Malaga city council seeks brand identity for music auditorium to attract sponsors

Construction alone carries a 209-million-euro price tag. Private funding will play a key role because, although the project has financial backing from the Andalusian regional government and the provincial authority, the Ministry of Culture has rejected a request for support.

Malaga city council has published the tender documents for the music auditorium's sponsorship campaign, offering a contract worth almost 80,000 euros including IVA for a comprehensive creative and communications service. The work will cover everything from the initial strategy and creative concept to the final production of the materials needed to promote the project and attract sponsors.

The auditorium will also serve as a conference venue, although the tender documents do not mention this use.Municipal company Promálaga, which runs the Fycma conference and exhibition centre, has taken responsibility for the auditorium's construction and future management.

As with the tender for the construction of the building, the campaign brief makes no reference to the conference use Mayor Francisco de la Torre is promoting. Instead, it describes the project solely as "a strategic cultural infrastructure aimed at strengthening the city's cultural profile and expanding its national and international reach".

The advertising and communications contract will run for one year, and companies have until 23 October to submit their bids.

The tender is aimed at advertising and communications companies. As the most visible element of the campaign, they will have to create a distinctive visual identity for the music auditorium. The branding will form part of a wider sponsorship strategy, which will also include an institutional narrative explaining the new venue's public, cultural and social value.

The successful company will advise Promálaga throughout the creative process and produce the graphic, editorial and audiovisual materials needed to promote the initiative.

The tender documents identify an institutional video as one of the campaign's main tools for presenting and communicating the sponsorship drive. The video will run for between 90 seconds and three minutes.

The contract covers the campaign, logo and other materials, as well as video production, and will run for one year. Interested companies have until 23 October to submit their bids, one day after the deadline for the separate tender to build the opera house itself.

The city council has launched the sponsorship drive to raise the funds the project needs, particularly after the Culture Ministry turned down its request for 55 million euros in support. Private contributions will also account for around 100 million of the construction budget.

As Sur previously reported, potential sponsors have several ways to support the music auditorium. The most prominent option is to put their name on the opera house itself, at a cost of 40 million euros payable over ten years from the building's opening. Cajamar has already expressed interest in this option, although the council remains open to other bidders.

Other options include sponsoring the main concert hall for ten million euros or the chamber hall for five million. The scheme also opens the door to smaller investors, who can contribute between 3,000 and 5,000 euros. In return, the donor's name will appear on a plaque above one of the venue's seats.

The council has also created a "founding corporate sponsor" category for companies that contribute two million euros over five years. Their name will appear on the building's exterior wall and in the main foyer.

This week, the mayor said problems with electricity capacity in the province had affected the music auditorium project. The shortage means Malaga cannot currently meet demand from new developments of all kinds, from housing projects to major infrastructure.

"The auditorium has been denied the capacity we requested, including the ten megawatts (MW)," Francisco de la Torre said at a Málaga Hoy forum. However, he expressed confidence that "things will be resolved quickly".

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