Almost one year on from the launch of ‘This is Edinburgh’, a new survey has revealed the positive and decisive impact of Edinburgh’s first ever city centre marketing campaign. The £1m investment has reaped rewards for the city according to the survey.
An impressive 95.6% of those surveyed felt more positive about Edinburgh’s city centre than they did at the start of 2014, with 88.6% stating that the This is Edinburgh campaign has made a positive impact. Edinburgh’s bars and restaurants were rated among the top reasons for people coming into the city centre with 66.8% of those surveyed said there were more likely to come into the city centre than they were at the start of 2014. And footfall reflected this with City centre footfall +3.32% vs UK average Nov 13– Dec 14, against campaign target of +2%. This is +1.5% for the same period in Edinburgh city centre last year.
Led by Marketing Edinburgh in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and Essential Edinburgh, the £1million campaign launched at the end of February 2014, with the single-minded objective of improving perceptions and bringing locals and people living within a two-hour commute back to the city centre.
Overall awareness of the campaign among the 500 locals surveyed was very high, with over 88% having seen ‘This is Edinburgh’ via its advertising campaign, website, social media, events and editorial press coverage, with this figure rising to 98% when shown branding. When asked to rate the ‘This is Edinburgh campaign’ out of 10, with 10 being ‘love it’, 88.2% rated it 8 or above, with 19.0% awarding it top marks.
Louise Maclean, Sales Manager of The Huxley & Kyloe and The Rutland Hotel said of the campaign, “The timing of ‘This is Edinburgh’ launch early 2014 was spot on. The campaign had to explode with a strong and clear message that Edinburgh was open for business and looking great and it certainly delivered that communication. The campaign coincided with the end of the city’s debilitating tram works and both events made a significant difference to footfall – not only for The Huxley and Kyloe, but the whole West End.
“It’s a campaign we are excited by and want to be a part of. The billboards and TV adverts have helped raise the profile of Kyloe Restaurant and Grill to a new audience beyond the city centre. It’s unquestionably played a role in The Rutland Hotel (incorporating Huxley & Kyloe) significantly increasing sales consistently every week over the last 15 months.”
While John Donnelly, Chief Executive of Marketing Edinburgh said, ” ‘This is Edinburgh’ is a fresh approach that puts the real city, its personality and hidden gems at the heart of the campaign – no clichés. However, not only is it a celebration of this amazing city, it’s also a campaign focused on giving people compelling reasons to make the trip to the city centre.”
He continued, “We are one year into the two-year campaign which has been jam-packed – new website, TV adverts, film and Spa events and a new restaurant festival. The next phase promises to be no different, with 2015’s activity kicking off with an exciting new event in March, which will be announced soon. It’s rewarding to see such a dramatic rise in the number of residents saying how proud they are of their city and know we’ve helped play a part in that.”
Andy Neal, Chief Executive of Essential Edinburgh said,“For Edinburgh to maintain strong retail sales and footfall figure growth, above the UK average, is a great achievement for the city. ‘This is Edinburgh’ has not only created new events for locals, but given city centre businesses the opportunity to work collectively together on a much bigger scale than ever before.”
The 2015 campaign calendar will also see the return of Spa in the City in May, Film in the City in June and Edinburgh Restaurant Festival in October.
