Background

Coventry is an excellent example of the value of City Dressing and how a council has used its media assets to rebrand and reposition a city.

Over the past two years Coventry has dressed the city and approach roads with hundreds of banners celebrating the city, These have acted as an effective tool for re-branding the city, dressing the inner city to attract more visitors and creating a greater respect for Coventry.

The success of the campaign has been two fold. Firstly Coventry as a destination for sports and cultural events has been transformed. In 2005 Coventry successfully hosted the International Children’s Games and next year will host the Schools' Games. Secondly city banners are now seen as in integral part of event branding with all events in the city from the England vs Germany U21 Euro qualifier to the Mystery in the Ruins series of plays utilising the media to effectively promote their events.

Brief

To support Coventry based events with the supply of banners for the lamp columns and other street media. (Coventry owns 60 freestanding flagpoles). Provide additional hardware where necessary. Provide advice on further City Dressing and event branding projects.

Solution

In 2006 City Dressing provided the lamp column banners for six major festivals to include the World Cup branding, U21 euro qualifier, Mystery in the Ruins, Peace Month and George and the Dragon Christmas Play. In addition to the banners City Dressing also provided a freestanding 3 metre high toblerone to promote events in the city centre.

Conclusion / Success

Through our work with Coventry we hope to continue its rise as an international destination for events and exhibitions. We believe the ability for events to effectively promote and brand themselves in the City greatly enhances Coventry’s reputation as an effective destination. We also cite the success of the city-dressing programme in promoting Coventry to its residents. The city has grown and improved even with the reduction of some of its core industries. This is testament to the work of the City Council in promoting pride for the City.