‘This is Edinburgh’ survey reveals positive impact of campaign

January 23, 2015 Dominic Lill

Almost one year on from the launch of ‘This is Edinburgh’, a survey has revealed the positive and decisive impact of Edinburgh’s first-ever city centre marketing campaign.

Led by Marketing Edinburgh in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and Essential Edinburgh, the £1 million campaign launched at the end of February 2014, with the objective of improving perceptions and bringing locals and people living within a two-hour commute back to the city centre.

A street questionnaire has shown:

95.6% of those surveyed agreed they felt more positive about Edinburgh’s city centre than they did at the start of 2014.
88.6% stated that the ‘This is Edinburgh’ campaign had played a positive role in helping change their perception.
66.8% of those surveyed also said they were more likely to visit the city centre than they were before the campaign commenced.
This is also backed by a rise in city centre footfall figures during the campaign period (Nov13– Dec14), up 1.5% on the same period in 2013.
With a core campaign objective of increasing footfall within the city centre 2% ahead of the UK average.
This rise in footfall is also converting to sales, with retail spending in Edinburgh during the last 12 months up +3.50% (Dec13 – Nov14).

John Donnelly, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh said: “’This is Edinburgh’ is a fresh approach that puts the real city, its personality and hidden gems at the heart of the campaign. However, not only is it a celebration of this amazing city, it’s also a campaign focused on giving people compelling reasons to make the trip to the city centre.”

Councillor Frank Ross, an economy convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “I’m particularly delighted with the positive increase in the number of people who are proud of Edinburgh’s city centre. To go up in 12 months from 51% to 88% shows that our aim of getting people living in and around Edinburgh to rediscover the magic of our city is working and that the ‘This is Edinburgh’ campaign really is making a difference.”