Investigating the Adoption of Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies at Institutional Cultural Festivals in Greece. The Case Study of Aeschylia in Elefsina

Abstract

The integrated marketing communication strategies (IMCSs) help institutional festivals not only to keep their audience but also to attract new target groups. These festivals are strongly supported by the local authorities because of the social and economic benefits that outweigh the hurdles of their institutional features. The institutional mixed art festivals are complicated and diverse institutions that have to adopt strategies to promote the intangible cultural products, informing a wide audience. For these reasons, the IMCSs become a powerful tool in the hands of local authorities to adapt to the constantly changing, competitive environment. Furthermore, the qualitative methodology of interviews is adopted and it is supported with the meta-data analysis derived from the annual reports of Aeschylia. In this way, the need to use effectively the IMCSs is highlighted so as the institutional festival can meet the imminent global competitiveness mission of audience attraction and therefore they can be more extrovert to reach the national and international cultural tourism sector, starting being more lucrative.