Tshwane’s Marketing and Communications Strategy

March 2012

Presented by: CME

Contents Where are we now?

1. Background

2. SWOT Analysis

3. Current Reality

4. Comparative & Competitive Advantage

Where are we going?

1. Strategy Drivers

2. Marketing & Communications Objectives

3. Who are we talking to? - Target audience

How to get there?

1. Marketing & Communication Summary Strategy

2. Specific Action Plans

3. Roadmap

4. Guiding principles

5. Practical considerations

6. Critical Success Measures

3. Background

• CoT is the Centre of government with all the national government departments being located here;

• It forms part of the Gauteng City global region, the wealthiest and fasted growing economic region on the African continent;

• It houses 2nd most embassies after Washington DC;

• It is a national Centre of research and learning with four universities and seven of the eight national science councils, i.e. the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council), the ARC (Agricultural Research Council), the NRF (National Research Foundation), the MRI (Medical Research Institute), the VRI (Veterinary Research Institute) and the SABS (South African Bureau of Standards).

• Strong heritage and rich cultural diversity

4. Current Reality

• Low brand awareness , no brand identity

• City is not top of mind when it comes to tourism or business, MICE or events destination

• Reactive vs proactive communications approach

• Fragmented marketing and events approach thereby leads to double dipping & undermines brand image and not exploiting economies of scale

• Lack of knowledge about the city brand& tourism attractions

• Inconsistent brand image and perceptions

• Lack of knowledge about the key leaders of the city and city’s future development plans that impact the citizens and stimulate investor confidence

• Citizens & Diplomatic Corps are not empowered to be the city’s ambassadors

Where do we want to go?

5. New Approach

• Proactive communications approach

• Integrated Communications, marketing and events approach thereby enhance brand leverage

• Seasonal Campaigns to increase brand awareness

• Coherent and consistent brand image

• Profile key leaders of the city and city’s future development plans that impact the citizens and stimulate investor confidence

• Develop a city ambassadors programe

6. KEY DRIVERS OF THE STRATEGY

International Relations

Twinning programmes &

JMAs

Exchange programs and International

best practices

International Networks e.g Metropolis, UCLGA,ICCA

R&D, Innovation & Investment

promotion

Capitalise on Centre of excellence

&innovation

Live, Visit, Study

& Invest Tshwane

Product development

& regeneration initiatives

Marketing, Communications

& Events

Destination Marketing

(Tourism/MICE)

Civic/Strategic Events &

Sponsorship

Corporate Communication&

Promotion

How do we stand out from the crowd?

Comparative

• Position Tshwane as Africa’s Capital City of excellence

• Improve the perception and image of Tshwane amongst staff, residents, local and international visitors and investors

Competitive

• Recreate the brand image- a new look & feel

• Re-align the destination and investment promotion strategy to ensure uniformity and refinement

• Grow Tourism & related industries- Increasing the number of visitors coming to our destination

• Promote social cohesion and stimulate partnership amongst key stakeholders, staff, residence and business

7. Comparative & Competitive advantage

8. Marketing , Communications& Events Objectives

MARKETING

• Develop a strong integrated brand identity for the City that

– Positions the city as Africa’s Capital City of excellence

– Positions the city as a preferred destination for tourists and MICE ensuring the promotion of unique experiences offered in the city

– Positions the city as a preferred investment destination and ensuring the promotion of the investment incentives offered by CoT

• Improve brand awareness of the City domestically and internationally aligned to positioning

• Encourage strong partnership approach

COMMUNICATIONS:

• Develop messaging that ensures positive image and manage perceptions about CoT

• To position the CoT as thought leader in terms of Research, Technology and Innovation

• To improve profile of the city and create a ‘face’ of the city

• To create awareness of the city’s proposition internally and externally

• Promote language diversity with a view of discouraging polarisation in City

• Enhance Corporate & Brand Communications both internally & externally

8. Marketing , Communications & Events Objectives: Cont’d

EVENTS

• Develop Events Strategy for the City to enhance the brand

• Identify high impact events to promote the brand both nationally and internationally

• Leverage off these Events to promote Socio-economic impact

• Use events to promote CoT as a true African Capital city

• Develop events sponsorship policy with a view of partnering with key stakeholders to promote the city brand

• Manage the city calendar of events

9. Target Market: Who are we talking to?

DOMESTIC

• Our people (Staff)

• Citizens /ex citizens

• Diplomatic Corps / exparts

• Domestic meeting and event planners

• South African Corporates

• Trade and Professional Associations

• Tourism & MICE trade

• Stakeholders

• Media

INTERNATIONAL

• Investors

• Meeting & event planners

• Media

• Trade and Professional Associations

• Industry Associations

• Trade

How to get there?

10. Marketing & Communications Broad Strategic Thrust

Brand Building

Brand positioning

Advertising and promotional campaigns

Research &Insight mining

Community involvement &

Stakeholder partnerships

Events & MICE

Convention & events Bureau

(bidding for large events)

Sponsorships / events

development & activations

Corporate events

Destination marketing

Establishing a Destination brand

Increase Length of stay &spend

Geographic spread &

seasonality

Trade partnerships and

channel management

Communications

Image building & perception

management

Reputation & crisis

management

Media & investor Relations

Internal /Corporate

Communications

Underpinned by innovation , excellence , ruthless execution and strong partnership approach

11.Marketing: Specific Action Plans OBJECTIVE Specific Action Plan TIMING

Create strong & integrated brand with clear positioning

• Develop clear positioning embraced by stakeholders and citizens

• Develop brand logo in line with city’s positioning • Develop brand and advertising campaign • Development of Marketing and promotional tools

Mar/Apr 12

Promote CoT as the preferred destination for tourists and MICE

• Aggressive marketing improve brand awareness in all the City’s key markets

• Identify and promote City’s unique experiences • Develop a database on accessible tourism services and

attractions, to enable Information Offices to disseminate appropriate information to tourists

• Develop and strategy to secure more domestic and international conferences and events into the city

Mar/Apr 12

Research and Market intelligence

• Build consumer-based information & knowledge management

• Commission brand insight research and segmentation studies to understand target markets and make decisions on where to play internationally

• Commission brand tracking stud to understand brand performance

• Initiate measurement systems to monitor performance against targets.

Apr/May 12

Community Involvement • Develop a calendar of external interface forums between the City and key stakeholders(business, investors)

• Regional izimbizo marketing to reach its communities

April 12

Communication Strategic Framework The brand communication strategy will culminate into a 4 phases:

1.The rising of the sleeping Giant

2. Pioneering Africa’s innovation and excellence

3. Igniting Excellence

4. Creating City Ambassadors Unleashing and

showcasing City’s hidden treasures across the Country, Continent and the globe..

Elevate Tshwane’s competitive and comparative edge

Brand architect and attribute to reinforce this positioning

Mar’12 May’12 July’12 Oct’13

Dialing up on the positioning

OBJECTIVE Specific Action Plan TIMING

Proactive image & perception management

• Develop messaging document that position Tshwane as Africa’s leading innovative, lifestyle, sporting, and cultural destination of choice

• Identify strategic platforms that CoT can support and partner with • Content development and develop messaging to create positive

perception and build image • Tourism awareness programmes • Communications plans to profile strategic projects

Apr 12

Increased Profile • Identify strategic platforms to profile Mayor and City • Target key influencers and adopters to elevate the brand

Ongoing

Media Relations • Proactively engage media updating them on key news and developments in the city and provide content

• Form strong media relations in order to aid crisis management

quarterly

Crisis and Issues Management • Establish a Communications & Marketing Forum • Develop a crisis and issues management strategy, that is shared and

embraced internally

Mar 12

Internal Communications • Identify relevant channels to communicate internally including managing of newsletters

• Investigate inspiring campaigns that make our staff become city’s ambassadors and drive executional excellence

Mar12

Digital Communication • Develop digital communication strategy to leverage on the modern use of social media platforms to enhance our messages and strategic goals(including blogs, twitter, etc.)

April 2012

12. Communications: Specific Action Plans

OBJECTIVE SPECIFIC ACTION PLANS TIMING

Integrated Events strategy • Establish Events JOC to ensure alignment & uniformity • Identify strategic events that CoT can support to

strengthen the brand • Build own events • Integrated Annual event calendar

March 2012

Strategic Events/ Events Bidding

• Identify strategic events to be Hosted in CoT- • Tshwane Open • TITIIC • Freedom Month • Tourism & Heritage Month • Festive Season-Xmas Carols & Lighting • Cycling Challenge • Socio-economic impact analysis

Annually Bi-annually Annually

Corporate Events Calendar • Identify strategic events in the city • Develop a guide that constitute strategic events and

how they impact on the city’s brand • Communicate the process to all affected departments • Populate the calendar with all planned and approved

events • Market these events through different platforms

quarterly

Sponsorship • Develop /Draft events sponsorship policy

Jun2012 22

13. Events: Specific Action Plans

15. Roadmap: Key milestones

Marketin, Comms& Events

Strategy development and

approval

Annual Marketing,

Communication& Events plans with budgets and approvals

Finalise media implementation

plan

Develop Events Marketing & Sponsorship

strategic framework

IMPLEMENTATION

All of this to be finalised with Marketing ,

Communications& Events

Department

aligned with the overall City’s annual business plan

marketing promotional campaigns and platforms, tools & collateral ( including missions, roadshows, marketing campaigns, publications, advertising, online/digital platforms & management thereof

Appointing, managing & performance monitoring of all agencies including advertising, BTL/activations, digital , research & PR Agencies

As part of the development of the 5year IDP & CDS2055

Mar’12 Apr ‘12

16. Guiding Principles and Implications

• 360 degree Integrated marketing approach including digital platforms

• Marketing that is driven by consumer (audience) needs – and stay true to the brand positioning

• Alignment (Vertical & Horizontal) – brand synergy with key sub-brands in Tshwane, provincial and national but also aligning our stakeholders and trade partners.

• Establish measurement systems to monitor performance against targets.

• Invest inspire in our people – training and development for capacity building and inspire excellence

• Move from functional towards Experiential Marketing, that is emotionally engaging

• Aggressive investment to support approved programmes

17. Success Measures

Brand Marketing & Comms;

• Top of mind brand awareness

• Conversion

• Positively impact key brand attributes – Perceptions of value for money

– Perceptions of being a City of Excellence

– Perceptions of being a welcoming destination

– Ability to rest and relax

– Perceptions of Tshwane’s historical and cultural product including urban wildlife

• Customer satisfaction and confidence in the City

• Positivity – positive media coverage

• Internal executional excellence – streamlined focused and strategic approach

Events & MICE

• Setting up of a Convention and Visitors Bureau

• Growth in number of events hosted p.a. and their economic contribution

• Positively impact city’s economy

• Number of jobs created

• Arrivals – number of delegates attending conventions in the city p.a.

• Conversion rate : leads converted to actual bids

• Number of Bids submitted p.a., bids won plus socio- economic contribution thereof

18. Good Bye!

19. New Look & Feel!

“Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.”

- Alvin Toffler

Here’s to a rebirth of brand Tshwane.

Thank You!

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