Baillie Gifford and Edinburgh International Book Festival entered a new three-year partnership. Their approach is collaborative, blending corporate social responsibility and marketing benefits whilst supporting the festival with their ambitions.
This sponsorship gives Baillie Gifford the opportunity to communicate brand narrative to an audience similar to those who invest in their funds, as well as provide opportunities for staff engagement and support initiatives around their investment research. Their in-kind support and funding also helped the festival reach their own strategic objectives.
The festival took place from 13-29 August, with Schools Gala Day taking place on 30 August. Baillie Gifford supports the School’s and Children’s programmes, as well as venues and events.
Coming out of the pandemic, the priority was to entice audiences back on scale. We wanted to increase ticket sales, encourage more people to visit the festival site, bring back schools and re-engage Baillie Gifford staff.
Our partnership approach resulted Baillie Gifford brand narrative being exposed to over 100k in-person festival goers, as well as a digital event reach to over 65 countries. Tickets sales for the festival increased 67% compared to 2021, and we were able to enhance the programme of free activity and increase accessibility. Families returned in their droves, resulting in an increase of over 11.5k ticket sales for the children’s programme. Baillie Gifford’s bespoke staff events resulted in near 50% of staff taking part in bespoke events. The sponsorship has been a great success and we are excited about what we can achieve next year.
