SOCIAL, CIVIC & ECONOMIC VALUE

Community & social empowerment | Education & learning | Environment | Equality, diversity & inclusion | Health & wellbeing | Tourism | Young people

BUSINESS PARTNER BENEFITS

Business and/or brand name awareness | Corporate social responsibility (CSR) | Developing community links | Enjoyment | Entertaining | PR opportunities | Staff relations & development

The project

Following the restrictions of the pandemic, spring 2022 saw the welcome return of the Edinburgh Science Festival to its usual Easter holiday slot, with the theme ‘Revolutions’ leading a programme of activities, trails, events and exhibitions across Edinburgh, celebrating revolutions in science and ideas.

Sponsorship from Cirrus Logic, match funded by the C&BS Fund, enabled the creation of several key activities including the Wild Scotland photography exhibition on Portobello Promenade, exploring the unique diversity of Scotland’s landscapes, flora and fauna and the relationships between them; Elemental – an immersive, multi-sensory experience about the elements using interactive visual art and music – at Summerhall; and the Family Activities Hub at the City Art Centre, where the venue is transformed into a five-floor science playground for 3-12 year olds, with a strong influence of arts and heritage in both atmosphere and activities. In addition, the sponsorship supported two related activities: ‘Consumed – Not Costing The Earth’ on the Mound – exploring the impact of unsustainable consumer consumption on the plant – and ‘Datasphere’ in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland, an exhibition exploring personal, local and global reliance on data and asking whether access to this was a good thing.

The partnership

Cirrus Logic has supported the Edinburgh Science Festival as its Headline Sponsor for over 10 years, following an initial introduction from a member of the Festival’s board, and has recently become a venue sponsor too. Both organisations see the relationship as more than simply sponsorship, describing themselves as ‘true community partners’. And, in many ways, they are very natural partners too, with the Festival’s mission to ‘inspire, encourage and challenge people of all ages and backgrounds to explore and understand the world around them’ aligning closely with Cirrus Logic’s desire to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) to young minds.

The partnership brings clear benefits to each organisation. Having a company with the profile of Cirrus Logic as their Headline Sponsor gives the Festival leverage to attract other sponsors as well as the funding required to expand and deliver the range and quality of activities on offer. In turn, Cirrus Logic can raise awareness of their brand to new audiences and emphatically demonstrate their philanthropic commitment to the Edinburgh community. Cirrus Logic employees are proud and enthusiastic supporters of the partnership too, enjoying the opportunity to attend the city’s largest and most important science-oriented public event with their families.

The positive outcomes

Sponsorship allows the Edinburgh Science Festival to put on more events which the local community can participate in, including opening up the Family Activities Hub at the City Art Centre to around 400 children from schools in some of Edinburgh’s deprived areas. The 2022 Festival, the first since the pandemic, saw just under 50,000 people participate in the Wild Scotland, Elemental and Family Activities Hub events, while a further 74,000 engaged with the Consumed and Datasphere events. A total of just under 158,000 visitors engaged with the whole Festival and responses from attendees reflected behavioural change in line with Festival’s messaging with, for example, 65% saying they felt a greater responsibility for climate change following Consumed, and 63% agreeing that they had a better understanding of how their data is used following Datasphere. There are now plans to tour Consumed to six Scottish cities, with a funder in place to support this.

Between distribution of the Festival Programme and Newsletter, online articles, TV reports, bus-side advertising, social media and web activities, and print and radio mentions, a potential 327 million people may have been reached through marketing activity around the Edinburgh Science Festival, all of which mentioned Cirrus Logic.