Member Article

Influential appointed to Liverpool City Region Superport brief

Liverpool-headquartered communications and marketing consultancy Influential has been appointed to deliver the PR and marketing campaign for Liverpool City Region’s £1.8 billion Superport initiative to develop the region into a global logistics hub.

The comprehensive brief will see the communications and marketing agency promote and market the scheme, which will integrate the strengths of the Ports, Airport and Freight Community to create the most effective and cost efficient environment for freight cargo logistics and passenger transit in the UK.

The Superport initiative is underpinned by £1.8 billion of new infrastructure developments and is predicted to boost GVA by £6.1 billion by 2020.

As one of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) key growth strategies, the private sector led ‘Superport Committee’ including representatives from Peel Ports, Stobart Group, Unipart, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Mersey Maritime, Merseytravel and local authorities.

Sara Wilde-McKeown, managing director at Influential, said: “This is an incredibly exciting and ambitious scheme to be involved with. The opportunities for Superport are global in scale and have the potential to transform the local economy.

“The initiative will bolster the region’s capabilities as a logistics hub and create a truly world-class, globally recognised transport nucleus which will benefit the region for generations to come.

“Our team has a real depth of experience in marketing and brand analysis and we’re looking forward to bringing that expertise and knowledge to this project. It’s key that this scheme is promoted effectively and that potential investors, in particular, are aware of the benefits and opportunities that are available.

“We’re looking forward to working alongside the Superport partners to drive awareness, and support business development and inward investment by promoting the scheme to key manufacturers, distributors, retailers and carriers.”

Influential will develop a clear brand identity for the scheme and conduct an intensive in-depth analysis of its key target markets. The agency will also develop and deliver the initiative’s digital marketing strategy, alongside a comprehensive PR and events marketing campaign.

Mark Basnett, Superport Executive Director at Liverpool City Region LEP said: “I am delighted we have appointed Influential to drive forward our SUPERPORT message.

“Logistics is a recognised growth sector and Liverpool City Region is capitalising on its natural geography by developing a Superport logistics freight hub. With £1billion of investment in port and logistics assets having commenced, the City Region’s multimodal facilities are transforming UK freight capability.

“This makes it the perfect time for us to be marketing the City Region as an excellent location for cost-effective, low carbon multi modal connectivity for UK and Ireland logistics operation.”

Key Superport projects include the development of Liverpool2, a deep-water in-river container terminal at the Port of Liverpool and the expansion of 3MG, the Multimodal Gateway by Stobart Group and Halton Borough Council.

The initiative also covers the construction of the Mersey Gateway Bridge, the expansion of the Liverpool John Lennon Airport and the Manchester Ship Canal port terminal enhancements.

Sara Wilde-McKeown added: “The success of Liverpool’s Knowledge Economy and Visitor Economy are great examples of what the city can do when it gets behind an initiative and capitalises on existing strengths.

“Liverpool has always been an outstanding transport hub, so it makes sense for us to work collaboratively to promote, hone and develop this sector and reposition Liverpool as a global hub for distribution and trade”.

Influential, which recently rebranded from Paver Smith, has won a number of major projects this year which reflect the wider service offering now being delivered under the Influential brand.

These include a substantial public health consultation exercise for the 12 Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups – the Healthier Together campaign. It has seen the agency deliver a fully integrated marketing, communications and consultation brief, which is overseeing the radical transformation of the entire healthcare service across Greater Manchester.

Influential also won the brief to deliver a new marketing strategy for the public sector agency Marketing Liverpool and ACC Liverpool conference and convention centre around its Ambassadors programme.

The project involves creating a new brand and marketing approach as part of Liverpool’s strategy to attract major business events to the city. The team is also driving the marketing and communications programme for the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), developing a strategy to promote the LEP and key economic development initiatives.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .