Digital & Creative Strategy
LCR Combined Authority’s Digital & Creative Cluster Strategy & Action Plan
Co-creating a 3 year vision for one of Liverpool City Region’s most impactful clusters
Digital & Creative Strategy
LCR Combined Authority’s Digital & Creative Cluster Strategy & Action Plan
Co-creating a 3 year vision for one of Liverpool City Region’s most impactful clusters
We helped them to
Define a 3 year vision for the digital and creative cluster for Liverpool city region
They help the world by
Aligning the efforts of the digital and creative cluster to ensure greater outcomes for our city region
Public Sector
Stakeholder engagement
Strategy & Action Plan
Challenge
One of Liverpool City Region’s (LCR) most important growth clusters is digital and creative. It plays a pivotal role in creating jobs, opportunities and stimulating the economy. We were tasked with linking up its many great assets, people and places under one coherent plan: The Digital and Creative Cluster Strategy and Action Plan.
In 2024 The Fifth Sector carried out some cluster mapping which gave a clearer picture of the challenges faced by the region’s digital and creative sector. This became our platform to create Growth Platform’s new strategy and action plan.
Essentially there was one big, and very important, question we needed to answer: how do we help the LCR digital and creative cluster succeed in a way that will attract investment and opportunities to the region?
Response
The Digital and Creative Cluster Strategy & Action Plan is a 3 year roadmap to success. It’s a bold bid to stimulate growth, create human opportunities and shine a light on the enormous economic impact these industries make. It is a call to arms to ‘create a fertile, innovative environment for digital and creative organisations in order to reduce inequalities and spark bountiful opportunities.’
Through in-depth stakeholder workshops and one-to-one expert interviews, we were able to create a new vision for the cluster so it could sieve opportunity at every turn.
We created a compelling purpose, vision and mission, as well as sharing the kind of audience insights that help a strategy feel like a reality. We also established clear goals, roles and expectations to make sure this was a plan everyone, from the board to the businesses themselves, would understand and support.
Nobody has ever attempted to define the challenges and potential of the creative and digital culture. But now there is a guide filled with the knowledge, love and ambition that matches the extraordinary businesses it’s been designed for.
Results
As the first ever articulation of what ‘good’ (actually, ‘great’) looks like for the LCR’s creative and digital cluster, this work was about sparking a unique moment of change and growth.
Far from a set of vague hopes and woolly plans, this was a clear and robust 3-year vision, with a detailed framework for making it happen. What’s more, we established a regular review process that allowed our plan to remain as agile and forward-thinking as the cluster we’re serving.
We also established a space for the Digital and Creative Board to generate and share ideas for continually energising their sector – ensuring one of our region’s most valuable, and exciting, industries can burn brighter than ever.
Testimonial
“Matchstick guided a group of diverse and influential stakeholders to help us arrive at a pragmatic and inspiring strategy and action plan. Their deep knowledge on the city region and the sector gave us a refreshing take on the challenges we were facing.”
Helen Cross
Digital & Creative Sector Lead
Our work
Our impact
