Making Music Together
We have a saying at Green Team Australia: Unless it’s a genuine two-way partnership between agency and client, then it’s unlikely to be something we wish to pursue. In this particular case, however, it happens to be a three-way partnership that works very, very successfully.
The relationship between Green Team Australia, our design colleagues at the Envelope Group, and our joint client, the Festival of Voices, illustrates how collective talents can work in harmony to create a very successful brand.
This partnership of equals—with each party displaying a high degree of trust, respect and cooperation towards the others—is well illustrated by the Festival of Voices client keeping Green Team (which handles brand advertising and the online campaign) and the Envelope Group (which handles corporate branding) fully informed about developments and decisions at all times.
Such a good, strong relationship is generally recognized as an essential factor in business success. It was certainly true in this case.
*
The Festival of Voices is held each year in Hobart, Tasmania, with a program that consists of public performances of youth, gospel, classical, sacred, popular and world music. It’s very much a celebration of the human voice. (love that phrase)
Since in the first festival was held in 2005, it has been a dynamic cultural and artistic celebration; yet until 2008 it was really only known to a small pool of choral directors, who used it to give their choirs additional performance experience and international teaching opportunities. Local and national awareness of the festival remained small. Which meant that visitor numbers from outside of Tasmania were also small.
So the clock – or in this case, the metronome – was ticking, and loudly. Government funding for the festival was due to expire in 2010, and unless the festival delivered something economically to the state, and was seen to be delivering something in the eyes of both government and business, then it was unlikely to receive further support.
Something definitely had to be done.
So in 2008 Green Team Australia, with long-term design partner Envelope Group, was invited to re-brand the Festival of Voices and create the business and marketing tools that would be needed for it to achieve national prominence.
Audiences and participants needed to be attracted from every corner of the globe so as to make the festival not only Australia’s leading annual choral event, but a leading international choral event too. Most importantly, the festival had to generate the economic and cultural results that would ensure continued funding. The brand would have to be audacious, dynamic, inspiring and memorable.
It was a big ask.
In that year we set about a complete re-brand across all communication platforms for the Festival of Voices, including their website.
*
Research consistently shows the importance of strong relationships in building a successful brand, no matter how excellent the product and no matter how expert the business practices. We were fortunate in having three wonderful groups of people working together: our colleagues at the Envelope Group, the marketing team at the Festival of Voices and, casting modesty aside for a moment, ourselves at Green Team. We all gelled.
A brief was created. A clear positioning statement – Singing, performing, learning – was established and used to inform the development of all marketing and communications materials, from printed invitations and banners to website navigation.
A ‘V’ symbol was created that captured the spirit of the human voice, but also gave a subtle nod in the direction of the iconic shape of Tasmania itself.
The festival program features a rich tapestry of images from previous festival performances together with a vibrant color palette with information that appeals to the all-ages target audience.
The results of all this work were impressive.
*
Between 2008 and 2010, registrations increased by over 75 percent. Total audience numbers increased by more than 300 percent, with more than 10,000 people attending the Festival in 2010 (a quarter of them being from interstate). Total income rose by 150 percent.
In 2009 the Festival returned almost $1 million (US dollars?) to the Tasmanian economy. In 2010 this figure tripled, which amounted to more than ten times the investment costs of the Tasmanian government. Some $2 million of this was from interstate visitors over just five days. It is now safely established as Tasmania's leading winter cultural event.
(And, yes, there’s nothing like money, or a profit, to create a heart warming relationship between a business and a government.)
The success of everyone involved was recognized when the festival won the prestigious national AbaF Award – which celebrates successful and innovative relationships (there’s that word again!) between the private sector and the arts – for the significant relationship it created with Green Team and Envelope Group.
*
Green Team and Envelope Group have played, and have enjoyed playing, the role of good corporate citizens, with the festival receiving strategic, business, design and advertising support which it would have been impossible to buy on its limited budget. (ah, this was pro bono work? Great! Maybe sneak that in somewhere higher) We did this because we believe that a healthy community ensures a healthy social, environmental, economical and cultural future.
But tangible business results have flowed through to us too, in the form of new contacts, clients and work. And this is what good relationships often achieve. It’s also what good brands achieve. They enhance awareness, and give renewed vision and energy to the organizations they encapsulate and to the community in which they operate.
The Festival of Voices celebrates our community by being inclusive, non-competitive and vibrant, while also reflecting the unique blend of characteristics that are very much a part of Hobart: independence, generosity, warmth, diversity and authenticity.
In this respect, the festival appeals to the Awakening Consumer, those who seek brands with a social conscience that strive to contribute positively to the community in which they find themselves. It’s an occasion that very much reflects their social and ethical values.
*
What of the future?
Funding for the Festival of Voices has increased for 2011. National sponsorships are being progressed and local business is awakening to the marketing possibilities.
The Festival has a $135,000 partnership with the Department of Economic Development to create short films and promotional programs. Audiences are showing signs of increasing yet again. A $1,360,000 contract has been signed with Tourism Tasmania, and there’s a three year contract with the University of Tasmania, valued in excess of $100,000 a year.
We’ll end by saying that the relationship between the Festival of Voices, Green Team and the Envelope Group has been exceptionally productive over the past three years – we’ve made some glorious as well as profitable music together – and that the festival is now well placed to realize its potential both nationally and internationally into the future.