Working together to achieve our objectives: Festival City Theatres Trust and Scottish Ballet
'The relationship with Scottish Ballet has obviously developed over the years. Being the home of Scottish Ballet in Edinburgh, I think that it is very important that we do not treat each visit in isolation and that we build on our knowledge and experience gained to refine and positively develop the strategies that we adopt to promote them. This includes the evaluation of campaigns (including pricing) and monitoring of sales. The two fundamental reasons the relationship with Scottish Ballet works are mutual respect and mutual interest in growing an audience for the company in Edinburgh. I know I sound like a broken record but it's all about having a two-way relationship with the visiting company.'
Anne McCluskey, Sales and Marketing Manager, Festival City Theatres Trust
'A national touring company, with a remit to tour its native land develops a series of 'homes'. The Theatre Royal in Glasgow is considered to be Scottish Ballet's home theatre (it's owned by our sister organisation Scottish Opera, it's in the same city as our studios and most of our productions have traditionally been premiered there). But we also have our 'homes' in Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre is probably still the finest theatre refurbishment in the UK. A traditional 1,700 seat auditorium, one of the largest stages in Britain, it has impressive backstage facilities and a 21st century front of house building and operation. The theatre was conceived as 'a home in east Scotland' for Scottish Ballet (and Opera) and as such, Scotland's National Dance Company works closely with the EFT's team to maintain its profile in the city.
Over recent years, the marketing and press teams at Scottish Ballet and Edinburgh Festival Theatre have established a close working relationship, built on understanding each other's needs. The balance between artistic excellence, bums on seats and selling enough ice cream is a tricky one to get right. By involving the theatre's team in our planning, keeping them up-to-date on our repertoire plans (and most recently our change of direction and relaunch), we have built a strong partnership.
Jointly planned campaigns (both marketing and press) are devised using each organisation's strengths and we constantly look for new ideas to help ticket sales.
Over the past few years, Scottish Ballet has staged two world premieres and several company premieres at EFT. This included the re-launch of the company in September 2003 and the world premiere our first new version of The Nutcracker in 30 years (December 2003).
Scottish Ballet is committed to moving away from selling 'production by production' and to developing Scottish Ballet as a brand - building an audience loyal to the company who, in an ideal world will buy a ticket regardless of, or without even knowing details of, the rep. This approach will also help the theatre in its drive to increase its audience across all dance events.
Obviously stability in the key personnel involved has helped develop the relationship, but even as people move on, we remain confident that our excellent relationship with our east of Scotland 'home' will continue.'