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Marketing Manchester Visit. Meet. Invest. Study2017 -2020

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02 Marketing Manchester04 Foreword06 What we do08 Our strengths10 Our markets12 Our sectors14 Aims and objectives

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Marketing Manchester is the agency charged with promoting Greater Manchester on the national and international stage and the region’s destination marketing organisation. We are proud to be part of the Growth Company; an economic and social development agency that includes employment services, skills, business support and organisational development.

We are funded through a combination of commercial revenue - including investment from Manchester Airport Group for international campaigns - and local and national public funds. We work closely in partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined

Authority, VisitBritain and other destination management organisations, the Department for International Trade and many key stakeholders, in addition to over 500 private sector partners.

It is our privilege to promote Greater Manchester’s key sectors: creative, digital & technology; science; advanced manufacturing; financial and professional services as well as our underpinning culture, leisure and business tourism sector. Our work is essential to the success of raising the profile of Manchester as a global city and strengthening its position as gateway to the north of England.

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Collaboration is essential to deliver effective destination promotion. To this end, Marketing Manchester will continue to work with its key partners including VisitBritain, VisitEngland, Manchester Airport Group, Transport for Greater Manchester, Department of International Trade, and our Northern Powerhouse colleagues. We are always keen to develop new ways of working and to investigate the potential of new partnerships and initiatives.

This document combines significant research, consultation and analysis including: a review of Marketing Manchester activities and operations; tourism, investor and business research; Manchester Airport Group’s route development strategy; and the refreshed Greater Manchester Internationalisation Strategy for 2017-20. It is incorporated within the Manchester Growth Company’s annual Business Plan and it aligns with the Greater Manchester Brand Strategy, the Manchester Destination Management Plan and the Visitor Information Plan. We have spoken with our partners and listened to our audiences to shape our approach for the next three years.

Stakeholders and partners have told us that we must be ambitious to help take Manchester to the next level. That we should focus resource on best prospects and build on our past successes. That we should leverage available funds by working with partners to deliver mutually beneficial campaigns which target the priority markets. That we should continue to be innovative and creative in our role as one of the UK’s most successful destination marketing organisations, reaffirm Manchester’s brand in a global context and invest in our digital platforms.

Without a doubt, positioning Greater Manchester at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse and as the gateway to the north of England is essential to help rebalance the UK economy.

We have committed more focus on working with and influencing partners and collaborating with the region’s key brands including our universities, sport and cultural organisations. To help achieve Greater Manchester’s growth targets, we intend to work in a more integrated way to deliver cross sector, international campaigns that will increase the volume and value of international trade, inward investment, students and leisure and business tourism.

We are clear about our role: to promote Greater Manchester as a place to visit, invest, do business, and study by communicating the city region’s stories to our priority markets across the most effective channels.  

Sheona Southern Managing Director, Marketing Manchester

Foreword

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Our priorities are to:

Promote Greater Manchester on a national and international stage to leisure visitors, providing them with inspiration, information and to identify, secure and support business visits and events including cultural and sporting events.

Influence investors in our key sectors to set up and grow their businesses in our city region. 

Initiate collective promotion of Greater Manchester’s universities to raise awareness with international students including research opportunities. 

Drive marketing and communications for the Manchester Growth Company in support of the Greater Manchester Strategy.

How we do it:

Collaborate with agencies, authorities and independent organisations across the city in order to deliver a consistent, unified message.

Co-ordinate marketing opportunities and campaigns aimed at priority audiences to maximise the impact of public and private sector partner activity.

Communicate with the world’s media to ensure a positive, modern image of Manchester is reflected in coverage.

Facilitate a Manchester presence at international events and exhibitions on behalf of organisations across the city, to present a joint showcase of the city region’s assets and key sector strengths.

Work in partnership with key stakeholders, brands and assets to raise the profile of Manchester as a global city and strengthen its position as gateway to the north of England.

What We DoMarketing Manchester’s role is to promote Greater Manchester as a place to visit, invest, do business, live and study.

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We are proud to be the official destination marketing agency for Greater Manchester, the original modern city – where graphene was isolated, where Rutherford split the atom, where Rolls met Royce and where Alan Turing aligned computer technology with the human brain.

We integrate all the essential elements to deliver place marketing:Working with colleagues within the Growth Company including MIDAS and the Department for International Trade, we deliver essential elements of the Greater Manchester Internationalisation strategy. We work closely with other Growth Company business units who deliver business development, employment and skills services. As part of the Growth Company we have a unique service offering.

International delivery experience: we have gained a reputation as a trusted delivery partner for international campaigns and events and deliver a coordinating role as the international northern gateway into the UK. A key funding partner is Manchester Airport Group and we align and deliver their international marketing programme for Gateway to the north of England. We employ in-market marketeers in China and US who sit with Visit Britain teams and together we market to our key customers in specific territories across the world. We deliver international events for partners including MIPIM and World Routes

Strong cross sector narrative and promotion: Manchester boasts the combination of strong creative digital and tech sectors, Europe’s largest cluster of life science businesses, research and academic hubs as well as having world class advanced manufacturing credentials, being the birthplace of 2D materials. We tell this story.

Conference bureau: working in partnership with specialist sector teams across the city, we proactively identify international and national conferences with our venue location service and pull out all the stops to facilitate event bid proposals.

Over the past three years Marketing Manchester directly supported 169 conferences with a value of over £75 million, including major conferences such as ESOF and Soccerex.

Our Reach: We operate leading edge marketing and PR campaigns, which includes online, social and e-marketing channels. These are developed to enable us to target international audiences across leisure, business, trade and investment markets.

• 3million visitors to digital platforms• 20million social media engagements• 300million reach of media coverage• £6million AVE of media coverage• 2.5million consumer engagements

Staff: our staff are skilled place communicators and marketeers, including design, digital and research specialists who continuously strive to exceed targets to communicate Greater Manchester’s story, always looking for the creative edge that will stand out in an increasingly competitive destination market place.

Collaboration and partnerships: Marketing Manchester has firmly established itself as a trusted delivery partner for international campaigns, events and press activity across a number of projects, cementing Greater Manchester’s position as the international northern gateway into the UK for tourism, business, investment and the knowledge economy.

Our Strengths

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Core markets

Proximity as well as the volume of our trade and investment relations with Europe, renders it a priority market for Greater Manchester over the three year strategy period. Notwithstanding the challenges ahead, it is hoped that European Union negotiations will address most of the uncertainty about our future trading and other relationships. Within Europe, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries constitute the most promising markets for the successful promotion of Greater Manchester for visitors and investors.

The USA, being the UK’s top export destination and having accounted for 40 percent of all FDI projects into Greater Manchester over the last three year period, remains our single most important international market. With the US economy seemingly being on a sustainable growth trajectory and claiming undisputable technology leadership in most of our priority sectors, we will seek to further strengthen our transatlantic trade and investment ties. Part of our US strategy is to focus on key metro regions that provide a perfect match for our sectoral strengths, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Opportunity markets

Our ‘opportunity markets’ are China, India, Japan and the Gulf States (GCC) where there is clear growth potential and where we are well placed to build upon existing trade, investment, tourism connectivity and other relationships. Of these four, China, as the world’s largest economy, offers significant opportunities where we can build upon our strong existing connections, new direct flights and the emerging “special” relationship at Government level.

Considerable progress has also been made in the Indian market and there is a clear strategy in place for this market which is already leading to the identification of new investment and trade opportunities. Japan is emerging from a long period of stagnation and there is now an opportunity for us to strengthen existing linkages. The GCC is likely to continue to offer further investment opportunities on the back of large scale capital investment that has already been made.

Monitor markets

Beyond the above six markets our analysis has identified a number of markets which do not register as highly but where we do have important existing links (e.g. through students, tourist visitors and academic research). It is therefore proposed that Marketing Manchester retain a watching brief so that we can take advantage of opportunities (particularly in our niche areas of strength e.g. health innovation and 2D materials) as they emerge. These markets are: Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, South Korea, Nigeria and Brazil.

Our Markets

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Sector deep dive research undertaken by New Economy has greatly strengthened understanding of our key growth sectors and sub sector opportunities. Through this work, together with the Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review, VisitBritain and our own visitor research, we have been able to confirm our priority and enabling sectors, and to identify the niche opportunities within them. This means we are more proactive and targeted in our approach to identify investment opportunities.

VISIT

Greater Manchester’s visitor economy supports 93,900 jobs in Greater Manchester and generates £7.9 billion. In 2015 there were 118.5million visitors to Greater Manchester. Together with culture and sport, tourism contributes significantly to place making, quality of life and attractiveness expected of a global city.

MEET

Conferences and business events generate attract around 5million delegates a year, generating £823 million annually for the Greater Manchester economy. These events support 22,500 direct jobs in Greater Manchester, and also generates indirect and induced employment, resulting in a total of 40,100 jobs. As well as driving jobs and growth, business events help to position Greater Manchester’s brand on the world stage.

INVEST

Manufacturing and Advanced EngineeringThe sector supports over 114,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs in Greater Manchester and generates

£7.7 billion GVA. Specialist and niche opportunities include: advanced materials including 2D materials, semi-conductors; composites and coatings; and process metallurgy exploiting links to defence, food and drink, transport, aerospace and life science supply chains. Creative, Digital and Tech The sector supports 54,400 jobs in Greater Manchester’s creative & digital companies and generates £3.1 billion GVA. Specialist and niche opportunities include: content production, digital services and technology, converge in sub-sectors such as e-commerce, smart cities, cyber security, AR/VR, gaming. The region is a pioneer of computer science, software programming and development and is home to a large number of world-class software companies and has the greatest concentration of e-commerce start-ups than anywhere else in the UK. Life Sciences The sector supports 157,000 health and social care jobs in Greater Manchester and generates £4 billion GVA. Specialist and niche opportunities include: genetics; connected data; precision medicine (including diagnostics); cancer research; clinical medical devices; clinical trials; cardiac services; neurosciences; health informatics; education and training; remote diagnosis; and primary care. Greater Manchester is also in a strong position to exploit these opportunities directly with our health services having won autonomy of the £6 billion health budget through the devolution agreements. The city is home to Health Innovation Manchester, a unique partnership formed to speed up the discovery, development and delivery of innovative solutions.

Energy and Environment The sector supports 114,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs in Greater Manchester and generates £5.4 billion GVA. Specialist and niche strengths include: nuclear power and decommissioning, transmission & distribution and smart grids, smart systems and heat, industry focused research and development. Home to the largest low carbon sector in the UK outside of the South East, Manchester provides the perfect base to locate a low carbon business.

Financial, Professional and Business ServicesFinancial, professional and business services (FPBS) support 266,900 jobs in Greater Manchester and generates £15.5 12 billion GVA. The region has the largest FPBS industry in the UK and is emerging as one of the nearshore locations of choice for many companies relocating functions out of London. Specialist and niche opportunities include: banking and financial services, insurance, legal, accountancy, consultancy and FinTech.

STUDY

Greater Manchester is the largest student city in the UK outside of London and has one of the largest student populations in Europe with four universities: Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Salford and Bolton. There are around 96,200 students currently in Greater Manchester, of which 17,500 are international students. The attraction and retention of students is critical to Greater Manchester’s future growth and ambitions.

Our Priority Sectors

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Aims and objectives

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Promote Greater Manchester to priority markets and sectors

Facilitate place making, collaboration and partnerships

Drive marketing and communication for Manchester Growth Company

Become an exemplar destination marketing organisation

Our long term vision

Our long term vision is for Manchester to be a top 20 global city by 2035 measured by our:• attractiveness to international investors, visitors, business and academic talent

and students• international cultural and place offer and the propensity of our business base

to trade internationally• success as a key international gateway to the UK and a gateway to the world

for our UK businesses and communities• quality and ease of access and interconnectivity to all places across the city region.

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The Manchester success story, told in the right way, is a compelling narrative that will build our brand and grow our reputation internationally – and it needs to be told in the context of our overall ambition.

We will work with our key partners including, VisitBritain, VisitEngland, Manchester Airport Group, Transport for Greater Manchester, Department of International Trade, and our Northern Powerhouse colleagues to deliver our annual action plan.

We aim to:

• Work with partners to deliver Greater Manchester’s Internationalisation Strategy - see 8 strategic priorities opposite.

• Strengthen Greater Manchester’s reputation as a global city at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse and gateway to the north by building on Greater Manchester’s international standing as a leading business visitor destination and developing leisure tourism to compete with peer cities.

• Deliver targeted international campaigns to priority markets. We will adopt a more integrated promotional approach where possible, using the cross sector 2016 China campaign as a model. Securing funding to continue the high value and high volume priority international campaigns is essential for us to achieve this.

• Establish effective inward investment sector marketing programmes, aligned with trade and industry activity targeted at our key markets and influenced by the investment decisions of global companies. We will persuade them to set up and grow their business in Greater Manchester: a world-leading hub for life sciences; a growing region for creative digital and tech sector; and a leader in advanced manufacturing.

• Create a cross sector digital platform to push and pull our campaigns and thematic content integrated with social media channels to promote Greater Manchester as a place to visit, invest, meet and study.

• Deliver conference Bureau services to attract national and international bureau visits and events to Greater Manchester.

• Explore potential for a new public/ private partnership to attract more high value international events and fund pilot events to test ideas aimed at international audiences.

• Continue to work in partnership with Department for International Trade, Visit Britain, Visit England, MAG, airlines, destination management organisations across the north and the tourism ecosystem to promote Manchester as the gateway to the north.

Promote Greater Manchester to priority markets and sectors

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1. A global gateway for the UK and the North

2. A world centre for trade across our prime and enabling sectors

3. UK magnet for foreign direct investment in

our key sectors and specialisms

4. A strong portfolio of prime foreign capital

investment opportunities promoted globally

5. Strengthened world leading international

research capabilities and entrepreneurial talent

6. The best UK destination for international students

7. The world class visitor hub

8. Building the Manchester brand and reputation by telling our story brilliantly to the global audience

Greater Manchester’s Internationalisation Strategy

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Destination development

Marketing Manchester is responsible for the development of Greater Manchester’s Destination Management Plan, which is essential to identify future developments and gaps in the offer from a visitor point of view.

We aim to:

• Commission research to determine international visitor profile and motivations to visit Greater Manchester and the North and the gaps in the current offer, taking into account the current pipeline and what Greater Manchester needs to address in order to increase its attractiveness to international visitors and their length of stay.

• Refresh the Greater Manchester Destination Management Plan.

• Facilitate the development of tourism product via Discover England projects with the aim of increasing visitor spend. This will include excursions around Greater Manchester and across the North as well as new twin city packages and route developments.

• Develop and implement Greater Manchester’s sustainable visitor information strategy ensuring integrated digital and physical information.

Collaboration and Partnership

Building strong stakeholder relationships with high profile international sports, cultural and educational organisations is essential to collectively raise Manchester’s international reputation and profile through inspired storytelling and thought leadership.

Universities - Greater Manchester has the largest number of international students outside of London. International students were worth £170 million to the University of Manchester alone in 2015. It is forecast that 20% of the total 100,000 of the student population will be from overseas by 2020.

International students are also an important source of entrepreneurial talent and international alumni in high level positions in foreign companies can help push our inward investment offer. International students also support the growth and development of Manchester Airport.

Arts and culture – the city region has a thriving cultural offer and openings during the last three years have included HOME and the Whitworth, in addition to many new initiatives under development in the next three years including Factory and RHS Bridgewater Garden.

Sport – Manchester is proud to be the home of two international football clubs, however, we are also proud of our other sporting success stories including hosting the Commonwealth Games and being home to four national sporting associations: cycling, squash, taekwondo and basketball.

We aim to:

• Develop a “Study Manchester” promotional platform for international students to attract them to the region and then encourage them to discover all aspects of life in Greater Manchester.

• Work with cultural and sports leaders to support the promotion of arts, culture and sport across Greater Manchester.

Facilitate place making, collaboration and partnerships

The Growth Company exists to “make a difference” for people, businesses, places and communities locally, nationally and internationally.

As such it is essential that marketing and communications profile the Growth Company as the leading economic development organisation in the marketplace. This is particularly relevant when operating in increasingly turbulent and uncertain conditions.

Externally, marketing and communications need to ensure our stakeholders, funders, partners, clients and end-users succinctly understand how the Growth Company can benefit them, our role and wider impact.

Internally, we need to work effectively across group towards a cohesive market offer and more easily accessible services.

We Aim to:

• Undertake brand development and implementation of marketing strategy across MGC to deliver business plan ambitions, simplify and integrate the Group’s offer to customers.

• Improve brand awareness and perceptions of GC and services with key audiences.

• Identify opportunities to collaborate across the group on service delivery to improve GC performance.

Drive marketing and communications for GC

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Marketing Manchester as an organisation has changed considerably in recent years to meet the needs of Greater Manchester. It is an organisation that is forward-looking and adopts a can-do attitude. We strive to be creative and adopt a partnership approach to maximise resources.

We aim to:

• Embed the ‘Original Modern’ ethos.

• Drive a culture that thrives on its shared values and behaviours, outlined in the Growth Company shared values:  Make a Positive Difference; Stronger Together; Empower People; Do the Right Thing; Build on Success.

• Be commercially focused in all that we do. Maximising every opportunity to provide the greatest return on investment.

• Monitor our activity and seek feedback to achieve continuous improvement.

• Invest in our resources, provide learning opportunities, allowing the organisation to fully capitalise on the talent and expertise it nurtures.

• Achieve IIP, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 accreditation.

Become an exemplar destination marketing organisation

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