Noisegate support MENCAP fundraising efforts
With a heritage that boasts the Bard William Shakespeare, Stratford’s certainly got talent by the bucket load, but this year’s major local charity event has gone digital to create the town’s next big star.
The 2009 Stratford’s Got Talent competition , which was launched last year, is looking to the web after the show’s inspiration – ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent – witnessed unknown Susan Boyle become an international celebrity overnight with tens of millions of hits on YouTube.
The Scottish singer and runner-up had greater global reach than Barack Obama’s inaugural speech thanks to the Internet, a key factor in deciding to build a website for the Stratford ‘s Got Talent event that takes place at the town’s Civic Hall on Friday 27 November 2009.
The slick new website, designed by Warwick-based Noisegate Media as one of its ‘Not For Profit’ ventures, even allows the ‘wannabe’ stars of South Warwickshire to audition online by videoing themselves and loading it onto YouTube for the judges to decide who to call for personal auditions in September.
According to ‘Stratford’s Got Talent’ founder and Mencap charity fund-raiser, Marianne Harth, the website is going to increase entries and the audience.
“This is the second year we have done this and I believe the web is going to increase our exposure both in terms of talented acts and supporters of the event. This is why I asked Noisegate to bring their experience and production values to the table to give the event that really professional feel.”
“Matt Katz, the creative director of Noisegate, has been fantastic. He has given us his expertise and time and really got behind the event which we know is going to raise a lot of money for Mencap.”
Auditions for places in the finals will also be virtual with singers, dancers, comics and all other interesting talents logging onto the website: www.stratfordsgottalent.org.uk for more details. All entries must be in by July 31 2009. Last year the event raised £4000, but Marianne wants to beat that figure this year.
“We had a good start last year, but I know we can and will do better and this website is a great start,” said Marianne who has herself been singing for fun for nine years.
Coincidentally last year’s winner, Kate Dyde of Bidford, who sang ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Miserables, was rewarded with tickets to the live semi-finals of the 2009 Britain’s Got Talent event in London where Susan Boyle sang the same song to be put through to the final.
This year Noisegate is offering its studio in Warwick to winning acts to record a CD, as one of the prizes.
Matt Katz says: “Much of the work we do here is built around Not For Profit organisations and charities who have not got the financial fire power of the corporate giants but do fantastic work off the back of small but stretched budgets and dedicated volunteers.”
“We will help these organisations where we can by designing and hosting their websites. Stratford’s Got Talent is a good example where I think we can and will make a difference to the event and the lives of those helped by Mencap.”
Other Noisegate projects include the Bath Place Community Venture in Leamington which enjoys free hosting and email, soundfutures Birmingham, the city’s Youth Music Action Zone and Focus On Books, a website project to aid those with visual impairment.
Lawrence Becko, Project Manager of soundfutures, says: “Noisegate built our original website and is now re-developing it. By so doing they are helping our profile and outreach to partners and potential sponsors who can help us to help disadvantaged yet creative young people in North Birmingham. We are all about delivering workshops for young people and the new website will also include a new database of all the musicians that we work with.”
Vivienne Wordley, Web Consultant with Focus On Books added: “Client care is very high on Noisegate’s priority list. It was good to work with such an organised and responsive team who designed and built the Focus website against some almost impossible deadlines, yet turned the project around for us with the minimum of hassle in a matter of weeks.”
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Editor’s notes:
Noisegate Media is a Warwick-based Digital Media Agency that is bringing broadcast production values to business communications. The business has a strong focus upon strategy-driven content creation and CMS web development backed up by complementary services such as search engine optimisation (SEO),email marketing and analytics to help businesses quantify their return on investment.
For further media help, contact John Wilson, Free Range Heads on 07834 460345 or 07766 660790, or email john@freerangeheads.co.uk
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