SOCIAL, CIVIC & ECONOMIC VALUE
Community & social empowerment | Education & learning | Environment | International engagement | Health & wellbeing | Cultural Engagement
BUSINESS PARTNER BENEFITS
Business and/or brand name awareness | Corporate social responsibility (CSR) | Creative development | Developing community links | Image enhancement| Marketing | PR opportunities
The project
Glasgow’s hosting of COP26 in November 2021, presented a fantastic opportunity for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) to make a lasting contribution to the topic of climate change by commissioning and creating a musical response to this critical global issue. Thanks to sponsorship from Aviva Investors and match funding from the C&BS Fund, Symbiosis was written by composer Greg Lawson during the first lockdown and subsequently recorded by the SCO with Finnish violinist, Pekka Kuusisto, in Glasgow’s Clockwork Studios.
Working with Scottish videographer Sandy Butler, SCO also produced a short film that included both an insight into the compositional process, shot on location in beautiful Moniaive in Dumfries & Galloway, and the inspiring performance at Clockwork Studios. The world premiere of Symbiosis was broadcast via the SCO You Tube channel to coincide with the start of COP26 and Aviva separately licenced the film for six months, featuring it on the new Climate Hub on their website.
Although the restrictions of the pandemic negated the initially planned opportunity to perform Symbiosis ‘live’ at COP26, match funding from the C&BS Fund financed the short film that will live on in perpetuity on SCO’s YouTube channel, continuing to encourage people across the world to consider how their actions impact on our climate.
The partnership
Following an introduction from one of SCO’s Board members, who also works for Aviva, the potential for a partnership was realised and, after initial discussions, this unique artistic project was born. With climate change as a common theme of interest, one of the world’s leading musical organisations and a financial organisation leading the way in responsible investment quickly found common ground.
The positive outcomes
From SCO’s perspective, the partnership brought significant PR opportunities in terms of raising brand awareness with new audiences and the project also encouraged SCO to evaluate its own carbon footprint and the environmental impact it creates. Reputationally, the partnership with Aviva Investors and the matching funding from the C&BS Fund allowed the SCO to create something new emotive and highly accessible that is absolutely relevant to the world we live in now.
With just over 3,000 views on the SCO YouTube channel, the Symbiosis film is the ‘most liked’ SCO video ever produced. It also received just under 250,000 views through organic and paid promotion on the Aviva Investors’ LinkedIn page, receiving overwhelmingly positive comments such as: “Beautiful music for a beautiful planet that we love and must protect” and “… nothing like music to inspire us to take action”.