Britten 100

10 October 2018

Britten 100 – the widest ever global celebration of a British composer – was an unprecedented collaboration between the Britten-Pears Foundation and partners from the worlds of performing arts, publishing, broadcasting, film, academia, tourism and heritage to celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten in 2013. Albion Media was employed from October 2011 to August 2014 by The Britten-Pears Foundation to not only be responsible for the UK PR for Britten 100 but also to coordinate and support the promotional activities of its numerous local, national and international partners taking part in Britten 100.

Albion Media planned and implemented impactful and far-reaching media campaigns about Britten projects such as a new Britten coin, the new Britten Archive & Library building at The Red House, the various Britten biographies, films, digital and education initiatives such as a Britten App, the Friday Afternoons project and key performances, events and exhibitions around the UK and the world.

Albion Media was effective in bringing together the 40+ UK partners in Britten100 – from Aldeburgh Music, Arts Council England, Birmingham Royal Ballet and the BBC, to the Royal Mint, Sky Arts, British Library, Visit Britain and Wigmore Hall – through a series of pre-launch meetings and on-going support to co-ordinate all communications thereby creating a powerful momentum and a well-planned media operation which facilitated maximum impact in the media over a sustained period.

Other key achievements included organising a major media launch event which resulted in extensive news reporting in mainstream national and international media; creating all-embracing media resources for the year; and identifying and fostering key Britten spokespeople from celebrity fans such as film director Wes Anderson and actor Patrick Stewart to many of the key artists leading Britten projects from choreographer Richard Alston to opera legend Dame Janet Baker. Albion Media was also a crucial resource in crisis management for the Britten-Pears Foundation and many of its partners by managing the reputation of Britten in the wake of the heightened media interest in potentially damaging issues which emerged during the year.

The extensive national and international media coverage, sustained across more than a year in the widest possible media, firmly underlined Britten’s truly global appeal and status as one of the most important cultural figures of the twentieth century and drew new and appreciative audiences to Britten and his work worldwide.