Wales and the Welsh Brand - how do you get people to come to Wales to enjoy and invest?

2010 promised to be a big deal for Wales in terms of branding and marketing. The sporting world looked at Newport for Wales' first Ryder Cup. Indeed the Cup was a great success, baring the weather and the upset Americans for either missing the last day or watching their country lose (kind of think that was a blessing in disguise). ONe of the tightest finishes in decades ment the spectacle was all that could be hoped for. But what about the other things. Why was the Ryder Cup so heavily pushed and advertised above other events? why did the government concentrate on the event? In simple terms it was about Business.

Firstly it must be said that the Ryder Cup has been planned for a very long time and it was perhaps untimely that the Recession came when it did. Also the concept of bring Golf's premier spectacle to the our fair isles seems a fantastic idea, due to the facts such as:

"54% of Business professionals see golf as the business of Sport."

Source: Fairway to Finance - WDA and MORI research

"69% of executives believe the Ryder Cup will attract Global Business attention."
Source: Fairway to Finance - WDA and MORI research

Indeed the classic Destination Branding technique has been employed. Create a festival/event bring it to your area and watch people's perceptions change... So what is the impact of the event? has it led to this investment? should one of the richest sports be supported so much? were their other choices?

In time we maybe able to get an idea of how the Ryder Cup increased peoples perception of Wales. If some form of measurement system has been devised it would be great to understand what it has changed.

What I want to look at is the following:

- Are these huge events appropriate in todays market?
- Should we be looking at trends such as Mass Localism and niche in answering the future of Destination Branding?
- Is business about the many and not the few?

Last weekend saw the fourth (?) swn festival which took place in Cardiff. For those that are not aware of the event it is a multi-venue music festival that takes place in Cardiff every year. It has private sponsors and has no obvious government help (no supporting logo's at least). As a resident of Cardiff I heard a lot of people talking and discussing the swn festival and the gigs that were going to be on (I am nosey). When the Ryder Cup took place I also saw the odd lost American looking through the Victorian Arcades near my flat.

I however must now get back on track and re-read the quote "69% of executives believe the Ryder Cup will attract Global Business attention" Ok but I guess I am technically an executive or at least a Director of a company and have been for over 5 years. So why do I not agree with this statement? Well for me there is a confidence in Wales that is about niche, creativity and skilled workers. We are never going to be able to compete with the larger countries that can churn out thousands of machined parts a second. More importantly we shouldn't as one of few countries looking into how to be a true 'sustainable' nation we have to see producing for the sake of producing as a dead end. We must see also the fact that by concentrating of highly skilled production (manufacturing or creativity based) is the way forward also we must see the idea of service and the importance that will have in further adding value to our proposition within the World's market.

So is it about time that the unique Wales Brand advertising about bad reception, clean air two hours away the very uniqueness of Wales should be further pushed into supporting unique and niche projects? That while only attracting a few small groups of people, with mass Wales can become a truly special place? People want bespoke, customisable and unique so why don't we give that to them?

I would be really interested in hearing what people think about this subject and whether there are new ways to look at Destination Branding for the future... Finally as I wrote this I was sent this video my Carwyn enjoy, all about the uniqueness of us...

Take That in Cardiff, also Oasis for that matter

Over the last week Cardiff has been invaded on friday Oasis were in town and performed at the Millennium Stadium, then yesterday and I believe today Take That are in town, a slightly different Lancastrian band but no less popular. These are huge events for the city and the events pretty much take over the whole city centre. The clean up alone is huge and is pretty similar to the end of a six nations game.

National Museum Wales - New event brochures

National Museum Wales - New event brochures, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

After a very busy few weeks we have finally got a few new pieces out for the National Museum Wales. During this years Eistedfodd the National Museum will be launching six event brochures for the National Museum Cardiff, National Coal Museum, National Wool Museum, National Slate Museum, National Roman Museum and St Fagans: National History Museum. Along with the recently published 'Meet the Family' leaflet these are the first items that have been produced by us (Hoffi), since we were successful in the tender process to win the Museum's Marketing contract for the next two years.

Cardiff Design Festival 2008 update

It is still some months away but plans are already afoot for the 2008 Cardiff Design Festival. As previously discussed we (Hoffi) will once again be working with the festival on all of the marketing for the Festival, as well as this we are delighted to announce that we are going to be working with Sequence on the launch of a brand new website which should be launched in the early weeks of September. We are very pleased that we will be working with Sequence this year and we are sure that through this we will be able to further broaden the reach of the Festival. Through our own work with NakedWales (www.nakedwales.com) it has always been central to our companies ethos to try and bring collaborations into design within Cardiff and so it is a great opportunity to work alongside such a well respected company. We are looking into some exciting additions to the site which we all hope will allow a broad design voice to be heard.

The next step for the Festival will be submissions to the Festival showcase. The call should be in early July and then after the selection and judging process has taken place the new website should launch with the 2008 showcase. We will keep you up to date as soon as possible.

Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales marketing ouput

We (Hoffi) have been working on this for quite a while now, and I am really glad we can finally announce that we have managed to get the contract for all of the National Museum Wales' marketing collateral for 2008 and 2009. Hoffi will be responsible for all output apart from the National Waterfront Museum and the overall What's on guide. We are delighted to have been awarded the work, and hope that over the next few months everyone will be able to see what we have been up to. The pitch was very complex and difficult with us being up against 5 other very strong design agencies. It has been a really good start to the year for Hoffi in general with new work being launched all the time. Currently we have one more piece to produce for Academi's Book of the Year awards and we are also already in the planning stages for the Cardiff Design Festival 2008.