Written by Two companies within our Creative Futures Incubator, Creative Leamington and Blunt & Brave collaborated to deliver Leamington’s Young Talent Festival 2021.
It is a well-known fact that small businesses often struggle to do it all – everything from project development, creating case studies to showcase their strengths, as well as marketing and pitching for new business. One way to ease this struggle, especially for early-stage businesses, is to collaborate with others. This kind of collaboration worked brilliantly for two businesses within the Creative Futures Incubator, who worked together to produce the Local Young Talent Festival (LYT) in May 2021.
The pair of businesses, who met within our incubator, joined forces to create a mutually beneficial partnership, whilst delivering on a successful project campaign.
“We met in the Creative Futures Incubator and collaborated to win a grant from the Tech Challenge Fund. Our innovative Local Young Talent Festival showcased 20 young creatives in partnership with 20 independent businesses across Leamington Spa town centre, with a bespoke digital platform and interactive map to digitally bring the festival to life. Working together, meant we could combine our complementary skill sets and successfully launch this new arts festival.” – Martina Bussi, Creative Leamington (Director)
Creative Leamington are a production company who specialise in the production and management of cultural events helping to connect the community, as well as offering placemaking consultancy, which connect young people to organisations and brands.
Through using Creative Futures’ wide network, they formed a synergy with Blunt & Brave, a brand and content agency who nurture sustainable and socially conscious brands. “We love to help our clients grow, connect with their dream audiences, and gain a competitive advantage in their fields.” – Emilia Moniszko (Managing Director), Blunt and Brave. They focus on helping clients through their four core capabilities, strategy, branding, digital development, and content production.
The festival was hugely successful – more than twice as many artist applications were received than there were spaces. This is a considerable increase from the previous pilot, indicating Creative Leamington’s growing local reputation, thanks to Blunt & Brave’s effective promotional strategies. Participating businesses and artists also mentioned their social media following had increased significantly.
Future initiatives have now been welcomed by all key stakeholders. Feedback gathered also indicated, 93% of audiences surveyed felt the festival had a positive impact on the overall look on the high street. And 100% of artists said they would like to be involved in similar future projects.
The project faced numerous challenges and changes due to the pandemic, however, the LYT festival still managed to deliver and exceed many of the targets set in place. The festival also increased opportunities for career development and income generation for the targeted young & emerging creatives, to make new meaningful connections. This indicates the quality and success of the project, and how Creative Futures’ network gave the two companies the platform to meet and collaborate, allowing such a triumphant initiative to be born.
