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Marketing Annual Review 2008-09
June 2009
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The role of the Marketing Directorate
Marketing and Communications Achievements 2008/09
The NWDA Marketing & Communications team’s primary role is to develop a marketing and communications strategy for the Agency and execute a plan of action to deliver it. The team’s programme of work includes corporate communication activities designed to raise awareness of the Agency’s role as well as tactical marketing work to support specific work carried out by other areas of the Agency.
8,200 82%
9,000 83%^
3,500 £10.5 million 40%
4,082 £13.8 million 56%
5.5 million 2 million 3 million
5.69 million 2.18 million 3.07 million
550,000 100,000 400,000
631,000 348,659 615,500
20 £3.5 million
23 £3.5 million
12 £15 million
28 £40 million1
1.6 million 12 issues
1.63 million 12 issues
2 Media Coverage • Articles/Broadcasts • Equivalent advertising value • Percentage of Northwest adults reached
The team provides strategic advice on all marketing and communications issues to the Agency’s Board and Executive Management Board as well as providing marketing and communications services to other departments within the NWDA.
3 Website Page Impressions • nwda.co.uk • englandsnorthwest.com • visitenglandsnorthwest.com
Strategic Marketing Objectives
4. Website Unique Visitors
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Champion the role, purpose and effectiveness of the NWDA and its programmes and activities
• nwda.co.uk • englandsnorthwest.com • visitenglandsnorthwest.com
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Promote the Regional Economic Strategy
5 Tourism and Image Marketing
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Year End
1 NWDA Organised Events • People attending • Satisfaction levels
The team is also accountable for leading the delivery of part of the “Culture and Image” priority in the current Regional Economic Strategy, which includes business marketing, tourism marketing, major regional events and opportunities around London 2012. This is delivered through a partnership of organisations – represented on the Regional Marketing Forum – whose aim is to improve the image of England’s Northwest in the UK and overseas.
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Annual Target
• Partnership marketing initiatives/campaigns • Financial leverage from partners for joint marketing
Uphold good marketing and communications standards within the Agency, Board and partner organisations
6 Major Events • Support for major events and major events bids • Economic impact for the regional economy
Foster a positive image of the region as a location for business and potential investors
7 Internal Communications •
Foster a positive image of the region as a location for visitors
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Maximise the benefits of hosting major cultural, sporting and business events
• Intranet page impressions • 360° staff magazine published ^ overall event satisfaction rated as excellent or good
Media analysis is done the month after each quarter ends. 1
Includes economic impact of NWDA supported Liverpool 08 events.
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Media Coverage 2008/09 was a year dominated by the economic downturn, with much Agency coverage centring upon additional business funding in the shape of new business finance products. During the year, the Agency generated 4,082 articles/broadcasts, against a target of 3,500, with an Equivalent Advertising Value (EAV) of nearly £13.8 million. The total number of Northwest adults reached by NWDA coverage was 56%, against a target of 40%. Importantly, 54% of Agency coverage was strongly favourable and 40% was favourable. Prominent national media coverage included key articles in the Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times and Regeneration & Renewal. Regional coverage included Northwest Business Insider, Daily Post and Manchester Evening News. The Agency also worked with BBC1 North West Tonight on a series of features on key industries in the region, including the Nuclear, biomedical and tourism sectors. To build upon relationships with national newspapers, a number of visits to the region were arranged involving high-profile travel journalists from publications including the Telegraph, Times, Independent, Observer, Sunday Mirror and the Express. Visits were connected to key regional events, such as the Grand National, MTV Europe Music Awards and La Machine.
Key subjects contributing higher volumes of generated coverage included: •
£35m Business Start-up Programme, announced during the Cabinet visit to Liverpool
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Plans for the Venture Capital Loan Fund and the launch of the Transition Loan Fund, High Growth Programme and Innovation Vouchers Scheme
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Launch of RDPE and LEADER programme
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Climate Change Conference
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The Liverpool Summit
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NWDA support for the University of Cumbria and Blackburn College
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Launch of the Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry
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Capital of Culture including key events like the opening ceremony, La Machine, Go Superlambananas and MTV Europe
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Tourism including pieces across all national broadsheet titles
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London 2012 and the impact on the region
4,082 articles and broadcasts
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Public Affairs
NWDA organised Events
The Agency undertook a variety of public affairs activity throughout the year to promote the NWDA and the region to key political stakeholders. These included:
Throughout the year 9,000 people attended Agency-organised or Agency-sponsored events, against a target of 8,200, with a satisfaction rate of 83%. These events included the Annual Conference and AGM, which was attended by 750 people, and an Equality and Diversity conference.
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A number of ministerial visits to the region on key issues, topics and projects were organised by the Public Affairs team. These included visits by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, John Denham MP, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Energy. Regular parliamentary briefings have been held at the House of Commons to keep MPs and MEPs informed of the work and priorities of the NWDA. The Agency also sponsored the Parliamentary Exhibition on Skills, with NWDA branding present for the duration of the event.
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The Agency supported a number of events at all three party political conferences, including a series of debates on the future of Manchester and on nuclear power, a skills event in conjunction with the Smith Institute and policy events with Yorkshire Forward and One Northeast.
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The Agency was heavily involved in organising the Cabinet visit to Liverpool in January 09, co-ordinating events including two business breakfasts with Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Peter Mandelson MP, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. The breakfasts were hosted by NWDA Chairman Bryan Gray and Chief Executive Steven Broomhead.
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The Agency also co-ordinated two official visits to the region by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The visits included the official launch of our support for businesses in the economic downturn and a regional lending roadshow in Carlisle to talk with businesses about the situation with bank lending.
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The NWDA sponsored the official launch of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Chief Executive Steven Broomhead spoke at the launch, representing the Agency as lead RDA for the new department.
The Climate Change Conference, which examined key issues surrounding the region’s ambition to become a low carbon economy, was attended by over 200 people. The NWDA also hosted the Annual 2012 Conference on behalf of the Northwest Steering Group for the 2012 Games. Both events were held in Liverpool. The England’s Northwest Tourism Awards, which recognise the best of the region’s tourism businesses, was attended by 500 people. The Agency also held five consultation events for the RS2010 Principles and Issues Paper, which took place in Cumbria, Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire.
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Major Regional Events
2008/09 saw the Agency implementing the region’s Major Events Strategy for the fifth year running. As well as the success of European Capital of Culture 2008 in Liverpool, the year also saw the Northwest strengthening its role as a centre for sport.
Tour of Britain – The NWDA again supported the Northwest leg of the Tour of Britain Cycle Race – which this year was the final stretch of the race, so the finish line could be in European Capital of Culture city Liverpool. Footage of the event was shown on ITV4.
Liverpool Summit – The Liverpool Summit saw over 800 national and regional business leaders congregate in the city to hear from a number of highprofile speakers, including Nobel Peace Prize winner and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
European Capital of Culture 2008 – As an official sponsor of Capital of Culture, the NWDA invested £2 million to support the Liverpool Culture Company in delivering the cultural programme between 2005-2008. The role of the Agency included:
FINA World Swimming Championships – Manchester’s biggest sporting event since the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the FINA World Swimming Championships were held at the MEN Arena where two temporary pools were constructed especially for the event. The competition, which was supported by the Agency, saw the world’s best swimmers swamp the city, using the event to hone their skills ready for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Comprehensive coverage of the event was broadcast on the BBC.
BT Paralympic World Cup 2008 – The Paralympic World Cup, which is supported by the NWDA, was held in Manchester for the fourth year running. The event was even bigger this year as many of the 400 athletes from 45 countries who competed saw the event as preparation for the Paralympic Games in Beijing – with 18 world records broken over five days. Live coverage of the event was shown on BBC2.
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Supporting key events including La Machine, Go Superlambananas, MTV Europe awards, the Liverpool Biennial and BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
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Supporting national marketing campaigns to promote 08 to an audience outside the region.
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Supporting regional awareness through a series of building wraps in the city.
Highlights of the year included over 3,000 firemen and women competing in the World Firefighters Games, a huge mechanical spider taking over the city centre and the final event, Transition: The People’s Celebration, where an audience of 60,000 enjoyed a show incorporating film, sound, light and fireworks on the newly regenerated Pier Head on the edge of the River Mersey.
British Masters Invitational – The NWDA supported the inaugural British Masters Invitational at Chester Racecourse which featured elite showjumpers, including John and Michael Whitaker, Robert Smith, Ellen, William and Robert Whitaker, William Funnell, Geoff Luckett, Geoff Billington, Daniel Neilson and Tim Stockdale. It is hoped the event – which offers a £60,000 prize – will become a regular feature on the equestrian calendar.
English Masters Beach Volleyball – The English Masters Beach Volleyball event took place in Blackpool. Supported by the Agency, it was the first time a Nestea European Championship Tour competition has been held in the UK. Coverage was shown on Sky TV. Great North Swim – – The inaugural Great North Swim took place in Lake Windermere, where Olympic medallists took to the water with amateur competitors to swim the one-mile course. Over 2,200 swimmers took part in the event, which was supported by the NWDA. The swim was televised on Channel 4.
London 2012 The Agency’s continuing work to ensure the Northwest benefits from the estimated £6 billion of work available from London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games is paying off, with almost 1,800 regional businesses registering on CompeteFor to win Olympicbased contracts. The NWDA hosted the Annual 2012 Conference, which was an opportunity for businesses to find out how the Northwest is maximising the benefits of London 2012 and how organisations from all sectors can get involved. The region signed two agreements with teams committing themselves to train in the Northwest prior to the 2012 Games: Thailand and the 15 Island Countries of Oceania. The Legacy Trust UK signed off £3 million of funding for “We Play”, the regional programme for the Cultural Olympiad.
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Tourism and Image Marketing
Promoting our Culture Offer:
Promoting our beautiful environment:
Autumn Culture campaign – The Agency launched Autumn Culture, which was fronted by BBC Radio 2 DJ, writer and Northern advocate Stuart Maconie. The campaign – which focused on seven stories about visits to the parts of the region – included 27 double-page adverts, which ran in leading national magazines, targeting “Nest Builders” and “Empty Nester” segments. The stories are also available in written format and as downloadable podcasts on dedicated website www.stuartsstories.co.uk.
Gardens Campaign 2008 – The regional gardens guide was produced for the first time by Visit Chester and Cheshire with support from the NWDA, and focused on Cheshire and its year of Gardens. As well as being distributed to the 2007 gardens guide database, it was also handed out at key garden events, including 25,000 copies at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park. Open Golf Championship – The Open Golf Championship took place at Royal Birkdale, in Southport. The NWDA hosted 80 corporate guests, including key overseas and national travel trade, journalists and potential inward investors on the second day of the tournament. A total of 78,000 copies of the fourth edition of the England’s Golf Coast guide – containing a stitched-in guide to Southport – were distributed in the build-up to and during the event.
Promoting tourism: Awards Enjoy England Awards – For the first time in the events history, the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence were held outside London. The 2008 event, at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, saw three awards going to the Northwest. Seven of this year’s Northwest winners were short-listed as finalists for the 2009 national awards. England’s Northwest Tourism Awards 2008 – The regional tourism awards were also held at St George’s Hall in Liverpool. Over 400 guests celebrated the 19 awards given on the night.
Marketing material Tourism websites revamp – Four consumer tourism websites were re-developed. The sites www.visitenglandsnorthwest.com, www.nwculture.co.uk, www.naturalnorthwest.co.uk and www.gardensnw.co.uk were launched at various intervals during the year. Photography – A series of photoshoots took place during the year, including a “regional viewpoints in Cheshire and Cumbria” shoot in partnership with Britain On View and VisitBritain. The images have been added to the NWDA imagebank to be used in various publications and promotions.
Special Offers campaign – The NWDA and the subregional tourist boards supported the national tourism Special Offers campaign, co-ordinated by Visit England, by providing offers and discounts for key attractions in the region such as Manchester United and Tatton Park. The offers were promoted online and via published voucher books.
Attending trade events Best of Britain – The region had a large presence at the new consumer and trade tourism exhibition Best of Britain, where the Northwest’s destinations were pulled together under the England’s Northwest banner. The key message was destination-led with each sub region showcasing their key themes, strongest hotel and best attraction. The Best of Britain event, held at Excel in London, was a combined national travel trade and consumer exhibition. World Travel Market – England’s Northwest had a large presence at the World Travel Market event, held at Excel in London. The key message was destination-led with each sub region showcasing their attack brands and key themes in on-stand events and promotions throughout the four-day worldwide travel trade exhibition.
As part of the ongoing culture campaign, the NWDA placed 13 full-page advertisements in the Sunday Times’ Culture. The adverts focused on key forthcoming cultural events – including Le Corbusier exhibition and The Liverpool Biennial – with an underlying regional cultural message. Research commissioned to assess the impact of the campaign, showed that among regular readers of the magazine, recall levels of the adverts were high and perceptions of the Northwest were found to be much more positive. The Agency also produced 3 issues of PRIME magazine during the year. The magazine which promoted the cultural offer of the Northwest won a prestigious Design in Business Award. Spring Outdoors campaign – A continuation of Autumn Culture, Spring Outdoors focused on eight stories about visits to parts of the region. Fronted again by Stuart Maconie, the campaign included 12 double-page adverts
run in leading national magazines. There have been over 28,000 unique visitors to the www.stuartsstories.co.uk website and over 5,500 signups for the free book, which features all 15 of the Spring Outdoors and Autumn Culture stories. Enjoy England campaign – The Agency was lead partner in the Enjoy England cultural supplement distributed with the Independent newspaper, which has a circulation of approximately 250,000. The front half of supplement was given over entirely to the Northwest. There were a total of 2,000 entries to the Liverpool Biennial prize draw, which was featured within the supplement and online at www.enjoyengland.com. Simon Calder Northwest films – The NWDA supported and assisted in the filming and production of five short films about the region which were presented by travel journalist and broadcaster Simon Calder. The films – which cover Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool and The Lake District – were shown on a number of websites and online film outlets, including www.enjoyengland.com, www.visitenglandsnorthwest.com and the Agency’s corporate website.
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Business Marketing
Internal Communications
Business supplements – The Agency published two national supplements in the Financial Times promoting the region as a place to do business. The first supplement – Doing Business in Liverpool and the Northwest – was launched at an NWDA/FT event in Liverpool on the morning of the Liverpool Leadership Summit. The second supplement – Doing Business in Manchester and the Northwest – was launched at MIPIM, the international property conference in Cannes, France. A combined distribution of 870,000 key business decision makers was reached.
A range of activities have been undertaken throughout the year to both enhance internal communications across the NWDA and to help Agency teams communicate their project work to staff. These included:
Business advertising – Two campaigns aimed at improving perceptions of the region as a business location ran during Spring and Autumn in the national business press including The Times and The Telegraph. Monthly inward investment newsletters – 12 editions of the Northwest Investment e-newsletter were distributed during the year aimed at delivering news and features to businesses, intermediaries and overseas offices. Support for key events – A number of events were supported to raise awareness of the strength of the region’s business credentials including its key sectors. These included: • The Media Festival, a major national conference in Manchester attended by over 350 businesses from the UK’s creative and digital sector • British Chambers of Commerce Annual Conference – A key annual business convention attracted to Liverpool and attended by 400 public and private sector delegates to discuss key business issues. • How-Do Awards – The Agency was the headline sponsor of the region’s first awards event incorporating the digital and creative sector. • Farnborough Airshow – The Agency supported the Northwest Aerospace Alliance to attend Europe’s largest aerospace show, enabling them to bring 50 Northwest companies to the show. • Liverpool Leadership Summit – A major 2-day Leadership conference attended by over 800 delegates. The event was the key business event during Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year.
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Working with Human Resource Development (HRD) to support the Learning at Work Day. A range of events were organised at Renaissance House in addition to job-shadowing and job-swapping opportunities for staff. The event received good participation and feedback from staff. Working with HRD to provide communications support in a number of areas, including Business Improvement Planning and Organisation Change, Action Learning Programme, Online Induction, Employee Performance Management and the Pay Review. In the first two Seeing is Believing visits, small groups of staff were taken on tours of Liverpool and Manchester/Salford to visit Agency-supported projects and meet partners. Initial communication commenced on RS2010, Programme Management, the Business Support Simplification Process as well as the Agency’s support for businesses during the economic downturn.
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A new Senior Management Team (SMT) cascade process was introduced to ensure staff receive regular and consistent information arising from monthly SMT meetings.
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A number of staff communication events were held, including RS2010 Breakfast Briefings and State of the Region presentations.
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12 issues of the monthly newsletter, 360°, were produced.
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The Agency’s intranet site received regular administration and updates to reflect organisational changes, current documents and team news. The site attracted over 1.6 million impressions.
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Other existing communications channels were successfully managed, including the NWDA Weekly Bulletin and Core Brief.
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Several staff social events were held including the Staff BBQ, Christmas Party and Children’s Christmas Party.
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Staff participated in a variety of fundraising events including the Burmese Cyclone Appeal, Children in Need and support for St Rocco's Hospice in Warrington. A total of £4,200 was raised by staff.
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E-Media
Publications
www.nwda.co.uk - The NWDA’s corporate website continued to be an effective tool promoting the Agency’s activities, generating 5.69 million page impressions (against a target of 5.5 million), with over 630,000 unique visitors (against a target of 550,000). www.englandsnorthwest.com - The regional Inward Investment website generated 2.18 million page impressions (against a target of 2 million). www.visitenglandsnorthwest.com - The regional tourism portal generated 3.07 million page impressions (against a target of 3 million).
Annual Review
Business Plan
NWDA 315 Magazine
Prime: The region’s cultural
Three issues of the Agency’s high quality magazine were produced and distributed to businesses in the region
magazine received a bronze at the coveted DBA Design Effectiveness Awards
Sixty e-newsletters have been produced and distributed covering regional news, inward investment, the environment, tourism and London 2012. A new regional Agency enewsletter was launched, which is now distributed to almost 9,000 regional and national contacts. Content of the new enewsletter is focused on outlining the Agency’s support for businesses during the economic downturn. A number of other sites were also created during the year including a new Finance for Business site enabling businesses to apply online for Agency funding 2012 Be Inspired Northwest site.
The Northwest Economy: A joint response to changing economic circumstances which was launched by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Support for Northwest Businesses: A brochure outlining the range of publiclyfunded support available to the region’s businesses
Low Carbon Economy:
Ancoats Annual Review: Review of progress made with the regeneration of Ancoats
NWDA Single Equality Scheme: Document outlining
Building on Potential in our Rural Areas:
Agency is committed to Equality and Diversity
Rural Policy Document
Low Carbon projects across the region
RS2010 Principles & Issues Paper: Regional Strategy consultation document
- GO: What’s on in England’s Northwest
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The Northwest Regional Development Agency Renaissance House Centre Park Warrington WA1 1QN Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 100 Fax: +44 (0)1925 400 400
www.nwda.co.uk www.englandsnorthwest.com www.visitenglandsnorthwest.com
This document is available in large print, braille, audio tape and the following languages; Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Somali, Urdu and Hindi. Please contact the Marketing Department on 01925 400100
Printed on Zanders Mega Matt
June 2009 NWDA j5-29