For its second annual Canada House initiative at The Great Escape (TGE) 2013, the UK’s premier annual music event, CIMA expanded and built upon the previous year’s model, which included a pre-TGE networking event at the Canadian High Commission in London, a speed dating at session in Brighton during TGE and a full slate of Canada House showcases under the Canadian Blast Brand, and extensive promotion before and during the festival. TGE attracts over 3,000 delegates from around the world and features upwards of 300 local and international artists across 30 venues over the course of the three day event.
- Canadian Presence: CIMA hosted a two B2B networking sessions for delegates registered with Canada House. The first, “Focus on UK Booking Agents,” at the Canadian High Commission just before TGE began hosted 98 delegates for four hours of meetings, providing 14 Canadian companies the opportunity to network with 82 foreign delegates. The second session, a speed dating event in Brighton, hosted 36 Canadian and international delegates and facilitated about 324 meetings. In addition, Canada House hosted 14 of the 27 Canadian acts that performed over TGE 2013: The Elwins, The Balconies, Young Rival, A Tribe Called Red, Mo Kenney, AA Wallace, Cousins, Del Barber, Shuyler Jansen, Royal Canoe, Lab Coast, Boats, Fist City and Foam Lake.
- Marketing & Promotion:
To promote the Canadian Blast showcases, CIMA sent targeted invitations to over 700 delegates, distributed 60 posters across festival grounds and 5000 flyers throughout Brighton. A UK PR company, Full Fat, was hired to rouse media interest, and an extensive social media campaign across all major platforms and CIMA websites was executed. CIMA also curated an exclusive, downloadable SoundCloud mixtape featuring all showcasing acts. - Outcomes: All three days of Canadian Blast showcases were sold out or near capacity. Canadian companies reported making 232 new business contacts, having meetings with 290 existing contacts facilitated. Survey respondents reported 109 deals started or finalized in the areas of gigs, touring, festival bookings, booking agent signings, licensing, publishing and distribution. Respondents reported $53,000 from these finalized deals and projected $318,000 in potential revenue over the following 36 months.
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