An MRS Scotland event

Overview:

Glasgow is a city bursting with life, energy, passion and personality. From its world-class universities and internationally acclaimed visual and performing arts credentials, to its legendary music scene, Art Nouveau architectural heritage and retail strength, Glasgow has earned a global reputation for its creativity and innovation.

As one of Europe’s most vibrant, welcoming and dynamic cities, Glasgow is justifiably renowned throughout the world for the friendliness, warmth and humour of its people whose civic pride lies at the heart of the city’s continuing success.

This year, the global spotlight will be on Glasgow like never before when a staggering audience of more than two billion people – almost a third of the world’s population – will focus its attention on the city for the Commonwealth Games and the MTV European Music Awards – providing an unprecedented opportunity to tell Glasgow’s story to the world.

In tandem with its cultural and sporting ambitions, the promotion of Glasgow as a world-leading business city is key to competing internationally and delivering future economic growth.

Glasgow City Council’s Strategic Plan 2012-2017 and the public-private Glasgow Economic Leadership (GEL) group identified the development of a new compelling and cohesive city brand as a major driver through which to communicate Glasgow’s key sector strengths, assets and ambitions.

Programme:

6.00–6.30pm - Registration

6.30–7.00pm - The story behind PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW and the global conversation that was key to its development

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) was tasked with delivering the project to develop a new city brand that will position Glasgow across national and international markets as a world-class visitor destination and a dynamic business and investment location.

The city’s new brand has a unique story. It was developed through consultations with more than 50 of Glasgow’s leaders from the private, public and academic sectors, and a global digital conversation, which asked the question ‘what makes Glasgow a great city?’ More than 1,500 people from 42 countries, as far afield as Brazil, Russia and New Zealand, contributed to the conversation; sharing their brand ideas, stories, images, video content and poems. Overwhelmingly, the greatest response from contributors was that it’s the people of Glasgow that make the city great.

Social media activity around the conversation and subsequent launch of the new brand reached a global audience of 1.25 million Facebook and Twitter users.

Tom Rice of GCMB and Simon Farrell from Tayburn, who were appointed by GCMB to conduct stakeholder engagement and competitor analysis, will present the story behind PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW, examples of the city’s new brand in action and how you can use the brand to help profile your people, your business and your city.

7.00–7.30 pm - How Research informed the Strategy for Ticketing & Advertising of the Commonwealth Games 2014

Leona Coupar, from The Leith Agency will provide an overview of the research that was conducted on behalf of Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, illustrating how the research insight shaped two different strategy strands for the Games, i.e.

1. Ticketing; and

2. Advertising

The presentation will touch upon the methodologies used, the recruitment strategy as well as the results.

In addition, Martin Reynolds from Commonwealth Games 2014 will provide an overview of how the insight was valuable in informing the marketing strategy for the Games. As part of this, there will also be a brief overview of the results of the campaign, i.e. in terms of ticket sales and awareness of the Games. The presentation will finally discuss the legacy of the games on Scotland beyond 2014.

7.30–8.00 pm - Networking & Drinks

Speakers:

Tom Rice, Head of Marketing Communications, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) is the official destination marketing organisation (DMO) for the city of Glasgow. As custodian of the PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW brand, GCMB works with partners, stakeholders and businesses to position and promote Glasgow across national and international markets as one of Europe’s most vibrant, dynamic and diverse cities in which to live, work, study, invest and visit.

As Head of Marketing Communications, Tom’s role is to lead and manage the marcomms team, developing and implementing brand, B2C, C2C and B2B campaigns.

Simon Farrell, Managing Director, Tayburn

Tayburn, is one of Scotland's leading brand agencies, currently ranked the 5th most effective agency in the UK. Simon heads up the strategic arm of the business and has been involved in developing brand and communication strategies for a range of organisations including The Co-operative Bank, Scottish Water, British Council, O2, Diageo, to name but a few.

Leona Coupar, Senior Planner, The Leith Agency

Leona has been the lead planner and researcher for the Commonwealth Games with The Leith Agency, managing the qualitative and quantitative research projects that led to the development of the strategy for both the ticketing and advertising campaigns. Leona was responsible for translating insight into actionable and practical recommendations that led to the successful delivery of the various elements of the campaign.

Martin Reynolds, Head of Marketing and Advertising, Commonwealth Games 2014

Before joining the Commonwealth Games team, Martin was Head of Marketing for Edinburgh's Festivals. He is responsible for the promotion and protection of the Glasgow 2014 and Commonwealth Games brands, the development of strategy for the image and look of the Games and the creation of the advertising campaigns launched. He has also supported the ticket sales’ programme as well as the creation and launch of a number of highly visible brand assets such as the official Games tartan and the Games mascot.