Culture Night was the brainchild of Gráinne Millar which she kick-started in 2006 in Dublin with 40 national cultural institutions, €20k seed funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht (DAHG), attracting 40,000 for a late night cultural experience. Due to the phenomenal success in its first year Gráinne worked closely with the DAHG on the expansion of Culture Night to an all-island event attracting €900k in public funding, half a million visitors in one night and partnerships with RTE and transport providers across the country. Culture Night has succeeded in attracting thousands of new visitors, families, senior citizens and the general public into towns and cities at night for a unique cultural experience that generates media coverage worth €2.5million.
What we did
Stakeholder Engagement – Culture Night involved brokering and developing relationships with local authorities and management companies in 34 cities, towns and regions across island of Ireland. It also expanded internationally in to Belgium, London, Liverpool and Leeds. Grainne developed strategic collaborations with a wide range of stakeholders including Local Authorities, Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dublin Bus, Railway Procurement Agency, DART, RTE, Council of National Cultural Institutions, OPW, Irish Hotels Federation among many others
Innovation Management – Culture Night targeted a whole new customer segment that was interested in attending cultural activities in the evening but due to early closing times, lack of information on the cultural offering and disjoined marketing and branding activites. Culture Night turned this around by delivering a customer-focussed experience that engaged thousands of families and older people into their cities at night.
Marketing – Directing a creative marketing and digital marketing campaign at national level across all the key platforms including advertising, pr and social media
Business Development – Culture Night kicked off as a start-up initiative with seed funding of €20k from the DAGH and over 7 years has succeeded in developing a sustainable model of funding with of €350k from Government; match funding from Local Authorities, support from Failte Ireland and strategic partnerships with a wide range of organsiations to leverage additional support to add value to the experience through free public transport; media partnerships and a wide range of promotional channels. (Dublin Bus, Bus Eireann, LUAS, DART, The Irish Times, RTE
