Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal December 2007 Volume 5(6)

Marketing: ELISA

A new face for the public

When the Edinburgh Libraries & Information Services Agency (ELISA) started planning a festival of libraries for the public, it became clear that a rebranding exercise was in order. Wendy Ball describes the difficult but successful process.

In 2006, ELISA ran a successful Edinburgh Libraries Fair that fulfilled a useful role in raising the profile of services within the profession. This led ELISA to think about running another large event, but this time aimed at raising the public’s awareness of services based in the Capital. It was decided that there were numerous benefits to be gained through such an event, counterbalanced only by practical considerations that could be overcome with good planning. Work on the event began under the working title of Edinburgh Libraries Fair 2007.

An organising team of about 15 people, representing over 11 different services began the planning process. But as work continued, I had a persistent uneasiness about the name of the event, in my role of ELISA Development Officer. ‘Edinburgh Libraries Fair’ implied an event targeted at the profession, as in a trade fair. As we hunted for an alternative name and banner for this event, we realised that we were having to find the public face of ELISA. The current branding and tones of communication were fine for the profession but something radically different was needed to reach the general public.

I asked for help from people with marketing expertise including, as one contributor termed it, people “untainted by the library experience”. We are grateful to Colman Getty Scotland, Elmwood Design, and Publishing Scotland for their valuable input at this stage. The result of these deliberations was the proposal that the event should be called Edinburgh’s Festival of Libraries. Firstly, Edinburgh does festivals well and everyone understands what they are. Secondly, the whole purpose of the event is to celebrate what libraries have to offer. Thirdly, library is a perfectly good word that says it all. This might be stating the obvious but there is a lack of confidence in it within the LIS sector. As soon as the name was decided, there was nervousness about whether people would come to a ‘library’ thing in their spare time, and whether the public would believe that festiveness and libraries can go together. On the day our fears were proven unfounded.

The idea that libraries in Edinburgh are worth celebrating was then carried through into the redesign of the branding. A clear, simple message was created with a bold clean design. Thanks are due to the Design Team at City of Edinburgh Council for this work.

In any development work it is important to look at existing, successful models, but as we did so we realised we were doing something new. Many library services have achieved excellent results in raising profiles through themed events, such as the Aye Write Book Festival in Glasgow, or through the efforts of one sector such as the Look@Libraries’ Festival organised by the East Renfrewshire public library service, or as part of a larger event such as the Scottish Learning Festival, but we were planning to showcase libraries for libraries’ sake. We have in fact been pipped to the post in our claim to be the first festival of its kind in the UK by three days. The Festival of Libraries in Wales opened on 3 October! This is a juggernaut in scale, being a month-long national festival, and it will be very important to listen to our Welsh colleagues’ assessment.

Edinburgh’s Festival of Libraries emerged as a one-day event to be held on a Saturday in an easily accessible location in central Edinburgh. Over 40 Edinburgh-based services needed little persuasion to exhibit. We had every confidence that once through the doors, the collections and resources libraries had to offer would provide plentiful entertainment and interest. What was becoming crucial was the need to find the components that would get people through those doors in the first place.

The first step was to consider who we wanted to attract. We identified the following target audiences: children and families, readers and writers, family and local historians, book lovers, and specialist information seekers.

The stalls were to be the main vehicle to showcase the services. The stalls were to be manned and the aim was that they would be as interactive as possible. All the exhibitors went to a lot of trouble to make their stands look attractive and to provide a range of activities for visitors of all ages - and a generous supply of freebies. A programme of talks was designed to offer a range of interesting topics. The final programme consisted of 16 short talks, of about 20 minutes each, taking place in two rooms adjacent to the main exhibition area.

The programme of speakers were of exceptional quality and without their generous contribution of time and effort this feature of the event would have been impossible. A third element of the event comprised additional features that we hoped would hook in visitors. This included the involvement of a high profile person. Lesley Riddoch kindly agreed to attend and to give a talk on her new book. Unfortunately, there was mismatch in audience and intentions which led to Lesley adding great value to the talks but not drawing a large audience. There was a traditional leather bookbinding demonstration from Colin McArthur of Riley Dunn and Wilson, paper art by Joanne Kaar, and a large green balloon-bedecked mobile library parked outside. We had wanted live music but were thwarted at the last hurdle.

Marketing the event was always going to be crucial for the event’s success. However, several factors were conspiring against us. There was a lack of support at institutional level. Individuals worked hard but often the message did not translate into the institutions at large. Some services needed a lot of prompting to even advertise the event. Although attempts were made to find sponsors, there was insufficient time. There was no budget. Responsibility for the success or failure of the event rested on one individual - me. In spite of these hurdles, the situation was radically improved by the proactive engagement of City of Edinburgh Corporate Communications staff who devised a communications plan, pushed through the design and printing material, offered concrete suggestions on distribution and publicity. Significant help was also afforded by the serendipitous involvement of the Scotsman Photographic and Digital Archive who were key to getting advertisements in the press. In addition, the public libraries distribution networks worked well, and colleagues in adjacent local authorities very generously distributed publicity.

On the day, the organisers and a band of 15 volunteer helpers, together with over 60 staff manning the stalls, were bowled over by the buzz and interest. Approximately 700 visitors came at a fairly constant pace throughout the day. There was a 30% return of feedback questionnaires and these revealed a very high level of satisfaction, with 63% of visitors stating they would definitely come back next year. The exhibitors also recorded a high level of satisfaction, with 20 out of the 25 respondents stating that they would definitely want to exhibit another time.
Interestingly, 21% of people providing feedback stated that they were infrequent library users. Of this group 61% said they would definitely come back another time, and 30% said they would perhaps come back.

There were three key points that emerged from visitors’ general comments. A large number of people commented on the atmosphere of the event and on how friendly and helpful the stall holders were. Secondly, many visitors found the great variety of services all together under one roof a stimulating and valuable experience. Thirdly, nearly all the feedback singled out stalls or talks for praise, indicating that the range was huge and that the event had attracted a wide range of people with different interests.

Although there is an established library fanbase, Edinburgh’s Festival of Libraries has proven that it was an immensely effective way to reach out to existing and potential audiences. ELISA nurtures the professional community based in Edinburgh, but this event also seems to indicate that there is value in creating a sense of community amongst library users.

We were trying to raise public awareness about the vast range of knowledge and information resources accessible to all. It demonstrated that we can believe in a ‘library concept’ that can be appreciated and understood by the general public – libraries can be appreciated for libraries’ sake.

Wendy E. Ball is ELISA Development Officer. e: wendy.ball@edinburgh.gov.uk; ELISA website

Information Scotland Vol. 5(6) December 2007

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