Fresh, sophisticated and contemporary image of Scotland

6 PROMOTION

6.1 Within the framework of Scotland’s London 2012-Glasgow Cultural Plan, the delivery of the Programme sought to make a contribution to the image of Scotland on a national and international stage. As with other ambitions, the desire to produce ‘a fresh, sophisticated and contemporary image of Scotland’ is extremely difficult to measure, especially in the short term. The same can be said of objectives pertaining to cultural regeneration and the creative industries. That said, in this chapter, evidence is presented that suggests elements of the Programme did make a contribution to Scotland’s image, nationally and internationally. However, more systematic evaluation activity needs to be undertaken in the future to ensure that the promotional value of Glasgow’s 2014 Cultural Programme is assessed more comprehensively.

The objectives set out in Table 1 have been grouped into key themes: - Fresh, sophisticated and contemporary image of Scotland - Cultural regeneration and impact on creative industries

Fresh, sophisticated and contemporary image of Scotland

6.2 Given that Scotland did not benefit extensively from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in terms of hosting sport events, the nations and regions approach to cultural programming provided areas geographically distant from the host city with a valuable opportunity to raise their profile and secure high media visibility. There is some evidence from projects, through their responses to the UK Evaluation Survey and End of Project Reports that involvement in the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival helped them in a number of ways.

6.3

6.4 A good example of an event that provided the strategic agencies involved in supporting the Programme with an opportunity to promote ‘a fresh, sophisticated and contemporary image of Scotland’ was Sistema’s Big Concert. Outside of the artistic merits of the project itself, there was an early recognition in strategic interviews with partner funders that the concert, launching the London 2012 Festival, would bring about the sorts of benefits they were targeting. For example, EventScotland was keen to fund because it was bringing attention to Scotland at the launch of the London 2012 Festival, putting Scotland at the centre of an internationally recognised broadcast event.

Twenty-six projects reported that they gained greater national profile from involvement in the Cultural Olympiad (illustrated in Figure 13). A further 20 projects reported that they felt part of a bigger national celebration, and 19 indicated that involvement increased the ambition/scope of their project. Importantly, for the focus of this chapter, 15 projects reported that they gained greater international profile from their involvement. These data do not reflect the benefits gained by projects that were not covered by the UK Evaluation Survey, but findings generated from strategic interviews and the research symposium further strengthen the evidence that involvement in a wider programme brought tangible benefits.