Somehow... Branding Calgary's Arts Scene
- Posted by Erica Mattson on May 31st, 2007
Lots of feedback has come in on the Request for Proposals we put out for a partner to help us with a strategy for "Branding Calgary's Arts Scene." Agencies and firms have been contacting us with questions and ideas, marketers have expressed interest and there's been an interesting mix of enthusiasm, skepticism and even criticism within the arts community.
If increased profile and more participation in the arts is important (yes!), we'll need marketing tools. A web strategy is already underway. A brand - an identity - is another part of that marketing toolkit. But what does it mean to create a brand for the arts? Surely it's not just a corporate identity designed to move product. We know that. Connecting with the artistic life of our city and then trying to reflect that authentically, visually in a symbol, a metaphor, a phrase, a logo, something - well, that's quite a challenge! Especially since it needs to reach out to our city of a million plus and beyond to speak to the unique "brand" of artistic experience our city has to offer.
Luckily we're not alone. We eagerly anticipate submissions from our city's best creative agencies. A small working group of artists, marketers, administrators, and partners will come together and collaborate on this project. But more importantly we've got you, our brilliant community.
We're asking you to be active co-creators. Starting now. Please share your ideas, suggestions, feedback, criticism, expertise, excitement, whatever. Dialogue with us here, where other members of the community can interact and respond; you're also welcome to contact us directly by email.
Art cannot be defined and
Art cannot be defined and cannot be branded.
Indeed any attempt to do so should be, and probably is, abhorrent to artists.
However, we could "brand" the city's efforts to promote art!
For example; CALGARY ENABLES ART AND ARTISTS
This is quite an important
This is quite an important distinction, thank you for articulating it. The mission statement of Calgary Arts Development is to "foster a civic culture that supports and encourages creative and artistic development for the benefit of all Calgarians." My thought and response to Lorne's comment is that I hope that the brand celebrates the art created here and provokes response and enthusiasm among artists and audiences.
This is a comment that "js"
This is a comment that "js" originally posted under the RFP. We thought the points made were worth exploring in more depth.
I was - and still am - quite skeptical when I first heard of this RFP.
I happened to be living in Edmonton several years ago when they underwent a "branding exercise" of their own, for their downtown core. While they certainly recognized the problem (or at least the symptom -- that downtown was dead), and their branding solution was reasonable enough (and, coincidentally, built around the strapline, "The Art of Downtown"), the process came to naught in the end. ...Oh, it happened, all right; it just had no meaningful effect. Why? Because they hadn't looked at - or tied the goal in any way to - the underlying source of the problem: namely, that West Edmonton Mall had sucked the life out of downtown Edmonton in the first place, years before, by taking over many of its traditional, citizen-inclusive functions.
I'm not sure I could articulate exactly *why* (right now, anyway), but my gut intuition is that "branding Calgary's arts scene," no matter how well it's done, doesn't and won't speak to the root of the problem here either.
Yes, I know CADA's usual framework (and argument): that the problem in Calgary is merely one of consciousness and aspiration. But I don't buy that. Or rather: yes, there might be truth to it, but I sure don't think it's *sufficient*.
js, thanks for the comment.
js, thanks for the comment. I have a few things to add that hopefully will change your mind...
First... "branding the scene" is an exercise of pure pragmatism. Calgary has never had an agency with a focus like ours. I can't tell you how many times, over the past 2 years, that I've been asked to help promote Calgary through the arts scene. We have few tools to bring to the table, and when we do it is something we've had to cobble together, usually by calling on organizations with the resources to help out. Aside from the fact that we haven't been putting our best foot forward, we end up leaving out 90% of the activity driven by individuals or small organizations. Simply not good enough! As a result of this exercise, we'll have an authentic, complete and exciting story to tell about the amazing work happening in Calgary. I can't wait!
Second... I hope it is clear that CADA's "usual framework (and argument) is NOT that "the problem in Calgary is merely one of consciousness and aspiration." As I wrote in the Herald a while back, we're working to make Calgary an environment where artists thrive by addressing five pillars: financial resources, spaces, access & awareness (this RFP), our artistic human capital and partnerships. We realize that we can't move everything at once, but we're making headway on increasing financial resources, finding solutions for the space crunch, and building partnerships. Now we're addressing issues of public awareness of the arts. The big, outstanding, issue, however, is around human capital. You know, artists... are they loving life in Calgary? Moving here? Moving away? Learning here? Teaching here? We need to know more (and do more) to directly support the work of Calgary's artists as people striving to build a career and make a living in our city. We know this, and you can expect to hear more about it in the future.
Finally... we're simply incredibly impressed and proud of the work being created in Calgary right now. In our view, someone needs to be shouting this from the rooftops. And I guess, if I was an artist working in Calgary, it would make me happy that instead of constantly hearing the same old story about Calgary (do I need to remind anyone?)... I started to hear: "Look at the work of our artists!!"
A city that cared would do that. We care. We're going to do it. We welcome your participation.
This is a great exercise for
This is a great exercise for Calgary to undertake. I want to put my "two cents" in and say that research and legwork must be done first before any branding exercise will work. We can't get ahead of ourselves. I would suggest the following steps are followed in this exciting process:
1. What is the problem we are trying to solve? Is it Calgarian's are proud enough of what their artists do? Is it that Calgarians don't attend enough arts events? Is it that we want more visitors to come to Calgary for the express purpose our our arts and cultural scene? Is it that the arts aren't as intrinsic in what Calgary "is"?
2. Once that is done we must identify what the key issue of that problem is. What is the blockage? What is the barrier to successful communication? Why doesn't this exist/work/happen already? We'll need to dig deep and find the specific issue (not the symptom but the actual problem).
3. Then we can finally look at what our current equity is. What IS Calgary's arts scene? What do all these artists and groups have in common? There is some kind of current brand, what is it? This is important because we can't just make something up and apply it. That's false advertising and will fizzle quickly. We also have to do this so that we get a brand that is as dynamic as Calgary's artists are, otherwise we'll get something lame and corporate like "js" points out in Edmonton: "The Art of Downtown". (WTF is that? What does that mean?)
4. Then, and only the, can we bring together all three answers and state what Calgary's arts brand is. (A brand is not a logo, that's just a visual representation of your brand. A brand is what you are. What drives you. Its your heart, why you do what you do.)
For some of you these steps will make you say "yes, of course those are the steps we'll follow". Others will say "just skip to the end, we know what we are". Some others might ask why I post something like this as a blog comment. Why not just tell the people who will be working on it what I think?
I post them because I think it is important for us all to talk about how something as important as a brand for our city's creativity is created. This isn't something that should be decided on in a boardroom by a select group of people. We all need our "two cents" put in. (Whether its by posting what you think the steps should be or by playing a guitar really kick ass.)
So I invite you all to take Erica up on her offer and post your comments too!
-dj