On Thursday 20 November, Ellie was joined by Laura Lloyd, Sales & Marketing Manager at The Mill Arts Centre and Ella Goel, Marketing Manager at Stanley Arts our two successful bursary applications at the AMA’s Digital Marketing Day conference.

The jam-packed day included sessions on AI, creative problem solving and creativity on a budget, user friendly accessible websites, storytelling and much more.

We’re looking forward to catching up with both Laura and Ella in a few months to see how they’ve put some of the insights and learning from the day into action.

Reflecting on the day, Laura says: “It's always wonderful being able to connect with people in-person who work in the same industry as you - you realise you're all facing the same challenges and reassures you that you’re not alone in your experience, which is invaluable!

The Email Automation talk from Spektrix was particularly useful, there were lots of actionable ideas, like birthday offers for our Members and automated lapsed booker emails, that I hadn't even considered and will be putting into place over the coming months.

Learning about the Laws of UX from the UX Considerations talk from Substrakt was great and gave me lots to think about. We are planning a website redevelopment project soon and so this will be essential reading for me to do in the lead-up!”

Ella at Stanley Arts' has three top takeaways from the day:

1. Authentic content resonates.

The session “Breaking the Scroll: Social Content That Plays Back” highlighted how simple, real moments can be more engaging than highly polished content. Seeing examples of behind-the-scenes footage, short-form videos, and playful social content reminded me that the stories of our artists and the everyday creativity at Stanley Arts can themselves be compelling marketing material. This has changed how I think about content creation, encouraging me to focus on capturing authenticity over perfection.

2. Paid social campaigns can be strategic and accessible.

From “Changing Brand Perception with Paid Socials,” I learned how small, targeted campaigns can shape audience perception and extend reach, even on a modest budget. This is particularly relevant for Stanley Arts, where we aim to engage new audiences without over-stretching our small marketing team. Understanding how to plan campaigns strategically and measure impact will allow us to be more intentional and efficient with our marketing spend.

3. Creativity is about mindset, not budget.

The session “Everyone’s a Creative Problem-Solver!” reinforced that creativity comes from approach and experimentation rather than resources. It was empowering to see practical exercises that encouraged problem-solving and playful thinking, which reassured me that we can create impactful campaigns and try new unexpected solutions even with limited staff and funding.

Adding "My key learning from the day is that marketing can and should be an extension of the creativity we champion at Stanley Arts. I plan to implement this by creating a structured content approach for the New Beginnings programme, where we offer artists free rehearsal space, capturing rehearsal moments, artist interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage to tell authentic stories that engage audiences across social media and our website.

I will also experiment with small targeted paid campaigns to reach people outside our usual audience, helping to grow awareness of Stanley Arts and the emerging artists we support. Finally, I will embed a more playful, experimental approach within our marketing team, encouraging creativity and problem-solving in day-to-day campaigns, rather than falling back to the default responses. These steps will strengthen our digital presence, amplify the work of our artists, and help us connect with a broader, more diverse community online as well as with our physical attendees."

Images from the day: ©Lewis Roden, AMA