The Art of communication

The team behind Stendhal Festival of Art say they pride themselves in embracing all aspects of the arts but the emerging music and arts festival which takes place in Limavady on August 17 and 18 are also putting in a lot of effort to be as diverse with its marketing of the event as they are with its programme of events.

In these times of economic trials and tribulations it has never been more difficult for new businesses to get a foothold in their respective markets so the team at Stendhal have attempted to embrace every type of marketing they can, from social media and viral marketing online, to more traditional forms of Radio and Newspaper advertising but their latest attempt to promote their festival sees them attempt to blend the newest forms of communication with one of the oldest, the message in a bottle.

The festival has placed a selection of specially marked bottles around the coastline of Northern Ireland with messages inside offering those who find them free tickets to the event if they get involved with their online social media content.

Festival organiser Ross Parkhill says that he hopes that left-field marketing and communications such as this will encourage people to interact with the festival throughout the year and strengthen what he refers to as the ‘Stendhal community.’

“We are trying to be as diverse as possible in everything we do while engaging people at the same time,” he said.

“Blending new forms of communications such as social media with one of the oldest forms of communication is just one of the ways we are attempting to get people to interact with us and spread the word about our festival.

“We hope that it makes us less of a faceless organisation and can help us facilitate communication and interaction with those with interests in music and the arts.”

The festival incorporates many facets of the arts including, music, poetry, artwork, dance, sculpture, digital installations and spoken word and Ross says that he believes that the diverse range of entertainment and the arts at the event is carried on through their marketing strategy.

“Our posters, flyers and signage are all designed in house through collaborations with local artists with artistic aesthetics very much in mind. We also touch on aspects of theatre, comedy, music and graphic design in our YouTube viral ads and use more traditional newspaper style communications with our annual newsletter called The Stendhal Standard.

“We have had an original piece of music entitled ‘The Stendhal Syndrome’ composed for us by a fantastic Belfast based musician called Steve Catherwood who performs under the title The Steve Experiment which can be heard on our latest viral video on YouTube.

“We don’t just want to showcase the arts, we want to create new art and find creative ways to share it with the Stendhal community,” Ross concluded.

So keep an eye out for the bottles in the upcoming weeks along the shores of Northern Ireland from Benone to Newcastle and get involved in the arts.