Helping to revitalise Liverpool’s hospitality and tourism sector through a purposeful campaign
Attracting votes for Liverpool’s first Accommodation BID with captivating content
Services
- Campaign management
- Content creation
- Graphic design
Their Impact
- Securing a brighter future for the tourism sector
- Enabling better destination marketing tourism
- Supporting and acting as a voice for Liverpool's thriving hotel and restaurant sector
Meet The Client
Growth Platform helps businesses in the Liverpool City Region to grow and positively impact a sustainable local economy. They commissioned us to work with the Liverpool BID Company on the Accommodation BID campaign. With our help, the campaign was successful.
Liverpool BID Company was a key partner in the campaign for the Accommodation BID and has worked to transform the Liverpool City Region over the last 18 years. As a not-for-profit limited company, it runs three Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) – the Retail and Leisure BID, Culture and Commerce BID, and the Accommodation BID. A BID is a zone in which relevant businesses benefit from additional services to those funded through the council and standard commercial rates. Their latest BID, the Accommodation BID, has recently passed. The success of the BID is due to a YES vote from Liverpool’s tourism sector, which went through in November 2022.
The Challenge At Hand
Since before COVID, Liverpool’s hospitality and tourism centre has been on the decline. Hotel trading performance decreased by 5.6% between 2018 and 2019. With a significant chunk of the city’s income coming from hospitality and tourism, a change needed to be made.
The Accommodation BID enables the private sector to invest more in the local economy, whilst providing support to improve Liverpool’s hospitality and tourism. The BID gives the sector a greater say in the city and how it attracts visitors through events and leisure. In order for the BID to be passed, over 50% of 85 hereditaments (relevant business owners) needed to vote Yes. We joined forces with Liverpool BID Company to produce a campaign that contributed towards a Yes vote.
Our response
Workshop
To kick off the project, we wanted to enforce a strong sense of collaboration from the start. The Accommodation BID was a joint effort between the Liverpool BID Company, Growth Platform and Liverpool Hospitality – so we wanted to involve all parties. We opened the project with a workshop in true Matchstick Creative fashion, inviting some of the BID’s key players to get involved.
The team enjoyed generating ideas for social media through a brainwriting session (with the help of our trusty sticky notes). Once everyone had put up their ideas on the wall, we voted on our favourites to help narrow down the direction of the content.
Content and PR plan
Based on the outcomes of the workshop and the goals outlined in the brief, we constructed a comprehensive content and PR plan. The Liverpool BID Company team had their own plan to work to, so we made sure our messaging harmoniously aligned with their communications and key dates for the BID.
Design
We needed the campaign’s content to attract the attention of potential voters, so we needed bold designs. Our Designer produced a suite of social media assets, slides and an email newsletter template to make the campaign’s messaging shine.
Social media content
Our Content Creator scheduled a diverse range of posts on the Visit Liverpool Business and Liverpool Hospitality channels. Ranging from infographics to video interviews, the content we shared helped to convey the importance of a Yes vote in an engaging way.
It was important that we adapted the messaging of the social media posts each week to meet the changing needs of the campaign. Due to the nature of the BID, several of the key dates changed throughout the campaign’s run. We made sure to work iteratively and check in with the team weekly so our messaging was always hitting the mark.
Social media results
- 35,015 impressions
- 1,236 engagements
- 3,459 video views
Outcomes
- Sleek, informative designs that can be repurposed for future content
- An engaging digital campaign
- A consistent, collaborative partnership
- A Yes vote for the Accommodation BID!
