Member Article

Design firm gives festival a new look

Baildon design agency, PMD, has completed a rebrand of one of Yorkshire’s fastest growing festivals ahead of its 2013 event which launched at the weekend.

The work for Saltaire Festival included the launch of a new website profiling each event and giving information to visitors on local businesses, places to stay and nearby attractions.

According to Phil Wilson, managing director of PMD, the rebrand has created an updated look without moving away from the heritage that has helped Saltaire become one of the region’s most successful arts and community events.

He said: “Saltaire Festival’s popularity and size increases every year and the impact this has had on the local economy has been enormous.

“The organisers were keen to find ways to communicate the events to a wider audience and create new revenue streams that would generate income for further investment and expansion.”

Now in its eleventh year, the festival regularly attracts 40,000 visitors. This September’s ten-day event will showcase comedy acts from the summer’s Edinburgh fringe as well as music, children’s entertainment and markets. Star attractions will include poets, John Hegley and Ian McMillan.

Phil Wilson said the introduction of a new marketing approach after ten successful years had been an important step in maintaining popularity.

In addition to design and development of a new website, innovations include a new pocket guide with an events calendar, map and promotional space for advertisers, a launch postcard featuring the town’s most famous son, Sir Titus Salt, and sponsorship packages offering online and print opportunities to local businesses.

The chairman of Saltaire Festival, Gideon Seymour, said: “We’re delighted with our new look and the work that has been done to develop additional channels that will bring in much needed income to help us develop the festival further in the years ahead.

“The pocket guide in particular is proving popular already and, because it’s small and easy to use, we’re expecting lots of people to carry it with them during the festival so they can make sure they don’t miss a thing.

“Without the support of our corporate sponsors and partners, as well as the hard work of our many volunteers, Saltaire Festival wouldn’t be the huge success it is today and we hope that by giving greater profile to our supporters we can encourage even more to come on board and help us continue to grow this fantastic Yorkshire event.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .