The Wigtown Book Town Company 2001
| Organisation |
The Wigtown Book Town Company |
| Project |
Development of an audience and sales development strategy for the annual Wigtown Book Town Festival |
| Artform |
Literature |
| Location |
Dumfries and Galloway |
| Application type |
Project development |
| Date |
2001 |
| Status |
Completed |
| Grant |
£4,500 |
| Total project cost |
£6,000 |
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The Wigtown Book Town Company exists to support the development of Wigtown as Scotland’s national book town. It is involved with the strategic management of the initiative and its ongoing management and marketing. The company is regularly involved in festival and events management (it runs an annual Book Town Festival) and in policy development in Dumfries and Galloway in the fields of tourism, rural development and the arts. |
Development by external consultants of an audience and sales development strategy for the annual Book Town Festival that will, when implemented, substantially enhance its programming and visitor numbers.
| The annual Book Town Festival was started in 1999 to promote Wigtown as Scotland’s Book Town and to develop a significant Festival in the town to marry Wigtown’s economic and cultural development. Approximately 3,000 people have attended each of the first two festivals. The phenomenal growth of the Hay Festival (held just outside the world’s most successful Book Town) and other book festivals indicates the potential for growth of the annual Book Town Festival if the correct audience and sales development strategy is adopted. |
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The input of Wigtown’s bookdealers and strong community support have been important elements of the Festival’s development to date and any new strategy will need to take account of these.
The project development work aims to:
- Identify more clearly the customer base for the Book Town Festival and ways of reaching them cost-effectively
- Identify means of generating a greater percentage of the Festival’s income from ticketing, Friends initiatives and sponsorship
- Create greater resources for the Festival’s artistic development
RGA Ltd were appointed to undertake the project development work which comprised:
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- Interviews with Wigtown Book Town company staff, members of the festival planning group and key volunteers
- Visits to the 2001 Book Town Festival to attend events and observe the operation of author management, back of house, front of house and sales
- Market research using a self-completion questionnaire and a number of in-depth face-to-face interviews with attenders
- Mystery shopping exercises conducted at the Wigtown Book Town Office and at Dumfries TIC
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- Telephone interviews with key staff from comparable rural arts festivals in the UK
- Interviews with publishers, Dumfries and Galloway Council officers, Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Book Trust and other associated organisations
- Review of The annual Book Town Festival – Management and Marketing Overview, ticket sales data, media coverage, and the Wigtown Book Town Company database
- Market Research: A total of 84 completed questionnaires were received (approximately 10% of Festival event attenders). Key findings included: slightly more women than men attend (55% compared with 45%); just under half (48%) are aged 35-54, with only 4% coming from the 25-34 age range; over half (52%) are repeat visitors. The most effective marketing media are the leaflet (30%) and word of mouth (29%). Use of the internet and the TIC is noticeably low (5% and 3% respectively). Over half of the attenders (57%) are from outwith Dumfries and Galloway, with the majority coming from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamilton and Paisley. Satisfaction with the various aspects of the Festival is strong with the highest scores being for events (90%), atmosphere (90%) and bookshops (94%) and the lowest for facilities (66%) and food and drink (74%).
- Marketing Review: The key issues identified by RGA following its review of current marketing activity were organised under the headings of product, pricing, sales information, people (audiences), place and promotion.
Recommendations included:
- extending the programme by introducing a theme and including music, cinema and the performing arts
- developing ticket sales/payment mechanisms
- attracting more local and regional visitors and encouraging more repeat visits
- developing a strong Festival brand and improving the local signage
- improving the facilities, and food and drink, on offer
- creating a clear marketing strategy with an increased focus on special promotions and media coverage and less on print
- An Audiences and Sales Development Plan for the annual book Town Festival 2002 – 4 was produced by RGA. Contents included marketing objectives, market positioning, market strategy (identifying target market segments), tactical plan, month-by-month implementation, marketing resources, and monitoring and evaluation.
John Robertson
Project Manager
The Wigtown Book Town Company
County Buildings
Wigtown
Dumfries and Galloway DG8 9JH
Tel: 01988 402036
Fax: 01988 402506
E-mail: john@wigtown-booktown.co.uk
Web: www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk |