MARKETINGEXCELLENCEAWARDS2016

Entry form

CELEBRATING AND REWARDING MARKETING EXCELLENCE IN WELSH LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS#marketingawards

ENTRY FORM FOR CATEGORY 1: DEMONSTRATING MARKETING EXCELLENCE AND CATEGORY 2: JOINT MARKETING PROJECT OF THE YEAR

Please complete this section if you are entering Categories 1 and/or 2 only. Please note these details will be used for all future correspondence regarding this specific entry. All fields are compulsory. This information will be used for publicity, therefore please ensure all sections are completed accurately.

Title √ Mrs Ms Miss Mr Dr Other      

First name June

Surname François

Job title Head of Marketing

Organisation name Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

Organisation address Cathays Park

Town Cardiff

Postcode CF10 3NP

Email address june.francois@museumwales.ac.uk

Twitter account @ @amgueddfacymru

Organisation profile/overview 100 words maximumAmgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Cadw, National Trust Wales and the National Library of Wales are national heritage bodies that are important cultural assets for the history and heritage of Wales.

Collectively, these organisations manage a vast portfolio of sites that cover seven national museums, forty-eight historic sites that include castles and abbeys, eight historic properties and one national library.

CATEGORY ENTERED (please tick):Category 1 – Demonstrating Marketing Excellence

Public libraries Further education libraries Higher education libraries Health libraries Archives Museums

Category 2 – Joint Marketing Project of the Year √Joint Marketing Project of the Year

The total word count for the section below must not exceed 2500 words. A maximum of two additional documents may be submitted to support your entry not exceeding 5MB in total or provided as a ZIP file. Alternatively please provide relevant links.

Project titleEnter the title or name of the marketing project – this will be included in all relevant publicity.Explore the Treasures of Wales Children’s Heritage Passport Partnership Campaign

ContextDescribe the background/reason for this project. What challenges or opportunities were you faced with? A new partnership was formed by the national heritage organizations in early 2015 comprising Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Cadw, the National Library of Wales and National Trust Wales. Visit Wales’ new Head of Partnerships at the time had briefed each organisation separately about a more joined up approach to the marketing of the Welsh heritage offer. Visit Wales’ 2020 Tourism Strategy recognises heritage as one of the distinct experiences that differentiates the Welsh visitor economy. The Welsh heritage sector has the capacity to tell memorable stories and provide compelling reasons to visit.

An initial partnership meeting was arranged by Amgueddfa Cymru’s head of marketing. This identified our USPs as the stories expressed through the collections and historic properties. We could create synergy by bringing together the different experiences offered by museums, castles, historic houses and gardens to raise the profile of the Welsh heritage sector. These national organizations have several flagship attractor products that are distinctive and unique to Wales, and offer a strong sense of place for the visitor economy. Visit Wales did not become a member of the new partnership.

The partners identified a number of different approaches that would fit Visit Wales’ strategic objectives. The heritage offer can be segmented by visitor type, thematically and geographically for domestic and inbound tourism. As Visit Wales’ remit is to concentrate on attracting visitors to Wales, it was agreed that the partnership would concentrate on the domestic family market in the summer season targeting children aged 6 - 11. Wales has a lower share of domestic tourists compared to other home nations in the UK. (In 2014, 70% of day visits to Wales originated in Wales, compared with 92% for Scotland and 98% for England. Source: Visit Wales) As the national heritage bodies concentrate a large share of marketing resources aimed at residents and visitors within Wales we could offer a complementary approach to Visit Wales’ resources. This also put us in a better position to judge how this new partnership campaign would work with other planned campaign activity for the summer. This includes audience development for diversifying the socio-economics of family visitors to heritage sites.

Once the target market had been identified, there were challenges around the tight timescale of a 3-month turnaround for devising a new campaign ready in time for the school summer holidays, and identifying a clear consumer proposition that would not be diluted by the large number of sites operated by each national organization with buy-in from the partners. Amgueddfa Cymru’s head of marketing took on the role of project leader.

Aims and ObjectivesState the aims and objectives that were set for this project – where possible these should be SMART objectives – for example, how many new users or people attending the event were you hoping for? If possible, include budget and timescale information.

What is a SMART objective? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-boundThe main aim was to increase visits by 5% from families in Wales over the school summer holidays by cross-promoting sites within close proximity to each other. A 5% increase was considered reasonable given recent year-on-year increases in visitor figures varying from 2% to 6%.

The focus of the joint campaign would be achieved by highlighting the museums and historic sites as a fun day out and a great option for keeping the children occupied in the summer holidays with learning as an added bonus.

The specific campaign objectives agreed by the partnership were to: use trails and activities to discover stories about Welsh history and places to create deeper engagement with the history of Wales through fun and educational experiences encourage families to get out and about to explore the outdoors and find out more about the world

around them introduce families to a wider range of heritage attractions, not just those that they are most

familiar with.

Strategy & PlanningOutline the strategy taken to achieve your objectives and justify your marketing approach – did you undertake any research for example; have your developed new or existing partnerships; did you target a new audience or try a new approach to promoting your services?With children the main target for the campaign, the creative execution was approached by looking through the eyes of a child but recognising that parents are the main decisionmaker for planning days out during the school summer holidays. The campaign needed to engage the interest of both child and parent by livening up the heritage offer to build confidence to visit heritage attractions and shake off any notions of museums and historic sites as being boring!

‘Explore the Treasures of Wales’ was created as a call to action to encourage discovery of the ‘treasures’ of the diverse heritage offer across the country. The consumer proposition would be for a child to become a Mini Explorer.

The consumer benefits for families were confirmed as:

a fun and educational day out surprise yourself with unexpected pleasant discoveries of Welsh history an opportunity for rewards and prizes a greater awareness of the range of local heritage attractions on their doorstep

Various offline and online marketing platforms were evaluated for media planning that would provide the best reach of the family audience and to achieve the campaign objectives and consumer benefits. As children were being targeted, it was felt that digital channels were not appropriate as the main marketing approach. For instance, a Facebook account can only be created by someone aged 13 and over. The partners felt that given the large number of sites managed by the national heritage organizations, they could be more easily packaged together in a physical format that is portable and easy to refer to especially from a child’s perspective.

The idea of a passport was decided on as it could hold details of all the 24 participating sites in a compact way. The child as the holder of the passport takes on the role of an explorer by gaining entry to sites in their locality. The passport would also be a keepsake for the child.

Given the aim of increasing visits within close proximity of each other, the partners grouped their sites into six distinct geographical clusters as ‘adventures’ to discover. Each cluster reflects a good mix of high profile and less well-known sites managed by each partner.

Big Pit, Blaenavon Ironworks, National Roman Legion Museum, Roman Baths, Tredegar House

Caerphilly Castle, St Fagans National History Museum, Tredegar House, Castle Coch, National Museum Cardiff

National Slate Museum, Harlech Castle, Criccieth Castle, Caernarfon Castle

Llanerchaeron, National Wool Museum, National Library of Wales, Cilgerran Castle

Dinefwr, National Waterfront Museum, Oxwich Castle, Kidwelly Castle

Denbigh Castle, Valle Crucis Abbey, Wrexham Museum

Stickers were decided on as a mechanism for children to record their visits and evoke the sense of a ‘passport stamp’. Stickers are still enjoyed by children as found by running other family activities, and importantly they are a low cost option and easy to administer by front of house staff.

Tactics and ImplementationSet out the plan of activities undertaken to implement the strategy and evidence these over time and against budget. Include examples if appropriate – you may append or link to two additional pieces of supporting evidence – if internet links are included please ensure these will remain live until March 2016. What promotional activity did you undertake; did you use social media and/or traditional media?

An ‘Explore the Treasures of Wales’ children’s bilingual ‘tilt and turn’ heritage passport with collectable stickers as a reward for visiting the sites was the main tactic. The design of an Explorer cartoon character helped to badge the overarching campaign with a captivating graphic icon. A budget of £1,000 per participating site was identified, which included financial support from Visit Wales.

A competitive design brief was issued for the design of a children’s passport which led to the appointment of CR-eative, a Cardiff-based design agency. The core identity of each partner was reflected by the use of illustrative icons of venues and objects, a photographic image of each site and illustrations of a boy and girl dressed as a knight on an adventure around Wales. Explorer facts were included with a question for the child to find the answer at each site to create deeper engagement with Welsh history. The passport could be personalised with each child writing in their name on the front cover to add to the sense of fun. A competition entry page was included to win Explorer Activity Kits for visiting at least four sites. All other media was booked direct by receiving competitive quotes.

The supporting advertising campaign needed to raise awareness of the new passport, drive visits to the sites for children to pick up their passport and consider the all-Wales remit for targeting a family audience. Given the diversity of the sites in the campaign, the number of passports available ranged from a few thousand available at high profile sites to a hundred or so at smaller sites. The lack of a single web address to represent the heritage sector was an added complexity.

A mixed media campaign using print and radio was considered the most effective for creating visual interest inspired by the passport design, and commercial radio for its strong reach of the C2DE family audience who are less familiar with heritage venues.

The print adverts used the Explorer dragon graphic as the focus of the imagery and as a call to action by signposting ‘Explore cool castles, marvellous museums and glorious gardens’ with the web addresses of each of the main partners for further details.

Competitive quotes found that Heart FM offered the best value for money for reaching the family market of south east Wales – the most densely populated part of Wales. Creating a radio commercial was too complicated without a single web address. Instead a radio promotion using three videos, one for each site by the leading partners, linked to a competition. Videos were filmed of National Museum Cardiff, Castell Coch, Dinefwr. The Dinefwr video concentrated on the outdoor experience. The breadth of the heritage offer was promoted using a core script that referred to different sites across the 3-week campaign. Using a station voice over the campaign come across as recommended by the station itself rather than a straight commercial. The script was linked to a video competition to encourage listeners to find out more about the heritage sites, post their comments, and an opportunity to win a Go Pro camera,

a night in a Welsh hotel and a food hamper.

In terms of appropriate print publications, Primary Times regularly appears on visitor surveys for how visitors have heard about the sites; regional newspapers are read by an older audience such as grandparents looking for days out when looking after grandchildren.

The final campaign tactics were:

20,000 printed passports distributed across the 24 participating sites

Sticker rewards and two competitions

Primary Times full page adverts in all summer editions with all-Wales coverage (Cardiff, Newport, South West Wales, North Wales editions).

Heart FM South Wales 3-week campaign commencing on 15th July with 4 on-air spots per day and online promotion with videos with a bespoke online page. The cost included the production of 3 x 1 minute promotional videos including voice over, competition prizes and data capture.

Newspaper adverts in South Wales Echo (17, 24, 31 July), Daily Post (24 and 31 July), Wales on Sunday (26 July), Wrexham Leader (16 July and 23 July), Cambrian News (16 July).

Digital Takeover advert on www.walesonline.co.uk What’s On 25 and 31 July

Web page on partner websites listing details of the sites for picking up the passports, and site-specific activity trails and quizzes

Results/Measurements/OutcomesPresent the results of the project, state whether your aims and objectives were achieved and if they were delivered on time and within budget. Evaluate the project using measurements where possible, such as number of new members/visitors, added value to the organisation and digital marketing metrics where applicable (Google Analytics, Facebook insights, Tweetreach). Reflect on what could have been done better; is the project sustainable, could it be rolled out to other user groups or organisations?

All the partners registered increases in family visits during August 2015 on a year-on-year basis. The national museum sites with the best increases were National Museum Cardiff (8%) increase and St Fagans (1.2% increase). Cadw recorded a 3.65% year-on-year increase in child visits. The National Trust experienced an overall 20% increase with their three participating sites. These figures are based on visitor figures and using visitor surveys which took place in the peak season for the national museums and the National Trust. Cadw’s information is based on paying family tickets. With an average visiting party size of 3 people, well over 40,000 people enjoyed the passport.

The Heart FM competition attracted 3,321 entries and a data capture of 357 contacts. The Explorer Activity Kit prize draw had 79 entries with data capture for 30 contact details.

Qualitative feedback from staff established that the target audience of children enjoyed the campaign. It was important that public facing staff got behind the campaign as although the passport was available in a cardboard holder, staff were also involved in bringing the passport to the attention of visitors and giving

out stickers. Staff could see that the children enjoyed the passport and appreciated having the passport as an added value service for family visitors. The passport had momentum as it was picked up throughout the school holidays. The explorer facts in the passport in addition to other trails and activities available at some sites created a more hands-on experience that helped to amplify the stories about Welsh history and encourage a deeper experience.

The unisex design appealed to boys and girls alike. The dragon character worked well as a strong visual icon for the campaign. In this digital age we found that stickers still work very well and were thoroughly enjoyed by children (and staff alike!).

The quantitative evaluation found that the overall pick up rate was 63% of the available passports with strong pick rates at National Museum Cardiff, Harlech Castle, and Tredegar House. With so many sites involved it was not surprising that the pick up rate of the passport varied across the sites. At some sites more stickers than passports were handed out as families arrived with their passport.

Good brand awareness was achieved in the print publications especially with the full page adverts in Primary Times. Heart FM also worked well for engaging interest in the opening weeks of the campaign and listeners posting their own comments.

What could we do better?

The main feedback from staff was the importance of extra on-site materials (posters, other display material) and to emphasise it is a free passport.

We would look at replacing the competition page with discounts offers instead.

We’d like to consider running the campaign across the main summer season into the autumn shoulder season to encourage cross-promoting of sites over a longer period.

Put parents in control of social media by creating an on-site display of a cardboard mascot of the dragon character for parents to take a photo of their child. Parents could then choose whether or not to upload a photo to their own social media account or keep as a photo souvenir.

One of the main dividends of the campaign is how it has helped to establish the new heritage marketing partnership. This year we are looking to repeat the campaign as part of the Year of Adventure. The partnership is now looking at other initiatives for the heritage sector such as new Heritage & Culture app.

Date of ProjectProvide the start and (if appropriate) finish dates of the project.April 2016 – August 2016

SummaryProvide a brief summary of your project (approx. 150 words) to be used for promotional purposes on the website, social media, etc.The essence of any partnership is to pool resources by developing a shared sense of a common purpose to create synergy. ‘Explore cool castles, marvellous museums and glorious gardens’ was the tagline to sum up the breadth of the heritage offer in an exciting and engaging way. The ultimate consumer benefit was a free fun passport for all families to enjoy in the summer. This new partnership has helped to unify the Welsh heritage offer in an engaging way and change perceptions of heritage sites by making them appear fun and accessible to the family market. The campaign helped to drive visits. This successful partnership is now looking at other joint heritage marketing opportunities, which is particularly important in the constrained financial climate as organizations join up to create synergy around their visitor offer.

ENTRY FORM FOR CATEGORY 3 – MARKETING CHAMPION OF THE YEARPlease complete this section if you are entering Category 3. Entries must be nominated by a manager or equivalent – you cannot self-nominate. The nominee must give consent to be nominated.Please tick the relevant box below

Library Marketing Champion Archives Marketing Champion Museum Marketing Champion

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Why are you nominating this person? The total word count for the section below must not exceed 1000 words. A maximum of two additional documents may be submitted to support your entry not exceeding 5MB in total or provided as a ZIP file. Alternatively please provide relevant links.

Notable achievements Challenges and barriers overcome Differences made to the service New partnerships Examples of innovative or creative working Examples of engaging colleagues in marketing

Contact details of nomineeName of nominee

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Please submit the entry form and any additional documents to jane.purdie@wrexham.gov.uk and nicola.williams@wrexham.gov.uk by 29th January 2016.

Thanks for entering the Marketing Excellence Awards 2016.