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SHARON CANAVAR As CEO of Harrogate International Festivals, our columnist is at the heart of the county’s arts scene
Looking back to the future
YORKSHIRE LIFE March 2017
51
PHOTO: JACOB AMMENTORP LUND/ISTOC/THINKSTOCK
AS part of my role at Harrogate International Festivals, I give talks to various Rotary groups, the WI, Probus and a long list of other fine institutions often made up of older people. What always strikes me is that, after I’ve whizzed through the work of HIF in a 30-minute talk, which might include setting fire to our local park with Cie Carabosse or our weekly singing with young mums and their babies through our partnership with NYMAZ, the feedback I get most often is ‘I never realised how much work HIF does’. I always ask them how they get their news; how they find out what’s going on. Their responses explain why we find it difficult to reach so many of our potential audience members. Very few take the local paper, even fewer listen to the local commercial radio and not many boast silver surfer status, rarely using the internet, Twitter or Facebook for information. So how do we reach these potential ticket buyers and festival advocates? Charity organisations like us, which rely on ticket sales for 50 per cent Can ‘old school’ marketing methods attract of our turnover, need to reach out to people on our doorstep. new audiences to the arts? They are our audience, but they don’t know what we’re doing or how to support us week, feedback from the groups as a volunteer or donor. households contributed about £61 I visit confirms that they would With an incredibly small billion a year to the UK economy pick up a leaflet and read it, marketing budget and a heavy in 2013/14, with £6 billion perhaps proving that print is reliance on ticket bookers, we from volunteering alone. This still king for this age-group. always look first to our most likely provides an amazing opportunity We live in an age where there buyers before considering wider for a small charity team like are now more people in the audience development plans, ours to develop a volunteering UK aged 60 and above than including the drive to engage database, giving us access to there are under 18, and the new and younger audiences via the skills, time and wisdom this number of centenarians has digital routes. I believe, however, sector has in abundance. The risen by 72 per cent over the that we should also engage in opportunities here are endless. last decade. Surely, this is a ‘old school’ marketing techniques It’s exactly for this reason that I clear market for our festivals? aimed at the large segment of like to spend my evenings talking More than 36 per cent of the population who might react about Harrogate International people aged 65+ live positively to a letter Festivals. I get to meet people alone, so there is a dropped through who have no reason to filter “They are our huge opportunity to the door. While I their opinion of the arts and, by audience, but combat loneliness take great pleasure talking to them, achieve a mini they don’t know in binning the pile focus group that helps inform our what we’re doing through participation of unsolicited mail work and plans for the future. Put or how to support in the arts. Above: Thinking more that mounts up simply, this is invaluable wisdom us as a volunteer How do we reach new audiences? commercially, older by the door each from a fabulous set of people. or donor”