Curiosities Cabinet: December 2016

A Critical Review of Contributing Theories in Cirque du Soleil's Innovation Process

19:08

INTRODUCTION

The discourse of innovation is dominated by its implementation in technological landscape which divides the history of innovation into several phases of long waves. Until nowadays, there are 5 types of long waves with their very own characteristics. Eventually, one cycle of the long wave will change to another cycle in a period of 50 years (Schumpeter, 1936; Dosi, 1982; Tylecote, 1992). While this is true, there is less discourse related to non-technological innovation, hence this essay will discuss innovation in terms of creative industries. The purpose is to strengthen understandings about innovation as a versatile concept that covers a wide range of subjects.

This essay will review and analyse how theories of creativity and innovation are applied in the performing arts industry as one of the sectors of creative industries (DCMS, 2001) with a focus on Cirque du Soleil (CDS) as a real-life organisational example. The essay’s structure is based on Smith’s (2006) three stages of innovation theory, which consists of: (1) invention; (2) commercialisation; (3) diffusion and completed with a review of CDS’s diurnal innovation process, corporate culture, and leadership practice.

'Totem' Show by Cirque du Soleil
(Source: www.magchild.com/2015/activities/cirque-du-soleil-totem)

INVENTION

Innovation is ‘an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or another unit of adoption’ (Rogers, 1995, p.11). From the previous statement, it can be inferred that novelty is the most important factor for the invention stage. However, there are several ways to generate novelty. According to Henderson and Clark (1990), there are four types of innovation: (1) incremental innovation; (2) modular innovation; (3) architectural innovation; and (4) radical innovation. The distinctive features of these types are the usage of core concepts (reinforced or overturned) and systems (unchanged or changed) to build something new.

In relation to this theory, CDS can be classified as an architectural innovation. Architectural innovation is defined as ‘the reconfiguration of an established system to link together existing components in a new way’ (Henderson & Clark, 1990, p.10). In architectural innovation, the core concept is reinforced while the system is changed to obtain some degrees of novelty. It is embodied in CDS because it aims to offer a one-of-a-kind alternative to enjoy the old-fashioned concept of the circus for a new market target, specifically for adult and professionals. The invention stage of CDS begun with this notion in mind.

Historically, CDS was first initiated by Guy Laliberte in Quebec, Canada circa 1984. As a street performer himself, he pursued his own dream to set up a more modern circus that will be appealing to wider audiences. He pitched the concept and acquired CDS’s first funding from a governmental body, the Canadian Arts Council. In line with CDS manifesto of ‘we reinvent the circus’ (Cirque du Soleil, n.d.), Laliberte combined several already existing components such as human acrobatic, musical score, and theatre to frame a whole new circus experience. From that on, CDS has transformed the nearly sinking trend of traditional circus industry into a sense-indulging performance that is more likely to be accepted by contemporary audiences.

The innovation of CDS is started by an individual but throughout the years it adopts an employee-based innovation source. Nowadays, it is claimed as the biggest theatrical performance company with more than 5000 international workers and 30 show productions. It succeeded to beat the other previously established circus companies, namely P.T. Barnum and The Ringling Brothers (Grant and Jordan, 2015).

COMMERCIALISATION

In order to make innovation works for CDS, Laliberte’s idea has to be commercialised. To do so, it utilises an innovation model theory. Rothwell (1994) coined five different innovation models: (1) technology push; (2) demand pull; (3) coupling; (4) integrated; and (5) network. In this case, CDS adopted the demand-pull model to prepare its launch to the public.

Demand pull is a market-centred model which prioritises consumers’ needs and expectations. Because of that, the embodiment of the product or service that will be offered depends on prior consumer and market research. The opposite for this model is technology push which puts technology first and then finds a strategy for the product or service to be accepted by the public.

Another contributing theory is blue ocean strategy by Kim and Mauborgne (2005). Blue ocean strategy believes that it is better to be different by cultivating new market or propose distinctive value rather than defeating existing competitors as a follower. In other words, a good business must find a gap between existing product, consumer preference, and future emerging trend which is not created yet. It has to break the boundaries and create a breakthrough as a competitive advantage. The formulation of blue ocean strategy starts with evaluating other competitors’ value proposition to find the gap.

Kim and Mauborgne chose CDS as one of the notable examples for their theory. In practice, CDS eliminate the use of animal and reduce the outsourced star performers which both require high cost and mostly offered by their competitors. It exchanges those eliminations and diverts their source to fortify their performers’ ability (human capital) and build enchanting story line while maintains the hallmark of the circus, like the signature red and white tent. Therefore, the artistic-focused show will be more appealing to targeted audiences.

Cirque du Soleil's Blue Ocean Strategy
(Source: www.herald.cauon.net adapted from Blue Ocean Strategy)

In addition, blue ocean strategy is almost similar to first mover strategy. First mover company acts as a pioneer in an unestablished market with the ability to generate revenue and profit because not all pioneer will be accepted by the market (Liebermen and Montgomery, 1988). The main advantage of these three theories is they can begin to build customer base ahead from their followers. At the time of the product launching, there are no other similar products thus the company will predominate the entire market share.

On the contrary, the risk and uncertainty of cultivating uncontested market are high. To such degree, not all companies which implemented these strategies are succeeding. That is why some companies prefer to choose safer follower strategy such as latecomer or side-entrance strategy (Smith, 2006).

DIFFUSION

The diffusion of CDS innovation strategy can be explained by the dominant design theory. This theory explains one particular design that emerged as a favoured product rather than other competitors’ product. Consequently, the dominant design product is often copied by competitors as a benchmark. That is why the appearance of similar mass products as a spreading trend can also indicate the emergence of a dominant design. Nevertheless, the product may not offer the best quality of them all, but it is more acceptable to the public because it offers compatible value (Srinivasan et al., 2016).

Before CDS emerged as the dominant design, there is a ‘period of flux’ (Anderson and Tushman, 1990, p.604) in the circus industry. Circus has been developed since the 1760s but none of the companies can be considered as thriving and as widely recognised throughout the world as CDS. Moreover, by the end of the wars in the 1940s, the circus audiences and revenues kept declining until finally, CDS invigorated the circus industry by the end of 1980s (Grant and Jordan, 2015). The grand production and outstanding quality of CDS may be hard to imitate, but the adaptation can be seen when a circus embeds a story line and resembles the concept of theatrical performance. Before CDS, a circus is merely a series of unrelated acts between the performers with no affiliated theme (Rantisi and Leslie, 2014).

Another theory that can complement it is disruptive innovation theory by Christensen (1997). Disruptive innovation revokes current trend and significantly shift it to follow the offered innovation product. The shifting of the trend can lead other established companies to lose their consumer base and revenue. If those companies do not have a strategy to prevent this, they may go bankrupt. For this reason, disruptive innovation is often seen as an alarming threat to industries. Industries have to prepare and innovate persistently in order to sustain their business and avoid their products being replaced by another industry.

In this case, CDS not only disrupts the circus industry, but also other performance arts industry such as theatre and dance recital. Furthermore, it competes as a strong rival with another entertainment industries as an alternative option (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005). For instance, people who are bored with cinema can go to attend CDS show instead. None the less, CDS must improve their technological aspects of the show consistently (e.g. inventing new performing device, using latest advanced technology such as hologram) to assert itself as the leading performance arts industry.

In relation to this matter, CDS established C:LAB, the creative laboratory of CDS in 2014. C:LAB gathers ideas from all of the workers and tries to make the ideas come to reality (Cirque du Soleil, 2016). One of the most prominent projects is Sparked. It combines the ability of performers and the technology of quadcopters to create a poltergeist-like effect in a show (Cirque du Soleil, 2014).

DIURNAL INNOVATION PROCESS

The term diurnal is used to differentiate between the early stage innovation and the day to day innovation process that occurred afterwards. The innovation process in CDS starts with ‘idea development funnel’ (Smith, 2006, p.227). CDS utilises co-creation design from its workers to develop new ideas and get insights as much as they can. After that, the creative director and production director will curate the ideas and further discuss it to construct future show theme and story line. This process may also include historian to assist them in exploring the traditional culture reference in a theme.

Rantisi and Leslie (2014, p.159) undertook this approach as an ‘open-ended nature of creation process’. Another evidence of this process can be seen during the time of the development when the production process is open to additional idea and improvement from all of the workers, not just the head directors. For instance, a dancer can invent his own movements which interpret the show’s theme and perform it in the show as long as it passes the quality control.

Each show in CDS has its own Creative Director who possesses the highest authority in the show. CDS’s shows can run for several years and some of them are performed as tours to different countries. In the period of the long contracts, one circus performer will act as one character only. This obligates the performers to have acting skills and build an emotional connection with the characters in order to make them believable (Dan, 2012).

A show needs at least two years’ preparation stage before the show is ready to be performed. While some divisions develop the script, musical score, and choreography, at the same time the behind the scene divisions work together to design the costumes, properties, and stages. Generally, all of the preparation happens simultaneously with the workload distributed evenly in several divisions (Dan, 2012).

LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATIONAL PRACTICE

Guy Laliberte has the biggest influence in CDS. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CDS. Despite the 90% acquisition of the company in 2015, he continues to manage the company. Laliberte’s leadership style can be classified as situational leadership. Situational leadership’s purpose is to understand working conditions and choose the best method to address that situation rather than being an authoritative figure with passive followers. There are two classifications of situational leadership: (1) task-focused and (2) people-focused (McCleskey, 2014). The second approach fits better with Laliberte’s leadership in CDS.

As a former street busker himself, Laliberte acknowledges the joy and hardships of being performers, thus he leads in a more horizontal approach. He encourages participation from all of the workers to pursue CDS’s goals in a communitarian manner. His position in CDS resembles the role of quality control or supervisor and often stated as the father of CDS (Dan, 2014). He emphasises on ‘decision-making at lower levels’ (Rothwell, 1994, p.16) to cut away ineffective bureaucracy. Moreover, situational leadership style corresponds with CDS’s approach to creativity and innovation which fosters ‘collaborative creative process’ (Simon, 2015, p.59) in its corporate culture.

To overcome public perception who often discredits performers’ occupational well-being, all workers in CDS are bounded by at least two years contract with benefits ranging from health insurance to training facility (Rantisi and Leslie, 2014). In regard to organisational practice, the challenge of working within creative industries is to avoid tension between creative and non-creative workers. For instance, the creative director can propose state-of-the-art ideas but production director must evaluate the feasibility of these ideas in terms of technological capacity, financial cost, or audiences’ preference. However, these two components cannot be separated since creativity in the organisation means a collective process between creative & non-creative who complemented each other (Bilton, 2012). Essentially, CDS celebrates the differences among its workers because it demands transdisciplinary knowledge to build a single show.

Furthermore, CDS did corporate venturing and built two independent-venture unit: (1) C:LAB which has been mentioned earlier and (2) Cirque du Monde (CDM). CDM is a social program from CDS. It invites ‘marginalised and disenfranchised youth’ from across the globe to engage in a workshop to improve their circus-related skills and builds community networking. This program was launched in 1995 and it is accomplished with the aid of prominent non-profit organisations such as Oxfam (Branswell, 2003, p.64).

Another challenge is to avoid what Amabile (1997) mentioned as creativity killer and ‘over-familiarisation’ (Bilton, 2012, p.33). They believe that freedom and creativity are interrelated hence managers must provide the supportive working environment. CDS adopted this theory in its PARADE (Programme de Realisation Artistique de Employes) scheme.

This program liberates CDS’s performers, artists, designers, and other creative workers to experiment with their own creative interest and pursue their personal ideas. CDS even supplies them with the incubating process including mentorship and funding for those ideas. Later, CDS will evaluate the ideas and calculate the idea’s viability to be implemented in the upcoming show. However, this is not a mandatory process because the primary intention of this program is to maintain the creative workers’ productivity (Rantisi and Leslie, 2015). Besides that, Amabile (1990) assured that intrinsic motivation is the best practice to sustain innovation in companies.

CONCLUSION

The previous image represents the summary of numerous theories that are implemented in Cirque du Soleil’s innovation, leadership, and organisational management. All of the contributing theories are shaping CDS’s prosperity in the creative industries. Moreover, innovation is not only important in the beginning, but it is a continuous process that evolves alongside with the latest organisational and external environment landscape. The management role is to ensure that the organisation does the process well.

From this review, it can be concluded that one single theory is not enough to explain the innovation process in an organisation since innovation covers a wide dimension. Furthermore, the mentioned theories are able to complement each other. All in all, from the earliest idea to focus on the unique value proposition that satisfies neglected market’s needs up to the reconciliation of creative and non-creative workers, Cirque du Soleil succeeded in managing innovation and creativity as a part of its intrinsic corporate culture.

Cirque du Soleil Performers
(Source: www.tellwut.com)

DISCLAIMER
This is an essay for Managing Creativity and Innovation Assignment for Creative Industries and Cultural Policy Course at the University of Glasgow. Please provide proper citation if you use this as reference.

REFERENCE

AMABILE, T.M. (1997) Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do. California Management Review, 40(1), pp.39-58.

ANDERSON, P. and TUSHMAN, M.L. (1990) Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, pp.604-633.

BILTON, C. (2007) Management and Creativity: From Creative Industries to Creative Management. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

BRANSWELL, B. (2003) Cirque du Soleil Thinks Globally. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2003, pp.64-66.

CHRISTENSEN, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma: When Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL (2014) SPARKED: A Live Interaction Between Human and Quadcopters. [Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/6C8OJsHfmpI [Accessed 08/12/2016].

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL (2016) What is C:LAB. [Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/p5ie10XwVyI [Accessed 08/12/2016].

DAN, A. (2012) The Secret that Inspires Cirque du Soleil’s Culture of Innovation: Creative Friction. Forbes, 29th May. Available from: http://www.forbes.com [Accessed 06/12/2016].

DCMS (2001) Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001. London: Department of Culture, Media, and Sport.

DOSI, G. (1982) Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories. Research Policy, 11, pp.147-162.

GRANT, R.M. and JORDAN, J. (2015) Foundations of Strategy. 2nd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

HENDERSON, R. and CLARK, K.B. (1990) Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), pp.9-30.

KIM, W.C. and MAUBORGNE, R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

LIEBERMAN, M.B. and MONTGOMERY, D.B. (1988) First Mover Advantages. Strategic Management Journal, 9, pp.41-58.

MCCLESKEY, J.A. (2014) Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and Leadership Development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), pp.117-130.

RANTISI, N.M. and LESLIE, D. (2014) Circus in Action: Exploring the Role of a Translation Zone in the Cirque du Soleil’s Creative Practices. Economic Geography, 91(2), pp.147-164.

ROGERS, E.M. (1995) Diffusion of Innovation. 4th ed. New York: The Free Press.

ROTHWELL, R. (1994) Towards the Fifth-Generation Innovation Process. International Marketing Review, 11(1), pp.7-31.

SCHUMPETER, J. (1936) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Boston: Harvard University Press.

SIMON, L. (2015) Setting the Stage for the Collaborative Creative Leadership at Cirque du Soleil. Technology Innovation Management Review, 5(7), pp.59-65.

SMITH, D. (2006). Exploring Innovation. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education.

SRINIVASAN, R., LILIEN, G.L., and RANGASWAMY, A. (2006) The Emergence of Dominant Designs. Journal of Marketing, 70(2), pp.1-17.

TYLECOTE, A. (1992). The Long Wave in the World Economy: The Present Crisis in Historical Perspectives. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Creative Economy

The Impact of Creative Industries on A Nation's Wider Economy (Case Study: Game of Thrones on Northern Ireland)

17:35

1. INTRODUCTION

The three highest contributing creative industries in the United Kingdom (UK) sectors are (1) publishing; (2) advertising; and (3) television & radio (DCMS, 2011). However, the global creative industry research proves that television sectors produce the highest revenue of all the sectors with the annual total of $ 477 billion in 2013 (EY, 2015). In order to gain sharper insight about the socioeconomic impact, this paper narrows down the focus to the most emerging industries, which is television and specify the context to television series. To compliment the research, a case study of Game of Thrones (GOT) television series and its impact on Northern Ireland will be examined.

The aim of this research is to understand the relationship between creative industries, cultural policy, and their wider socioeconomic impact to a country. The aim is equipped with 3 research questions: (1) what are the cultural policies issued by Northern Ireland’s government to support GOT industry; (2) what are the impacts of GOT industry to Northern Ireland; and (3) how does the application of the chosen cultural policies influence the resulting impacts?

To build a theoretical framework, a literature review is conducted in subjects related to the impact of creative industries from books and academic journals. As for the research, the primary data is gathered from the open data of governments’ policy documents, mainly from Northern Ireland Screen (NIS), Northern Ireland Tourism (NIT), and Discover Northern Ireland (DNI).

This paper is structured as follows. Firstly, several interrelated theories will be discussed as a knowledge base for further research. Secondly, some critical information related to Game of Thrones and Northern Ireland’s history will be described to illustrate the case’s background. Thirdly, the data findings in the cultural policies of Northern Ireland will be explained, which include policies in (1) funding; (2) skill-building; (3) marketing; and (4) city branding. Fourthly, the findings will be analysed to unveil various impacts of the television series industry. The analysis comprises of these impacts: (1) screen tourism; (2) urban regeneration; and (3) employment. Lastly, in the conclusion, the connection between the cultural policies and the impacts will be summarised.

2. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AS ECONOMIC GROWTH CATALYST

The idea of creative industries as a part of UK government’s plans and policies was introduced by Tony Blair in 1997 with the establishment of Creative Industries Task Force (CITF) as a project of UK DCMS. Since then, the creative industries development in the UK has been showing significant impact in terms of national economic growth. DCMS (2011) noted that the annual growth rates of the creative economy are twice higher than the traditional economy, hence it possesses the high potential to be developed as a source of a nation’s wealth in the future.

To measure the growth of creative industries in a specific term, DCMS (1998; 2011) mapped the creative industries into 13 sectors based on the output. It is important to notice that beside DCMS, there are other think tanks and researchers who criticised current sectors’ division and proposed another theory, such as Nesta (2006), The Work Foundation (2007), UNCTAD (2008); Throsby (2001) Hesmondhalgh (2007), and Flew (2012). Mainly, they argued that some subjects must be included or excluded from the creative industries.

For instance, Flew (2012) claimed that galleries, libraries, archives, and museums should be included in the creative industries’ segments because they are part of cultural institutions, while Hesmondhalgh (2007) stated the urge to include tourism. In spite of those arguments, DCMS is the only one who has succeeded to measure the detailed growth of creative industries in each sector as illustrated below. The highlighted industries produced the three highest Gross Value Added in 2009. Furthermore, the blank space is originally from the document which indicates the unavailability of intended data.

Table 1. Economic Contribution of the UK's Creative Industries
(DCMS, 2011)

DCMS (2011, p.6) measured the creative industries growth based on 5 factors: ‘(1) Gross Value Added (GVA); (2) total exports; (3) employment; (4) creative enterprises; and (5) creative local units’. This method of measurement is in line with similar theory from Daubaraite and Startiene (2015, p.130). Moreover, they added other non-tangible impacts of creative industries, namely: ‘(1) social inclusion; (2) social and cultural development; and (3) increasing quality of life’. Measuring these non-tangible impacts need a qualitative rather than quantitative approach, therefore it is harder to justify the success.

Apart from the outstanding achievement of creative industries itself, there is some discussion related to the creative industries’ impacts on the wider national economic wealth in growth model theory (Garnham, 2005; Potts and Cunningham, 2008) and the creative people as the main drivers of contemporary economic growth (Florida, 2002). In regard to these theories, creative industries are hypothesised to generate the spill-over effect (Lee, 2014). Beside internal growth, it acts as a growth catalyst for other non-creative industries too. In such way, creative industries development is not only suitable for the richest countries. On the contrary, developing creative industries will influence the whole nation’s economy to thrive and prosper. Lee (2014, p.455) simplified this in his three channels theory, which declares:

(1) creative industries are attractive simply as growth sector […]; (2) creative industries may increase productivity in other sectors […]; and (3) creative industries may have an amenity value and attract skilled residents or, more prosaically, tourist.

The wider impact of creative industries is also related to the growth of employment, whether it is inside or outside the field. This is caused by what Higgs and Cunningham (2008, p. 15) observed as the ‘creative trident’. The concept classifies employment in creative industries into 3 clusters:

(1) workers with cultural profession working in cultural sectors; (2) workers having a cultural profession but working outside the cultural sector; and (3) workers having a non-cultural profession and working in the cultural sector.

This concept explains that the occupation in creative industries is not solely for creative people, but it is able to attract workers from the supporting field and harness the empowerment of human capital. Before this approach was popularised, there was a confusion related how to measure the total creative occupations since the impact is wider than the creative industries itself, which backs up the previous growth model theory.

Furthermore, Potts (2007) asserted that the growth model is related with the evolutionary economics theory. As a part of a ‘knowledge economy’ (Cunningham, 2002, p.55), creative industries deal with ‘origination, adaptation, and retention of novel ideas’ (Potts, 2007, p.1). That is why the subject of creative industries is always changing and shaping economic landscape. It is able to foster the diffusion of innovation and technology; thus it strengthens the implementation of the evolutionary economics theory and vice versa. All of the theoretical frameworks of creative industries as growth catalyst will be demonstrated in this paper through the case study.

3. THE GAME OF THRONES INDUSTRY

GOT is a flagship epic television series produced by Home Box Office (HBO), an American premium television network. It is directed by George Benioff and D B. Weiss and the plot is adapted from a fantasy literature series entitled A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. The first book was published in 1996, but the series recently hit the screen in 2011. Since then, HBO has produced 6 seasons of GOT which comprises of 10 episodes for each season. GOT is planned to be continued until season 8 which will be aired later in 2018. However, due to the international success and high viewers’ demand, it possible to do a spinoff series after the show ends (Millward, 2016).

With the budget of approximately more than £ 6 million per episode, GOT can afford to be filmed in various European countries, such as Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Spain, Croatia, and Morocco. The extraordinary budget is also utilised to produce high-quality costumes, properties, and visual effects (Garofalo, 2014). Nevertheless, GOT gains higher profits, ratings, and global brands that can be applied in licensed creative industries such as merchandises and musical scores’ CD.

GOT is aired worldwide and succeeded to engage more than 8,89 million viewers in its latest episode. From the graph below, it can be seen that there is a significant increase in viewers’ number among the years, not including the number of viewers who watch the series from pirated files or illegal websites.

Chart 1. GOT's Viewers Growth
(Wikipedia, 2016)

Furthermore, the quantity of viewer equals with the quality of the series. Since the first instalment, GOT has been acting as a strong contender in numerous awards related to the television program. In 2016 Emmy Awards, GOT is nominated in 24 categories which spanned from actors, visual effect, to musical score, and won 12 of them, including the prestigious the best drama series title (Bakare, 2016).

In my perspective, Game of Thrones is highly appealing due to its ability to subtly portray medieval history embedded with strong details and unpredictable story line. GOT portrays wide aspects such as geographical detail, politic, religion, and language. These aspects make the stories seem real, believable, and tease the fan base to build theories upon them. Moreover, some events in GOT is connected with real world history. For instance, the black water bay battle scene has similar war tactic with the siege of Constantinople in 717 (Bond, 2015). The whole plot of GOT itself is said to be depicted the 15^th century England’s war of the roses (Tharoor, 2015).

A lot of people assumed that GOT is a British series because it employs almost all British actors. Besides that, the production process and indoor shooting are mainly accomplished at Titanic Studios (formerly known as the Paint Hall Studios), in Belfast, Northern Ireland. However, the UK does not own GOT franchise since it is owned by HBO. But even though GOT is owned by an American company, its impacts to the UK is as enormous as it did in the USA.

4. 'THE TROUBLES' OF NORTHERN IRELAND

The country of Northern Ireland is unified with England, Wales, and Scotland in the UK. From the beginning of its establishment in 1920, Northern Ireland had experienced numerous conflicts with the Republic of Ireland and the UK alongside with its status as a post-industrialist country. As for the recent conflict, which often addressed as ‘the troubles’, it lasted for 30 years from 1968 to 1998. Looking at current Northern Ireland’s condition, it is hard to believe that the perennial political conflict has only been resolved recently in 1998.

At that time, there was a dispute between the majority unionist Protestant and minority nationalist Catholic. The difference between religion make ‘the troubles’ seem like religion conflict, but it is basically a territorial conflict. During that period, there was some notable event such as Derry Bloody Sunday in 1972 and Dumcree standoff in 1996. The constant clash throughout the year resulted in approximately 3,500 deaths, more than 50,000 injuries, and broken infrastructures which often caused by bombing (Dorney, 2015).

‘The troubles’ was ended with the good Friday agreement in 1998. But even after it was ended, Northern Ireland government requires time to repair the damage that had been done. According to Buchanan (2014), ‘the troubles’ caused the poor economic condition, high unemployment rate, educational disadvantage, poverty, and social exclusion. Furthermore, Northern Ireland was also affected by the 2007 global debt crisis, thus the redevelopment phase was more challenging. There are some policies related to the social and economic development, but this paper will specify on GOT’s related cultural policy to help it transform into a prosperous country.

5. NORTHERN IRELAND'S CULTURAL POLICY ON GAME OF THRONES' PRODUCTION

While most of the countries and cities focus on the creative business support type of policy which target start-ups and micro-businesses (Foord, 2009), Northern Ireland has a different approach. Theoretically, there are several types of public interventions:

(1) property and premises strategies; (2) business development, advice, and network building; (3) direct grants and loans schemes to creative business/entrepreneurs; (4) fiscal initiatives; (5) physical and IT infrastructure; and (6) soft Infrastructure (Foord, 2009, p.97).

From the desk research, it can be concluded that Northern Ireland’s cultural policy focuses on the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th type of interventions. Northern Ireland Screen (NIS), a governmental body engaged in film and television policy, targeted the country to be ‘the first-class film and television production location’ (NIS, 2016, p.34). That is why the main policy is to fortify its funding capability and creative workers’ skills. The policy is included in NIS’ short-term development plan for 2015 to 2016 entitled the Opening Doors which works on social, economic, and cultural factors. Another policy related to marketing and city branding are adapted to alter the country’s past images. Furthermore, all cultural policies in Northern Ireland are guaranteed to be relevant to its public policies from related department such as Northern Ireland Executive Economic Strategy, Invest NI Corporate Plan, Department for Culture Arts and Leisure Corporate Plan, and Northern Ireland Tourism Strategy (NIS, 2014).

5.1 Funding

Chart 2. Funding and Expenditure on GOT
(NIS, 2016)

Apart from the production house and sponsors, Game of Thrones is partially funded by Northern Ireland Screen and Invest Northern Ireland. The funding is a part of their program to foster creative industries growth in Northern Ireland. From the chart above, it can be seen that the investment is decreasing while the expenditure is increasing throughout the years. However, the investment and expenditure in 2016 is an estimation since the production process of GOT season 7 is still in progress.

The expenditure in the chart represents the amount of money that was spent in Northern Ireland during the production process. For example, the expenditure is used to cover accommodation, transportation, and lunch among the local area. From 2010 to 2016, NIS has been granting HBO with a total investment of £ 14.85 million, merely 7% of the £ 166 million total expenditures (NIS, 2016) which is profitable for Northern Ireland’s economy. The main investment is given in a form of tax incentive. Besides that, Titanic Studios, which is the main production studio of GOT, gave HBO lower price than the other users because it weights the advantage of the GOT’s large production scale for the future development of Northern Ireland’s industry.

For the upcoming years, especially when the GOT production is over, NIS and Northern Ireland Investment (NII) are pitching the whole package of the island and studios with an interesting funding scheme to other large-scale productions. In addition, besides GOT, in the recent years Northern Ireland works with the production of The Frankenstein Chronicle, The Lodge, and My Mother and Other Strangers (NIS, 2016).

5.2. Skill-building

Skill-building is a part of soft infrastructure advancement. As a grand production, GOT demands an excessive amount of creative workers. However, HBO cannot employ people carelessly. Creative workers require a special skill set to assist the production process. To fulfil the demand, NIS (2016) initiated skill-building workshops for the local people. It selected some trainees and put them as apprentices in GOT television series production. There are 4 departments as follows.

Table 2. GOT's Skull-building Workshops
(NIS, 2016)

This program is intended to establish creative class as the key actor of creative industries (Florida, 2002). With the rise of the creative class, the creative industries ecosystem will attract more creative workers to initiate a business or creative production in Northern Ireland because it has a solid support system. To illustrate, it will be expensive and ineffective to accomplish a film production in one country but most of the professional workers have to be brought from another country. Moreover, creative workers are highly flexible occupation because they often get a short-term contract. That is why investing in creative workers means to give them the opportunity to work anywhere around the world and expand their network.

5.3 Marketing

One of Northern Ireland’s new marketing program is to promote Northern Ireland as the real Westeros, the main continent in GOT series (DNI, n.d.). This approach was also undertaken by New Zealand to promote its country as the real-life Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tzanelli, 2004). The places that were operated as a shooting location, is transformed into country’s landmarks by a collaborative project from Northern Ireland Tourism (NIT) and Discover Northern Ireland (DNI). It built an information panel at each location to give visitors a brief information about the place and its role in GOT’s story line. NIT also provides well-designed interactive filming location map that can be accessed through NIT’s official website or downloaded for free to the smartphone via Google Playstore or Appstore. The map is also equipped with a 360-degree panoramic picture of the location’s scenery.

Figure 1. GOT's Information Panel in Ballintoy Harbour
(Visit Belfast, n.d.)

The latest GOT related program was launched in early 2016 by DNI (2016), called the Doors of Thrones (DOT). DOT is a series of GOT-themed hand-carved wooden doors that are placed around Northern Ireland. The doors are intentionally placed in bars or restaurants near GOT’s shooting location. The idea was started when the Storm Gertrude tore down several trees at the Dark Hedges – which is also a spot for GOT’s shooting – in 2015. DNI decided to transform the trees into a unique artefact to remind the local people and tourists about GOT. Currently, there is a total of 10 doors in Northern Ireland. Some of the locations are Strangford, Portaferry, Ballintoy, Cushendun, and Belfast. This program can be perceived as a gamification marketing strategy for urban people. Gamification is a strategy to engage customers or audiences in a fun mission to achieve something, just like a game (Reiners and Wood, 2015). With the presence of GOT, a lot of people voluntarily go to the restaurants just to take pictures with all the doors.

Figure 2. Doors of Thrones in Fullerton Arms Restaurant, Ballintoy
(TNI, 2016)

5.4 City Branding

Figure 3. Visit Belfast Logo
(Visit Belfast, n.d.)

Other policy which is not directly related with GOT but affected the socioeconomic development is the city branding in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland (Coleman, 2008). The new logo and branding were officiated by Belfast City Council in 2008 at a public event in Waterfront Hall. It embodies the heart shape and the alphabet B to promote Belfast as a vibrant city and rebuild its identity as a post-conflict city. Besides that, the objective of the branding is to attract international visitors and investors.

6. GAME OF THRONES' IMPACTS FOR NORTHERN IRELAND

From the cultural policies that were taken by Northern Ireland government, there are several stands out impacts. Nevertheless, it is possible that there are many other impacts that can be discovered through further research.

6.1 Screen Tourism

Figure 4. Northern Ireland Official Map for GOT's Tours
(DNI, n.d.)

In this essay, the terminology screen tourism is chosen rather than film tourism, regarding its capacity to cover tourism which was induced by both film and television series. The content of screen tourism mostly comprises of visiting the actual shooting scene and doing activities related to the film. Other than that, some screen tourism can include a visit to studio sets, film-themed theme parks, film festivals, film premieres, or even to the actors’ house (Connell, 2012). In GOT case, there are more than 15 shooting locations around Northern Ireland that can be visited by the tourists, such as The Dark Hedges, Ballintoy Harbour, Cushendun Caves, Cairncastle, and Shillanavoghy Valley. The activities in GOT’s screen tourism include horse-riding, archery, and rowing in a dragon boat (Visit Belfast, n.d.).

The advantage of screen tourism compared with conventional tourism is, it requires less promotion. There is a precursor film or TV series that is already popular and has loyal audiences, hence it is easier to penetrate the market. Furthermore, Tzanelli (2004) stated that film franchise helped open up new markets which previously unreachable by the conventional tourism industry. For instance, a trekking at Tollymore Forest Park will not be appealing for those who do not like outdoor sports. But with Game of Thrones, this kind of people may go there as a fan of GOT with a desire to immerse themselves in the experience. Furthermore, screen tourism deals with a more personal and emotional experience.

The popularity of screen tourism in Northern Ireland boost the growth of tour companies, whether it is a government official or independent, but none of them is affiliated with HBO. Some of the independent tour companies that provide GOT-related tours are Game of Thrones Tours, Winterfell Tours, Brit Movie Tours, and McComb’s Coach Travel. Even though there is still no data that illustrates the correlation between the growth of tourism and the GOT tours, the diagram below portrays the rise of tourists in Northern Ireland, especially from out of state.

Chart 3. Northern Ireland's Tourist Growth
(TNI, 2016)

6.2 Urban Regeneration

Urban regeneration is a program to revive the triumph of the post-industrial country by rebuilding physical infrastructure. Even though this is a top-down approach, the main target of the program is to empower the grassroots community by providing them facility (Weaver, 2001). The main program entitled the urban regeneration community development is managed by Northern Ireland’s Department for Social Development (DSD, 2012, p.14). The regeneration programs cover a wide area and one of them is creative infrastructure. It is covered in its policy objective number 2 which is ‘to strengthen the competitiveness of our towns and cities’.

Most of cities and countries emphasise the development of creative industries clusters in their development program to attract creative class (Flew, 2012), but Northern Ireland chose to maximise the impact of the on-going production of GOT. In its Opening Door strategy (NIS, 2014), Northern Ireland plans to build 2 new sound stages as the extension of the Titanic Studio and establish Belfast Harbour Studio in the Giant’s Park.

Moreover, looking at the success of the Titanic Museum that exploits the movie Titanic and its relation to the ship-building history by Harland and Wolff (Ramsey, 2013), it is possible that in the future Northern Ireland will establish the Game of Thrones Museum.

6.3 Employment

The chart below describes that the number of unemployment in Northern Ireland is gradually decreasing. It is safe to assumed that the reduction is fostered by the GOT production that needs 900 full-time workers and 5,700 part-time workers for each season (Moloney, 2015) with 80% crew hired locally from Northern Ireland area (Dawtrey, 2011).

Chart 4. Northern Ireland's Unemoployment Reduction
(NISRA, 2016)

The type of the creative workers is very diverse and specific since the production itself involves many properties and stage sets. One of the success creative workers that started her business from working with Game of Thrones is Ingrid Houwer (Meredith, 2014). She has been working as a taxidermist for ages, but her recent acknowledgement is because she provides large-scale production of costumes and set properties for GOT.

Furthermore, the needed workers are not only from the creative field but also in hospitality services such as bed and breakfast and restaurants, thus it proves the existence of the spill-over effect. It is likely that the numbers of this hospitality services will keep increasing in line with the growth of tourists. In relation to the creative trident theory, workers such as drivers or mechanics in the production can be classified into non-cultural profession in cultural sector category.

Besides that, a huge production like GOT which often portrays a battle scene with many armies need an excessive amount of extras to be employed. The official recruitment for GOT’s extras and other productions which are located in Northern Ireland is organised by one agency namely Extras Northern Ireland. The company has a partnership with prominent television channels such as HBO, BBC, and Universal (Extras NI, n.d.). In my opinion, this service represents the good management of Northern Ireland government in embracing the most of the creative industries’ benefits.

7. CONCLUSION

As a post-conflict country, Northern Ireland strengthened its cultural policy as a part of its strategy to accelerate its socioeconomic development. In relation to the case study, it has been offering HBO a profitable collaborative scheme since the very first production of GOT. It succeeded in forecasting the benefit of the long-term investment in GOT because it believes in the growth model theory (Garnham, 2005; Potts and Cunningham, 2008) and spill-over impact (Lee, 2014) of creative industries to other fields.

Furthermore, this case is able to prove that those theories are relevant to the real world application. If Northern Ireland failed to grab the opportunity and did not emphasise its creative policies, it is possible that the appearance of the impacts will not be this massive. In other words, the policy acts as a win-win solution for both the country and the production house.

In addition, the impacts of screen tourism, urban regeneration, and employment will be a legacy to the Northern Ireland. The tangible (e.g. production studios) and non-tangible (e.g. skilled employees) benefits of these impacts will continue to thrive even after the GOT ends because the bigger goal is to transform Northern Ireland as the best country for screen production. Finally, the findings from this research are hoped to inspire other less developed countries to include creative industries development as their governments’ long-term plan and start to invest in them.

DISCLAIMER

This is an essay for CICP Assignment for Creative Industries and Cultural Policy Course at the University of Glasgow. Please provide proper citation if you use this as reference.

REFERENCE

AHN, J. and WU, H.C. (2015) The Art of Nation Branding: National Branding Value and the Role of Government and the Arts and Culture Sector. Public Organization Review, 15(1), pp.157-173.

BAKARE, L. (2016) Emmys 2016: Game of Thrones Breaks Frasier’s Record and Wins Best Drama Again. The Guardian, 19^th September. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

BAKSHI, H. and MCVITTIE, E. (2009) Creative Supply Chain Linkages and Innovation: Do the Creative Industries Stimulate Business Innovation in the Wider Economy. Innovation, 11(2), pp.169-189.

BOND, C. (2015) 7 Historical Parallels to Game of Thrones. Mental Floss, 7^th April. Available from: http://mentalfloss.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

BUCHANAN, S. (2014) Transforming Conflict Through Social and Economic Development: Practice and Policy Lessons from Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

COLEMAN, M. (2008) New Belfast Branding Aims to Make City World Class. Belfast Telegraph, 30^th June. Available from: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk [Accessed 11/12/2016].

CONNELL, J. (2012) Film Tourism: Evolution, Progress, and Prospects. Tourism Management, 33(1), pp.1007-1029.

CUNNINGHAM, S. (2002) From Cultural to Creative Industries: Theory, Industry and Policy Implications. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy, 102(1), pp.54-65.

DAWTREY, A. (2011) ‘Thrones’ Boost Belfast. Variety, 23^rd May. Available from: http://www.variety.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

DCMS (1998) Creative Industries Mapping Document. London: Department of Culture, Media, and Sport.

DCMS (2011) Creative Industries Economic Estimates 2011. London: Department of Culture, Media, and Sport.

DNI (n.d.) Game of Thrones Experience. [Online] Available from: http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/gameofthrones [Accessed 11/12/2016].

DORNEY, J. (2015) The Northern Ireland Conflict 1968-1998: An Overview. The Irish Story, 9^th February. Available from: http://www.theirishstory.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

DSD (2012) Urban Regeneration and Policy Development Policy Framework: Consultation Document. Belfast: Department for Social Development.

EXTRAS NI (n.d.) Our Services [Online] Available from: https://www.extrasni.com/services [Accessed 11/12/2016].

EY (2015) Cultural Times: The First Global Map of the Cultural and Creative Industries. London: Ernst & Young Global.

FLEW, T. (2012) The Creative Industries: Culture and Policy. London: SAGE.

FLORIDA, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.

FOORD, J. (2009) Strategies for Creative Industries: An International Review. Creative Industries Journal, 1(2), pp.91-113.

GARNHAM, N. (2005) From Cultural to Creative Industries: An Analysis of the Implications of the ‘Creative Industries’ Approach to Arts and Media Policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 11(1), pp.15-29.

GAROFALO, A. (2014) ‘Game of Thrones’ Big Budgets Bring Huge Success; How HBO Series Make Money with High Cost per Episode. International Business Times, 14^th August. Available from: http://www.ibtimes.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

HESMONDHALGH, D. (2007) The Cultural Industries. 2^nd ed. London: SAGE.

HIGGS, P. and CUNNINGHAM, S. (2008) Creative Industries Mapping: Where Have We Come from and Where Are We Going. Creative Industries Journal, 1(1), pp.7-30.

JARVIS, D., LAMBIE, H., and BERKELEY, N. (2009) Creative Industries and Urban Regeneration. Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, 2(4), pp.364-374.

LEE, A. (2014) The Creative Industries and Urban Economic Growth in the UK. Environment and Planning, 46(1), pp.455-470.

MEREDITH, F. (2014) The Fine Art of Stuffing Stiffs. The Irish Times, 12^th July. Available from: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style [Accessed 11/12/2016].

MILLWARD, D. (2016) Game of Thrones Might Not End After Season 8 After All, Says HBO. The Telegraph, 1^st August. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk [Accessed 11/12/2016].

MOLONEY, A. (2015) Game of Thrones’ Dramatic Backdrops. BBC, 8^th April. Available from: http://www.bbc.com/culture [Accessed 11/12/2016].

NESTA (2006) Creating Growth: How the UK Can Invest in Creative Businesses. London: National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts.

NIS (2014) Operating Plan 2015-16: Year 2 of the 4-Year Plan Opening Doors. Belfast: Northern Ireland Screen.

NIS (2016) Adding Value Vol. 2. Belfast: Northern Ireland Screen.

NISRA (2016) Northern Ireland Labour Market Report November 2016. Belfast: Northern Ireland’s Statistics and Research Agency.

POTTS, J. (2007) Art and Innovation: An Evolutionary Economics View of the Creative Industries. UNESCO Observatory, 1(1), pp.1-18.

POTTS, J. and CUNNINGHAM, S. (2008) Four Models of the Creative Industry. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 14(3), pp.233-247.

RAMSEY, P. (2013) ‘A Pleasingly Blank Canvas’: Urban Regeneration in Northern Ireland and the Case of Titanic Quarter. Space and Polity, 17(2), pp.164-179.

REINERS, T. and WOOD, L.C. (2015) Gamification in Education and Business. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

THAROOR, I. (2015) How Game of Thrones Drew on The War of the Roses. The Guardian, 29^th May. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com [Accessed 11/12/2016].

THROSBY, D. (2001) Economics and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

TNI (2016) Tourism Trends Tourism Performance 1959-2015. Belfast: Tourism Northern Ireland.

TZANELLI, R. (2004) Constructing the ‘Cinematic Tourist’: The ‘Sign Industry’ of The Lord of the Rings. Tourist Studies, 4(1), pp.21-42.

UNCTAD (2008) Creative Economy Report 2008. Geneva: United Nations Commission for Trade, Aid, and Development.

VISIT BELFAST (n.d.) Game of Thrones. [Online] Visit Belfast. Available from: http://blog.visitbelfast.com/game-of-thrones [Accessed 11/12/2016].

WEAVER, M. (2001) Urban Regeneration: The Issue Explained. The Guardian, 19^th March. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/society [Accessed 11/12/2016].

WIKIPEDIA (2016) Game of Thrones. [Online] Available from: https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones [Accessed 11/12/2016].

WORK FOUNDATION, THE (2007) Staying Ahead: The Economic Performance of the UK’s Creative Industries. London: The Work Foundation.

A Critical Review of Contributing Theories in Cirque du Soleil's Innovation Process

The Impact of Creative Industries on A Nation's Wider Economy (Case Study: Game of Thrones on Northern Ireland)

ABOUT

SUBSCRIBE

VISUAL NARRATIVE

LATEST UPDATE

ARCHIVE

SEND A MESSAGE