Background

SeaCity is a council initiative to rebrand Southampton, to enable a better understanding of the cities heritage and provide a brand to give the city a sense of identity and help communicate the positives of living in and visiting Southampton.

Brief

The brief was written by Business Southampton, a recently formed department to market the city. City Dressing was asked to evaluate the cities core assets, create a media plan and assist in marketing Sea City. On the back of a successful marketing program we were asked to engage the business community and use the Street Media Model to provide an income for future rebranding.

Solution

We identified Outdoor Media as the most effective way of creating the initial brand awareness for Sea City, supported by a major PR campaign. Performed a city audit to identify the best locations for the preferred media, lamp post banners. Maximized opportunities at each site with new hardware; large tube banners on the main approaches, Wind Tracker™ sail banners within the City Centre and fixed arms in sensitive sites. We applied for planning permission and successfully stretched the budget to include over 100 sites in Southampton.

We created an integrated media campaign through local print media and expanding websites.

We approached the business community and with sales to date will be able to greatly increase the coverage of Sea City whilst repaying Southampton Council for the initial investment.

Conclusion / Success

The success of the rebranding can be measured by the number of hits the Sea City website received after the initial branding and how this has translated into advantages for business and helped to create a sustainable Sea City brand.

To create a generic long-term campaign the provision of an initial budget to dress the city was vital. The continuing success will be a result of the community building initiatives launched by Business Southampton to bridge the gap with the business community.