9th November 2007 – Swindon, United Kingdom – inSwindon, the private company formed to look after and manage Swindon’s Town Centre , has appointed award-winning, Blue Click PR Ltd. to handle its media and public relations. Business to Business agency, Blue Click PR beat another local company and a large Cheltenham-based national agency to the account. The agency will assist inSwindon by promoting events designed to attract more shoppers into Swindon’s town centre whilst entertaining the visitors and public as they go about their business.
inSwindon will help grow retail businesses in two ways; A series of innovative events are planned for the major retail periods such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and the summer. These events increase footfall into the town centre by many thousand, which in turn increases the takings of the retail sector, therefore driving up the economy. These events are designed to increase the ‘dwell time’ of shoppers which is proven to increase spend per head in both the retail, food outlets and restaurant sector.
There are 36 town centre BID projects in the UK where town centre management has been outsourced from local town councils. inSwindon is now funded by a 1% levy on the 460 businesses in the heart of the town centre, ranging from independent boutiques to national chains and major blue chip businesses. As a result of the change in funding and the 1% BID levy voted in by businesses, inSwindon now has a budget of £750,000 over five years. This quadruples its budget for increased security projects and public-facing events such as the fantastic Swindon Town Centre Christmas lights ’switch-on’.
Chief Executive Mark Ross has been involved in two successful BID projects before and he has noted that some BIDs fail in their third year because they have failed to promote themselves and publicise the good work they are responsible for. He comments ‘The standard of Public Relations agencies we reviewed was very high. We have a number of stakeholders and felt that because Blue Click PR has clients involved in the regeneration of the town, they are already well-briefed. They have already proven that they understand the local economic, regeneration and political scene and we look forward to our fruitful partnership.’
Blue Click PR specialises in Business to Business PR but has had great success with some Business to Consumer stories attracting global media coverage. Managing Director Rhona Jack moved to Swindon from London after gaining a degree in International Marketing with Spanish. She worked for Swindon Borough Council helping the Oasis Leisure Centre win a national ILAM award and launched the Domebusters, which doubled the number of swimmers each year, breaking the one million attendance mark. Rhona adds ‘It’s a real privilege to be involved with a company that is serious about making a difference in Swindon. There is so much happening in the town and we are delighted to have been engaged to help shift perceptions. The events we promote and the vision of Swindon’s future will attract shoppers and visitors from much further afield.’
Swindon is undergoing a major £1 billion urban regeneration project over the next ten years, which affects six sites within the town centre. inSwindon and Blue Click PR will therefore vigorously promote the fact that the Town Centre is open for business as usual.
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Weblinks: www.inswindon.com
www.blueclickpr.com
Editor’s note
inSwindon is the name given to the private company that arose from the Business Improvement District (BID) that went live on 1st May 2007. Although originally funded by SWRDA (South West Regional Development Agency) and Swindon Borough Council in its first year as it was being set-up, it is now an entirely independent, private company, which is funded by a 1% levy on each of the 460 businesses in the town centre square mile. These business range in size from large, national department stores to independent boutiques and there are another 53 similar BIDs around the United Kingdom. The BID collection rate is 99.0% which represents one of the highest collections for a BID in the country.
About Blue Click PR Ltd.
Based in Swindon, Blue Click PR Ltd. is a specialist IT public relations agency which was set up in 2000. The team handles mainly business to business, trade and technical PR for clients along the M4 corridor from London to Bristol. They have achieved global success with press releases, television and online media coverage for clients, and have helped several clients win national and even global awards. The highlight was helping Wincor Nixdorf win two global awards and a Highly Commended with their two British banking clients.
Blue Click PR has an ability to help medium size organisations leverage their association with blue chip clients and has written numerous press releases and case studies approved by global organisations such as AXA, BT, Baxter Healthcare, Cable & Wireless, Cisco Systems, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, EDS, Greene King IPA, Homebase, Lloyds TSB, Microsoft, Nationwide Building Society, Tesco etc.
The agency won the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Gold PRide Award for Small Team in 2007 with an entry classed as ‘outstanding’ and head and shoulders above the rest.’
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