Vicky Elmer

Overview

The Great Escape Festival is the UK’s leading showcase festival for emerging global talent, combining live performances with a significant B2B industry conference. While critically respected, the festival faced a strategic opportunity to elevate its national profile, deepen industry credibility, and drive ticket sales through a premium media partnership capable of delivering both cultural authority and commercial reach.

To address this, the festival pursued its first-ever strategic partnership with a national newspaper — The Guardian — positioning the relationship as a multi-year, value-exchange media collaboration rather than a traditional sponsorship.

My Role

I led the strategy, negotiation and structuring of the partnership with The Guardian, operating across editorial, commercial and marketing stakeholders on both sides.

Key responsibilities included:

• Partnership Strategy & Valuation: Designed a balanced value-exchange model that aligned editorial integrity with commercial objectives, without compromising the festival’s credibility.

• Negotiation & Deal Structuring: Brokered the festival’s first national media partnership, aligning rights, access, inventory and distribution across print, digital, audio and live environments.

• Stakeholder Management: Coordinated internal festival teams and Guardian editorial, commercial and marketing leads to ensure clear governance and delivery.

• Activation Planning: Oversaw integration across festival programming, marketing, onsite experience and content production.

Delivery & Execution

The partnership was delivered as a fully integrated, omnichannel collaboration, spanning pre-event, live festival and post-event phases:

• Editorial & Content Access:

  • First refusal on festival content

  • Behind-the-scenes access

  • Podcast recording and artist interviews

  • Editorial coverage across print and digital music sections

• Marketing & Media Inventory:

  • Full-page festival advertising in The Guardian

  • Full-page and half-page placements in the Guardian Guide and Festival Guide

  • Logo placement across festival promotional materials

  • Branded venue presence and conference speaker involvement

• Audience Growth & Engagement:

  • Ticket competitions online and in print

  • Guardian social media amplification

  • Newsletter placements

  • Inclusion in the Guardian’s Music Weekly podcast

• Onsite & Retail Integration:

  • Guardian newspaper sales on-site

  • Branded presence within festival venues

Impact & Legacy

• First National Media Partnership: Marked a step-change in the festival’s commercial maturity and media profile.

• Four-Year Partnership Tenure: The success of year one led to renewal and continuation for four consecutive years.

• Increased Credibility & Reach: Elevated The Great Escape’s positioning with artists, industry professionals and audiences.

• Ticket Sales & Awareness Uplift: Delivered measurable value across both consumer and delegate ticket sales.

• Blueprint for Media Partnerships: Established a repeatable model for future media collaborations built on mutual value rather than paid sponsorship alone.

This partnership demonstrated how a well-governed media collaboration can drive audience growth, brand authority and commercial performance while protecting editorial integrity — a model increasingly relevant across festivals, sport, and cultural platforms.