FEDERICA PUGLIESE – MARKETING DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT AT EDEN COURT THEATRE AND CINEMA (INVERNESS)

I am now a few months into my one-year position at Eden Court Theatre and Cinema in Inverness. Eden Court is the Highlands’ cultural hotspot – a multi-arts venue with two theatres and two cinemas, which every year brings to the Highlands over 400 different theatre shows as well as a very wide selection of films; in addition to this, Eden Court has the largest arts education programme of any UK theatre. As such, the venue is characterised by a highly diverse, inclusive and accessible programme – with activities, films and shows suitable for people of all ages and needs.

My position at Eden Court is Marketing Development Assistant, and my specific task is to market their fantastic cinema programme. In particular, Eden Court is looking to increasing and enhancing its audience for non-mainstream cinema. This project is supported by Film Hub Scotland, which is part of the BFI FAN – Film Audience Network.

In the past few months I have been working on producing new marketing material – such as flyers, e-newsletters and social media activity to highlight each month the best of non-mainstream and independent cinema showing at Eden Court. I also worked on marketing the Eden Court Inverness Film Festival, a brilliant and exciting event that promotes world cinema in the Highlands; this last edition ended up being a really successful one, with a number of sold out screenings and the record of tickets sold in 15 years of festival. I also had the opportunity to attend one of the amazing ICO Screening Days events, where I could watch some brand new films before their theatrical release while meeting exhibitors from all over the country.

Overall, I can say it’s been an amazing experience so far, as well as a challenging one. In fact, Eden Court delivers culture over a very vast area, and every year it is visited by over 300.000 people – more than the entire population of the Highlands. Being used to work in larger cities and/ or more populated regions, I found it really interesting to learn how to reach and engage with audiences in such a different context – in a region where the population is spread over a very vast area.

Even though a basic knowledge of marketing was definitely relevant to the job, I would say that passion and knowledge of film, together with an interest in audience development, were crucial

for being selected as a candidate for this position. In this respect, having attended the Film, Exhibition and Curation MSc course in Edinburgh has definitely played a relevant role in the selection process, while also providing me with the confidence and skills necessary to take on this as well as other future projects.