Agenda item

David Jackson, Manager (Marketing Cheltenham)

Objective: consider the performance, outcomes and the return on investment from Marketing Cheltenham ahead of a potential second phase of delivery beyond July 2021

The Chairman reminded members that they had invited Marketing Cheltenham to come back to the committee to discuss performance and outcomes, as well as the return on investment, ahead of a potential second phase of delivery beyond July 2021. 

David Jackson, the Manager at Marketing Cheltenham (MC) referred members to the paper that had been circulated with the agenda.  This would be taken as read but he reminded members that he had attended a meeting back in February 2020 and had been invited back to discuss performance, which was timely as MC was nearing end of current term. 

Reflecting on the last year, post covid, things had changed significantly, but pre covid both financially and operationally MC were delivering well; almost on budget with significantly higher expenditure in the second year reflecting the full staffing contingent. 

He apologised that the link to KPIS within the report did not work, though these were subsequently emailed to members and are included at Appendix 1.

The KPIs showed that delivery was coming on as well in terms of economic value of tourism and the visitor economy, and the hospitality sector which had grown 18% between 2014-15 and 2018-19 and 6% in the last year of operation.  They also included some marketing KPIs around website traffic, social media, income generation and other areas of their operations.  Post March 2020 things changed considerably.  With the visitor economy and hospitality sector having been amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic and with it a lot of the products or propositions were closed and struggling. 

MC quickly pivoted into a number of other CBC corporate priorities including covid recovery communications, business support and grants, the Golden Valley development and launched the new inward investment platform ‘Moving to Cheltenham’.  This as well as supporting the wider economic recovery and post covid response (reopening the high street safely fund, supporting the BID with their renewal ballot in July 2021 and much of marketing and communications for the Recovery Task Force.  Generally speaking, MC had needed to act nimbly over the last year and rethink their model and approach, which he felt in many ways demonstrated the value of the team and MC to be a valuable resource for CBC in terms of delivery, if not just visitor economy KPIs, but also some of the broader recovery agenda that has come to the fore in the last 12 months. 

In recognition that the current funding commitment (first phase) from CBC was coming to an end, which had been synchronised with the BID term, there were ongoing discussions with ELT and partners to agree an extension of a further year.  This would allow for the lessons learnt to form part of a wider review of MC and what form and function it would take going forward, though it was generally acknowledged that this would be broadened to embrace a wider economic agenda and communications efforts. 

David Jackson gave the following responses to member questions:

·         The scope and purpose of MC was being discussed as part of the service review and generally there was a view that operating as a purely visitor economy focused body was too narrow a function.  MC had a team of five, which was not an insignificant size compared to other similar towns and cities.  As the pandemic hit there was more focus on inward investment, though this was a function of place marketing in terms of image projection and the value of the Cheltenham proposition.  MC has some inherent skill set within the team that came from a more tourism focus, but given the challenges faced by the visitor economy over the past year, their intended delivery plans had changed considerably, reflective of a broader focus going forward.  They plan to increase their focus on things like the Minster Exchange and Golden Valley in terms of presenting Cheltenham as a place to do business and for its quality of life, including connectivity and schooling, as well as attracting visitors. 

·         He felt that retail was rarely the sole driver for visitors outside of the catchment and the impact of the pandemic on the retail offer in Cheltenham had yet to be seen, but Cheltenham was largely on par with the national average and it was the wider offer that provided a more valuable proposition. 

·         Footfall was monitored through four co-commissioned cameras around town centre, monitored by the BID.  They monitored footfall throughout the high street and Promenade and measuring footfall on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.  He felt that they had a reasonably good handle on this, particularly from a trend standpoint, as they had comparable data from previous years.

·         He agreed that there was a need to promote the wider region and reassured members that MC had strong relationships with other centres in Gloucestershire in terms of inward investment.  The ‘Moving to Cheltenham’ site was a daughter site to the GFirstLEP’s ‘Invest in Gloucestershire’ site.  He also alerted members to the fact that the county level Tourism Partnership had launched a tourism strategy, a first for the county, which looked to extend stays in the area by promoting various attractions across the region.  Oversees marketing tended to focus on the area as a whole (leading with the Cotswolds), rather than individual towns. 

·         There were some 150 cafes and restaurants listed on the MC website, which he felt was probably the largest number on any tourism website, and though some did fall outside the boundaries of Cheltenham, he felt it was important that we present as good a proposition as possible.    

A member congratulated MC on the professionalism of what they produced, but felt strongly that Cheltenham, as a town, should not lose focus on the tourist economy given the huge amount of competition from other towns and cities. 

The Chair thanked David for his attendance and asked that he come back in a year to demonstrate how things had moved on.