Agenda item

8.1

The committee received an update from the Service Manager on Marketing Sheffield Activity. The key theme was identified and Members were shown some of the marketing material which highlighted the brand consistency across Conference Sheffield, Business Sheffield, Invest Sheffield and Marketing Sheffield.

Examples were provided of successful campaigns, such as The University City and Look Up (an augmented reality city tour) and also how exposure created by Sheffield, as a destination, featuring in other publications had been maximised to achieve optimum benefit.

It was noted that conferences had been successful in 2022. STEAM data gathered from stakeholders indicated that visitor numbers were still lower than in 2019, pre-pandemic, but that their spend was only very slightly lower. It was acknowledged that the cost of living crisis had impacted numbers.

Positive media stories about the city were shared with the committee and highlighted as publicity that incurred no cost to the authority. Statistics from the Welcome to Sheffield website were provided, demonstrating a good level of engagement with this useful resource for visitors to the City.

It was concluded that the media campaigns, events, brand development, Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) and Destination Management Plan (DMP) all combined together to attract more visitors, deliver for events and conferences and stimulate more local businesses in line with the core strategy for growth.