Businesses flocked to the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle City Centre on Thursday morning to hear more about how their involvement in the Shaun on the Tyne art trail can positively impact their business.
Hitting the region in July 2023, a fifty-strong herd of Shaun sculptures will be on display throughout Newcastle upon Tyne, alongside a number of smaller flocks as part of the education and learning programme, before being auctioned off at a special event in the autumn, all in aid of St Oswald’s Hospice.
Opening proceedings, Libby Fryer, Events Manager at St Oswald’s Hospice welcomed attendees to the Great North Museum. “It’s great to see so many of you here, and to welcome some new faces since our last event. We’re excited to share with you how your sponsorship of a Shaun sculpture can really benefit your business,” said Libby, adding that “there are so many ways to enhance employee engagement and get the most of the art trail this Summer.”
NorthStandard, Community Headline Sponsors, took to the floor to share their experiences of being involved in previous art trails with St Oswald’s Hospice and why it’s important to them as a business.
Speaking about their involvement, Ed Davies, Chief Strategy Officer at NorthStandard, explained, “For us, it comes down to two key things. Firstly, it’s great to work with a wonderful organisation. St Oswald’s is a wonderful part of our community, and on a personal level, we really appreciate the amazing work that they do. Secondly, it’s strategically important for us as a business to work with local organisations because it’s so important to the people who work with us. We focus on building engagement, and for both our community and those in our local communities, it’s important.”
Colleague Kate Richardson, Senior Solicitor at NorthStandard, said, “It’s a real privilege to be part of this project. We’re looking to our future and as a company, we have chosen to develop partnerships with local charities, of which St Oswald’s Hospice is one. Like us, they’re committed to their local roots. Our employees are really engaged with St Oswald’s Hospice, too, and the art trail is a really great chance to bring people together.”
Next take to the floor were Shaun on the Tyne event partners Wild in Art. Head of Partnerships, Julie Gaskell, talked through the business sponsorship benefits, how to activate your sponsorship and how to get the most out of your sponsorship. This included opportunities to promote your business to the wider market, how to engage with employees and build the art trail into training and team building activities, as well as maximising marketing and PR opportunities by working with the commissioned artists and telling the story of your sculpture.
Michelle Turton, Digital Project Manager at Wild in Art, presented the companion app for the art trail, highlighting how powerful the app is as an engagement piece for those taking part in the trail and how best to utilise this when creating and the awards and rewards tool. As part of sponsorship, companies can choose to include rewards which are activated whenever their sculpture is visited on the trail, redeemable by app users as they go along.
Libby concluded the event by inviting businesses to network, another key benefit of participating in the Shaun on the Tyne art trail, and reminded everyone that all of the information from today’s event will be shared in due course.
We still have some of our flock in need of a sponsor. If you would like to get involved in this baa-riliant opportunity, we’d love to hear from you.
Find out more and get signed up here.
