Here are some case studies
of completed projects
we are proud to shout about.
Getting in The Mix
Back in November 2007 Jonathan was approached by a former colleague and asked if he would compere and present the Emerging Artists Awards, at The Electric Press (Leeds), for Artsmix – a Leeds based Social Enterprise (part funded through Leeds’ Sharing the Success). Artsmix promote, support and develop emerging artists and artistic talent across Leeds and the wider Yorkshire area.
After the awards he talked to the directors and project manager about where artsmix was going and they agreed that, whilst having established a solid base for growth, they were short of marketing direction. They had contracted a programmer to develop a website, though weren’t clear how best to do this and were undertaking marketing activity in an ad-hoc, immeasurable, fashion – due in part to fairly restrictive budgets.
CS Communicate agreed to support this exciting project by drawing up marketing plans for the development of Artsmix and its various services. Our brief being, through increasing awareness, the database and trading opportunities “to ensure that marketing activity and business development to enable the sustainability of the artsmix project beyond March 2010”, when the Sharing the Success funding would no longer be available.
Over the last 12 months this has involved developing the content and structure of the artsmix website – with a third party developer, in Mallorca! (Funding is currently being sought to make this site more visually dynamic – at which stage we will also become involved in the design aspects of the site). We led the rebranding of their market activities from ‘Mosaic’ to ‘Artsmix’ to strengthen the Artsmix brand, worked on the launch and post launch marketing strategy and activity for the Artsmix Emerging Artists Workshop, and are currently working on a further rebrand and development of this to ‘The Artsmix Creative Workshop’. We have also helped develop the ‘Artsmix 4 Business’ strand that provides a range of art services and products to the business community.
We were also instrumental in securing the majority of the private sector finance (in excess of £100K) to enable the establishment of Artsmix Ventures Limited, which has bought a 26% stake in The Loft Leeds – a creative events venue where Artsmix now host indoor markets and arts events. This development improved the profile of Artsmix and Yorkshire Forward heralded “this fascinating model”, of backing a private sector organisation onto a social enterprise, as “a major developmental achievement towards sustainability” and one they would like see elsewhere. Cs Communicate were also heavily involved in devising, developing and delivering the fundraising ‘road shows’ that were undertaken to attract investors to this project.
Artsmix has achieved a great deal and improved their profile considerably since our involvement; though a combination of their hard work and our shared vision. They have in excess of 1,000 artists and 2,000 supporters, from across Yorkshire, on their growing database. They are hosting exhibitions, are working with some big names (such as Asda and Rushbond PLC), have increased staffing levels, support over 30 Social Enterprises and are on course to be sustainable by 2010. We are currently working with them on the implementation of a CRM System, further developments of the ‘4 business’ offer and the restructuring of their membership scheme.
From September 2008 it was agreed to release Jonathan for a day a week to work with artsmix and he accepted an invitation to the Artsmix Board in January 2009.
Other Case Studies.
Getting into Gear - see how we’ve helped develop everything for this new start business
Building a Flawless website - developing the website for an established photography studio
Phil’ll Fix It! - highlighting some of the more unusual PR enhancing work we have done
Beauty and The Beast - saving a local beauty salon from closure with a little direction