The Birmingham Post’s Jon Walker spotted the above advert at Westminster tube station and this morning the paper (well, website) is reporting ‘MPs sign Commons motion to back Birmingham City of Culture bid‘. So how’s the bid going?
It’s difficult to gauge this. Thing is, we (as in, the people of Birmingham) aren’t going to be the target of much of the promotional stuff because we’re not doing the judging. You’d assume/hope the effort is being spent outside the city (like the poster above).
Btw, I should make it clear that I’m supportive of Birmingham’s City of Culture bid and think it’d be great to get the award.
So far, around Birmingham, I’ve seen a stack of flyers (at the Council House), a few adverts in various brochures and… well that’s been about it. On the plus side, I’ve not seen much of the usual trick of tacking a logo on to anything vaguely within grasp.
It would be interesting to see how the city is being sold to others, though. Which of the city’s strengths are being pushed forward? Bearing in mind the branding looks like it’s been recycled from a luxury watch marketing campaign, I’m guessing the Jewellery Quarter (and by association, the city’s industrial heritage) features in some way. What else?
Most visible from our perspective is the online stuff. Here’s what the various cities are doing:
- Birmingham – website, Facebook, Twitter
- Derry/Londonderry – website (congrats on the cheeky URL), Facebook, Twitter
- Norwich – website, Facebook, Twitter
- Sheffield – website, Facebook, Twitter
The good news there is that Birmingham’s website is as bland, information-free and predictable as all the others. The Facebook/Twitter stuff is being done just as poorly as everyone else’s too. Sad to see the previously quite popular canvasbirmingham.com site was killed off though (with credits for the local folks who developed it removed).
I’ve not seen so much discussion (there’s this on the Stirrer) so has anyone got any thoughts on all of this? Feel free to comment anonymously if you must.
I think you’re right Chris, we do deserve to win this, but the fact is that we’re just not as good as some cities (London and particularly Manchester spring to mind) at shouting about what’s going on culturally in this city: it’s why websites like CiB have to exist – to join the cultural dots up – and why there doesn’t seem to be much promotion for this campaign, in or outside of the region.
I’m not sure what the answer is. Maybe the council should be engaging more with the myriad of creative, ideas-driven people and businesses in this city to develop a far wider reaching campaign of activity that serves to sing the praises of Birmingham in the same way that Manchester’s great at.
But then I remember why this won’t happen, and my mind goes back to a Business Link suppliers register seminar I attended some time back. One of the speakers said, after completion of a great project, the best praise you could expect from a West Midlands’ company owner would be ‘it turned out alright.’ Not fantastic, amazing, or anything like that.
We need to learn to shout about our achievements as a city more. That’s the start of achieving great things like being awarded the City of Culture.
Could the problem be that the people responsible for promoting the city aren’t very good at recognising the amazing stuff currently going on in their city? I have no doubt Birmingham could be a winner if this was done with buy in from those actually creating the culture.
It’s certainly a compelling question…
I’m seconding Lisa….
I think there seems to be a trend for promoting mainstream or ‘safe stuff’ (read shopping / conference, and top end culture stuff – REP / CBSO / BRB etc….) and yes these things are good – but when it comes to the really interesting / exciting / quirky / edgy stuff that is actually what makes the city so great it’s a tad quiet…. it’s like there’s a percieved fear of the unknown…..either ‘those responible for marketing the city’ have experienced enough, or they feel that quirky is too risky to promote….
To be honest though, I think I’d just be happy if people just stopped with the Manchester / London / Liverpool / Bristol comparission game…. who says we want to be like those cities anyway?!
I’m not an original Brummie, and I’m not all that bothered whether we win or not truthfully – I choose to live here, and continue to enjoy the diverse range of stuff to do / see / experience. Birmingham rocks.
Sorry – shouldn’t have clearly read NOT experiencing enough…doh!
I’m gonna stick my head above the parapet and say the website front page sucks. Typical top-down, one-to-many comms. A technocrat’s dream. Some of the Have Your Say stuff is actually OK, though.
Since culture in Birmingham (beyond the CBSO, Rep and Bullring) is a bottom-up, co-created thing (We Are Eastside, Project Brutal ?), the bid might do well to reflect that. The minute it stops looking like a BCC initiative and starts looking like something the people are doing (rather than having done to them), then we’ll get some buy-in.
I’ve just run (ie. helped bring together… not managed) a co-created event/process for a major national quango. You wouldn’t believe the kudos you get from just turning things over to the ppl.
BCC: be brave, act as a catalyst and a reflector of what’s going on. For starters, get a live twitter feed onto your front page, showing the world what’s happening. And don’t censore, let it self-moderate and self-organise.
I found that poster of the ballet and Birmingham in London especially, really quite moving it even made me a little proud of my city…we need more of this.
How would the Twitter and stuff be done better?
Colin – agreed, there’s some great imagery being used. I was in London over the weekend and saw a few of those posters around too
Rob – what, and give the game away to the other contenders? It feels a bit impersonal, isn’t adding much and isn’t making use of what the systems offer. I’ve no idea what the plans are though, so that could all change.