March is typically one of our busiest months, where we work to deliver some key projects before the end of the financial year in addition to planning our activity for the next year. We’re pleased to report this month is proving to be no exception with members of the wider team attending both South by Southwest Conference & Festivals in Austin and JEC World, the leading international composites show, in Paris.
Of course, one of our biggest annual projects, Manchester’s presence at the MIPIM international property and investment event, is now entering final preparations before the event begins on 12 March. This will be the 20th consecutive year that Manchester has exhibited at MIPIM, and as usual Marketing Manchester will be sending a group to manage the successful execution of the Partnership’s week of activity.
This year to mark the anniversary the Manchester at MIPIM Partnership will launch a new campaign to put the city’s people at the heart of Manchester’s proceedings, shining a spotlight on the people that live, work and invest in the city. Through a series of life-size living portraits, thought-provoking soundbites, and short films, the Citizens of Manchester campaign will show delegates the human endeavour, engagement and creativity that breathes life into the vast expanse of development opportunities across the city.
In this way, Manchester plans to challenge some conventions of destination marketing, and to open important conversations around issues of infrastructure, housing, and sustainability to name a few. These will be some of the topics discussed in the Partnership’s programme of events; a three-day schedule that will see private and public sector leaders from across Greater Manchester and beyond discussing issues that most directly affect modern cities.
Highlights of every Manchester at MIPIM event are the Partnership’s European sessions, where we’ll welcome some senior leaders from across Europe to share their insights on some key topics. This year Manchester will welcome representatives from Brussels, Frankfurt, Vienna, Stockholm, Berlin, Barcelona, Hamburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo – our most geographically diverse representation yet!
You can find the full programme of Manchester events on the website, where those not attending MIPIM will also be able to catch all of Manchester’s stand sessions broadcast live: www.manchesteratmipim.com. Please note that the programme timings on the site are in Cannes time – one hour ahead of UK time. If you’re watching live from the UK you’ll therefore have to adjust your timings accordingly.
We’d encourage everyone to help us celebrate our 20th year at MIPIM, so if you’re not attending please do tune in to some events online, or get all the latest news by following us on twitter @mcrMIPIM and using the hashtag #mcrmipim.
News in brief
Business events project boosts ‘Brilliant Science’ of the North West
Stephanie Newton, Head of Business Tourism attended an event in Paris 14-15 February to promote ‘Brilliant Science’ – a project promoting the North West as a region of innovation and world-class research. She joined representatives from Marketing Cheshire and Chester Zoo, to promote the Brilliant Science product offer to 12 European scientific associations, encouraging them to enhance their conference programme content and encourage delegates to extend their stay pre or post conference.
To find out more, contact Stephanie.Newton@marketingmanchester.com
New campaign encourages UAE expats to ‘Rediscover Manchester’
Marketing Manchester launched a new campaign on 25 February to target the lucrative UAE expat market. The campaign, in partnership with VisitBritain, will target wealthy expats and encourage them to see and do more when they come home to visit family. The campaign, entitled Rediscover Manchester, will feature events, media, and online and offline marketing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with all adverts directing consumers to the new landing page – www.visitmanchester.com/rediscover – where they can find out how much the city has changed since they last visited.
To find out more, contact Timothy.Manley@marketingmanchester.com
Cultural Destinations project nears completion
Marketing Manchester has now largely wrapped up its Cultural Destinations Project, which officially completes on 31 March. Funded by Arts Council England, the programme enables arts and culture organisations to increase their reach by working with the tourism sector. You can learn more here.
Last month the press team completed a successful group media visit looking at Greater Manchester’s cultural offering and new cultural product; specifically, new bookable product funded through the Cultural Destinations project. Eight journalists visited from across Europe and the US and were provided with a varied itinerary that took them around the city and around Greater Manchester. Their visit will help shape key media coverage showing Greater Manchester as an ideal location for a cultural themed city break
Then on 26 February Marketing Manchester hosted a ‘Culture Fair’ at the Portico Library for front of house tourism staff across Greater Manchester to inform them about key cultural highlights for 2019. Here around 15 of Manchester’s cultural organisations took part in face-to-face discussions on partnership opportunities, accessing tickets for sold out shows for hotel guests, marketing ideas and more. Organisations included Manchester International Festival, HOME, Peterloo 2019, Manchester Museum, Royal Exchange and Victoria Baths, amongst others.
Later this month Marketing Manchester will attend the national Cultural Destinations programme conference. The conference will bring all 12 Cultural Destinations projects from across England together along with VisitBritain and the Arts Council to discuss progress. As Marketing Manchester’s project will soon finish we are currently delivering final activity and pulling the evaluation report together. We will share the results of this in a future newsletter.
To find out more, contact Jane.Randall@marketingmanchester.com
Chinese New Year campaign success
As part of our domestic partnership with CityCo and to support Manchester Business Improvement District’s Chinese New Year events, Marketing Manchester’s digital team created a hugely successful campaign hub on visitmanchester.com for the city’s ‘Year of the Pig’ celebrations. Running for six weeks through January and February, the hub received 185,000 page views; and a supporting paid social media campaign generated over 2 million impressions.
To find out more, contact Stuart.Aiken@marketingmanchester.com
Manchester attendance at key sector events
During the month of February, representatives from Manchester attended NASSCOM in Mumbai, a large technology event that brings together some of India’s key business leaders in the tech sector. The activity was complemented by a visit to Bangalore, meeting with several high growth Indian companies across key sectors which have a strong alignment with Greater Manchester’s strengths and assets such as Digital and Tech, Low Carbon, Advanced Materials and FinTech. The five-day programme included meetings with industry leaders, Government officials and strategic partners such as DIT and CII and led to several investment enquiries, as well as developing conversations about building further bridges with India across a number of business and research related themes.
Manchester representatives also attended the HIMSS19 conference in Orlando, US. Over several days inward investment agency MIDAS had the opportunity talk to a number of companies representing digital health interoperable system solutions, blockchain & AI in the healthcare space. MIDAS sparked an interest among innovative companies on the structure and nature of Greater Manchester’s healthcare ecosystem, prompting their international growth plans in the UK.
To find out more, contact James.Turner@marketingmanchester.com
Manchester leads the UK for global engagement
A new report, Manchester: A Soft Power Entrepreneur, produced by the British Foreign Policy Group and launched today at HOME Manchester by Sir Richard Leese, Leader Manchester City Council, claims Manchester is particularly well placed to succeed internationally thanks to its global outlook and innovative approach to nurturing and harnessing its global reputation in areas such as sport, tourism, education, music, science and innovation and culture. To read the full report and press release click here.
To find out more, contact James.Turner@marketingmanchester.com
Recent press coverage wins
Marketing Manchester’s press team carry out a year-round programme of press visits and media engagement to win national and international coverage for Greater Manchester. Below are a few recent highlights that you may like to read and share:
Where legends play ball – Indian Express
City Life: Manchester – National Geographic Traveller
How to spend a weekend in Manchester – i news
Manchester: un ritmo nuevo (a new rhythm) – Sombremesa Magazine (Spanish)
Inside Manchester’s street art scene – Evening Standard
Manchester (through the eyes of a local) – Oryx (Qatar Airways in-flight magazine)
To find out more, contact Andy.Parkinson@marketingmanchester.com
What’s new in Greater Manchester: March 2019
Distributed to consumer travel and leisure media contacts, Marketing Manchester’s monthly What’s New update is an important piece of media relations work to keep journalists and influencers from around the world up to date on the latest developments, openings and trends across the city-region. To view this month’s newsletter, click here.
To find out more about proactive media relations, contact Andy.Parkinson@marketingmanchester.com
And finally…Marketing Manchester goes agile
Starting this month, Marketing Manchester will be making a move towards a new way of working, as we adopt a new Growth Company ‘agile’ approach, meaning more time spent working remotely. This will mean a greater focus on delivering projects digitally, and on balancing our time effectively across the team.
To find out more, contact Louise.Latham@marketingmanchester.com