STRATEGY 2014-2017

1 & Partners is the official promotional organisation for London. We are a not-for-profit public private partnership, funded by the and our network of commercial partners. It is our privilege to promote London around the world, working in partnership with the Authority (GLA), UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), VisitBritain and other destination marketing organisations, the London boroughs and many other key stakeholders, as well as our 1,000-plus private sector partners.

2 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 3 We promote London and attract overseas companies, events, students and visitors to the capital, in order to build London’s reputation and create additional jobs and economic growth for the city.

London & Partners • influences the investment decisions of global companies, persuading them to set up and grow their business in London • helps to secure business events and major sporting and cultural events, and supports the organisers to ensure these events are a success • promotes London to international leisure visitors and provides information to help them discover the city • positions London as the best place for higher education and encourages overseas students to study in the capital

4 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 5 Mayor of London

I am delighted to introduce you London & Partners is working to London & Partners’ strategy for tirelessly to tell this story, further 2014-2017, which will continue strengthening London’s excellent to shape the way London is seen reputation and delivering valuable across the world. jobs and growth for our great city. Working with the Greater London The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Authority and with many other Games shone a spotlight on committed organisations, London & London’s unique culture, heritage Partners will help the capital scale and spirit, reminding a global new heights; a collective effort audience of 3.6 billion people why to create 200,000 jobs by 2016, London is the greatest city in the attract over 18 million international world. Since the closing ceremony visitors and 125,000 international we have seen a surge in visitor students by 2017, as well as secure numbers and billions of pounds of billions of pounds of investment in international investment arrive in new infrastructure and development London - from the Queen Elizabeth projects. It is a prize worth striving Olympic Park, to the Royal Docks, to for and I urge you to work hand in Battersea, Croydon and beyond. glove with London & Partners to achieve it. From this springboard, we must seize the opportunity to show the world what is next for London – and why they should be a part of it. We want London to be the city that people the world over aspire to visit, Mayor of London study and work in.

6 London && PartnersPartners Strategy Strategy 2014-2017 2014-2017 7 This document sets out our refreshed Before writing this strategy, we that to do full justice to this ambitious We will target our sales and listened to our stakeholders and remit we need to scale up. promotional activities more strategy for the period 2014-2017. It should funders. You told us that we are rigorously so we can scale up be read in conjunction with our annual delivering value for London in the As a result, we are going to our activity in the most valuable business plan, which sets out detailed form of jobs and growth, but that re-focus and prioritise over the markets. And we will focus on alongside this we need to deliver next period. We will dedicate more scaling up through developing a plans including specific activities and high impact activities to build time and resource to building number of strategic partnerships milestones for each year. London’s reputation. You told us London’s reputation in three critical and new commercial income streams, that the way we can have most areas; as a cultural powerhouse, notably through operating the new impact is by focussing scarce as a world-leading centre for tech, top level domain for London. resources on the few most valuable and as a rapidly growing hub markets, sectors and activities. for life sciences. Our role here is Thank you for your support and And you told us that it is right for us about galvanising, connecting and we look forward to collaborating to promote London as a business, amplifying the fantastic content with you to achieve great things for study and visitor destination, but which already exists in London. London over the coming years.

8 London && PartnersPartners Strategy Strategy 2014-2017 2014-2017 9 Our purpose Our mission Deliver jobs and growth To tell London’s for London by attracting story brilliantly. investment and visitors today and building London’s reputation for tomorrow.

10 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 11 Our achievements a strong platform to build from

We are proud of our achievements over the last three years since coming together as London & Partners. The progress we’ve made gives us confidence that we can achieve our ambitious plans and deliver even more value to London over the next period. Overleaf are a few highlights from our first three years.

12 London && PartnersPartners Strategy Strategy 2014-2017 2014-2017 13 Capitalising on the Olympics to Building creative and showcase London to the world successful partnerships • Hosting 200 overseas business • Developing a new partnership leaders during the Olympics and model with 16 universities across £257m Paralympics to encourage them London to promote London’s GVA for London with to expand into London collective strength as a higher education destination an ROI of 13-1 • Running the London Media Centre, providing a physical base • Collaborating with hit Chinese and online resources for 8,000 TV show Happy Camp by inviting journalists from 102 countries presenters to film the best of London and develop a showcase • Delivering the Limited Edition for the city subsequently broadcast London marketing campaign to to an audience of 65 million attract visitors in the traditionally quiet pre-Olympic period, and London – Now See It For Yourself Successfully establishing a new to convert viewers into visitors and innovative business model post-Games • By combining the remits of Visit London, Think London and Study London, we have established a Securing high profile congresses new model for promoting the city and creating new major events under a single banner • Working in partnership to bring in large and prestigious conventions • Between the financial years such as the European Society of 2011/12 and 2013/14 we Cardiology Congress 2015 increased our commercial income by 31%, reducing our call on • Creating the new flagship cycling the taxpayer event Prudential RideLondon in partnership with Transport for • We receive strong support from London and the GLA our commercial partners, of whom there are now over 1,000

Promoting London as the best place for business Delivering significant economic • Supporting successful Mayoral value for London trade missions to India, the Gulf and • We have developed a rigorous Greater China methodology for tracking the impact of our activities, based on extensive • Building long term relationships surveys with all of our audiences with foreign investors including ABP, resulting in a significant • In 2012-13 we surpassed all investment in the Royal Docks previous targets by generating £257 million GVA for London with an ROI of 13-1.

14 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 15 Our assets

Status as London’s official Our long standing partnerships promotional organisation • We have extensive networks and • The Mayor of London is one of a number of strong partnerships the few internationally recognised across the public and private sectors mayors in the world and is a in London and beyond powerful advocate for the city

• We have a unique position in Digital assets our capacity as London’s official • Our website visitlondon.com is promotional organisation, giving a huge asset and has a global us the authority to represent the reach, attracting 25 million visitors capital around the world in 2012-13 and generating £1 million in commercial revenue

Our staff and overseas offices • Our website studylondon.ac.uk • Our staff combine a passion is a similarly strong asset, visited for London with deep sector by over a million prospective knowledge and an excellent international students last year understanding of key international markets • With the endorsement of the Mayor’s office we have also • Our overseas staff are based in secured a 10-year licence to Our staff, our status as London’s official key strategic locations (Beijing, operate the new top-level domain Shanghai, Mumbai, New York and for London (.london) through a promotional organisation, our partnerships San Francisco) and their excellent subsidiary company Dot London and our digital assets are four significant local knowledge and connections Domains Limited (DLD) strengths which will underpin our work are instrumental in identifying new leads and opportunities over the next period.

16 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 17 Our strategic Targets objectives Add £850 million GVA to London’s economy

Create 14,000 new jobs in London

Achieve positive international and national coverage with an Advertising Value Equivalent of £135 million

Successfully activate 150 Create additional jobs and growth Strengthen London’s reputation partnerships with organisations for London by convincing visitors, so more visitors, students and and individuals to promote London, students and businesses to come businesses choose London in particularly in the areas of culture, to London now the future life sciences and technology

Achieve parity between our public sector grant and private sector investment (including private sector benefits in kind)

Secure support and active Establish London & Partners Secure London & Partners’ engagement from institutions, as a world leading promotional entry to the Sunday Times 100 businesses and high profile organisation Best companies ranking individuals with an interest in London

Our annual targets will be set in each year’s business plan.

18 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 19 How we will deliver

Priority markets Opportunity markets Monitor markets Create additional jobs and growth The largest and most valuable These are significant markets These are relatively small markets for London by convincing visitors, markets, providing the bulk in which there is clear growth for London, which have future of London’s visitors, investors and there is potential to increase potential but currently offer a low students and businesses to come and students and in which we London’s market share. In these return on investment. Given our to London now can achieve the best return on markets we will look for cost limited resources and the need investment. We will allocate effective ways to deliver promotional to prioritise the large valuable approximately 80% of our spend activity – for instance, spikes in markets as described above, we will on proactive, discretionary activities messaging and calls to action not make a proactive investment We will ensure that our sales and promotional to the few priority markets in each around Mayoral visits. We will in these markets but will keep a activity to attract visitors, students and businesses business line. allocate approximately 20% of watching brief so we can anticipate is rigorously targeted so we deliver as many jobs spend on discretionary activities if and when they should become to these markets. an opportunity market. In the and as much growth as possible for London. meantime we will work in an agile To help us do so we will categorise our markets as way to take advantage of particular opportunities if they arise. priority, opportunity or monitor. These markets may be different for visitors, students and businesses We will focus on the most valuable and entertainment experiences, although the US will feature as a priority market segments within these markets, investment and real estate across London & Partners as a whole. including a particular emphasis over opportunities, wealth management the next period on high net worth services and high quality education. individuals. London is very well We will promote a holistic offer to this positioned to meet the needs of valuable group under London’s trusted this group, which include demand brand, initially focussing on China. for premium shopping, cultural

20 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 21 ‘Always on’ digital activity different ways. In late 2013 we launched The London Story, a Over the next period we will focus campaign designed to highlight on increasing the reach and impact what Londoners and celebrities of our digital activities both in love about their city, and to build English and key foreign languages. on London’s strong post-Olympic Our site visitlondon.com will be reputation as a welcoming and optimised to ensure we provide rewarding place to visit. We will the best possible customer look for opportunities to build on experience. During 2013-14 our this campaign based on an French, German, Italian and Spanish assessment of the impact achieved websites were completely rebuilt in each market and with different and our website in simplified audience segments. Chinese, london.cn, was launched by the Mayor of London in Beijing. We will optimise and grow the reach Travel trade engagement of all of our websites, enhance our supporting e-commerce activities We employ a tiered approach to and launch new channels such travel trade engagement, which is as enhanced mobile experiences, an essential complement to our dedicated social media activity and consumer marketing activity. Over blogs in foreign languages. the next period we will continue to optimise our travel trade activities, The aim is to interact with visitors focussing particularly on the top at each stage of their trip, from operators in our priority markets. the initial decision about which In these markets, travel trade destination to choose, to the trip support is provided alongside our itself and once returned home. Our tactical and ‘always on’ activity ambition is to encourage visitors to to ensure trade operators have a act as ambassadors for London by deep understanding of the London contributing to a user-generated offer and are able to sell London content showcase. effectively to their customers. Leisure tourism Our activities will include attendance at key trade shows International consumer and sales missions, coordinating We will focus on delivering three marketing familiarisation trips, maintaining complementary areas of work; ‘always the trade website, providing high During 2013-14 we pushed London quality content in the form of on’ digital marketing activity including content to audiences via influential guides and e-newsletters and the our flagship website visitlondon.com and bloggers and social media stars. Brit Agent London module. We will social platforms; high impact international We will continue to develop this also engage with the travel trade outreach activity and build on the in a lighter touch way in selected consumer marketing campaigns; and huge opportunity to reach and emerging markets where we do travel trade engagement influence large audiences in not market direct to consumers.

22 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 23 Convention bureau Consumer and cultural events

We will continue to run London’s With this strong pipeline of official convention bureau for international sporting events in congresses, meetings and events. place, we will focus on how we Over the past year we have changed can best support and promote the way we work to target larger London’s consumer and cultural scale conventions and corporate events. Our approach will be to meetings that are contestable and look for opportunities to aggregate, have not already taken a location add to and amplify existing events decision; this will underpin our to help attract greater and more approach over the next period. In international audiences. We will work particular, we will attract and support closely with the GLA’s cultural team large events in the technology, life in support of their work with the sciences and creative industries, London Design Festival, London while continuing to build London’s Film Festival and others. reputation as a leading centre for these sectors. We will also attract more incentive and high end group travel.

Sporting events

We have helped to secure a very healthy pipeline of international sporting events for London to 2019, including the European Swimming Championships in 2016 and the Business tourism World Athletics Championships in 2017. We will ensure that when these and major events events occur they are promoted as effectively as possible to showcase London around the world. There are three main strands to our delivery over the next period; running an effective convention bureau with an emphasis on securing large scale conventions and meetings; supporting and promoting major sporting events happening across the capital; and identifying opportunities to work with consumer and cultural events to extend their reach and impact.

24 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 25 Higher education

Our focus will be on three major areas. Our work in attracting students stakeholders such as the London Firstly, we will continue to refresh and optimise to London through digital channels Universities International Partnership. our digital channels including study.ac.uk and our is extremely effective with We will promote London’s unique studylondon.ac.uk attracting over educational offer in these markets new website london.cn. Secondly, we will focus one million prospective international through a combination of online on working in partnership with key stakeholders students a year. We will continue to activity (for instance via our newly extend the scope of the content on launched Chinese language site to extend our reach, in particular with the London the website, while referring clean london.cn) and running events Universities International Partnership. Finally, we leads to listed universities. Social targeted at education agents and will target international schools and other important media channels are a very important key influencers. route to market and we will continue feeder routes which are a key route to market to extend our reach both in English In recognition that universities are via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn not stand-alone institutions but have and in Chinese via social media important feeder routes through channels Sina weibo and Renren. English language providers and overseas international schools, China, India and the USA are we will also assess how we can likely to remain the priority markets leverage these channels to reach where we will focus activity, prospective international students. primarily in partnership with key

26 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 27 FDI particular, into 33 Opportunity Areas. We are building a property and Our focus is on identifying and infrastructure team, strengthened winning high value contestable by industry secondees, to lead this investment projects from priority work. In close collaboration with markets such as the USA, India, the Regeneration, Development, China and Germany. To do so we will Land and Planning Teams of continue to work closely with UKTI, the GLA, the London Boroughs our private sector partners and other and London developers, we are intermediaries. In particular we will providing aggregated information attract European Headquarters, and about opportunities, while building investments in the technology, life confidence about government sciences and creative sectors to help policies. We will focus primarily on secure London’s reputation as a world attracting investment from Asia and leading centre for these industries. the Middle East. Overseas visits by Part of our work will be proactively the Mayor and Deputy Mayors will targeting high profile businesses be a key element of our marketing which do not currently have a strategy. This work will play a vital role presence in the UK; bringing in in securing the long term economic these businesses is important to legacy from the London 2012 International Business reinforce the capital’s reputation as Olympic and Paralympic Games. a world leading centre for business. Development As well as targeting new investors we will also work in partnership with Mayor’s Export Programme UKTI to support existing investors to There will be three main strands to our help them grow and prosper. We are heavily involved in winning work over the next period; attracting FDI from business for London and UK companies through our role in foreign-owned business that creates jobs and Vision 2020 and managing the business delegations growth in the London economy; encouraging Capital Investment that accompany the Mayor on his foreign-owned entities to invest in regeneration overseas visits and through our An essential element of the commercial partner programme where and development projects which support the delivery of the Mayor’s Vision our referrals to London businesses are Mayor’s Vision 2020; and matching business 2020 is the attraction of additional worth millions of pounds in fees. We developers and institutional will play a full supporting role as the opportunities in overseas markets with investors to accelerate investment GLA develops the strategy for the London-based companies, as part of the into regeneration and development Mayor’s Export Programme. Mayor’s Export Programme. projects across London and, in

28 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 29 Culture

Strengthen London’s reputation so Research shows that culture is London. London & Partners will more visitors, students and businesses one of the main reasons why also establish and host a new tech visitors choose to come to London. incubator focussing on the travel choose London in the future We also know that a city which and tourism sector. The incubator is perceived as having a thriving will support London’s reputation as a cultural offer is more attractive to hub for new convergent technology prospective students and investors. and enable businesses in this sector The leading cultural institutions to adopt innovative new technology We recognise that there is a limit to what we and attractions have indicated their to enhance their product offer. We can achieve through our own activities and that to enthusiasm for London & Partners are unusually well placed to host to take a leadership role in driving and support such an incubator due deliver a step change in London’s reputation it is collaboration across this sector and to our broad partner network and crucial to work in partnership. Our role is to identify to help market the collective offer connections with this industry. internationally. We are therefore opportunities to galvanise, aggregate and amplify developing a Cultural Promotional fantastic London content so that it achieves real Board to bring together leading Life sciences cut through on the international stage. institutions and attractions which manage and promote London’s The third area is life sciences. Over the next period we have chosen to fantastic heritage and cultural Again, this represents an opportunity offering, with a view to collaborating to demonstrate the diversity of focus particularly on three key themes to build on a high impact cultural showcase London’s economy and to attract London’s reputation. and pan-London exhibition. and grow businesses and talent. There is significant public sector investment being made to support Technology and develop this sector in London, offering an opportunity to create real The second area is technology. momentum and attract additional While London has long been private sector investment, building recognised as a world leader in on London’s world class research financial and professional services, and healthcare. London & Partners it is not as well known for its strengths will play an active role in supporting in other sectors. Tech is a rapidly the development of MedCity, which growing sector in London and is being created to open the door there is an opportunity to showcase to London’s and the Greater South this fact internationally to harness East’s biomedical research capability. further investment and attract additional talent. London & Partners is taking on responsibility for the promotion of Tech City in London, and will expand the scope of this to incorporate the varied tech clusters which have developed across

30 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 31 Strengthening our key Secure support and active partnerships engagement from institutions, The promotion of London is closely an invaluable way to promote intertwined with the promotion London internationally and we will businesses and high profile of the UK, with London playing a continue to look for opportunities to individuals with an interest in London crucial role in attracting overseas collaborate, particularly on overseas visitors and investors. The capital trade missions and in generating accounted for 54% of the tourism high impact media coverage. spend in the UK in 2012 and 48% Partnership and collaboration will be central to how of capital expenditure on foreign we work over the next period. We want to engage direct investment projects. London & Encouraging high profile Partners will continue to champion Londoners to be ambassadors more closely with the organisations and individuals the importance of London as the for the city who share our goals for promoting London and UK’s flagship international brand driving the city’s growth. We recognise that our and the need for London messaging We have already started to work to play a prominent role in the with celebrities and high profile impact can be far greater through working in this overseas promotion of the UK. individuals who can speak on way and we are committed to being agile, proactive behalf of London. We will build on We want to build on this strength for this work, with a particular focus and productive partners. the good of both London and the UK, on identifying and working with through working in close partnership ambassadors for London’s culture, with the national Tourist Boards life sciences and tech offers. and with UKTI. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UKTI to enable the efficient delivery of FDI and capital Building brand partnerships investment into London which is a strong base to build from. We are now From Harrods to Imperial College finalising an MoU with VisitBritain and Wembley to Wimbledon, there which will set out how we will are many celebrated brands in collaborate to attract more visitors to London which enjoy worldwide both London and the rest of the UK recognition. We will work with brands such as these to further strengthen London’s reputation. High profile political and civic leaders We are also now an active partner of the GREAT campaign showcasing Our status as London’s official the best of Britain internationally. promotional organisation and The London is GREAT branding our close links with the Mayor is used where it is appropriate for are one of our strongest assets. London messaging to lead, for Working with the Mayor and other instance on Mayoral trips. high profile civic leaders such as the Lord Mayor of London is

32 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 33 Developing our culture

Establish London & Partners London & Partners is still a the new top level domain for London as a world leading promotional relatively young organisation, having also offers significant commercial organisation been established in April 2011. opportunities over the next period We have made significant progress and we are actively engaging in establishing a strong corporate with businesses across London identity centred on our four values; in advance of the launch which is ambition, collaboration, creativity anticipated in early 2014. and high performance. We still need The competition for visitors, students and foreign to work hard to make sure we are direct investment is becoming increasingly intense. sharing knowledge as effectively as Seeking out best practice possible across the organisation and More countries, regions and cities are working to that we are rigorously audience-led, We will actively seek out best secure an increase in their share of these valuable and these will be priorities over the practice and collaborate with next period. leading organisations wherever markets, with promotional agencies spearheading possible. This includes engaging these efforts. London & Partners will continue to We will also focus on providing with leading promotional companies adapt and innovate to ensure we are a world leading excellent, targeted development from around the world, both to opportunities for staff so they are learn from their experience and to promotional organisation, underpinned by significant confident and empowered in their identify opportunities to collaborate. and stable income streams. We are also committed roles, and on celebrating success in A good example of this is our recent to achieving excellence as an employer through line with our values. This will ensure agreement with NYC & Co to share London & Partners is recognised marketing and digital best practice and supporting and empowering our staff to deliver. both internally and externally as an to exchange media advertising space. excellent place to work. We have set ourselves the target of achieving entry to The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies – a clear indication of an engaged and aligned workforce.

Developing new commercial income streams

We know that to operate as effectively as possible we need to scale up, and that to do so we need to develop additional commercial income streams. We are scoping out a range of opportunities over the next period, including strategic partnerships and sponsorship deals with selected private sector companies. Our licence to operate

34 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017 35 36 London & Partners Strategy 2014-2017