Liverpool loves to herald the next big thing happening in our city. We use every available platform to tell people what’s new, happening soon and sure to deliver another amazing experience for both visitors and residents alike.
VisitLiverpool.com, CultureLiverpool.com, MarketingLiverpool.com – You all know where to head for this information online, but one often under-sung aspect of Marketing Liverpool’s activity quietly but effectively ‘flies the flag’ for all things Liverpool – You guessed it. It’s our city dressing work, including flags, banners and signage.
Marketing Liverpool’s Campaign Manager, Sarah-Jane Watson
Marketing Liverpool’s Campaign Manager, Sarah-Jane Hewitt has recently began working on City Dressing as part of her role. Here Sarah-Jane tells us more about this long-established, important work to ensure our city is showing indigenous citizens a spectacular sign-post of things to look forward to in Liverpool, for the next season the come.
A SIGN OF GOOD THINGS TO COME
“For the past few months I’ve been getting to grips with Liverpool’s city dressing and it’s been quite an eye-opening experience in terms of the scale of what’s available,” explains Sarah-Jane.
“Liverpool’s City Dressing features a portfolio of around 550 lamppost banner sites, 90 flag sites and 21 Gateway/Welcome signs across the City Centre and main arterial routes. It is used to promote what’s happening in and around the City. This can be major events, promotion of an institution or tourist attraction, or simply highlighting what’s on at one of our theatres or venues.
“The Strand is one of our most popular locations and as you have driven down it you will have seen a variety of our current banner campaigns running; the same with flags through the city centre and waterfront.
A CULTURAL COMMUNITY UNITED
“City dressing isn’t just about advertising or promotion. For us, it’s really about building a strong sense of community and pride in Liverpool’s cultural attractions and programme of events.
“Our city’s flags and banners help us to brand the city and ensure the thoroughfares and public realms add to the unique identity of Liverpool and play a role in welcoming and showcasing new events, attractions and developments in the city.
WHAT THE WORK ENTAILS
“Working with my colleague Emma Gorman, we manage Liverpool’s city dressing process. This covers everything from developing future campaigns for stakeholders and partners across the city; to co-ordinating production artwork, co-ordinating install of new campaigns and the de-rig of past campaigns, along with managing the project’s finances and ensuring maintenance and upkeep of the flags and banners, which can become damaged or worn over time.
LOOKING UP AND OUT FOR OUR PARTNERS
“Marketing Liverpool are fortunate to have fantastic relationships with a great range of partners who benefit from accessing the sites available for city dressing campaigns. These include Tate Liverpool, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Mersey Ferries, LFC, EFC, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, to name but a few.
“We have also just run a large bespoke campaign for the World Gymnastics Championships 2022 who took more than 80 sites across the city, promoting the event and further establishing Liverpool City Region as a great sporting city.
“City Dressing can provide an effective first visual impression to tourists, creating a sense of unity and building excitement and anticipation for what’s happening next in the city, exposing thousands of people a day to attractions, venues and other events across Liverpool.
FLAGGING UP SOME RECENT PARTNER FEEDBACK
For more information on Liverpool’s City Dressing opportunities contact Sarah Jane on sjhewitt@marketingliverpool.co.uk