Presentation by Maureen McAllister, Experience Nottinghamshire
Minutes:
Maureen McAllister, Interim Visitor Economy Lead, Marketing Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, gave a presentation on the creation of the new Place Marketing Organisation (PMO) and highlighted the following points:
(a) the priorities for the PMO are:
· inward investment;
· visitor economy;
· business visits and events;
· business engagement;
(b) the mission is to:
· put Nottingham and Nottinghamshire firmly on the map as a top UK destination for inward investment and tourism;
· be the principal voice of the visitor economy sector in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire;
· be the primary vehicle for engaging local businesses in the place-marketing effort;
· lead a unified approach to place-marketing within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire;
· be one of the lead place-marketing organisations in the UK, recognised for an outstanding track-record of successful delivery;
(c) the objectives are:
· economic growth:
o help to bring in new inward investment;
o increase visitor spending;
o attract more major events and conferences;
o attract and retain talent;
o compelling campaigns and lead-generation activities;
· compelling offer:
o establish a fresh narrative for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and what it stands for, championed by local stakeholders, including the business community, and underpinned by a coherent set of tailored marketing messages;
o identify, and keep under review, priorities for investing in the development of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire offer;
· place-marketing Centre of Excellence:
o build the capacity of the PMO to be an integrated, trusted, highly professional local centre of excellence in place-marketing and business engagement, capable of supporting the needs to local partner organisations;
(d) the title ‘Marketing Nottingham and Nottinghamshire’ is a working title;
(e) the current teams for Experience Nottinghamshire and the Event Team, Invest in Nottingham, and Nottingham Means Business are now being located together in one office;
(f) key projects include:
· the arrival of the new CEO;
· Nottingham in Parliament Day;
· London Campaign;
· Corporate Games;
· new narrative and place-marketing plans;
· new business engagement model;
(g) a Place Brand and Narrative for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are being developed to articulate a unique identity and ‘sense of place’. To enable this Place Marketing specialists ‘Thinking Place’ have been appointed who previously worked on the North Notts Place Marketing Strategy. They will deliver a set of messages with a toolkit all partners can buy in to;
(h) there are 4 stages for the Place Brand and Narrative, and the anticipated deadline is 24 October:
· stage 1 – discovering and understanding Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (already complete):
o desk and strategy research, including a review of existing brands;
o brand geography and immersion;
o 1-2-1 stakeholder conversations;
o focus groups;
o workshops;
o online engagement;
o consumer research;
· stage 2 – developing the new Place Brand (the current stage):
o analysis of evidence;
o developing the narrative themes and ‘big idea’;
o presentation of recommendations;
o writing the new Narrative;
· stage 3 – developing the visual identity and visual language:
o visual identity and language system;
o toolkit and brand guidelines for visual language;
· stage 4 – developing recommendation for an implementation plan:
o recommendations of mechanisms, products and channels.
The following comments were made during the discussion:
(i) the amalgamation gives resources and strength to the work that is being done, so it is important to ensure that the effectiveness is measured;
(j) the focus is on leisure, tourism, business visits and events, investment and business engagement, and there are performance measures for each element that are reported on on a 6 weekly basis. Examples of the measures can be brought to a future Forum meeting for information;
(k) it’s important to market Nottingham and Nottinghamshire separately, and not to market the City purely in the context of the County, as there is so much that the area borders, eg the Peak District.