Transforming inbound investment marketing

Cornwall Development Company

The Cornwall Development Company asked Bell to develop a new place brand and marketing strategy, with associated sales and marketing collateral and advertising, to attract non-EU investors to Cornwall. Primarily known as a tourist destination, we needed to challenge negative perceptions of Cornwall by promoting the uniquely Cornish approach to business, while guarding against appearing too lifestyle orientated.

Focusing upon how working in the county’s key investment sectors, such as renewable energy, marine and aerospace, was enhanced by Cornwall’s green positioning, improved infrastructure and work/life balance, we developed the hugely successful ‘See The Light’ campaign. At its heart was an actual bespoke neon sign, which became both the core campaign message and the visual identity. The campaign included a large media event in central London, a website, e-marketing, social media, printed direct mail and online advertising.

We were given the specific objectives of drawing 10,800 unique visitors to the website and to help garner 80 ‘meaningful’ non-EU inward investment enquiries in 12 months. We recommended aiming for US and Indian web traffic. Both figures were comfortably passed, with the majority (28.43%) coming from the US, with traffic from India joint second. Our strategy demonstrated clear ROI with over 20% of unique website traffic driven by the campaign. Our work won a Bronze at the Transform Europe Awards for Best Rebrand of a Region.

“Bell has been fantastic from creating our strategy through to the execution of our launch event. The Bell team continue to deliver added value, and we have found them to be great to work with – creative, professional and reliable”

Cornwall Development Company