Edinburgh looks to the future with the creation of Marketing Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the UK’s favourite city-break destination, ranks 36th in the ICCA world rankings as a business tourism destination, is a hugely popular film location achieving international profile and was voted by the Financial Time FDi Magazine as the best small European City for Inward Investment.

The city competes in a highly competitive and dynamic global market place,  in order to maintain Edinburgh’s competitive position the city cannot afford to be complacent and needs to adopt new approaches to its promotional activity.

The City of Edinburgh Council unanimously approved the businss case for Marketing Edinburgh on 18th November 2010, establishing the new organisation as the official city promotion body for the Capital. The business case can be viewed on the new Marketing Edinburgh website.  

Alan Johnston was appointed the first Chair of the board of Marketing Edinburgh, Alan has been the Chair of the Integration Project Board and has been Chair of DEMA since December 2009. You can read Alan’s resume here.  The formation of the Board of Marketing Edinburgh is now underway and the recruitment of a Chief Executive has also commenced.

For DEMA it will be business as usual until the end of March 2011. Exisiting supporters and partners of DEMA and the Edinburgh Inspiring Capital Brand will continue to receive updates on promotional activities across visit, invest, live, work and study as DEMA’s operations transfer across to Marketing Edinburgh from 1 April 2011. In the first quarter of 2011 we will be taking forward the This is my Edinburgh Fresh campaign and planning the summer and festive activities for 2011.

The DEMA  team members will continue to be happy to discuss collaborative opportunites with all our city partners. To contact DEMA email: info@edinburghbrand.com

Kenneth Wardrop BA (Hons) MBA MTS
Chief Executive of Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance

What is Marketing Edinburgh? Marketing Edinburgh will see the integration of three existing organisations – Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA), The Edinburgh Convention Bureau (ECB) and Edinburgh Film Focus (EFF) to create a single organistion to lead the promotion of Edinburgh. Marketing Edinburgh will be a public-private partnership set up as a company limited by guarantee with a private-sector led board of directors. The organisation will be dedicated to raising Edinburgh’s international global profile as a leading destination in which to invest, visit, live, work and study. It will also be the custodian of the Edinburgh Inspiring Capital Brand www.edinburgh-inspringcapital.com .

Why create Marketing Edinburgh? The new organisation will be operational by 1st April 2011 and will provide strong leadership and co-ordination of city promotion. For our customers it will create the  desired one-stop-shop and reduce confusion. Marketing Edinburgh will focus on projecting consistent and coherent messages about Edinburgh to target audiences.  The new body will create value through co-ordination and alignment by making the most effective use of the combined resources of three organisations as well as maximising cross-selling opportunities.

How can I continue to be involved? Marketing Edinburgh will be an extension of the successful collaborative approach already established by DEMA, ECB and EFF. Support for the new organisation will be achieved through a a blend of membership subscription, income generation from the provision of commercial services, alignment of funding and support for campaign activity. Once a new Chief Executive is appointed in early 2011 a full business plan will be prepared for approval by the Board of Directors.

Edinburgh Sparkles We are currently planning for Edinburgh Sparkles 2010.   Some of last year's favourites will  return again such as the Alternative Christmas Decorations, media relations & advertising accompanied by some fresh ideas for this year's campaign. We are keen to hear from all of our partners so please get in touch  if you would like to be involved in our forthcoming campaigns.