We handled the media relations and re-branding of this (at that point) small but nationally significant festival in 2001, introducing for the first time a media partnership with the Yorkshire Post and Writers News, in addition to local, regional and national (listings) coverage of the festival: audience numbers rose in that year by 60%.
Following the appointment of a new Festival Director, we were re-appointed in 2005 since when we have held the PR account for this growing and increasingly successful festival, now the largest and most prestigious of its kind in the North of England. The Festival’s media profile has grown year on year with listings, previews, features, author interviews and reviews across regional print and broadcast media and national consumer arts media.
In the run up to the Festival we provide a proactive and lively press office function. With access to dozens of literary agents and over 165 authors who attend the Festival each year we are able to respond at short notice to media requests, to seek out relevant opportunities for the Festival and identify comment opportunities for its director.
The expansion and growth of online media plays an increasingly significant and integrated part of the media strategy, enabling us to extend the reach of the Festival far beyond its Yorkshire roots. Bloggers regularly post from the Festival and, in partnership with the Yorkshire Post, each year we arrange a series of podcasts that remain available online year round on both the Festival and Yorkshire Post websites.
In the four years from 2007-2010 we increased the number of editorial pieces by over 400%, supported with sustained and integrated coverage in the Ilkley Gazette, the Yorkshire Post and BBC Radio Leeds. 180 articles that featured Ilkley Literature Festival were published in 2010 reaching a circulation of over 2 million editorial opportunities to see and a fee to value ratio of almost 1:40.
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