News.

17/03/12

Branding Strategy for Tuggerah Lakes EMP

The Tuggerah Lakes Estuary Management Plan (EMP) is a long term plan for the responsible management, protection and restoration of the Tuggerah Lakes estuary on the Central Coast of NSW.

It is considered by the Australian Government as one of the most important environmental conservation projects for Australia at the moment, aside from the Great Barrier Reef project.

City Marketing and L&L Design have been retained by Wyong Council to establish a strong and consistent brand identity for the image and reputation management of the EMP.

 

24/11/11

Can we lure Small Business Saturday to Australia?

This Saturday, small businesses around the US are hoping to benefit from the second annual Shop Small, Small Business Saturday campaign. The campaign was created by American Express and promoted nationwide using radio, television and social media.

This year, Small Business Saturday has more than 2,400,000 Facebook supporters and American Express has co-ordinated free Facebook ads for participants, DIY promotional collateral, and e-marketing materials to help small business.

In our work with small precincts the question of how to encourage people to ‘shop local’ almost always raises it head, and then slams into the wall of how to fund a marketing campaign that is creative and motivational.
What would it take to encourage American Express (or one of its competitors?) to try the same thing down under?

>>read more

11/08/11

City of Newcastle graduates from ‘MainStreet’ to Business Improvement Areas

It’s great to hear that the council of the City of Newcastle is transitioning from a mainstreet committee structure for economic development of its town centres to the self-governing Business Improvement Area model.

Three new BIA’s funded by special rate levies will act as service providers to Council, charged with delivering against Business Plans targeting four key strategic areas.

Capacity building, business planning and development, marketing and infrastructure development and reinvigoration are set to be the new watchwords for BIA’s in Wallsend, Mayfield & Hamilton. We worked with the Mayfield Mainstreet Committee several years ago and recall a passionate group of business people keen to see the commercial centre succeed.  The BIA model, which grants greater flexibility and control than the mainstreet model while still retaining appropriate accountability, should suit each of the Newcastle commercial centres.

Council is currently seeking individuals or organisations with ‘dynamic business and marketing expertise that can optimise the distinctiveness and competitive advantage of these commercial centres’.  Initial enquiries Courtney Koning ckoning@ncc.nsw.gov.au. Applications close 2pm Friday 26 August.

18/07/11

To market or not to market – the challenge in a downturn

Chapel St in Melbourne is an iconic shopping destination which has evolved originally from a base of young designers, able to establish in a competitive environment and build a successful business.   A council promotion  levy introduced in 1992 would certainly have helped build recognition of the Chapel St brand identity.   Many of the street’s retailers are purportedly opposed to a proposed increase in this levy, questioning its value in a retail  downturn – while organisers say that  spending more on promotions is vital in times of economic hardship attributing  the levy rise partly due to increasing marketing costs.  This is not a new debate – what say you?

08/06/11

Farmers’ Markets- they just keep on growing.

The economic, social and environmental benefits of farmers’ markets for communities are well documented. Worldwide they are going from strength to strength.

In 2010, the USDA National Farmers Market Directory counted over 6,200 operational farmers markets in the USA. That’s more than a 16 percent growth in farmers markets from 2009.

The first farmers’ market in the UK opened just 10 years ago – there are now 550 farmers’ markets across the UK.

Ten years ago there were no farmers’ markets in Victoria; today they number over 60 across the State and over 150 in Australia.

We applaud the Victorian Government’s recent announcement of an allocation of $2 million over four years to support the sustainable continued growth of farmers’ markets.

 

 

31/05/11

Escape the Rat Race to an Australian evocity or a PORTown

We’ve worked for Wagga Wagga City Council and one of us was born and grew up in Albury, so we’ve got a strong affinity for the rationale behind the ‘evocity‘ campaign inviting city dwellers to experience the art of living, working or investing in Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Tamworth or Wagga.

And the push to ‘PORT’ (promote our regional towns) encouraging regional towns to apply for Federal grants of up to $1Million on the strength of the evocity campaign is fantastic.

But we just can’t help wondering if the name ‘evocity’ is a bit contrived…………even though the 7 evocities are centres of ‘Energy, Vision and Opportunity’ – does the name ring true? does it resonate with target markets? are city dwellers beginning to think ‘I must move to an evocity?’

The question has relevance to those regional towns who want to take advantage of the PORT funding – what will a collaborative campaign by the smaller councils of Parkes, Lithgow, Cowra, Young, and the Mid-Western Region be branded: ‘portowns’? ‘evotowns’? ‘etrrtowns’ (Escape the Rat Race towns)?

We’d love to hear what others think….especially anyone already touched by the evocity work.  This little video on the evocity website says it all…….

28/05/11

Special rate levy & BIDS vulnerable in Australia

This month’s axing of the CBD Special Rate Levy by the City of Greater Bendigo shows just how vulnerable these BID-like schemes are in an Australian legislative setting. If the scheme had been renewed, it would have raised $1.2Million to market and promote the CBD over the next four years.

Instead, some Councillors and supportive stakeholders are left wondering who will now champion the CBD.  Council’s news release about the decision to reject the new funding round points to concerns by a ‘large number of city centre businesses’.

Although based on the galvanising idea behind US Business Improvement Districts, there are some key differences that make Australian BIDs vulnerable: one of these is that there is no consistent, pre-determined method of obtaining and demonstrating continuing support.

The United Kingdom recognised this potential vulnerability when it formally enabled BIDS through legislation.  The Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004 describe in detail how a BID should be established, managed (particularly financially), reviewed, renewed and terminated.

We can’t help but think Australia too, needs some national legislation to encourage and support these business driven self-improvement schemes.

13/05/11

Congratulations Stephen Gregory new CEO Canberra CBD Ltd

Stepping into the big shoes of Linda Staite, the inaugural CEO of this ground-breaking place management business improvement organisation, is Stephen Gregory, former CEO of Snowy Hydro South Care.

Canberra CBD Limited is funded by a 5 year grant from the ACT Government – the grant itself is funded by a compulsory levy on CBD property owners.  In 2006 and 2007, City Marketing assisted the ACT Government, the ACT Division of the Property Council of Australia, and the Canberra City Heart Business Association establish the framework for the levy and its future operations.

For the last 4 years, Linda has been delivering against a 5 year strategy City Marketing wrote for Canberra CBD Ltd as part of its funding bid.  She’s done a wonderful job and left the organisation and the place it manages in great shape for the new CEO.

 

06/05/11

The 3Gap Model for Place Branding

We’re intrigued by the 3Gap Model for Place Branding in Robert Govers and Frank Go’s book Place Branding – Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities.

Gap 1 – where a place has a unique identity but there are gaps in the product offering and brand expression

Gap 2 – where implementation is ‘off-brand’

Gap 3 – where the place experience is ‘on-brand’ but the perceived image is skewed for a range of reasons including cultural interpretations, and biased word-of mouth.

In explaining the 3Gap Model, Govers and Go argue that many branding efforts focus too much on the ‘rational’ elements of destination choice behaviour and too little on the ‘seeing, smelling, feeling and hearing’ that create a ‘rich perceptual experience’.  Analysing a place brand (or brand potential) using the 3Gap model must incorporate the fact that consumers are not purely rational decision makers and ‘affective perceptions are indeed of tremendous importance’.

30/03/11

Big Ideas, Little Budget

Recently we’ve seen quite a few Councils calling for quotes on branding and marketing projects that sound well thought out in every respect except one……the budget that Council has allowed for the work. When we see these projects coming from smaller or regional Councils it’s hard to know whether it’s just a lack of Councils experience, or whether there might be small local firms willing to take on ambitious projects to get a ‘foot in the door’. Our advice to any Council thinking it might need a branding project is to speak to some of the larger Councils who’ve done it well in the past, to get a realistic idea of the budget and resources that should be allocated………Penrith, Parramatta and The Rocks spring to mind. A big idea deserves the right funding.