Cities are increasingly using major events as a device to drive their brand image, stimulate urban development, and attract visitors and investment. Creativesheffield acknowledged this in the process of writing the Economic Masterplan in 2007 and in the last year we have seen significant progress in this area.
Brendan Moffett, Director of Strategic Marketing at Creativesheffield, explains how the city is planning for future success:
“We are now maximising our existing events programme, evidenced by the retention of the World Snooker Championships and investment into other key strategic events such as The Grin Up North, Sheffield Comedy Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest. Through our investment, these events have reached the capacity to draw significant numbers of people into the city from outside of the region and boost Sheffield’s profile to external audiences.
“Sheffield has therefore developed a great reputation for hosting major events. This summer the city saw U2 come to Don Valley Stadium, which is estimated to have boosted the local economy by £10 million; Warp Records 20th anniversary, which drew in visitors from as far away as Japan, Brazil and The Netherlands; and many more.
“However, the city is not complacent and we are looking to the long term and bidding for events which we believe will significantly move the city forward in terms of profile and economic impact. This started with our winning bid to host the Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2009 which will take place in December at Sheffield Arena - a guaranteed economic and media bonanza for the city.
“We are now working on further bids in collaboration with Sheffield City Council, Yorkshire Forward and other partners. The first of these is our bid to become a candidate host city for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, should England be successful, and the second to be the host for the first ever UK City of Culture in 2013.
“The World Cup Candidate City bidding process is a reminder of just how competitive the world is in which we now operate. 16 cities have thrown their hat in the ring in the hope of increasing their profile and accelerating their economic development. It is against this backdrop that we must competitively position Sheffield with a differentiated offer through our distinctive marketing and communications.
“I am currently chairing the marketing and communications task group, which includes relevant major stakeholders and both football clubs. The group has two clear communication objectives: harnessing votes locally and spreading Sheffield’s messages beyond the boundaries of the South Yorkshire region.
“At a local level, we are looking to garner as much support as possible by encouraging people to register their votes via our website http://www.sheffield2018.co.uk/. This has now been supplemented by the ability to use your mobile phone to vote, by simply texting Sheffield to 62018. This allows for much greater versatility in our activity.
“We have created a series of large key events to help maximise the number of votes we can collect. The recent thrilling Sheffield derby match played at Bramall Lane was the first in this series. With excellent co-operation from both clubs, supported by local and national media coverage we managed to get our campaign off to a flying start. Branded T-shirts were worn by the players and mascots alike, with stadium announcements, programme adverts, 2018 branded perimeter boards, flags and electronic score board messages adding to the atmosphere and voting activity.
“October is also a busy month for us with 2 additional major events: Back the Bid Day and Sheffield 2018 - What's in it for business?
“Back the Bid Day takes place on Friday 16 October when the team behind Sheffield’s bid are encouraging individuals, schools and businesses in Sheffield and the South Yorkshire region to use their imagination and ingenuity to show their support for the city’s 2018 campaign.
“The organisation or individual who uploads the photographs which best reflect how they are creatively ‘backing the bid’ to www.sheffield2018.co.uk will be entered into a draw to win a multitude of top quality prizes including tickets for a future England game at Wembley!
“Hallam FM will be encouraging people to Get Stripped for Back the Bid Day by asking listeners to go into work or school in their chosen football strip and donate £1 to the Hallam FM charity Cash for Kids. Team Hallam will be visiting schools and businesses throughout the day so dress to impress! Also, if you’d like a Sheffield 2018 car sticker, get down to Hallam FM or stop the street team.
“Everyone involved in Back the Bid Day is, most importantly, asked to register their vote for Sheffield!
“Sheffield 2018 - What's in it for business? is a must attend event on 23rd October, where you will be able to find out exactly why Sheffield's bid to be a 2018 FIFA World Cup Host City is so important for you, your business and our city.
“Speakers at the event will include Nick Clegg MP who will talk about what this accolade would mean for the city, Professor Chris Gratton who will discuss the vast economic benefits of bringing the World Cup to Sheffield and Wayne Coyle, Sheffield 2018 Bid Director who will bring you up to date on the bid process. Following the line-up of speakers, Council Leader Paul Scriven will head up a panel of representatives from the Sheffield 2018 bid team for any questions you may have.
“Join the Business Community of Sheffield at this free event, kindly hosted by Sheffield City Hall, and be part of this exciting campaign to get our city on the World Cup map! To register, please visit www.scci.org.uk and follow the links to the events page.
“An extensive Sheffield 2018 campaign is running across the city on 6 sheet posters, Sheffield Connect map branding, in Your Sheffield magazine which is distributed to 200,00 homes, and the campaign is also prominent on the Wheel of Sheffield. Even Stan and Mary, the flower statues outside Sheffield Town Hall, are showing their support for the bid brandishing the 2018 Back the Bid message.
“The campaign features children from Lydgate Junior School in Sheffield, and their hopes and aspirations for 2018. The striking imagery also features heavily in Sheffield’s bid document which has been well received by the England 2018 committee.
“We are looking to achieve a national profile for our bid by working with specialist PR agency Pitch PR. Through this activity we recently secured coverage with The Times, “Talksport and SKY SPORTS when we announced Gordon Banks as an ambassador for the campaign. Other ambassadors announced so far include Michael Vaughan, Jessica Ennis, Brian Deane and Howard Wilkinson. We are looking to secure further national coverage in the build up to the final bid submission in early November.
“Finally, if you haven’t already done so, please register your support for Sheffield by texting ‘Sheffield’ to 62018 or visiting http://www.sheffield2018.co.uk/!”