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Marketing and Communications Strategy 2007-2009 June 2007
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Contents 1
Introduction
3
The Role of the Marketing & Communications Department
4
Strategic Marketing Objectives Summary
11
The Marketing Mix
15
Working with Partners
16
Monitoring and Evaluation
18
Outputs 2003-2007
19
Related Documents
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1. Introduction: The Agency’s first Marketing Strategy was published in 2004 and covered the period up to March 2007. This new revised strategy builds on the progress of the Agency and the region in that time and sets out the Agency’s marketing and communications strategy.
Effective marketing and communications are crucial to the Agency because they directly enhance the Agency’s reputation amongst partners, stakeholders and customers. As well as enhancing the Agency’s reputation, the Marketing & Communications Department also protects it and works closely with the Chief Executive and Board to ensure messages are coherent and appropriate across the organisation.
It is important that the principles of effective marketing are applied to all Agency projects to maximise their individual impacts and collectively their role in delivering the revised RES.
• Economic changes The region has seen strong growth and economic performance in Manchester and more latterly Liverpool whereas some areas remote from growth have continued to decline. The RES recognises these challenges and sets out clear priorities for the economic growth of the region focusing on those activities that will address these at a regional and sub regional level. The increasing impact of climate change is for the first time being seen as an economic driver.
• Organisational changes In recognition of the changing political and economic landscape, and the revised RES, the Agency’s structure has fundamentally changed. The revised structure will deliver greater coherency and a corporate approach to delivering activity with greater input from SRPs in shaping sub regional activity.
• Changing perceptions The strategy recognises the significant changes that have taken place since 2004. These include:
• Changing political context
The perception of the region has improved significantly since 2002. The regeneration of Manchester and Liverpool, the attraction of major events to the region, and economic growth have all made a positive impact on the region’s perceptions.
The RDAs have been given greater responsibilities from government, including Business Link, Countryside Agency, ERDF programme and others. Despite this, the imminent Comprehensive Spending Review is likely to expect efficiency savings from the RDAs in the future. In addition, the Agency is operating in a context of greater focus on evaluation of outputs, delivery and value for money. In policy terms, there has been a continued interest in the city region agenda and a streamlining of the Northern Way agenda.
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2. The role of the Marketing & Communications Department The role of the Marketing & Communications Department is to develop and implement a Marketing and Communications Strategy for: •
The Agency; promoting the role, purpose, activities and achievements of the Agency and our partners.
•
The RES; highlighting the RES and reporting on its progress and related strategies.
•
The Region; effectively marketing and promoting the region as a place to visit, to invest in and to host major national and international events (including the regional opportunities of London 2012).
This document summarises these strategies. Specific related strategies are also listed (section 8) and detailed implementation plans for each area of activity have been prepared. The team works with Agency staff and partners to agree and deliver high quality, co-ordinated marketing and communications. It operates an account management structure so there are clear lines of responsibility and accountability with both internal teams and partners.
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3. Strategic Marketing Objectives Summary 3.1 Promote the role, purpose and effectiveness of the Agency and its programmes and activities The most important marketing objective is to ensure that communications enhance the Agency’s reputation and build awareness and understanding of the Agency’s role, purpose and particularly in the current CSR environment its effectiveness and value for money. Awareness of the Agency amongst public sector partners regionally and nationally is good. The Independent Performance Assessment (IPA) has helped to reinforce the Agency’s reputation for providing economic leadership and delivering results. Amongst significant regional businesses, awareness of the Agency is rising. The very nature of what the Agency does (a strategic role but also one which delivers activity), and the complex nature of the region, means that the Agency must always work hard to explain its role, purpose and achievements in language that our target audiences can understand. We have to make complex issues understandable and deliver clear unambiguous messages. As the remit of the Agency expands the challenge is to demonstrate coherence between its different areas of activity. It must also demonstrate that it is delivering for all communities in the region, taking into account the diversity of our audience in line with the Agency’s Equality and Diversity Strategy.
The Agency’s most important role is to provide economic leadership for the region. This has been partly demonstrated by the way it led the development of the new RES and its profile on leading appropriate Transformational Actions. However the understanding of this remit amongst our target audiences cannot be taken for granted and the Agency must continually look for different ways to articulate and express this leadership role. The Agency is committed to undertaking a stakeholder survey as part of the IPA Improvement Plan. This will provide an independent assessment of stakeholder views of the Agency as a whole. A tighter public sector funding environment will require the Agency to continue to prove its value. So whilst we will promote past successes we will also focus on future priorities. Inevitably the Agency has to make tough decisions regarding priorities. The challenge for communications is to ensure the rationale for decisions are effectively set out and seen in the context of the RES.
Demonstrating effective delivery of programmes and their outputs will continue to be seen as an important driver of NWDA effectiveness. As many of the longer term capital projects come to fruition it is important that the Agency’s involvement and role in those is clearly communicated. Given the proportion of activity that is delivered on behalf of the Agency by partners, keeping an Agency thread within partner communications is critical. The Project Credit work reinforced clear guidelines and processes for this and it is recognised that Agency staff responsible for managing or funding projects have an important role to play in making this happen.
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Target Audience
Internal Internal Audiences
Board Members, EMB and all staff
Regional Partners Regional Policy Partners
NWRA, GONW, RES Advisory Group
Principal Delivery Partners
RES leads, Cluster organisations (and members), URCs, SRPs, Local Authorities, other government agencies, inward investment Agencies, tourist boards, Business Link NW, Universities and FE
Regional Opinion Leaders
Senior private sector business leaders, business representative groups (BLT, IoD, CBI) local and regional media, MPs, MEPS
Other regional stakeholders
Private sector (inc SMEs for NWDA Business Finance), community and voluntary groups, Inward Investment and Business Support clients, general public
National National Partners and funders
Government departments, national government agencies, trade bodies, sector skills councils
National Opinion Leaders
Government Ministers, the government policy community, other political parties, think tanks, national and specialist media, other RDAs
National Customer and clients
Potential investors to the region, other national trade organisations
International International opinion leaders
Includes Brussels-based policy makers, international trade organisations,
International customers and clients
Potential Investors and trade organisations
Key Messages • The Agency leads the sustainable economic development and regeneration of England’s Northwest, providing strategic leadership to the region. • The NWDA is delivering transformational change in the region and will continue to focus its work on the key priorities that will make the most impact in the Northwest.
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• The NWDA will continue to work with partners to build on the progress of the last seven years and to drive economic growth in the Northwest.
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3.2 Promote the revised Regional Economic Strategy The RES is now widely acknowledged to be the platform on which the economic development of the region is built. Amongst public sector partners it is common parlance and the fact that key regional and sub regional partners have contributed to its development is a real strength. The focus on transformational activities gives credibility to the Agency’s prioritisation agenda. The improved credibility of the RES has in turn raised expectations of what the RES will deliver and so the challenge is to deliver on those priorities. Communicating progress on the delivery of those Transformational Actions that the Agency is responsible for is clearly a priority. But the NWDA is responsible for delivering part of the RES (10 out of 45 transformational actions, approximately 2.8% of total RES related funding). The Agency has to continue to build the message that the RES is the region’s strategy not just the Agency’s, and delivery rests with a wide variety of key partners. The ability of the Agency to get other organisations to deliver their element of the RES will be seen as a measure of the Agency’s wider influence. Therefore communicating positive progress in delivery of the RES across all transformational actions is a particularly important objective.
leading role in implementing the communications elements of the plan and it will work with partners to develop a Climate Change Marketing and Communications Plan. This will be based on existing and recently commissioned research amongst Northwest businesses and the general public. It will also take into account existing regional and national climate change marketing undertaken by other organisations so that new communications complements that already taking place.
Key Messages •
The RES provides the economic blueprint for the region’s development. It commits the region to reducing C02 emissions per unit GVA and to meet Kyoto targets by 2012.
•
The RES is the region’s strategy. It was developed by the region, for the region and establishes shared priorities and responsibilities for the whole region for the first time.
•
The RES prioritises those actions that will have the most impact on our economic growth. The transformational activities that we have identified are based on economic analysis of the region and are designed to have the maximum impact on our region’s economic performance.
The RES also identified climate change as a key economic issue for the region. The launch of the region’s first Climate Change Action Plan spelt out the challenges and opportunities for the region. The Agency will take a
3.3 Promote the role of good marketing and communications amongst NWDA staff, Board and partner organisations. The Marketing & Communications Department will work to deliver consistently high quality marketing activity across the Agency. It will also provide support to our key partners to give strategic advice and practical help to improve their communications.
•
Effectively communicating corporate priorities and key activities.
•
Managing the communications of organisational reviews.
It is worth noting that none of the Agency’s marketing objectives can be achieved without the commitment and knowledge of NWDA staff. The Agency has an Internal Communications Plan (1) which highlights the following priorities:
•
Encouraging cross functional communications and a shared sense of belief.
•
Engaging staff in key organisational projects (e.g. IPA).
•
Establishing and promoting a common set of corporate values for the Agency – Excellence, Motivation, Openness, Belief, Respect and Integration. page 6
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3.4 Promote a positive image of the region as a location for business and potential investors. The RES Quality of Life section identifies the need to challenge outdated and negative perceptions of the region. The image of the region amongst opinion formers, business leaders and members of the public has been tracked by MORI (2) on behalf of the Agency since 2001. This is the most substantial independent analysis of regional perceptions undertaken in the UK. The perceptions of the Northwest as a place to run a business have improved since 2003 from 45% rating it as good/very good to 62% in 2006. But the business base is still seen as dominated by traditional industries by business leaders and opinion formers outside of the region. Amongst this audience the region is perceived to rate poorly for the factors that are most influential over
business location decisions (national and international transport links, quality of schools and other public services and availability of skilled graduates). The Agency is committed to challenging these perceptions and to promote the region’s specific economic and business strengths. It has developed a Regional Business Marketing Strategy (3) to show how this can be achieved. This is in part through developing the perception of the region as an international location for business. In addition specific sector campaigns will improve the region’s reputation in the sectors of Science and Pharmaceuticals, Business and Professional Services, Creative and Digital and Energy and Environmental Technologies.
Target Audiences Internal Internal Audiences
NWDA Board SMT and staff
Regional Partners Private sector leaders and representatives
Northwest Business Partners (top 100 businesses), IoD, CBI, BLT members
National National Business Leaders
FTSE 500 (C/E and F/D)
Business Advisors
Financial institutions (city based and beyond) Government Ministers, national business support groups
Other businesses
Other major growth companies based London and SE in key sectors
Media
National and specialist business press, editors and correspondents
Government and public sector
National Trade Councils (inc. Research Councils), Treasury and their Advisors and economists
International International opinion leaders
Specialist relocation firms, UKTI desks.
International customers and clients
Potential Investors and trade organisations
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Key Messages •
Size and scale: The Northwest is a diversified and internationally competitive economy larger than 14 EU member countries.
•
International Cities: The region is home to two major international cities of Manchester and Liverpool with excellent national and international transport links.
•
International brands: The region is home to internationally successful blue chip companies in diverse sectors including pharma/bio (e.g. AstraZeneca), financial & professional services (e.g. Bank of New York), creative & digital (e.g. The BBC) and technology driven manufacturing (e.g. Bentley).
3.5
•
Research & Development: The region has the largest concentration of universities in Europe and the largest single site university in the UK. It produces 50,000 graduates per year and has research capabilities of national and international significance.
•
Quality of Life: One third of the region is designated National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has an international cultural offer including Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008.
Promote a positive image of the region as a location for visitors
The perception of a region or city as a place to visit is a key factor in its overall image. A strong visitor economy helps stimulate business activity across a wide range of sectors and projects a positive image of the region, making it more attractive to inward investment. Visitors help underpin a wider choice and range of cultural and entertainment facilities, whilst tourism can also support and promote conservation and provide a catalyst for urban regeneration. Whilst tourism has good growth prospects, patterns of tourism are changing, as are visitor needs. There is increasing competition from other destinations both at home and abroad. Innovative and targeted marketing activity will continue to be essential in order to maximise market share for the region. The Regional Tourism Marketing Strategy and Action Plan (4) outlines the Agency’s approach and defines its tourism marketing activities. The Agency has undertaken significant consumer market research over the past 18 months. Using this, together with an assessment of where the region has the strongest “visitor offer” the Agency has defined two major themes for its visitor marketing; Culture and the Natural Environment. For culture there is a unique opportunity to use the major cultural events taking place over the next 18 months to reposition the region as the new centre of contemporary culture in the UK. For Natural Environment there is an opportunity to harness the potential of the region’s outstanding environment with a consumer trend
towards greater connection and interest in nature and the landscape (for instance building on popular programmes such as the BBC’s Coast). Where the region has a strong offer across more than one sub region then campaigns will fit under a regional banner. Where there is a stronger message to promote individual destination “attack brands” then the Agency will support and encourage the Tourist Board to lead this activity . The Agency will also continue to build a greater association between the attack brands and the region. Business Tourism (Conferences and Exhibitions) is an increasingly important market and is worth £620 million per annum to the Northwest economy. Manchester has been very successful in developing its conference business (most recently with the main Political Party Conferences), whilst the new Arena and Convention Centre in Liverpool fundamentally changes Liverpool’s event offer. Other towns and cities also have a range of conference facilities. Recognising the importance of this market, the Agency has developed a specific Business Tourism Framework (5) which demonstrates how the region can improve its market share in national and international conferences and exhibitions.
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Target Audience The primary audience for regional tourism marketing campaigns is defined as ABC1s, couples, aged 35+, living in Yorkshire, the Midlands, London and the South East, and who are positively disposed to taking UK short breaks.
National Media Supplements The Agency was the first in the country to produce tourism supplements in association with national media partners. In order to gain maximum profile with key target audiences, the Agency has produced short break supplements at regular intervals over the past three years with The Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday, with a combined readership of over 12 million people. Over 150,000 people have responded to the supplements building a strong database of potential new visitors to the region. Such activity has complimented the marketing campaigns of the tourist boards and given profile to the region’s tourism product to mass audiences which are out of reach of the individual tourist boards.
3.6 Maximise the benefits of hosting major cultural, sporting and business events In 2004, the Northwest was the first English region to develop a Major Events Strategy (6) which has focussed on 3 key areas: exploiting our world class events (e.g. Grand National, Open Golf); creating and developing new major events (e.g. Manchester International Festival, Tour of Britain Cycle Race); bidding for existing major events (e.g. European Capital of Culture, World Swimming Championships 2008). The benefits of hosting major national and international events are not only the significant economic benefit of visitor and organiser spend, but also the enhanced profile and image of the region through significant print and television coverage. In the first 2 years of implementing the strategy, events which the Agency has been associated with have contributed £40m to the regional economy and generated 33 hours of national and international television coverage. Although the Northwest has been a leader in developing its approach to major events, there is now substantial competition from London and other English regions. The Northwest will need to respond by better long-term planning to create further event opportunities.
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The region needs to fully develop a pro-active plan to exploit the opportunities of the London 2012 Games. In particular, the region needs to capitalise on the increased interest by UK Sport and national governing bodies of sport in hosting major sporting events in the UK prior to the 2012 Games. The Agency is playing a leading role in developing a response to 2012 opportunities, The Regional Legacy Framework for England’s Northwest (7). It also needs to fully exploit the opportunities of Liverpool ‘08. The Agency is providing support for both major events and the national and international marketing of Liverpool. It also is working to spread the benefits to Merseyside and the wider region. The sub-regions will benefit by providing a related theme of events: Cheshire Gardens; Cumbria Adventure Activities; Lancashire Food and Drink; and Manchester Sport. Plans are being developed to exploit these sub-regional themes. The volume of major events which will be taking place over the next 2 years means the Agency and its partners will need to prioritise those events which can have maximum benefits for the region. Where the Agency and other partners are sponsors, then those sponsorship rights need to be fully exploited.
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Target Audience
Key Messages
At a national and international level the target audiences are event rights holders, funders, decision makers, event promoters (e.g. UK Sport; national governing bodies of sport; international sport federations; DCMS; London 2012; etc). At a regional level they are local authorities, tourist boards, event organisers/promoters and key facility owners/managers.
•
The Northwest has the facilities, infrastructure, expertise and track record to host successful international major events.
•
Partners need a long-term approach to planning and bidding for major events to be successful and to maximise their impact.
Uefa European Womens’ Football Championships In collaboration with Manchester City Council and GONW, the Agency was part of a team which persuaded the Football Association and Uefa to host the 2005 European Women’s Football Championships in the region. The event took place in a variety of locations across the Northwest; Blackburn, Blackpool, Manchester, Preston and Warrington. The event was the most successful championships ever held with a total record attendance of 117,000 spectators. The event generated 28,000 bed-nights and contributed £2.68m to the regional economy. It was watched by 9.3m viewers on BBC2’s 8-hour coverage along with a further 40m across Europe via the Eurosport channel.
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4. The Marketing Mix The Marketing and Communications Strategy will utilise a wide variety of methods to deliver its objectives. The team will use their expertise and knowledge to select the most appropriate and effective channels and will take an imaginative and lateral approach to activities and campaigns. The execution of activity will always be underpinned by both a thorough knowledge of the subject area and, in the competitive area of marketing the region, an understanding of what our competitors are doing, and considering communications from the customer perspective. In an increasingly “noisy� world, communications must have cut through in order to be heard or noticed. The team will also prioritise the perceived marketing requirements of the Agency and ensure a coherent and consistent promotion of the Agency and the RES priorities.
4.1 Media Relations Good media relations are critical to the Agency. The media provides the Agency with the opportunity to communicate information about its activities to the general public through regional and national media as well as to specific stakeholder groups through specialist trade and industry publications. Since 2003 the value of media coverage has increased by 55%. The Media Team will continue to generate substantial regional and national media coverage for the Agency and to promote Agency achievements.
As an increasing number of projects reach delivery stage, good communications with key delivery partners will be critical to ensure recognition of the Agency’s contribution and increased time will be spent on partnership media relations. National media coverage will continue to be a priority to generate coverage of Agency policy on key issues. The team will also continue to promote the region as a place to invest in and visit through targeted national media campaigns and in-depth feature pieces.
RES Launch, March 2006 The Agency launched the new Regional Economic Strategy in March 2006. Media relations formed a key part of the communications strategy to ensure that key messages were communicated effectively. By working with the RES Advisory Group organisations and including supportive partner quotes in press materials, the RES was strongly communicated as a regional strategy, signed up to and agreed by all sub-regional partners. Coverage was achieved in all the key regional titles including NW Business Insider, the MEN, Regeneration & Renewal, and the Liverpool Echo with strong message communication across all titles.
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4.2 Public Affairs Building and maintaining a strong relationship with MPs, MEPs, and other decision-makers at the local and national level is a priority for the Agency. Public Affairs communicates with parliamentary representatives for the Northwest, local authority leaders, and senior staff both in local authorities and in Whitehall. The NWDA has a programme of public affairs activity to communicate Agency policy and achievements and build support. The programme includes briefings at Westminster and in the region, a presence at the main party political conferences and regular communications with MPs and MEPs.
In addition, the team has also organised policy seminars on issues including the role of city-regions, worklessness policy and energy policy. They will continue to organise a strong programme of events and communications with key parliamentary stakeholders, including briefings, seminars and individual meetings with MPs. Increasingly, Public Affairs will seek to shape the political environment the Agency works in with issues-led work and a focus on key policy areas to link into the work of the Policy directorate.
Cities Northwest publication & seminar The Agency launched the Cities Northwest publication in conjunction with the IPPR’s Centre for Cities in July 2006. The publication included essays from key figures in the Northwest on the relationship between cities and the region. The purpose of the pamphlet was to influence the city-region policy agenda and engage with the senior-levels of both public and private partners in the region. The launch in July 06 featured high-profile speeches from Bryan Gray, Dermot Finch and was chaired by Michael Taylor, editor of NW Business Insider.
4.3 Events Events remain a popular and effective method of communicating directly with a large number of customers. Since 2003 over 23,000 people have attended Agency events. The Agency will continue to focus on delivering a programme of events that both educate and engage our
key audience on important Agency and regional issues. The major set piece events are the benchmark, but it is important that events of all sizes are designed and executed to the same standard to maximise their impact.
Climate Change Action Plan Launch Nov 06 The Agency launched the region’s first Climate Change Action Plan on November 9th 2006. Generating interest from the private sector during the consultation period had been difficult. A strong speaker line up (including The Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor David King and the Chairman of Shell UK James Smith) attracted over 280 delegates. By working with key private sector partners such as the Institute of Directors the Agency improved interest in the subject amongst the private sector. Half of those registered were from the private sector, 80% of the delegates rated the event as very good and overall satisfaction rate was 88%. The event gave real impetus to the plan and generated significant media coverage for the subject matter and the Agency.
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4.4 Campaigns The Agency only undertakes advertising where it can add strategic value to other communications. The Agency’s approach is to identify specific messages and audiences and then to develop targeted communications around those.
Gardens of England’s Northwest Campaign The region has a wide variety of Gardens which attract thousands of visitors each year. The sheer scale and quality of the attractions had not been packaged and promoted to potential visitors before and the Agency spotted that widespread consumer interest in horticulture made this a potentially lucrative visitor campaign. From 2004 to 2006 the Agency ran an integrated campaign to promote the region’s gardens to visitors. This generated over 1.5 million visits to garden attractions with an estimated visitor spend of £25M across the region.
4.5 E-media The fastest growing element of the marketing mix is emedia and traffic to the Agency’s web sites have doubled between 2003-2006. Whereas e-media used to be seen as a reactive communication method (providing content to people adept at searching the internet), it is now an integral element of proactive marketing. As with any communications the quality of the content is key. The Agency’s corporate web site (nwda.co.uk) has doubled in size since 2003 and now holds over 4000 separate pages of information. The Agency has used e-marketing to segment its customers into those with similar interests and produces a range of specific e-newsletters to brief them on specific areas of Agency activity. As well as sub regional newsletters, bespoke ones are produced for inward investment, the environment, and tourism. E- media is
particularly important for tourism marketing given that 75% of holidays are now researched or booked on line. Search Engine Optimisation and ensuring site visibility is also key and the Agency is taking the lead for this on behalf the region’s tourist boards. Improvements in technology are integrating “off line” and “on line” communications even more closely. It is now possible to web cast a large complex event (such as the AGM) to a much wider audience than previously. Pod casts (audio downloadable files) are increasingly popular (particularly for tourism marketing). The Agency is also using e-media technology to streamline processes and improve efficiency, from making all its publications available on-line to using on-line registration and evaluation for all of its events (which has increased response rates by 50%).
Northwest Image Bank Improving download speeds have made on line photo libraries an increasingly important tool for marketeers. The Agency has a wide range of photography which it shares with partners that were involved in promoting the region in order to improve their effectiveness. The Northwest Image Bank makes a range of licensed images available for key partners to use. Depending on the usage partners can either use the image free of charge or pay a discounted fee to the original photographer. Feedback on the site has been very positive and most of the other regions now offer a similar service.
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4.6 Design and Print Designing, writing and producing engaging and effective collateral can help articulate the Agency’s purpose, direction and rationale. The Agency is careful to only produce printed material where there is a clear need for it and an identified audience. Ensuring all Agency communication is customer focussed is a key role of the Marketing & Communications Department.
For corporate communications the Agency has a strong and established house style which ensures immediate recognition and association of printed material. The regional brand “England’s Northwest” is now widely used and accepted by a range of partners as a way of showing that key destinations/venues are part of the region. The Agency is careful to ensure a balance between promoting the region and our strongest destination brands.
315° The RDA Magazine The Agency produces its own quarterly magazine 315° to inform key public and private sector partners of what the Agency and its partners are doing to implement the RES. The magazine combines articles from the Agency and our partners with interviews from regional opinion formers. A survey of readers showed that 80% found the publication to be good or excellent in terms of content, design and originality. Two thirds of recipients passed the magazine to colleagues to read and said it helped to improve their understanding of the Agency.
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5. Working with Partners The very nature of what the Agency does means that it must have excellent partner relationships in order to undertake effective communications. The Agency has a wide range of partners, from those it directly funds to deliver specific schemes and projects, to those who it does not fund but who share a common goal to promote the Northwest. The most influential communications partners for the Agency sit on the Regional Marketing Forum. Chaired by the Chair of the Marketing, Communications and Tourism Sub Committee, its purpose is to bring together organisations that have an interest in promoting the region. Its remit is to provide guidance, support and advice to the Agency on its regional marketing activity and to identify opportunities to deliver collaborative marketing and communications programmes which promote the region as a business and tourism destination. Members of the Forum cover Business, Culture, Media,
Government, Academia, Tourism and the Environment who have either a sub regional or regional remit and have significant influence to promote the region or sub regions, shown below. The Agency also works closely with its key strategic partners (particularly Sub Regional Partnerships) and its key delivery bodies (Urban Regeneration Companies, Business Link Northwest, the Cluster organisations and the Local Authorities for RES priority cities and towns). The Agency’s approach is to provide expertise and advice to local partners and where possible combine communications activity. In some cases the Agency will undertake activity on behalf of partner groups (such at the Northwest Science Council and the Tourism Forum) where the delivery of that activity can directly help to improve perceptions of the regions. It also helps to provide regional coherence to otherwise disparate messages.
Arts Council England Northwest
Manchester City Council
BBC North West
Marketing Manchester
CBI Northwest
MIDAS
Culture Northwest
North West Business Leadership Team
Cumbria Tourism
Northwest Regional Assembly
England’s North Country
Northwest Universities Association
English Heritage
Public Sector Partners
Government Office North West
The Environment Agency
Institute of Directors North West
The Mersey Partnership
Lancashire & Blackpool Tourist Board
Visit Chester & Cheshire
Liverpool Culture Company
Promoting the Region’s Film and TV sector The Agency has worked closely with Northwest Vision to increase the profile and reputation of the region’s film and TV sector in London and the South East over the past 3 years. A key component of this was holding an event in central London in June 2005 to demonstrate the quality and variety of Northwest companies working in the sector. The event presented a range of private sector film, TV and production companies to commissioning editors and other industry organisations. It included a show reel of brand new programmes and films made in the region. The event attracted over 200 London based TV and Film contacts of which 80% were from the private sector. Through sponsorship from Virgin Rail (who offered free first class return tickets to Manchester) half of these subsequently visited the region to find out more about the opportunities in Manchester, Liverpool and the wider region.
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6. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework The work of the Marketing Team has been recently assessed through two reviews. The Agency’s Internal Auditors undertook an assessment of the marketing systems and processes in April 2006. The auditors noted that the work of the marketing team is controlled through a robust planning process, that there are demonstrable links between department activities and the achievement of RES objectives, and that the work of the team is focused on appropriate key audiences. A wider review of the Agency’s work on the RES Quality of Life theme was undertaken by the North West Regional Assembly Review and Scrutiny Group. The draft finding recognised the
Activity
Agency’s leadership role in promoting and improving the image of the region. It also recognised that there is general support for the promotion of the region and the “attack brands” in a coordinated way and targeting specific audiences with relevant messages. The Agency will measure the effectiveness of its marketing activity through a range of measures shown below. In addition, the Agency will commission a Stakeholder Survey during 2007/8 to assess partners in depth views of the Agency and its effectiveness.
Qualitative Measurement
Quantitative Measurements
1. Media Relations
• Analysis of positive/neutral/negative coverage • Types of stories covered • Feedback from journalists • Key messages communicated
• • • •
Number of articles and features Estimated advertising cost Number of media briefings Usage of press releases
2. Public Affairs
• Feedback from MP’s, MEP’s etc on communication methods • Independent survey of MP’s.
• Number of Briefings and presentations arranged • Number of people attending
3. Events
• Feedback from audiences at events • Media coverage of events
• Number of attendees at events • Satisfaction ratings
4. Marketing Campaigns & Materials
• Surveys of perceptions of the Agency by target audiences • Feedback from customers on usefulness of publications • Feedback from partners
• • • •
5. E-Media
• Feedback from users/customers • Comparisons with other RDA websites
• Number of page views compared to other RDAs & public sector sites • Number of update/news stories • Average length of stay on sites
Outputs from campaigns Take-up of agency services Response to mailings/adverts Number of collaborative initiatives
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Qualitative Measurement
Quantitative Measurements
6. Internal Communications
• Feedback surveys amongst staff/Board
• Number of initiatives delivered • Improves Agency ‘corporacy’ across the organisation
7. Corporate Identity & Branding
• Feedback from customers/stakeholders on views of the logo and levels of brand recall
• Usage of NWDA logo amongst partner organisations • Guidelines adhered to • Signage updated & maintained
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7. Outputs 2003-2006 OUTPUTS
2003/4
2004/5
2005/6
2006/07
• People attending
6,500
8,475
8,575
8,148
• Satisfaction levels
N/A
N/A
82%
78%
• Articles/Broadcasts
4,295
5,527
5570
5946
• % Of total NWDA coverage generated
52%
57% ˚
50%*
N/A
£4.9 million
£7.9M
£7.6M
£13.2M
• nwda.co.uk
1.4 million
2.2M
2.7M
4M
• englandsnorthwest.com and visitenglandsnorthwest.com
1.3 million
2.2M
2.4M
2.65M
N/A
1M
1.4M
1.4M
12
18
21
17
£1 million
£3.3M
£3.4M
£2.6M
11
15
15
14
NWDA Organised Events
Media Coverage
• Equivalent advertising value Website Page Impressions
• intranet Tourism and Image Marketing • Partnership marketing initiatives /campaigns • Financial leverage from partners for joint marketing Major Events • Support for major events and major events bids
*
Reflects increasing partner media coverage rather than a drop in Agency coverage.
˚
EAC for 2004/5 included all direct and indirect coverage of major events supported by the Agency, which caused a spike in value. From 2005 onwards only major events coverage which mentions NWDA association with the event is counted.
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8. Related Documents 1.
NWDA Internal Communications Plan 2006
2.
MORI Image of the Northwest Research 2006
3. Northwest Business Marketing Strategy 2007-9
4. Northwest Tourism Marketing Strategy & Action Plan
5. Northwest Business Tourism Framework
6. Northwest Major Regional Events Strategy
7.
The Regional Legacy Framework for England’s Northwest
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This document can be made available in the following languages: Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Somali, Urdu and Hindi. Please contact the Marketing Department on 01925 400 100
This document can be made available in large print, braille and audio tape. Please contact the Marketing Department on 01925 400 100 www.nwda.co.uk
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The Northwest Regional Development Agency PO Box 37 Renaissance House Centre Park Warrington WA1 1XB Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 100 Fax: +44 (0)1925 400 400
www.nwda.co.uk www.englandsnorthwest.com www.visitenglandsnorthwest.com
Printed on Zanders Mega Matt
June 2007 NWDA H6-26