Strabane businesses praised at Arts & Business Creative Advantage Breakfast

The Alley Theatre recently took part in a Arts & Business Creative Advantage Breakfast in Derry. The A&B ethos champions the power of innovative partnerships, in which businesses can create a ‘competitive advantage’ through creative innovation, inspired by engagement with arts and cultural organisations. The Alley has benifited wonderfully from developing strong Arts & Business partnerships and we were delighted not only to be taking part, but also to have several special mentions from the guest speakers.

With economists predicting a return to growth for the UK economy mid 2010, local businesses were keen to learn how engaging with the Arts could enhance their competitive edge and lead to future success and sustained economic regeneration.

Social and economic regeneration in Derry and the North West were addressed by Aideen McGinley, Chief Executive, Ilex – the Urban Regeneration Company. Speaking about the future plans for the area and her experiences of working with arts organisations to encourage community buy-in to social regeneration projects, Aideen said: “The importance of culture to Regeneration is fundamental to achieving social physical and economic success, which I understand at first hand and recognise its continuing importance in these challenging times.”
To succeed in the global or local marketplace, businesses need to consider their brand image and review corporate strategy to ensure marketing and communications strategies deliver key objectives.

David Beck, Head of Marketing Communications BT Ireland and sponsor of the Alley's BT Sounds Like Summer music festival focused on the changing face of brand sponsorship, and how BT’s new emphasis on Innovation and grassroots engagement - demonstrated through new partnerships like QFT & most recently the Alley Arts Centre in Strabane - is challenging perceptions about BT the brand; “Sponsorship is becoming a crucial part of the marketing mix as brand’s turn to new categories, Arts sponsorships in particular, add much needed credibility to their brand propositions.”

It was left to Joe Barber, Manager, Linton Robinson, Strabane and another Alley sponsor to showcase the value to local businesses, citing their own successful partnership with The Alley Arts Centre, which has seen increased footfall and increased sales throughout the store, as well as strengthening their customer base and enhancing their reputation, saying "We have remained in business for over 56 years thanks to our reputation for offering quality and value. The In-Store Gallery, curated by The Alley, has been enormously popular and extremely successful. As a local business, we have been able to give our customers a new consumer experience - something that the multiples would find difficult to recreate.”

Facilitating questions from the floor and bringing the event to a close, Mary Trainor, Director Arts & Business NI, said “It’s good to see that businesses have been increasingly using arts partnerships as a brand platform to express or even define who they were as a business. We want to inspire them to engage further to help them deliver successful marketing and corporate social responsibility campaigns that use culture in distinct and powerful ways!”

The Alley staff were delighted with the special recomendatons from the guest speakers and certainly reinforeced the Alleys position as the leading arts organisation in the North West!