Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure which advised of the work of the City Promotions Team in relation to the promotion of Aberdeen in 2011/2012 and to seek approval of a budget of £100,000 for Regional Identity activities that ACSEF could bid to for project support.

The report advised that the City Promotions team within the Council would continue to focus their efforts in 2011/12 on attracting investors, skilled workers, potential students and visitors to the city.  The team would also seek to support the proposed Civic Pride campaign currently being developed by the Civic Office to encourage the local citizens of Aberdeen to take pride in their city and seek opportunities to promote the city’s main positive attributes to local residents. 

The report explained that as part of the 5 Year Business Plan, a strategy for Economic and Business Development was currently being drafted and within the City Promotions Business Plan focused activity would aim to attract high value investors to the city, encourage business growth and job creation and the promotion of Aberdeen as a business and leisure tourist destination.  To achieve this the team would ensure that all activity undertaken to promote Aberdeen and its core strengths to the identified target markets would seek to maximise cross selling of promotional opportunities from visit to sector led campaigns, ensuring that marketing activities were not fragmented and achieve best value for the authority.  Specifically, in conjunction with the service teams of Business Growth and International Trade and Projects and Partnership, the Team would develop a programme of relevant trade development events including exhibitions, conferences and inward/outward trade missions to local, national and international target markets as identified by its local business community.  The recent completion of the Export Survey for Aberdeen City and Shire would provide the invaluable data to direct future trade and business activities. 

In terms of moving forward, it was advised that initially a new marketing brochure would be produced to position Aberdeen as a compact city with creativity, innovation and ongoing development at its core.  Also a Marketing and Communications Plan would also be developed to assist with partnership working on directing the promotional strategy for the city.  The final City Promotions programme for 2011/2012 would be presented to a future meeting of the Committee as part of the Economic and Business Development Business Plan.

The report provided a detailed background to the previous work undertaken by the Council in relation to Regional Identity, wherein it was advised that in the five years that the Regional Identity had been in place the Council had provided over £500,000 of financial support and considerable officer time to ensure their regionalised identity was adopted appropriately by a significant number of our partners and managed effectively as a tool for promoting the region and its strengths in conjunction with Aberdeenshire Council.  However, in the current financial climate, the Council required to focus its efforts on its ongoing programme of promotional activities to ensure the city did not lose ground on its competitor cities as a desirable place to invest, live and work, study and visit.  At present ACSEF had commenced the Phase 1 of a Regional Campaign which would be completed at the end of March, 2011 with Phase 2 of the project commencing in April, 2011.  £30,000 from the Regional Identify budget was being sought to support the city’s input into the campaign.  In light of this, it was proposed that the Council again ring-fence £100,000 of the £170,000 available for City Promotion to support Regional Identity activities.  However, it was also proposed that only £30,000 of this would be allocated to the ACSEF led regional campaign.  The remaining £70,000 would be retained by City Promotions to fund other Regional Identity projects, subject to ACSEF identifying projects that fitted with both Aberdeen City and ACSEF priorities. 

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to support a budget of £100,000 to be used for Regional Identity activities in 2011/2012; 

(ii)        to agree the initial contribution of £30,000 for Phase 2 of the ACSEF Regional Promotion campaign from the Regional Identity budget with the remaining £70,000 to be bid for by ACSEF when relevant projects were identified; 

(iii)       to note that the final City Promotions Activity Programme for 2011/2012 would be presented to a future meeting of the Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure Committee, as part of the Economic and Business Development Business Plan;  and

(iv)       to otherwise note the contents of the report.