Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Planning and Property attached.

Decision made (Unanimously)

That Cabinet agrees the general scope of inward investment marketing activities set out in the report.

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Planning and Property that informed of proposals for use of the Place Promotion budget to deliver Invest Central Lancashire and South Ribble inward investment marketing activity as set out in the Corporate Plan.

Its aims were to raise the profile of the South Ribble offer to attract investors, visitors and skilled workers to support the economic growth, reinforce the message that South Ribble is the UK’s Best Place to Live, engage property professionals and intermediaries in promoting the Borough’s offer, generate enquiries for City Deal employment sites and raise awareness of the benefits of locating businesses in the Borough.

A number of different activities were proposed that included the publication of an Invest in South Ribble Business magazine, industry press advertising, designing new infographics, creating Apprentice Factory promotional materials, sourcing new GDPR compliant business contacts and exploring search engine optimisation.

Members asked for more emphasis to be placed upon advertising through social media as opposed to websites and asked if this could be picked up in a new strategy.

It was agreed that there was lots of good initiatives taking place that if monitored in the right way will be of great benefit to our residents. The Apprentice Factory project is a fantastic scheme for the Borough and Members were pleased to note the employment of a new Digital Marketing Apprentice that would undoubtedly be a great asset to the Council.

Decision made (Unanimously)

That Cabinet agrees the general scope of inward investment marketing activities set out in the report.

Reason(s) for the decision:

Place promotion is one of the projects within the approved Corporate Plan 2018-2023. These proposals provide further detail about the implementation and use of the funding to deliver Invest Central Lancashire and South Ribble inward investment marketing.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

An alternative option was considered to procure a single, specialist agency to deliver a place promotion campaign. This was rejected on the grounds of cost.