Now that LoveBrum has launched there’s a real buzz about it across the city, with people lining up to show their support; whether that be purchasing memberships, coming up with fundraising ideas, or nominating worthy projects to be considered for funding. The whole city is joining the “movement for a better Birmingham”.

This week (18 March) saw the first monthly networking event, which brought 50 of the city’s professionals together to find out more about LoveBrum and how they can get involved. The event was supported by Malmaison who provided the venue and great breakfast for free!

This month’s guest speaker was Emma Gray, Director of Marketing Services at Marketing Birmingham, to provide an update on what they’re doing for the city. In the past, the role of the destination marketing agency has been mis-communicated, with residents and workers making the assumption that Marketing Birmingham’s role is to promote the city within the city itself. This is, however, untrue; its remit is to shout about how great we are outside of the city… what’s the point of preaching to the choir, after all?

Marketing Birmingham is the city’s strategic marketing partnership and the driving force behind its growing reputation as a place to visit, meet and invest. This is done through three channels; Visit Birmingham, Meet Birmingham, and Business Birmingham.

 

It is Visit Birmingham‘s job to position the city region as a must-see visitor destination. That strand of Marketing Birmingham plays a vital role coordinating the strategies activity of national and local partners including VisitEngland, VisitBritain, Birmingham Airport, the NEC Group, the city’s business improvement districts, and more than 425 local companies including transport providers, hoteliers, restaurants and major attractions, to grow visitor numbers, their economic impact and the jobs they support. Driving the city’s reputation as an energetic place that does things differently is key to this work. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what this means to us, the residents of Birmingham, so here’s a snapshot of how Marketing Birmingham is truly supporting our city.

Meet Birmingham is here to promote the city as the home of events and conferencing in the UK. Working in partnership with hundreds of local businesses as well as teaming up with Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Airport and the NEC Group, they make sure Birmingham is on top. Meet Birmingham has some pretty impressive stats behind it; it helped the city to win five international events in 2012, attracting 3,500 delegates and 9,200 bednights – delivering an economic impact of £4.7 million. Of 23 current national event bids Birmingham has won 10 so far. These events will bring a further 10,000 attendees to Birmingham, another 13,600 bednights and have an economic impact of £8.2 million. The city region has taken part in more than 30 sales missions and events in the last 18 months, designed to promote Birmingham’s business tourism offer nationally and internationally. Birmingham’s profile as the home of major events in the UK has been bolstered by significant media profile. A highlight has been the city’s fourth consecutive placing as the top UK events destination outside London by the influential British Meetings & Events Industry Survey.

The final strand to Marketing Birmingham is Business Birmingham, whose primary objective is to create  jobs by supporting companies looking to locate or expand in the Birmingham area. To do this they have developed an ambitious plan for attracting investment to the region, which is based on comprehensive research and analysis of the area’s strengths. By matching these strengths, the city’s offer, and its future potential against the needs of the global market, they have created an offer that puts Birmingham at the top of investor’s location lists. The team at Business Birmingham has helped bring some fantastic companies into the city; not just back office staff but also Head Offices.

In case you hadn’t noticed, we absolutely love the fact pages created by Marketing Birmingham; they simplify the fantastic work being done by the agency and its partners, and help us to feel extremely proud of our city. We bet there are some things you didn’t know about Birmingham… things like it being ranked the top UK regional city for quality of life and being the UK’s most entrepreneurial city? Check out the below and remind yourself why Birmingham really is so great.

As well as these impressive facts – which make us extremely proud of Birmingham – Emma also told the LoveBrum networkers about a new campaign they’re launching…

More people are discovering the city than ever before, securing record levels of visitors, businesses and investment. This year is BIG for Birmingham, with a whole host of new openings, events and business relocations, and Marketing Birmingham wants to capitalise on this.