Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery: Norwich Castle Tea Day
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service, Shirehall, Market Avenue, Norwich, NR1 3JQ
Contact: Esther Morgan, Hub Communications Officer
esther.morgan@norfolk.gov.uk
Name of Event: Norwich Castle Tea Day
Date(s): Friday 16 May
Budget: £950.00
Theme: The History of Tea and Tea Drinking
Objectives:
To form a promotional partnership with Let's Talk magazine to allow Norwich Castle to reach new audiences
To attract new visitors to Norwich Castle
To attract an over 55s age group to Norwich Castle as part of a service-wide strategy to increase audience in this key group for Norfolk
To provide visitors with an informative and entertaining event
To key into the East of England's Chinese take on the 'Ideas and Innovation' theme under the branding of 'China East - it's not as far as you think'
Describe the event/activity (briefly):
The Norwich Castle Tea Day was run as a reader-exclusive competition in Let's Talk magazine, a monthly local interest magazine aimed at an older readership in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. The magazine has a circulation of around 27,000 and a readership of 81,000. NMAS is keen to build audience among the over 55s age group, a key priority group for county councils in the East of England, given the region's ageing population and rural isolation (particularly in the northern counties).
The Tea Day was therefore designed to appeal to this age group with a package of events for the competition winners that included:
An illustrated talk on the history of tea by John Griffiths, author of Tea: the Drink that Changed the World
An illustrated talk by a museum guide in 18th century costume about Norwich Castle's famous tea pot collection with a 'timeline' of real tea pots
A tea-tasting demonstration by the Wallingford Tea & Coffee Company with complimentary slice of cake
Free entry into Norwich Castle for the whole day (the tea events ran in two groups, one in the morning, one in the afternoon)
Overall evaluation of event (in terms of numbers attending, target groups reached, media coverage and other objectives met):
The Let's Talk competition proved to be a successful way of attracting visitors and promoting Norwich Castle to a wider readership via a publication that it hadn't featured in before. A whole page was devoted to the competition (a full page advert would have cost £1,020, more than the budget for the event).
The competition was oversubscribed with 268 entries for 100 places. Of these 129 said they were happy to be added to the NMAS mailing list, thereby providing a lasting legacy in terms of marketing from the event.
76 people attended: this was not designed to be a large-scale event, given its nature and the fact that numbers for the tea tasting had to be limited. (There were some 'no-shows' on the day - the weather was bad and we received a couple of apologies due to ill health.)
Evaluation was successful: 75% of those attending filled in an evaluation form. 100% of the respondents rated the event as 'Excellent' or 'Good' with many enthusiastic comments (see section below).
The event attracted our target audience of older people: 53% of respondents were in the 65+ age group, while the rest were in the 45-64 age group.
The event also attracted new visitors: 34% of respondents had never visited Norwich Castle before while 17% had not visited a museum or art gallery in the last 5 years. One respondent saying they hadn't set foot inside a museum for over 25 years while another comment demonstrated the impact of the day in terms of changing attitudes: "Everything was excellent. Thank you for a wonderful day. It's 10 years [since last visited a museum or art gallery] but I'm now converted - I'll be back!"
What made this event/activity special to the participants, special for the museum or gallery?
For the participants this event gave them:
First and foremost a great quality day out with an unusual and informative mix of events: to be able to hear about the history of tea and tea drinking, to see some of the most valuable and unusual tea pots from the collection close up and then to be able to try a variety of teas and learn about how and where they are grown allowed them to explore a fascinating subject in the round.
A multi-sensory experience, ideal for an age group that may have included visually impaired or hard of hearing visitors.
The opportunity to explore the whole of Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery as well as attending the tea-themed events.
The level of appreciation can be judged by some of the comments received:
"I found it all very interesting and the cake was excellent"
"I enjoyed the talk by John Griffiths - I thought he had a lovely voice and enjoyed
all the facts. He was humorous and enlightening."
"The whole event was most interesting and very enjoyable. The cake was delicious!"
"Very informative talks, lovely people."
For the museum this event allowed us to:
Put on a new kind of event we might not otherwise have experimented with - we hadn't done a tea-tasting before!
Develop an important audience for the museum, including adding contacts to our mailing list that will help encourage repeat visits.
Make a connection with a significant regional publication which it's hoped will form the basis for future collaboration.
Develop staff expertise and knowledge: Tea Day allowed the museum guide who did the tea pot talk the opportunity to research a subject dear to her heart (she is also a ceramics artist). She will be able to deliver this in the future.
How will this project inspire you for the future? And, how could it inspire others?
Let's Talk want to work with us on reader opportunities for the future and I will be discussing possibilities with them soon. This is an exciting new development that could pay real dividends in terms of promoting NMAS to this audience.
The evaluation process has shown that this kind of event offering a variety of experiences is popular with audiences. We are looking at ways of repeating the Tea Day for this age group, perhaps bringing the talk and tea tasting in house.
Organisationally, the event was a challenge but went smoothly due to careful planning and will give staff involved the confidence to run similar events in the future.
The over 55s can be a hard to reach audience, with issues of cost, mobility and transport, particularly in a rural setting, contributing to a reluctance to visit museums and galleries. The success of Norwich Castle Tea Day shows how a combination of an innovative marketing approach and imaginative event can reach a new audience.
