Appendix A

Organ Festival 2017

Evaluation Report

Authors

Cathy Burns Visitor Services Officer

Orla Rafferty Marketing Officer

2

Contents

Introduction Page 3

Programme Page 4

Outputs Page 5

Marketing Page 10

Budget Page 25

Recommendations & 2018 Programme Page 26

3

Introduction

The Guildhall Organ Festival was successfully delivered for the first time from 19th – 21st

October. Building on the success of the Gloria Event in June 2016 which saw

performances by Catherine Ennis and Codetta choir a working group was established in

October 2016 to develop an organ festival. The working group is comprised of the Derry

City & Strabane District Council’s Museum & Visitor Services Team, The Honourable The

Irish Society, Catherine Ennis, and the Royal College of Organists.

It was agreed that the aims of the Festival were to include raising awareness of and

engagement of new audiences with the Guildhall Organ. To that end a schools

programme was developed to include a series of workshops with the addition of a

competition to win an organ and tuition fees from Viscount Organs. Further master class

sessions were added and a program of evening concerts scheduled. To further develop

involvement across the city lunch time performances were added in St Columb’s

Cathedral.

A series of meetings and conference calls were held to develop the Festival with the

DCSDC Visitor Services Officer leading the action planning, administration, marketing &

PR, sales, interpretation and budget management supported by Catherine Ennis as

Artistic Director, Royal College of Organists and the Museum Service Education Team.

Associated action, set up, staffing and budget plans were produced and circulated among

the working group.

4

Programme

A three day festival was arranged from Thursday 19th October to Saturday 21st October to

include:

Thursday 19 October

Primary School Workshop – Main Hall Guildhall

Lunch time recital - St Columb’s Cathedral - Donal McCann

Evening Recital Guildhall; Catherine Ennis & Stewart Smith. Tickets £12 / £6 concession

(Child/student/OAP)

Friday 20 October

Secondary School Workshops - Main Hall Guildhall

Lunch Time Recital – St Columb’s Cathedral - Matthew Breen & Thomas Maxwell

Battle of the Organs Evening Concert; Catherine Ennis, Daniel Moult & Sir Roger Gifford.

Tickets £12 / £6 concession (Child/student/OAP)

Saturday 21 October

Organ Master Class - Guildhall - Booking via Royal College of Organists

Master Class Concert & Presentation of Certificates Guildhall 3pm - 4pm.

Master Class participants performed a series of pieces of music followed by presentation

of certificates by Dr Gerard Gillen, Professor Emeritus in Music at the National University

of Ireland, Maynooth.

Gala Evening Concert Guildhall; Catherine Ennis, Neil Martin & Paddy Glackin. Tickets

£15 / £7.50 concession (Child/student/OAP)

Festival Pass Admission to all 3 evening concerts £33 / £16.50 concession

5

Outputs

Education & Learning

Attendance at the primary school workshops totalled 120 with pupils from Nazareth

House, Eadaín Mor and Steelstown. Over 30 pupils from Nazareth House also benefitted

from a further hands on workshop during which smaller groups had the opportunity to play

organs in different locations throughout the building.

Pupils from Foyle College attended a hands on workshop including the opportunity to play

the Guildhall Organ.

Pupils also received a pack which included information sheets and quiz exploring the

Guildhall Organ.

Foyle College were successful in the competition from Viscount Organs winning an organ

and 50% tuition fees for 1 year.

In addition students from Ulster University supported the event providing audio visual and

filming services during the primary school workshop and Battle of the Organs Concert.

6

Education Pack Information and Quiz Sheets

7

Organ Master Class

Five participants attended the organ master class on Saturday 21st October.

This culminated in presentation of certificates by Professor Gerard Gillen, an afternoon

concert free to the public and Mayoral reception.

Brand & Programme

A bespoke brand was designed by the Derry City & Strabane District Council’s design team. This included a Festival Logo, print designs

and brand / marketing toolkit which was shared across the partners to help promote the Festival.

A printed programme was designed and produced to accompany the Festival. This outlined the programme, biographies of the performers

and upcoming events in 2018. Copies were sold to attendees for £1.

Awareness

As well as the general awareness of the organ generated as a result of the marketing and PR activity for the Festival, an interpretation

panel was developed to highlight the heritage of the Organ.

This panel was on display throughout the Festival and continues to be used in the Guildhall to interpret the organ to general visitors.

10

Marketing & PR

A programme of marketing was undertaken to support the Organ Festival.

Press and comms was also undertaken including coverage in local newspapers, TV – BBC Newsline report and radio – Radio Ulster reports.

Target Audiences

Local Regional Republic of Ireland

Target Breakdown 50% 30% 20 %

Target Areas Derry & Strabane Regional Donegal

11

Marketing Activity

Marketing Plan Overview

Digital

Website Social media Ezine

Print

Flyer

Poster

Tickets

Visual

Video Photography

Outdoor

Vinyls

Marketing Timelines

Item Timeline

Sept Oct 11 18 25 2 9 16 4

PRINT

A5 Flyer (4pp)

Posters

Tickets

Distribution

DIGITAL

Social Media

Website

Ezine

OUTDOOR

Vinyl banners

13

Print Materials

Distribution:

Hotels, regional tourist information points, restaurants, shops,

receptions, libraries, religious institutions, and all other public

venues.

Item Quantity

A5 4pp flier 10,000

Posters 52

Tickets 1000

14

Digital

Whats on Ezine

Whats on NI

PLATFORM ACTIVITY

Facebook

Whats on Derry Strabane

Facebook event

What’s On

Editorial calendar

Boosted posts

Ads

Promotional video

What’s On NI Newsletter

Display ads

Website Promotion on DCSDC,

Visit Derry & Discover

NI websites

15

Social Media Editorial

September 2017

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19

1 month to go !

20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29

Event page

30

16

Social Media Editorial

October 2017

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5

7

Post Ad Ad

8

Post

9

Ad

10

11

Post

12

1 week to go

13

Event boost

14

15

Post

16

Ad

17

Post

18

Post

19

Multiple posts

20

Multiple posts 21

Multiple posts

22

23

Post

24 25 26 27 28

6

17

Facebook Ads

13,984 reached 9,468 reached 14 ,554 reached

790 click throughs 553 click throughs 36 event responses

18

Photography

19

Marketing Spend

COST %

Flier £635 20 %

Posters £131 4 %

Tickets £360 11 %

Distribution £225 7 %

Photography £400 12 %

Filming £1000 31 %

Digital £500 15 %

Total £3,251

Marketing Spend

Flier Posters Tickets Distribution Photography Filming Digital

20

Key Performance Indicators

Facebook

Event page

Google url

21

Organ Festival Ad

Campaign

22

Website

Traffic Source

Facebook

Google

Direct

Ireland.com

Bing

Other

23

Results

ITEM 2017 RESULTS

Unique Page Views 1,566

Facebook Ad Reach 69,648

Facebook Total Reach ( organic and paid ) 98,473

Marketing Recommendations

A greater marketing budget is required to increase awareness nationwide for this

niche market

More focus on digital marketing

Increased interaction with performers in the build up to the event on social media

channels

Print flier earlier for longer lead in time

The festival was held in October which is a very busy month for the city with

Halloween and the Choral Festival

The three day Festival may have been too long and could be reduced to 1 – 2 days

to ensure better turn out on those nights

The digital stats show that there was interest in the event, with 1,343 click throughs

alone from just the ad campaign.

As this was the first Organ Festival campaign, the digital figures and attendance

can be used as a benchmark for the 2019 Festival.

More specialised target marketing for niche markets e.g. musical websites and

supplements etc.

Budget

The total Organ Festival Expenditure stands at £18,159. This includes the main

expenditure headings of marketing & print materials, performance costs, tuition fee, travel

and accommodation, staffing and technical support.

Income totalled £7,252 and included the £5,000 from The Honourable the Irish Society

plus sales from tickets purchased, bar income, programme and donations.

In addition a total of £8,414 was designated from in kind contributions this included £2,000

from Viscount Organs (provision of 4 organs and associated transportation), £6,414 from

Derry & Strabane District Council including development of the brand, venue provision and

Mayoral reception.

26

Recommendations & 2018/19 Programme

Following discussions with the Museum & Visitor Services Team, Catherine Ennis &

Stewart Smith the following is recommended:

Build upon the excellent partnership which has developed through the Festival

between the RCO, Derry City & Strabane District Council, The Honourable the Irish

Society, Viscount Organs and Henderson Music.

Build upon schools programme and engagement - Further outreach with schools

required – to include invitations to music teachers for meetings beforehand to

explain the benefit of attending workshops. Promotional video may help as well as

prior visits to the schools to sell the idea. Education Sessions - morning sessions.

Funding Plan to be developed to include actions to identify and secure sponsorship

and funding from external sources.

Festival to be led and managed by Derry City & Strabane District Council –

Museum & Visitor Services Team.

Afternoons to be set aside for rehearsals and set up.

Provision of Organs for workshops – potential partnership with Henderson Music.

Master class workshop to be held in Guildhall with potential to hold breakout

sessions in venues across the city.

Proposed Date – February. Programme for events and bookings in October full in

the City and Guildhall. June was discussed but organ calendar too busy at that time

of year. Ticket price to be reviewed.

Master class participants – encourage more to attend and make more accessible to

range of skills.

2018 Recital programme to be used to promote the 2019 Festival.

Friday 18th May 2018 Desmond Hunter

Friday 20th July 2018 Stewart Smith

Friday 28th September Gerard Brooks

December Annual Christmas Concert (Date TBC)

27

Proposed Programme Feb 2019

Thursday

Morning – Primary School Workshop

10am-11am & 11.30-12.30pm (show)

1 hands on session 45 minutes for max 40 pupils

Lunch time recital – Cathedral

Friday

Morning – Secondary School Workshop

10am-11am & 11.30-12.30pm (15-20 students max)

Lunch time recital – Cathedral

Evening Concert – Themes from the Movies performed on the Organ (include projections)

or Dance/Techno music (DJ) accompanied by Organ

Saturday

Morning – Masterclass

Saturday afternoon – Performance in Foyleside Shopping Centre

(To increase access and awareness of organ music)

Evening Concert Traditional Irish Music & Organ

Sunday

Morning – Keep free

Evening Concert – Ulster Orchestra / Choir / Organ