'Culturally braver'

THE GUARDIAN

Photo of a woman looking up at an abstract sculpture of a giant and colourful hibiscus flower, with urban buildings in the background.
DAVID LINDSAY

Leeds Culture Trust

The challenge

Following the EU referendum, UK cities were disqualified from becoming European Cities of Culture. LEEDS 2023 was never going to happen – or so it seemed. Leeds City Council announced it was “going ahead anyway”, and we worked with the Leeds Culture Trust for more than four years to deliver their vision.

The aim was to create a transformational year of events celebrating the city’s creative and cultural identity. It was up to us to champion culture in the post-Covid economy and realign Leeds as the place to be in 2023.

The work

First off, we built anticipation for the upcoming programme. We followed our One Year to Go campaign with regular updates, visual countdowns and opinion-led, research-backed media pieces. By creating a series of milestones on which to hook the story, we engaged Leeds-connected influencers for collaboration. Once LEEDS 2023 officially launched, we maintained this momentum around more than 1,100 events across the city, taking home a PRCA Dare Award in 2024 for our outstanding work.

Photo of a man in a yellow hoodie, looking out across the Leeds skyline at dusk.
LEEDS 2023
Photo of a man looking through a telescope on a blue-sky day. In the background is a bus decorated with a galaxy print.
JMA PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo of a crowd of people silhouetted against a body of water at twilight. On the water are two, lit-up structures.
JMA PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo of a sculpture of lots of tall lengths of wood stood up and connected by metal beams in Leeds city centre.
TOM JOY

The impact

In total, we achieved over 3,000 articles and opinion pieces across regional, national and international publications. Our campaign contributed to the recruitment of more than 1,000 volunteers and helped the team to secure 57 sponsors and funders – doubling the Council’s initial investment.

The cherry on the cake was the huge shift in the representation of Leeds, which was celebrated as being “culturally braver” by The Guardian and the ‘Best City in the North and North East’ by The Sunday Times. True testament to the success of the campaign came from the independent ING report, ‘The UK’s Most Talked About Cities’, which described Leeds as having “clear ambition to drive a creative recovery from the pandemic and boost engagement in culture.”

A collage of media coverage celebrating Leeds’ Year of Culture, featuring headlines and logos from The Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, BBC News, BBC Radio 2, Channel 4 News, and The Yorkshire Post. Images include a large colourful public artwork in the city, and a dramatic stage performance with a costumed performer surrounded by flames. Headlines reference Leeds as a creative, award-winning city and an “awakening city” brought together through culture and celebration.

Helped us to shift the narrative

Anita Morris and her team provided LEEDS 2023 with excellent comms strategy, advice and service. What sets them apart from other PR agencies is that they truly understand our vision and mission and so are completely aligned with delivering strategic comms that meets our objectives.

The team have been responsible for us surpassing our media coverage goals, but what is more significant, is that they have helped us to shift the narrative told about Leeds.

Abigail Scott Paul
Director of External Relations and Strategic Partnerships, LEEDS 2023

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