Introduction

Our client was an organisation that received from the Scottish government the funds to organise the festival Scottish Tides-Polish Spring, addressed, amongst others, to Poles living in Scotland. The event took place as part of the celebrations of Homecoming Scotland 2009 and Polska! Year.

Challenge

It was essential that Poles living in Scotland as well as in other parts of Great Britain and in Poland should get to know about the festival and be encouraged to visit it in Perth. The most important task was to ensure the attendance at the festival of ‘household name’ Polish bands such as Kult, Warsaw Village Band and the popular cabaret acts such as Ani Mru Mru and Łowcy.B. The artists performed in front of audiences of 1 500.

What did we do?

We carefully selected patrons of the festival, including media patrons. We negotiated the patronage, monitored the co-operation, planned the advertising campaign in the press and online and we gained a considerable amount of advertising space via barter. We translated into Polish the materials for the Polish-language page advertising the event and the copy of the brochure, press adverts and Internet banners. We found a sponsor for the event and co-ordinated sponsorship activity.

We prepared four attractive press releases about the cultural event taking place during particular months of the festival. We supplied those to the media and kept generating on-going publications. We organised interviews with the lead singer of the cult band Kult, Warsaw Village Band and with other artists. We organised media competitions, where those participating could win tickets to the festival events. We placed event announcements in the time tables of cultural events. We responded to journalists’ enquires and provided them with exciting text, graphic and video materials. We initiated the use of the viral video file as part of the festival promotion that almost 2 000 people looked at.

Outcomes

More than 300 positive items of media coverage about the event appeared in the UK and Polish media. During the four months of the festival, more than 5 000 Poles attended the event.