For the Arts Marketing Association conference in Glasgow, we made a newspaper to give to delegates.

The AMA conference is the biggest event in the arts marketing calendar. For us, it’s a huge gathering of clients and potential clients. This year it was Glasgow’s turn to host and Michael attended and represented us.
To make the most of the 2011 conference we wanted to create a piece of publicity. This is a savvy audience, we knew that a cheap flyer would just be thrown away but an expensive brochure would send all the wrong messages. We knew that there would be lots of down-time at the conference, gaps between sessions when people would be looking for a distraction to fill their time.
Our solution was to create a newspaper, filled with tips about design, web and print production. We arranged for a paper to be placed in every conference ‘goody-bag’.
Stupidly, we left it to the last minute. We made the decision to create a newspaper, three days before the deadline we had to hit in order to print and deliver it in time for the conference.
Within three days we wrote and designed the whole 20 pages publication and prepared it for print. Three days later we had 24hrs to fold and wrap enough copies to fulfill our obligation and get them couriered to the AMA in Cambridge.
Was is successful, was it worth the effort and the investment? We’ve got no idea.
We had plenty of positive feedback, people told us it was an interesting read and they kept it long after the conference, but we’ve not real, tangible reason to believe that we’ve got any work out of it, or raised our profile or changed perceptions.
Would we do it all again? Maybe but if we do, we’ll try to plan for it, a little earlier and we’d make sure we had some kind of clear method of measuring success.
Related

Our AMA Conference 2015 to-do list
We've always thought the most interesting thing about conferences was what happened when we got back to the office. So...

25 July ’18
Jack’s at the Everyman Playhouse Bistro for an evening of Jazz and dinner with fellow AMA conference attendees.

24 July ’18
Jack’s at the Arts Marketing Association conference in Liverpool. In his capacity as an AMA Member Rep, he’s having a...

24 July ’17
Jack is off to the AMA conference in Belfast tomorrow, so our digital team have assembled to project manage their...

23 July ’18
Jack's getting ready for the AMA conference tomorrow in Liverpool, Keep your eyes peeled for his top tips.

1 August ’17
Jack's at the AMA conference, and the rest of us are in the studio, frantically producing our annual top tips.

10 July ’19
It's time for our speed design challenge of the year, Anna and Kristina are creating our top tips from the...

11 July ’19
Jack's watching Lemn Sissay speak (or rather perform) at the AMA conference's closing keynote.

12 July ’12
Michael has been at the AMA conference in Brighton this week, today, in between lectures, he popped into the Harrison...

13 November ’14
One of us has been sharing their birthday celebration with the Arts Marketing Association. They are 21 today, we're too...

16 October ’13
Ross is reading through the fourth and final edition of The Centurion newspaper, which we designed for the London Philharmonic...

AMA Conference 2016
Our top-tips and takeaways from the Arts Marketing Association's 2016 Conference, titled 'On a Mission to Matter', held in Edinburgh.

AMA conference 2017
Our highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association's 2017 conference, titled 'The Value of Everything', held in Belfast.

AMA conference 2018
Jack's highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2018 conference, titled ‘The Power of Play’, held in Liverpool.

AMA conference 2019
Jack’s highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2019 conference, titled ‘Rewire: culture, audiences & you’, held in Newcastle...

Our AMA Conference 2015 to-do list
We've always thought the most interesting thing about conferences was what happened when we got back to the office. So...

25 July ’18
Jack’s at the Everyman Playhouse Bistro for an evening of Jazz and dinner with fellow AMA conference attendees.

24 July ’18
Jack’s at the Arts Marketing Association conference in Liverpool. In his capacity as an AMA Member Rep, he’s having a...

24 July ’17
Jack is off to the AMA conference in Belfast tomorrow, so our digital team have assembled to project manage their...

23 July ’18
Jack's getting ready for the AMA conference tomorrow in Liverpool, Keep your eyes peeled for his top tips.

1 August ’17
Jack's at the AMA conference, and the rest of us are in the studio, frantically producing our annual top tips.

10 July ’19
It's time for our speed design challenge of the year, Anna and Kristina are creating our top tips from the...

11 July ’19
Jack's watching Lemn Sissay speak (or rather perform) at the AMA conference's closing keynote.

12 July ’12
Michael has been at the AMA conference in Brighton this week, today, in between lectures, he popped into the Harrison...

13 November ’14
One of us has been sharing their birthday celebration with the Arts Marketing Association. They are 21 today, we're too...

16 October ’13
Ross is reading through the fourth and final edition of The Centurion newspaper, which we designed for the London Philharmonic...

AMA Conference 2016
Our top-tips and takeaways from the Arts Marketing Association's 2016 Conference, titled 'On a Mission to Matter', held in Edinburgh.

AMA conference 2017
Our highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association's 2017 conference, titled 'The Value of Everything', held in Belfast.

AMA conference 2018
Jack's highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2018 conference, titled ‘The Power of Play’, held in Liverpool.

AMA conference 2019
Jack’s highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2019 conference, titled ‘Rewire: culture, audiences & you’, held in Newcastle...

Our AMA Conference 2015 to-do list
We've always thought the most interesting thing about conferences was what happened when we got back to the office. So...