What We Do

The Better Marketing Theme Group is chaired by Leigh Rengger, Chief Marketing Officer at Solent University. The core aims of the group are:

1. A Better Welcome
We will ensure that every visitor to Southampton has access to high-quality, real time, and relevant information on where to go and what to do before and during their visit to the city. Our marketing and communications plan will deliver a focal point for the collation and distribution of information. It will also consider an Ambassador scheme and a set of information points. Our significantly improved digital marketing strategy will include a more cohesive web presence. We will also review all access points such as car parks, the station, airport and the port entry to ensure they are welcoming to visitors, and promote the city centre.

2. A Bigger Welcome
We will raise Southampton’s profile as a place for business, culture and leisure both nationally and internationally. Southampton has lacked profile as a destination. We will work with destination marketing partners to make sure more people, particularly in the city and in the city’s 2 million-strong catchment area, are aware of, and excited by, what Southampton has to offer.

3. ‘Stay Local’
We will target our existing city centre audiences, encouraging them to spend more time in the City Centre, especially in the evenings. Southampton has 33,000 local employees, 20,000 city centre residents and seafarers who make over 400,000 visits annually. We will introduce a local incentive or loyalty scheme, as well as an ‘Alive after Five’ programme to support the evening and night time offer. We will work closely with the cruise forum, maritime businesses, crew, staff and customers, to make sure that seafarers feel at home in Southampton.

4. Conduit for Data & Innovation
We will act as a hub for the collection and sharing of key metrics on City Centre activity to help support business growth. We will gather and analyse new data sets – such as dwell time, spend, hotel occupancy and satisfaction levels as well as conducting regular qualitative and quantitative market research. We will feed this data back to city centre businesses, as well as using it to drive the case for the city centre in wider forums.

Raise Southampton’s Profile Nationally

Back in 2017, businesses told us that Southampton needed better marketing and a greater online
presence – and we’ve delivered on this.
In 2019, we launched the Visit Southampton website and social media channels, which have reached 4.7 million people. All BID members are eligible for free business directory listing – with more than 325,161 page views for these listings so far.
In partnership with Solent University, we produced and circulated 20,000 copies of the SO What? magazine – which showcased the city’s hidden gems for residents/visitors and provided fantastic PR for local businesses.

Marketing the city and businesses

Key highlights:

• We’ve invested significantly in targeted PR campaigns, bringing more people into the city and showcasing what businesses offer. Our 2020 Christmas campaign, which featured 167 businesses, reached 1.3 million people.
• Around 5,000 families have joined city centre trails organised by GO! Southampton for the school
  holidays – directly leading to increased spending with BID businesses.
• In June 2021, we launched the SO Card, with money-saving offers from more than 80 businesses. This new scheme aims to increase footfall and build consumer confidence. The card has already reduced costs for more than 260,000 residents.

Through our PR activities, we’ve helped raise the profile of our city and local businesses. Journalists
from The Sun, The I, Time Out and Choice magazine have all visited the city. We’ve been featured on BBC South Today, ITV Meridian, Radio Solent and in the Southern Daily Echo, Scotland’s Daily Record and Midi Libre in France.

A bigger and better welcome

Back in 2016, local businesses asked us to improve the information available for visitors and residents.
To help first-time visitors, we’ve produced and circulated new maps to local hotels, visitor attractions
and Southampton’s cruise terminals.

29,276 visitors welcomed and 7,962 directions were given to find your businesses by GO! Southampton rangers

Over the next five years, we want to build on our achievements in raising Southampton’s profile as a top leisure, retail and business destination.

Intelligence-driven marketing

• Increase footfall and spend in the city centre by targeting new and existing customers through marketing campaigns involving hospitality, retail, night-time economy and other sectors.
• Create a central hub of data on consumer behaviour in the city – enabling businesses to identify opportunities to increase their customer base.
• Use the findings from retail and leisure gap analysis to attract new businesses to the city and help existing businesses to diversify and respond to changing consumer needs.

Marketing the city and businesses

• Promote the appeal of the city’s unique retail and cultural venues, such as the Mayflower and Westquay, to attract regional visitors.
• Provide targeted support for businesses to strengthen their marketing activities and align with city-wide campaigns.
• Bring together businesses for PR campaigns that promote Southampton as a short-break destination – with a focus on encouraging cruise passengers and business tourists to extend their stays.

Raising Southampton’s profile

• Implement the new destination management plan, and associated PR campaign, to attract regional and national visitors to the city and enhance Southampton’s reputation as a great place to visit.
• Increase awareness of the Visit Southampton website and social media channels, which provide
  free marketing for businesses.
• Deliver seasonal and sector-based campaigns to attract residents and visitors from further afield

GO! Southampton has played a leading role in the city’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2025 – securing substantial investment to take this bid forward.

UK City of Culture 2025 bid

Winning this competition would have a transformative effect on Southampton, raising the city’s profile, increasing visitors and boosting the economy. We have involved local businesses at every stage of the bid process, from shaping the application through to developing our commercial strategy.
Regardless of the outcome, this bid has enabled us to work with local businesses to identify future priorities to support the city’s economic growth – and secure investment to fund long-term plans.

Bigger and better events

Businesses told us that they wanted improved and better-marketed events in Southampton that celebrated our arts, culture and heritage. In response, we’ve organised and delivered our own events programme and supported many third-party events – attended by more than 300,000 people.

In 2018, we launched Seaside in The Square – a free event filled with family-friendly activities, sport and live entertainment. This event has proved a huge success, bringing together the community and generating £237,000 in direct economic value in its first year alone. It has gained extensive coverage in the media, including ITV Meridian, BBC South Today and BBC Radio 2.

We’ve also supported more than 15 additional city centre events through grants, including Southampton Pride, the Bedford Place Summer Festival and the ABP Southampton Marathon.

With BID support, city events are now delivered with more investment, marketing and resources –
attracting higher audience numbers and greater spend in the area.

Bringing local businesses together

Our quarterly City Networking events have proved popular with local businesses, bringing together civic, community, religious and business leaders.

Events will play a central role in helping the city’s post-pandemic recovery, bringing the community and our businesses back together. Over the next term, we will focus on supporting the UK City of Culture bid, expanding our events programme and securing partnership and investment opportunities.

UK City of Culture

• Lead the commercial strategy for Southampton’s UK City of Culture 2025 bid.
• Attract investment into the city and new opportunities for businesses from a successful bid*
• Maximise opportunities for businesses to get involved with City of Culture events – and promote
  their offerings to visitors*

*Subject to a successful bid.

Events

• Deliver a free, large-scale annual event that raises Southampton’s profile nationally.
• Support third-party events, such as Pride, that deliver economic benefits for BID businesses and
  increase footfall into the city.
• Host national events, including the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022.

Partnerships and investment

• Create new partnership, sponsorship and investment opportunities to deliver our ambitious events programme.
• Secure external funding to enhance business services available through the BID and elsewhere.

The Greater City Centre Experience theme group is chaired by Caroline French, from W.J. French and Sons. The group has 3 core aims:

1. A Cleaner City Centre
We are dedicated to maintaining a cleaner City Centre in collaboration with our partners. Upgrading pavements and streets is a priority, while raising street cleaning standards, particularly in flagship areas like the city walls.

2. Safer City Centre
With the police and City Council, we work to achieve a measurable reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour, including begging, shoplifting and pedlars. Again the BID will look to augment the efforts of others who need to use the powers they have consistently. We will also assist in the identification of suspects, improve crime reporting and consider a diverted giving scheme to charities that support the homeless.

3. Better Transport
We will champion improvements to traffic management and parking, to public transport and to transport infrastructure. In the short term we will focus on securing a significantly improved parking experience equal to the best in the commercial sector. We will seek to improve the condition of roads and pavements and achieve better bus and train services. In the longer term we will engage at local and regional levels to secure infrastructure improvements that might include a new traffic signal system, road improvements and better public transport interchanges.

Southampton has great potential to develop as a regional leisure, retail and business destination. However, the city still experiences significant issues with crime and anti-social behaviour – the top concern expressed by local businesses.

Over the past five years, we’ve worked hard to create a safer and cleaner city centre for residents, workers and visitors to enjoy.

A safer city centre
We launched the nationally accredited Southampton Business Crime Partnership (SBCP) – which enables more than 250 businesses and the police to share crime intelligence data.

Shop theft has been reduced by 64% by SBCP members – leading to the recovery of more than £44,543 worth of stock. A total of 96% of prolific offenders have been prosecuted – leading to 41 prison sentences.

GO! Southampton joined partners to identify street-attached individuals who are causing the most harm through crime and anti-social behaviour, including aggressive begging. Through Operation Luscombe high-harm offenders have been offered targeted support and on occasion received Criminal Behaviour Orders to alter behaviour and reduce harm.

In 2021, GO! Southampton, in partnership with the Street Support Action Group, launched the ‘Change The Way You Give’ diverted giving campaign which provides targeted support for rough sleepers via local charities.

Finally, as part of our efforts to create a safer city, we have successfully lobbied for increased policing. This led directly to the creation of the City Centre Unit and seven officers dedicated to preventing serious crime and disorder.

A cleaner and better-maintained city
Local businesses and shoppers told us that they wanted to see a cleaner city. In 2018, we launched a cleaning service in partnership with the council. The team has removed more than 2,200 pieces of graffiti and hot washed over 1000 doorways – benefiting more than 170 businesses.

Our street rangers have reported around 850 environmental issues. In total, 95% of all reported defects and issues have been fixed within the past three years, including repairs to pavements, drains and lighting.

GO! Southampton has also been part of the Local COVID-19 Health Protection Board, supporting businesses with social distancing signage and public health briefings.

Better transport and access
Improving the city’s transport network is essential to our future economic growth and we have actively influenced transport plans across the city.

We worked with the local councils to secure £57m through the Transforming Cities Fund to improve access to the city.

GO! Southampton has also played a critical role in securing the airport runway extension, which will prove crucial in bringing more visitors to the city

We will build on our work tackling the root causes of crime and anti-social behaviour in the city to protect our residents, visitors and businesses.

A safer city centre

Keeping businesses safe from harm

• Develop the Southampton Business Crime Partnership to become a central hub for local crime
  intelligence for BID members.
• Continue to provide a daily security presence to protect local businesses.
• Work with the police and businesses to reduce violence against public-facing workers and extend the ‘Stamp Out Abuse’ campaign.

Preventing and reducing offending

• Work with Hampshire Constabulary, Southampton City Council and other partners to tackle prolific offenders and organised crime using collated case files.
• Work with the local council and partners to extend support to street-attached individuals with drug and alcohol addictions.
• Partner with Counter Terrorism Policing South East to deliver training for businesses.
• Support No Limits on targeted youth work to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.

Creating safer and stronger communities

• Work with Southampton Street Support Action Group and other groups to implement measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and crime.
• Invest in Citywatch (CCTV) to detect crime and anti-social behaviour
• Play an active role in emergency planning in the city, including public health responses.

Supporting the night-time economy

• Support growth in this sector by commissioning a Night-time Economy Strategy.
  Continue to manage the Licensing Link, which represents licensed premises.
• Introduce targeted security and work with partners, such as the Violence Reduction Unit, to make Southampton a safer place to visit at night.

A cleaner, better-maintained city

• Extend cleansing, including deep cleans, graffiti removal and hot washing.
• Introduce evening/weekend cleaning services.
• Work with Southampton City Council to identity new commercial opportunities for the city’s heritage assets, including the vaults.

An inclusive city centre

• Co-ordinate an Accessible Cities group to look at removing accessibility barriers.
• Influence future developments on inclusivity and accessibility, including the Mayflower Quarter.
• Support plans for Southampton to be accredited as a Child Friendly City.
• Provide inclusivity training to encourage greater diversity in the workplace and across the city

Transport and access

• Shape future transport initiatives, representing the business voice and championing access
  improvements to support the city’s post-pandemic revival.
• Work with transport providers to ensure that public transport services match demand and support the day and night-time economies.

Business support

• Extend the dry mixed recycling scheme in partnership with Southampton City –helping
  businesses to save money and to increase recycling.
• Develop the BID’s cost reduction schemes, offering businesses savings on their utility bills and merchant fees.

The Stronger Business Theme Group is chaired by Nick Barwood, from Womble Bond Dickinson. The 4 core aims of the group are:

1. Achieve Better Economies of Scale
We will secure savings for businesses and increase business-to-business activity. Our 2,500 City Centre businesses span the spectrum of sizes and sectors. We will encourage B2B interaction so that spend is retained within the city. We will encourage sharing of local expertise and innovation. We will also seek opportunities to develop joint procurement arrangements, for example in waste management and energy.

2. Provide a Better Voice for Business
We will be the advocates for businesses in the city centre, both in addressing day-to-day issues and influencing new developments. We will monitor routine services being delivered in the City Centre and report or directly address shortcomings as necessary. Furthermore, the City of Southampton has an extensive programme of forthcoming major developments. We will crystallise and present business views to decision makers to influence the way the city develops. We will make sure that businesses are always kept informed.

3. Developing and Retaining Skills & Talent
We work with education and skills providers to help deliver a more skilled and committed workforce, aligning the city’s work force to the needs of city centre employers. We promote apprenticeships, internships and efforts to increase graduate retention.

4. Investment Opportunities
We actively support new investment in the city and ensure that our status as a commercial centre of regional, national and international importance is recognised and promoted. Southampton has a catalogue of outstanding opportunities for future investment. We work with landowners and the City Council to market these opportunities and to increase the critical mass of commercial activity in the city centre.

We believe in working to make Southampton a place where businesses can thrive. We’ve delivered saving schemes for our members, brought in new investment and helped provide training for businesses.

Helping businesses to reduce costs
We partnered with Southampton City Council to launch our dry waste recycling scheme, which gives
BID businesses up to 50% off their recycling. This has saved BID members £36,500 a year and reduced waste sent to landfill.

More than 80 businesses have identified nearly £4k of savings, on average, through the Business Cost Reduction Service, reducing their utility bills and merchant fees.

A stronger voice for business
We’ve lobbied local policy makers on issues that matter to local businesses – and ensured business
representation on key decisions:

• We secured removal of the Late-Night Levy – saving businesses in the night-time economy
  £67k each year.
• More than 70 businesses shaped the BID’s response to the Local Plan consultation – which focuses on how land should be used and sets standards for new developments.
• We’ve represented businesses at forums, including Southampton Connect and the Safe City
  Partnership.

Developing skills and talent
Developing our future workforce plays a key role in the city’s long-term success.

By actively supporting the EBP ‘Get Inspired’ events for young people, the BID is contributing to a brighter future for the city. These events empower school pupils to visualise their potential within local industries. Through such initiatives, we are shaping a promising tomorrow for Southampton, where its youth can discover and pursue rewarding career paths right at their doorstep.

We’ve worked with The Big Issue and Saints Foundation to give local people from disadvantaged backgrounds unique opportunities to create content for The Big Issue Southampton Takeover magazine. This project has been a huge success, providing local people with work and training whilst raising Southampton’s profile.

We have offered training opportunities for businesses, including Mental Health First Aid Training, ‘Welcome Host’ customer service, marketing and counter terrorism. With the help of the Business Training Hub, BID members access training courses daily, continuously improving their skills and business compacity.

Harnessing investment opportunities
Working with our partners, we’ve secured significant inward investment into the city:

• Between 2017-21 GO! Southampton helped to secure £72.7m for Southampton through various funding applications, including the Discover England Fund, Safer Streets Fund and Transforming Cities Fund.
• We teamed up with Internet service provider, toob, to promote the £50 million roll-out of the city’s
  full-fibre network.

See the Year 7 Business Plan for the latest priorities.

We will work with partners on city-wide programmes to help businesses develop their staff to support economic growth while nurturing young people through employment and training opportunities.

Future workforce

• Connect businesses with the Solent Apprenticeship Hub and the Kickstart scheme and boost employment opportunities for young people.
• Work with Solent University and the University of Southampton to retain more graduates in the city.

Future business

• Commission a retail and leisure gap analysis and use the findings to target businesses we want in the city.
• Work with Southampton City Council to reduce vacancy rates by actively promoting opportunities.
• Develop international partnerships that provide economic, cultural and social opportunities
  for businesses.

Future streets

• Animate outdoor spaces through projects such as Southampton Inside Out, working with traders’
  associations, businesses and residents’ groups.
• Identify new uses for vacant buildings, collaborating with landlords and local groups, and activate
  commercial spaces for pop-up exhibitions and window displays.

Future city

• Influence strategic partners on major developments, including the Mayflower Quarter development and the new Local Plan.
• Contribute to a new vision that revitalises the‘QE2 mile’, linking the city centre with the port.
• Identify new opportunities for businesses to become more sustainable and reduce their
  environmental impact.