Lift off for Business Birmingham
Marketing Birmingham has launched Business Birmingham, the city’s new inward investment sales and marketing programme. And it has headhunted Wouter Schuitemaker to head the initiative up as its investment director. He is currently currently head of Asia Pacific at Think London - the capital’s inward investment agency - and has attracted significant new investment into the UK including projects with Canon, Nomura and Samsung Electronics.
Originally from Solihull, Schuitemaker also has extensive international commercial experience including business development roles at WPP and INTAGE Inc Japan.
The new initiative will form the backbone of activity for the new investment function which transferred to the public/private partnership from Birmingham City Council in mid September. It effectively replaces Locate in Birmingham.
Marketing Birmingham, the city’s strategic marketing partnership, says the new strategy is intended to create 6,700 new jobs by 2015. The strategy follows research conducted earlier this year by global location specialist IBM-PLI. It will form the investment element of the council’s 20-year Big City Plan masterplan - the first time that the city has officially linked regeneration and investment strategies. Birmingham’s profile as a business destination will be highlighted through a strategic marketing campaign that will target corporate audiences nationally and internationally.
The campaign, which commences in November, will showcase: the strength of the city’s talent pool; its strong education base; its attractive geographic location and its scale, which enables it to absorb large business functions. The campaign will also highlight the city’s enterprise culture and strong business networks.
Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: “Business Birmingham is not just a campaign led by Marketing Birmingham, it is a long-term sales and marketing strategy that must draw together organisations and institutions from across Birmingham to grow the private sector over the next 20 years. We have proven through our success in the visitor economy that our approach can generate real dividends. We now aim to use that experience in tackling this wider challenge."
