Croydon’s business communications strategy: Making it work with youPresentation to Develop Croydon Forum20 September 2012

BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Graham Cadle, Croydon CouncilHayley Lewis, Croydon Council

The aims of this presentation

• Test our initial ideas for the council’s strategy• Understand how our work aligns• Discuss how we take this forward together

Croydon Council’s business objectives

• Retain and grow existing businesses• Attract new businesses of all sizes and new residents who will take

advantage of the new developments in Croydon• Maintain Croydon’s position as a key economic centre within

London and the South East• Create a new buzz about Croydon and to give reasons to Chief

Executives to consider Croydon as a business location.

Croydon Council’s communications brief

• Promote Croydon as a location to invest, work and live• Increase the perception that Croydon is a good place to do

business and increase business opportunities for businesses of all sizes

Key principles

• Emphasising the importance of place• Showcasing the whole Borough (not just the town centre)• Emphasising Croydon as a key part of Greater London

• Promote Current Croydon• Promote the whole borough• Focus on the benefits to business• Promote Future Croydon• Create a compelling vision for Croydon• Develop new business communication tools

Two strand communications strategy

Business communications

Our VISION Strategy will promote Croydon’s:

ValuesInfrastructure (Transport, Offices and Retail)Skills InnovationOpen Spaces New Ways of Working

CURRENT CROYDONA great story

Current Croydon – business benefits

• Allows probably the best cost effective connectivity to customers and suppliers across the UK and internationally

• Ticks all the relocation boxes• Attracts businesses of all sizes and sectors • Has substantial retail centres• New business support package (and benefits) to be announced

FUTURE CROYDONAn Exciting Future

New ways of working

• Urban Centres will require strong municipal leadership• Business, academia and government working together in the

face of international competition • There will be an even greater focus on the business benefits of

exporting

Future Croydon – business benefits

• Enabling innovation and creating centres of innovation• Even better cost effective connectivity to customers and

suppliers across the UK and internationally• Substantial retail centres and new developments

…All of which will attract…

• A new breed of young urban professional and entrepreneur

Our deliverables

• Multi media campaign for launch in the next few months• Providing high quality marketing materials for use by all partners• High growth businesses of all sizes (in the UK and Internationally)

will be targeted to build short term awareness and encourage respondents to find out more

Measurement & review

• New metrics will be used to measure the effectiveness of all marketing

• Materials will be regularly updated in response to metrics and feedback from the marketplace

So, who do we think we need to target?

Gazelles and Gorillas

Start looking out for – • High growth enterprises up to 5 years old with + 20% annualised

growth pa, over a three year period. • High growth businesses less than 10 years old with a presence in >

3 countries and over 500 employees. As defined by the OECD

Moving forward – how do we make this work for all of us?