Creative companies are being urged to look abroad for opportunities. Christian Annesley finds out how they can to make the leap.
Lord Davies of Abersoch, the government
minister for trade, investment
and small business, visited the South
West last month and took questions from a
creative industries audience at an event at
Bristol’s Paintworks hub.
Top of the agenda was how creative
companies could do more to trade internationally,
and what form public sector support
should take to help them.
Davies said he wanted to promote “an era of enterprise in the UK” and give more support to a sector that was only ‘discovered’ by the state 12 years ago but accounts for more than 6 per cent of national GDP. It’s also a particularly important sector to the region, with strong creatives communities of various sorts in Bristol, Plymouth, Gloucestershire and elsewhere.
At the session with Lord Davies, the question of market visits – or trade missions, as many still know them – came up, and the minister committed to undertaking a regional creatives trade mission each year to perhaps three countries.
In fact, the reality of overseas trade-related public sector support for all the businesses that fit under the creatives umbrella is already more varied than that big-mission-once-a-year commitment implies – and more interesting.
UK Trade & Investment’s (UKTI) work with the creative industries already links with activity from the likes of the South West Regional Development Agency and regional creatives agency South West Screen. And the activities of these agencies are also tied to the numerous industry-driven coalitions that dot the region, including Bristol Media and the South West Design Forum.
Caroline Norbury, chief executive of South West Screen, says an international trade adviser has been working for more than a year now in a role dedicated to the creative media industry. The post is co-funded by South West Screen and UKTI.
“It’s already bearing fruit because we have direct contact with so many of the region’s creative companies, and can work with them to deliver the support they need,” she says. The nature of that support varies depending on what part of the creatives landscape businesses inhabit. But mostly it takes the form of small groups of companies attending targeted international events to promote their activities, press the flesh and – sometimes – come away with a contract or two. Chris Knight, an international trade adviser for UKTI, who specialises in supporting the music industry, explains how it works in his particular niche.
“I work closely with the Bristol Music Foundation, which represents music industry professionals locally,” he says. “They are the people with their finger on the pulse and can link UKTI with the right music businesses or musicians to take on a trip – usually to an event or series of events that are the right showcase.”
Market visits like this are speculative by their nature, but for UKTI there needs to be a good chance of the investment yielding a return for each company or individual before it commits, and the selection process is rigorous.
“Once a trip is confirmed, we can make good use of the resources that are already available,” says Knight. “Our colleagues in the embassies and consulates will usually be able to help set up meetings and even host events.”
A typical transatlantic trip is planned shortly that will take in Canadian Music Week in Toronto from 10 to 14 March and then the huge SXSW (South by South West) festivals and conferences in Austin, Texas, from 12 to 21 March. These span music, independent films and emerging technologies, and every year are targeted by numerous creatives.
Beyond these big networking and showcasing events, though, there are plenty of other initiatives afoot. Norbury at South West Screen says one push that should soon pay off is a co-development deal with the Media Development Authority in Singapore.
“Singapore has a strong base of technology skills, but we can help them with the content. Building partnerships between our content-rich businesses and their technologists should offer both parties great opportunities,” she explains.
Technology is in many ways the other challenge that everyone in the creative industries is grappling with, as the landscape continues to change so quickly and the potential to work across media platforms evolves.
“Many companies are now more holistic in the way they operate,” says Norbury. “They might be developing for the web, developing mobile applications and doing more conventional branding work all at the same time, and that’s something only a few of the big overseas events have caught up with. Generally the markets they are selling into still hold their own discrete events.”
The message is clear enough, though: the opportunity to access new markets abroad is there. It’s just a question of picking your targets and getting the right advice about how best to make your move.
Also in: March 2010
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