Marketing Birmingham, the city’s destination marketing agency, has appointed Birmingham-based Seal Communications following a competitive six-way pitch, to design and implement its new leisure tourism campaign.
With an initial value in excess of £300,000 over the next twelve months, Visit Birmingham uses a variety of channels including press, outdoor and literature and will bring together the different aspects of the city’s lifestyle offering with a consistent city message in order to support the visitor economy.
Expressions of interest were received from 75 creative agencies from all around the UK, with four local agencies and two London based agencies being shortlisted.
Dave Hodgson, Marketing Director at Marketing Birmingham said: “Birmingham is a great city with a lot to offer and one of the most difficult parts of marketing it is choosing which bits to single out and promote. In fact, Birmingham has the whole package, from food, drink and shopping to sport, history, entertainment and the arts, and everything in between. The new Visit Birmingham campaign will bring all of this together to promote the city as one destination for all leisure tourists, no matter what you’re looking for.
“We’re thrilled to have appointed Seal as a local agency that really demonstrated its ability to
look at the bigger picture. This campaign is all about tourism, making people stop and think
about coming to Birmingham. The ideas that Seal presented fitted the brief perfectly and I’m looking forward to working with them to bring the campaign to life.”
The campaign will also complement the redevelopment of Birmingham’s official tourism website www.visitbirmingham.com by digital agency TAK! based in Digbeth.
Tourism is a major economic driver in Birmingham, bringing more than 30m visitors to the city in 2006 and contributing £2.5bn in terms of spend.
“It is clearly essential that we continue to develop the tourism industry in Birmingham and the
wider region,” Dave added.
“Tourism supports the hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, theatres, attractions, and other facilities in the city, sustains employment and brings increased wealth into the economy. Perception is vital, and our job is to improve perceptions of Birmingham so that people are more likely to visit.”
Katie Morris, Seal Communications chief executive said: “As a long-established Birmingham
based agency we have been part of the city’s renaissance in recent years having witnessed first hand the amazing transformation that has taken place both culturally and through investment in the retail and leisure offering.
“We are delighted to have been selected as we are passionate about what Birmingham has to
offer as an exciting and vibrant place to be. Our work for Marketing Birmingham will build on our broad experience of working on destination marketing campaigns both in the UK and tourism bodies internationally.”
The Visit Birmingham campaign will present a range of commercial opportunities including the availability of title sponsor. For further information contact Richard Poole on 0121 202 5115 or email richard.poole@marketingbirmingham.com.
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