Building an audience means making the most of your partnerships, and thinking creatively about how and why people will want to experience what you are offering. Dovetail is working with Ensemble, a national touring company with a history of bringing original, ground-breaking work to a wide and diverse range of audiences. When the company was looking to engage audiences, partners and participants, up and down the country with their fresh and radical new work, Souvenir d’Anne Frank, our particular mix of communications and project management expertise and experience was a perfect fit.
As part of our audience development plan for Ensemble, we are targeting coverage in press, online, radio and television. At Dovetail, we like to approach things differently to maximise the impact of our projects, using this approach with Ensemble, we have introduced a range of partners to bring the production into a modern day focus. Working with organisations such as Manchester Jewish Museum and RAPAR, whilst also working closely with Creative Arts Northwest (CAN) and WAST (Women asylum seekers together) we have been able to maximise the impact of the production and secured a broad range of coverage as a result.
Ensemble Theatre Company was formed in 2001, to collaboratively create and tour new theatre work which explores the relationship between music, text and song, alongside educational programmes for young people. The company has produced seven theatre/music pieces with their latest being Souvenir d’Anne Frank which premiered in Manchester on Holocaust Memorial Day. The production tells the story of Anne Frank and the Souvenir d’Anne Frank rose which was dedicated in Anne’s memory by her father, Otto. Key to our approach with Ensemble is to draw out parallels from the history of Anne Frank with contemporary global issues faced today – particularly by refugees, displaced people, and people seeking asylum.
Dovetail created and managed the audience development plan and delivery of the national marketing and PR campaign, working with our regional partners and eight venues across the UK to promote the tour which also includes; educational workshops, accompanying exhibitions and post show discussions.
We understand the importance of ensuring each aspect of a project is valued and to this end have adapted our press campaign to reflect this. We have secured a range of articles in press and online, focusing on the workshops taking place in schools and colleges as well as the exhibitions accompanying the tour across the UK. We have also been able to secure significant television and radio coverage after recommending high profile panellists to take part in the post-discussions who in turn give the central themes a modern day focus as well as allowing us to maximise press coverage due to their status within their profession.
Bringing in partners to debate the issues raised, particularly human rights organisations, is critical to the impact Ensemble wants to achieve, and our ability to bring in networks and inspire organisations and audiences to take part is proving crucial.
At Dovetail, we like to ensure that each client benefits from our wide range of expertise and aim to utilise as many of our skills as is relevant when working on a project, combining our marketing, PR and audience development practices into one, seamlessly effective tool.
"It is a pleasure working with Dovetail, who we've found to be a hard working team of imaginative and committed people, with a 'hands on', community based approach to their work. Always open and ready to discuss ideas and approaches in a co-operative way, Dovetail care about the quality of their work and their relationships with their clients, an invaluable asset in delivering any project."
Elizabeth Mansfield, Artistic Director at Ensemble
Client: Ensemble
Partners: Zion Arts Centre, Spelthorne Borough Council, York Theatre Royal, Anne Frank Trust
What we did: Created and delivered a marketing and PR campaign to promote a national tour of Souvenir d’Anne Frank
Photographs by Jan Chlebik
