Glasgow uses sport to pull in the corporate crowds

31 May 2007

As fans dressed in the red of Sevilla and the blue of Espanyol mingled in the squares and streets of Glasgow leading up to this year’s UEFA Cup Final, indoors and out of the rain other business was unfolding, writes Jon Eldridge. For the visiting 27,000 Spanish football fans simply having a ticket was cause for celebration, but for the 12,000 corporate guests at the event, the navy 'high-value' branding of their tickets carried a message: Glasgow, 'Scotland with style' as the campaign runs, is a city that means business.   Glasgow is using big sporting events – the UEFA Cup was expected to bring €30,000 to the city – as part of its strategic positioning to attract important conferences and international meetings. Investment bank, Goldman Sachs arranged a board meeting in Glasgow ahead of the match at the famous Hampden Stadium in the south of the city. The UEFA Final, which is watched by 800 million people in 168 countries, is an event that fits the brand that the Scottish city wants to create. “We were part of the UEFA branding and we made sure that their branding met our corporate messaging,” says Scott Taylor, chief executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau. Other key sporting events for Glasgow include the World Team Badminton Championships and the India versus Pakistan cricket match. According to Taylor, both events are strategically important for raising the profile of the city in Asia. Glasgow is also bidding to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The World’s Strongest Man, however, is not an event that will be coming to Glasgow says Taylor. “We are specific about what events we bid for. Not all events are corporate possibilities, but a few of them are. They provide platforms for meetings to take place. The window of opportunity won’t last forever, but while it’s open, we’ll use it to our advantage.” City of Culture According to Molly Doheny, head of the Convention Bureau, the reputation of Glasgow has been steadily rising since it was awarded European City of Culture in 1990. “It had fantastic buildings, but they needed a bit of spit and polish, and the City of Culture gave us the impetus to do this,” she says. In fact, the Art Nouveau design motifs of the city’s most famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh was used in the ticketing and logos for the UEFA Final. While the final of the Champions League football competition has also been held in Glasgow in recent years, Doheny says that the city has greatly benefited from the creation of a separate marketing bureau for Glasgow two years ago following the replacement of all tourist boards in Scotland with regional offices of a national board, Visit Scotland. Reorganisation has also led to staff from the Glasgow City Council’s Major Events and Festivals joining the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau. The moves are already producing results. Visitor beds have increased in the city by 40% in the last six years, and Doheny says that for the UEFA Final the city is “full” – all 9,000 hotel beds are booked. The city’s conferencing facilities are also expanding: The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), which is the largest integrated conference and exhibition centre in the UK, has received a funding pledge of €36.7 million to build a 12,500-seat Scottish National Arena. At present the SECC’s hall 4 has the capacity to host 10,000 delegates. According to Doheny, Glasgow is able to host larger conferences than neighbouring Edinburgh. The city recently hosted the Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society that attracted 15,000 attendees. Visibility is a key element of Glasgow’s strategy. The same type of street banners that signalled the arrival of the UEFA Cup are also used to welcome delegates to major conferences. Doheny says that raising awareness in the city “makes it easier for taxis and restaurants to be welcoming. We advise our restaurants when they are going to be busy. We are a small enough city to have a lot of joined-up thinking. Transport, hotels and restaurants work together to attract conferences.” The conference sector in Glasgow has more than doubled in the last year, and the city has targets for further growth. Chief executive Scott Taylor says that he is aiming for a minimum growth of between 60-80% by 2010. “We’ve got work to do,” he says. “You can only fill the city once. There’s no point in going for anything. We are selective in the business that we go for. It’s easy to get conferences, but it’s harder to get ones in the markets that you want to attract. We go for the ones that have the best fit with our corporate strategy. “It’s not always the ones that are going to get the highest return. Loyalty for us is everything in conferencing.” The city has also made a Five Star Promise to guests, which Taylor says contains the standards of IAPCO “developed into a product for Scotland”. While the outcomes of sporting events can never be assured, the 2007 UEFA Final didn’t disappoint. The 52,000 capacity stadium witnessed a lively match that finished 2-2 after extra time before favourites Sevilla won on penalty kicks.

 

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