CORNWALL'S IMAGE MOVES FROM "OLDE WORLDE CHARM" TO "THE NEW BILBAO"

Cornwall Arts Marketing (CAM) has achieved outstanding results with its latest national campaign to improve Cornwall's reputation for culture.

CAM, which receives investment from Objective One, commissioned a series of three supplements in the Guardian celebrating Cornish culture called "Living on the Edge".

Before the supplements appeared, only 1% of the population associated Cornwall with the Arts (see footnote 1). After the supplements, an incredible 70% of polled Guardian readers said it had totally changed their view of Cornwall. A typical quote was:

"Who knew there was such a wealth of talent in Cornwall? It has a real image of olde-worlde charm but not much else - then suddenly you find out that it is as culturally advanced as London, New York or Bilbao!"

Given the campaign reached 2 million people, this shift in perception is equivalent to trebling national awareness of Cornwall's cultural credentials. This was achieved on an £170k budget which is a fraction of what advertisers regularly spend on image makeovers.

Further, from the comments that the 1500 respondents made it was clear that the image of Cornwall had previously been of cream teas and beaches, while the "Living on the Edge" supplement astonished readers by revealing the modernity and vibrancy of Cornish culture. The range of response broke out as follows:

The supplement changed my perceptions of the creative and artistic scene because.....

No other marketing effort on behalf of Cornwall is achieving this type of perception change for the region at a national level. Tourism campaigns in 2004 were mainly tasked to elicit response rather than address image issues, and have a different remit.

In addition 93% of respondents also said that the supplements had made them more likely to visit Cornwall in order to experience the culture. Cultural tourists make up 7m of the UK's 30m holiday taking population (see footnote 2), spending the most on holidays, holidaying out of season and having a great interest in the arts and heritage. So by appealing to them, the CAM supplement has played to Cornwall's objective of attracting higher spending visitors all year round.

In summary Cornwall Arts Marketing's campaign worked to:

An additional result of the campaign is that there are 25 national journalists who now have been bitten by the Cornwall bug. This can only mean more articles about Cornish creativity, giving a balance to the traditional depiction of Cornwall in the national media.

Footnote 1: Source: Beaufort Study conducted for the Image and Brand process by Cornwall Enterprise in 2002

Footnote 2: Source: TGI

For further information please contact Miranda Bird at Cornwall Arts Marketing on 01872 274427.