The Context
Dillon Bass is a well known name in the Northern Ireland drinks industry. For over 35 years they have been distributing their brands and working in partnership with their customers. With share holders Pernod Ricard and Moet Hennessy behind them, they have an enviable portfolio of wines and spirits.
Community Arts Partnership (CAP) is an independent advocate for community arts and offers the widest possible range of assistance and opportunity to get creative and engage in community-based arts activity. Hit the North Street Art Festival was established by Seedhead Arts and the Community Arts Partnership in 2013, and has fast become one of the biggest street art festivals in Ireland, and even boasts an amazing line-up of artists from across Europe.
Local drinks distributor Dillon Bass was searching for a creative way to promote the Hennessey brand to a new audience of urban professionals, aged 25-35. The organisation were keen to form a partnership that helped elevate and position the profile of the cognac, which is a key product offering within their portfolio...
The Solution
Attracted by the vibrancy of Belfast’s street art scene, located in the Cathedral Quarter, local distributor Dillon Bass saw a natural fit with the Hennessey identity and the Hit the North spray art festival (HTN), with a strong affinity between the urban art and the distiller's craft.
This synergy between the Hennessy brand and Hit the North, an outward looking creative spray art festival, extends the relationship Hennessy has already had with the world of art for several decades. Hennessy has identified the creative arts as a universal language that reflects its own unique global brand experience. They see supporting innovative talent as a longstanding part of Hennessy’s identity, and regularly commission artists to celebrate events of global importance, annual holidays or the arrival of limited edition or signature brands. Those who will attend and be inspired by Hit the North spray art festival (urban younger people aged 25 – 35) fall neatly into the key demographic Hennessy are eager to connect with the product.
With the investment of Hennessy, and matched support from Arts & Business NI, HTN will be able to secure two headline artists who will leave their unique indelible legacy on prime locations in Belfast.
Artists Telmomeil and Shok One will create eight new high quality large scale street art works during the ten day festival of street art, and there will also be workshops with eight community groups, street art and black taxi mural tours and culminating in a day long jam of street art and music.
These outputs will be a bold representation of a shared cultural space which will impact on the urban environment long after the main festival has finished. The festival will attract artists and visitors from across the world, animate the festival site with live art and leave a legacy of high quality spray murals, which will continue to position Belfast as a global centre for street art. Throughout the world, street art is seen as a clear signifier of contemporary urban vibrancy. Cities have forged an international reputation by investing in and curating their underused and ‘meantime’ urban space.
“For several decades, Hennessy has identified the creative arts as a universal language that reflects its own unique global brand experience. We see supporting innovative talent as a longstanding part of Hennessy’s identity and regularly commission artists to celebrate events of global importance or the arrival of limited edition/ signature brands. We identified a synergy between the Hennessy brand and the outward looking Hit the North creative spray art festival, a new tradition of positive murals which celebrate a New Belfast. This new partnership with Hit the North enables us to align the Hennessy brand with the creative sector in Belfast to raise brand awareness and build brand positioning. We are excited about the sharable positive content which will be generated before, during and after the event, raising awareness of Belfast as an epicentre of street art, the Hennessy brand and the HTN festival. The partnership will also allow us some novel opportunities for corporate hospitality of both established and prospective clients.”
Laura Shiels, Brand Manager Dillon Bass Ltd
“CAP seeks to work collaboratively with a whole range of partners. This opportunity, to extend our partnership with the incomparable Seedhead Arts and begin a fantastic new relationship together with Hennessy as sponsors, will support great new work by fabulous artists, from home and abroad. So, its a win, win, win!”
Conor Shields, Community Arts Partnership
