Joint Marketing Campaign by Fairfield Heritage and The Govan Stones

There are two amazing heritage sites within walking distance of each other in Govan (Glasgow), which cover two very different periods of history-  medieval history and the shipbuilding history which continues to be made today.

Fairfield Heritage is run by Govan Workspace who rescued the Fairfield building, former office headquarters of the famous shipyard. They also established the Govan Heritage Trust to rescue Govan Old Church and run the Govan Stones.

In pre-Covid years Govan Workspace raised the funding and organised an extremely popular free ferry between the Riverside Museum on the north bank of the River Clyde and Govan. The ferry ran during the summer months and provided the inspiration of the footbridge currently being built between the two areas. The construction of the bridge makes it impossible to run a ferry, which has affected visitor numbers to Fairfield Heritage and the Govan Stones.

The two sites are natural allies, and it has been an aspiration to advertise on the subway, but the cost has always been prohibitive. The MGS Recovery Fund enabled us to fund this for the first time and it made sense to join forces to maximise the reach of a marketing campaign and extend the length to eight weeks. The funding also enabled Fairfield Heritage to open at weekends for the first time, from July to October 2022. This tied in with the Govan Stones opening times and made joint advertising much easier.

• The marketing campaign was a great success and drew more visitors to Govan who, previously were unaware of the heritage offering.
• It seemed to be more successful than our print leafleting and advert with a heritage magazine.
• Our volunteers gathered information from visitors to see how they found out about the venues.

• The marketing campaign has brought more visitors to the site which will help with word-of-mouth advertising, donations, and shop sales (which goes towards our running costs).
• It helped to strengthen the links between the two organisations.
• It has helped to raise awareness of Govan’s rich heritage offering.
• Advertising on the subway helped spread the word that Fairfield Heritage would be open at the weekends in summer 2022, also a first.
• The campaign helped to portray Govan very visibly as a location to visit.

• It is good to collaborate to maximise the impact of marketing.
• There is an appetite for weekend openings at Fairfield Heritage and we would aspire to raise funding to do this again.

• Identify who you may be interested in working with and begin communications early.
• It is easier to work with smaller museums who sometimes have more flexibility.

Find marketing resources for museums, including a marketing toolkit.

The marketing campaign was funded by MGS’s Museums Recovery Fund, which in 2022 supported Scotland’s independent museums at risk from ongoing financial challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Find out about funding structure, grants outcomes and the projects and organisations MGS awards grants to.