£59,700 requested to brand Wilmslow

Wilmslow Town Council are being asked to provide £59,700, which represents a quarter of their total annual budget, to support an initiative to brand Wilmslow.

Representatives from Wilmslow Business Group (WBG) and The Raft marketing agency, presented their plans at the Town Council meeting on Monday, 19th December.

The initial idea came from David McGifford, Senior Regeneration Officer at Cheshire East Council, who presented to WBG earlier this year and suggested that one of key things they should do to regenerate Wilmslow is create a "cohesive marketing strategy".

He awarded a £5000 grant to Wilmslow Business Group to put together and implement a marketing strategy for the town. The money was used to appoint The Raft 'to identify what the town needs in terms of brand'.

Carol Smith, Managing Director at The Raft, explained "Wilmslow appears to have lost some of its prestige, due to increased competition the town has become vulnerable.

"We have been looking to develop a vision to strengthen Wilmslow's reputation and Wilmslow's appeal. Our ambition is to make Wilmslow Cheshire's most talked about town, for the right reasons.

"The task we have set ourselves is to make sure we don't end up with a short term window dressing exercise, our ambition is to proudly claim 'Wilmslow's got it all'.

"The reality is that people in the town don't totally or always buy into it, let alone those beyond. The challenge is to create and foster a sense of pride. We need a rallying cry we can all get behind - 'Get into Wilmslow'."

Phil Howells, Creative Director at The Raft, revealed the new 'Get into Wilmslow' logo which he described as "refreshing, modern, a bit surprising and dynamic."

The logo design, which we are not able to reveal at this stage, is based around five chevrons: education, communication, business, leisure and retail.

The £59,700 requested from Wilmslow Town Council will be used to fund the "entire activation for the next 12 months".

This will include the development of a website, which they are hoping will "have as much content as possible" covering the latest news and what's going on, along with a Facebook and Twitter account (which all sounds very familiar).

The money will also enable them to fund a big kick off event to launch the brand and produce a town map, what's on guide, stickers, carrier bags and packs which will be provided to businesses.

In January and February representatives from WBG will be working with the private sector and hope to meet with people like AstraZeneca, BMW, Aston Martin and Jaguar to persuade them to sponsor new boundary signs for the town which will be branded "Get into Wilmslow."

The Town Council were not provided with any detailed information regarding what the £59,700 will cover at last night's meeting but we're told it "covers 40 odd lines of a spreadsheet" which they will be sent.

Cllr Christopher Dodson asked "How much Wilmslow Business Group are putting in?"

Steve Kennedy, of Mail Boxes Etc on Water Lane, explained "The business group doesn't have any money as such, it is a not for profit organisation. The business group will be working with other businesses though to raise funds for things such as boundary signs.

"If we didn't get the funds we wouldn't be able to launch digitally with the website, Facebook and promoting it. The idea is to push it digitally."

Cllr Gary Barton said "I don't know if the Town Council can find that sort of money. We need more concrete information before we can take this into consideration."

Councillor Martin Watkins, Chairman of the Finance Committee, said "I don't think this is achievable, we need to look at an alternative. It is a big ask at this particular time, particularly at a time when the Government is saying don't put up council tax."