who we help - sectors

Marketing Support for the Arts & Leisure Sector

Creativity deserves commercial clarity. We help arts, culture, and leisure organisations connect, compete, and grow.

The Marketing Landscape in Arts & Leisure

This is a sector powered by passion — but often limited by resource. Whether you're a cultural institution, venue, gallery, festival, or visitor attraction, the challenge remains the same: do more with less while engaging a digital-first, attention-poor audience.

Challenges you might face:

  • Marketing budgets are stretched thin across audience development, brand, and fundraising
  • Revenue models (ticketing, grants, membership, retail) compete for focus
  • Commercial credibility must balance with creative integrity
  • The digital landscape is noisy, fast-changing, and resource-intensive

What Arts & Leisure Organisations Are Trying to Achieve

At the same time, organisations are under pressure to:

Compete for attention in a culture-saturated world
Prove impact to funders, trustees, and boards
Build new audience pipelines (especially Gen Z and digital-first segments)
Launch or relaunch exhibitions, events, or venues
Modernise marketing while preserving artistic identity

free online audit

Free Marketing Capability Audit

Is your marketing fit for purpose?
Take our 5-minute diagnostic using our proprietary ‘BANKSE’ framework to score your organisation across six core marketing capabilities.

What you'll get:

Instant marketing capability score
Personalised report sent to your inbox
Clarity on which marketing areas to prioritise
Complimentary consultation with our experts to discuss your results

marketing  solutions

How We Help Arts & Leisure Clients

We embed marketing leadership that respects the art but drives the business — helping organisations grow audiences, increase revenue, and deliver meaningful cultural impact with measurable outcomes.

Featured services:

Fractional CMO

Embed senior marketing leadership to bridge the gap between art and enterprise — aligning creativity with outcomes.

Marketing Advisory

Strategic input on audience development plans, digital transformation, and cross-departmental alignment.

Marketing Audit

Review of current marketing output, resourcing, messaging, and digital channels to assess ROI and capability.

Meet Our Arts & Leisure Marketing Expert

Lydia has:

  • Delivered audience growth campaigns for arts organisations.
  • Designed marketing strategies that increased ticket sales and visitor numbers.
  • Created training programmes to upskill in-house marketing teams.
“Arts and tourism businesses often struggle to balance creativity with commercial goals — we help bridge that gap, turning vision into measurable growth.”

Lydia McClelland - Chartered Fractional CMO, VCMO

Our project was to create a top-level marketing strategy which, once built, we could drive forward ourselves. And I can honestly say the work has been transformational for Yellowtail. After each workshop with VCMO, both Dennis Hall and I would be amazed at how much we'd achieved. We worked hard! But the results are worth it.

Sarah Steele
Operations Director, Yellowtail Financial Planning
Read the Case Study

Shout out to Paul Mills who bravely took on running a positioning workshop with us yesterday. Is there anything harder than doing the thing your client does for others for them?! Great work. Really thought provoking, and so important to have facilitated by someone with an external perspective!

Bryony Thomas
CEO, watertight business thinking

Paul is a professional strategic marketeer who is able to apply his expertise with marketing budgets large and small. The commercial impact of Shaw & Co's rebrand, which was initiated, designed and implemented by Paul, has been to differentiate us positively in a sector where few have succeeded. He delivers what he promises, on time and on/under budget, to a high quality. Paul made a positive impact on our business that will last.

Rod Leefe
chair, shaw & co

VCMO's audit brought clarity to a complex set of challenges. They cut through the noise and delivered a clear, prioritised roadmap that we could act on immediately. Their ability to engage across teams and translate insight into action was exactly what we needed.

Dr. Ross Burn
Co-founder, Catsci limited  
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Lydia possesses a deep understanding of marketing strategies and has consistently delivered exceptional results. Her ability to analyse market trends, create engaging campaigns, and drive customer acquisition is truly impressive. Her dedication, attention to detail, and strong communication skills make her an invaluable asset to any organisation. I cannot recommend Lydia enough for her expertise, professionalism, and exceptional work ethic.

Alan Leckey
Business Consultant, CCO - the Collaboration Company  

Paul Mills wasn't just an outsourced marketing leader — he was a mentor. His support helped me enhance my technical marketing skills and shape a more strategic mindset, as well as build my  confidence with senior leadership and deliver higher-impact work. He is dependable and skillful, and his guidance has made me feel more capable and prepared for future challenges.

Caitlin Daniels
marketing manager, catsci limited
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VCMO brings knowledge, insight and practical experience to the table, but also something else, which is quite rare, the unwavering commitment to finishing the job without compromising on the quality of the output. Their work for Yellowtail has been exemplary and we're seeing the results already.

Dennis Hall
founder, yellowtail financial planning

Ruth brought great experience and insight to my firm over many years. Her considered and thoughtful approach to problem solving are a real strength and her experience of marketing and business development in the legal sector was invaluable.

Gavin Tyler
Managing Partner, Cripps

VCMO helped us think beyond our capabilities and reframe how we communicate the true value of what we do. Paul's workshop unlocked fresh ideas resulting in a more strategic approach to our content plan and go-to-market materials. The quality of the output and power of the messaging is really impressive.

Peter Ridgway
Business Development Director, Reach Separations
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VCMO has been instrumental in reshaping how we approach marketing at Lucent. Their strategic clarity, attention to detail, and ability to deliver at pace have been exceptional. Paul's embedded himself seamlessly into the team and quickly earned trust — not just from me, but from our wider staff and partners. The website and content strategy he led have already started delivering results, and I now feel far more confident in how we grow the business over the coming years.

Steven Rowe
Founder - Lucent Financial Planning
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VCMO helped me find the words and structure to communicate what I do — and who I do it for — in a way that finally connects. I’ve had more inbound enquiries since the website relaunch than in the previous two years.

Lee Spencer
aka The rowing marine
Read the Case Study

Ready to bring commercial thinking to creative spaces? Let’s build a marketing strategy that respects your craft — and delivers real results.

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