the Cabinet of the outcomes of the “Quo at the Castle” Event and recommend the next steps to developing and growing it successfully for future years. 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 In March 2008 Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council entered into a contract with Danny Chang Music and Media (DCM&M) to organise a large scale music event to be held at Cyfarthfa Castle Park on Saturday 26 July 2008. The objective of the event was to help improve the image and perception of Merthyr Tydfil within Merthyr Tydfil, the Heads of the Valleys, South Wales region, and also further afield. It followed the success of Donny Osmond’s Homecoming Concert held in the previous year (June 2007) at Cyfarthfa Castle, which had been organised and promoted by the Pop Factory, with a financial contribution from the Council. 1.2 DCM&M was contracted as producer for Quo at the Castle and held responsibility for the programming and overall production of the event, including the organisation of the Battle of the Bands competition. 1.3 DCM&M secured Status Quo as the main act, with support acts confirmed at a later stage as Hayseed Dixie; Killing for Company and the winner of the Battle of the Bands competition; Along Came Man. 2.0 PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2.1 A Project Team was established comprising of representatives from various service areas in order to deliver the outcomes required on behalf of the Council. The Project Team met on a fortnightly basis. An Event Action Plan was developed based upon the IAP Toolkit format that accounted for all areas of activities within the project including Back Office, Costs, and Promotion and tracked all progress against the Action Plan. 2.2 The Event Safety Advisory group (ESAG) was consulted and informed throughout the planning process. 2.3 A sub group, consisting of representatives from Police, Licensing, Parking, and Highways, was established to plan for all aspects of traffic management in accordance with event industry standards. 3.0 BRANDING 3.1 A brand design and name (Quo at the Castle) for the event was developed in order to give the event a specific identity on all communications channels. The artwork was prepared using the existing Cyfarthfa Castle logo as a point for development and incorporated the Status Quo brand colour palette (please see Appendix 1). Creating a distinctive brand for the event would assist in establishing an identity for the event year on year but also give the flexibility to adapt the brand according to either the artiste or genre. 4.0 TICKETING 4.1 Timescales were extremely tight from the outset. The event was confirmed on 27 th February 2008, and was announced in the Merthyr Express on 6 th March 2008. Due to this tight timescale initial ticket sales were only available at Ticketline UK. 15,000 counterfeit-proof branded tickets were printed, together with detailed terms and conditions, and Local Authority outlets began selling them on 18 th April 2008. All tickets were priced at £30 per ticket. Customers were given a range of purchasing options and locations that included using recognised ticketing agents, namely Ticketline UK, SeeTickets.Com, and St David’s Hall (operated by Cardiff Council), and Merthyr Sound & Light. Tickets bought from these agents incurred a standard booking fee. 4.2 Local ticket outlets at the Civic Centre, Tourist Information Centre, Aberfan & Merthyr Vale Community Centre and Cyfarthfa Castle were established in order that local people could purchase their tickets for a cash price of £30 with no additional booking fee. 5.0 PROMOTION 5.1 Communications and Promotion of the Quo at the Castle event was managed by the Corporate Communications unit at the Council and reported to the Project Manager and Project Director. 5.2 An overarching Event Communications Document was developed in order to track all information relating to the event that would need to be included in the promotional activities. This included identifying primary and secondary key messages in order to maintain consistency of message across all service areas and promotional channels. This was a working document that was continually updated and provided a single source of information about the event for the Project Management Team. The Event Communications Document provided the baseline information for a Telephone Script for Staff that included information that was finalised and approved for public release. Telephone Scripts were updated frequently once additional information had been confirmed and the Script was circulated to all those front line services fielding calls and queries about Quo at the Castle. 5.3 A promotional campaign was developed and implemented that detailed all areas of promotional activities, times, budget, and locations based upon the content in the Event Communications Document. The promotion was informed by the demographic information available and provided a thorough marketing mix within the allocated budget and covered an extensive geographical area locally, regionally, nationally and internationally via e-communications. 5.4 Communications channels included: • General PR (press editorial, photo calls, competitions, on-site PR at shopping centres etc); • Press advertising reached 800,000 people • Display advertising (poster sites, PVC Banners and Video Screen in Cardiff High Street which attracted 8,000 views per hour) • E-Communications (screensavers, website listings and e-newsletters); • Radio Advertising (Real Radio, Gold FM, Valleys Radio, Red Dragon reached 600,000 listeners per week); • Direct Marketing (Messages in payslips, all staff e-mails, brochures to customers on mailing lists via ticket agents); • And Promotional Literature (posters and 15,000 leaflets were distributed widely throughout South Wales) 5.5 A substantial proportion of the campaign used radio promotion where a combination of on-air phone-in competitions, presenter talk-ups and adverts reached in excess of 600,000 listeners (per week) across four different stations. 5.6 Ensuring evaluation and feedback was received was critical to inform future planning of events therefore the following mechanisms were put in place. On the day, Real Patrol were employed to talk to customers as they approached the admission gates to meet and greet, ask them a quick series of quick response questions for analysis after the event. Also, there were numerous e-mails sent to the Council’s Customer Care account that complimented the event, (Please see Appendix 2). 6.0 BATTLE OF THE BANDS 6.1 DCM&M co-ordinated and promoted the Battle of the Bands competition, the winner of which would open the concert. The bands were initially auditioned via MySpace links on the internet or demo CD’s sent to the office of DCM&M. The final was held at the Studio Bar in Merthyr on Saturday 5 th July where “Along Came Man” won the competition. 7.0 SHOWCASE STAGE 7.1 In addition to the four acts appearing on the main stage, a smaller secondary stage was programmed to showcase six local bands in order to incorporate a community feel into the event. Out of those bands that expressed an interest in being considered to play, six bands were chosen that provided a vibrant mix of original new music and cover versions as well as music styles. These bands were not paid to perform however they were given complimentary tickets for the day. They generated additional local interest and enabled the overall event to start earlier in the day and created a dynamic atmosphere that led to the opening of the main stage. 8.0 BUDGET 8.1 From the Event budget there was investment into Local Authority Departments, including the Museum/tea rooms, Cyfarthfa Lower School and Design and Print section. 8.2 Local businesses benefited directly from the Event budget by over £15,000 8.3 A saving of £5,000 was made by negotiating a reduction on the size of the main stage. 8.4 £12,000 was saved by utilizing the Cyfarthfa Lower School canteen and Cyfarthfa Museum tea rooms for crew catering. 8.5 A Hospitality Trailer was obtained free of charge, saving £4,000 and generating an additional £500 in income. 8.6 Items such as the upgrading of the Museum switchboard £1,000, generic Event road directional signage £2,500 and £1,000 of advertising frames, can be utilised for future events. 8.7 All six bands on the second stage performed free of charge. 8.8 Unsuccessful grant applications were made to the HOV Fund and WOW visit Wales (who believed that the Event had only regional and not the international significance required to gain WOW support). 8.9 MTCBC made a Net contribution of £266,000. 8.10 2,766 tickets were sold. 9.0 ADDED BENEFITS 9.1 Quo at the Castle was successful in positively raising the profile of Merthyr Tydfil within the South Wales region and beyond (positive feedback and press coverage). The event attracted attendees from all over the UK including London and the Home Counties, the West Country, Midlands, North of England and Scotland. There were even visitors from the Netherlands. (22% of those surveyed stayed at accommodation within Merthyr Tydfil) 9.2 The increased profile of the event helped to secure £56k of HOV funding for improvements to Cyfarthfa Park as a major event venue and will be included in the Merthyr Tydfil Holistic Area Regeneration Plan 2009-2012 (HARPS). These works should reduce revenue costs of future events.