GO! Southampton's Summer/Autumn Newsletter 2023

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The year has felt like the weather – severe storms interspersed with spells of bright sunshine. Businesses and households are being battered by the winds of inflation and energy costs, regular gusts of interest rate rises and squalls of industrial action.

However, we have much brighter news with the cruise ships returning and many of our retail, hospitality and leisure venues offering discounts to the thousands of crew coming ashore. Optimism is dawning as each week we report new businesses opening - enthusiastic and committed to enhancing the city experience.

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This experience was recognised in a glorious spring when Southampton’s evening and night-time economy received the prestigious Purple Flag award.

At the heart of a great place are the people and the sun shone bright when our Ranger, Debbi, won a national award for excellence.

There will be changeable weather ahead, literally with climate change alongside the economic and social challenges, but together we will be resilient and keep growing.

Stephen Manion (Executive Director)

Southampton streets shine bright following Purple Flag accreditation

If you didn’t hear the news, earlier this year Southampton was awarded Purple Flag accreditation! The coveted award, organised by the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM), recognises cities and towns that take measures to ensure their centres are safe, diverse, vibrant, appealing, well-managed, and offer a positive experience to consumers during the evening. The BID led on the application process with support from Southampton City Council, key partners and local businesses.

Highlights from the submission included the high standard of street cleaning across the city as well as the absence of graffiti and litter, the evident strength of the partnership, and the provision of a significantly well-resourced and professional triage facility run by St John Ambulance, which was well integrated into the overall running of the night-time economy.

In recognition of the award, we held a week-long marketing campaign to celebrate the city’s evening and night time economy. We asked businesses to light up their venues in purple, provide unique ‘purple week’ offers and host special purple themed events –thank you to all those who took part.

Developing Southampton’s Night-Time Economy Strategy for safer streets

Operations Manager Jade McCauley has been reviewing the recently commissioned Night-Time Economy Strategy and will oversee the short, medium and long-term goals for the city’s evening economy.

A night-time economy steering group with citywide partners regularly meet to discuss the strategy and plan on how best to implement the actions/recommendations.

As part of the strategy we have also facilitated a series of training sessions over the last few months, hosted by Night Time Economy Solutions and funded by the Safer Streets 4 Fund. These have included training on topics such as anti-drink spiking and how to support vulnerable people.

Changing Lives: New outreach project launched for young people

Over the last few months, we have been working with No Limits to facilitate a Youth Outreach Programme, funded by the Safer Streets 4 fund. The programme enables two outreach workers to engage with young people in the city who have been causing anti-social behaviour or are associated with groups that cause issues in the city and try to divert them away from criminal activity.

Since the project began in April the team has engaged with 146 young people in the city during their first quarter, offering support catered to their needs. If you would like to know more about the scheme, please get in touch.

GO! Southampton’s Ranger snaps up esteemed ATCM award

In June, Debbi Martin our Ranger, won the award for ‘Best Ambassador, Ranger or Warden’ at the ATCM Awards 2023. Between business visits, Debbi can be found scouting the BID area reporting environmental issues such as graffiti or liaising with our security team to assist with anti-social behaviour around town. Debbi’s dedication and passion for the city and our businesses, shines through everything she does as she aims to make Southampton a more welcoming and safer place for all. We are so proud to have her on our team – congratulations Debbi! We were also a finalist in the ‘Best Business Support Scheme’ for our Business Training Hub. If you haven’t registered for free you can find out more at www.gosouthampton.co.uk/training

Update on public art

streets

Our cleaning team has been recognised for their outstanding service in keeping our city streets clean as they continue to make a positive impact in the community. So far this year, the BID team has fixed 952 issues in the city, including 173 hot washes and over 480 graffiti and fly poster removals.

Our work to improve the public realm, making the city centre a more attractive, exciting and vibrant place to visit continues. Alongside updating the cross-street flags and putting in information towers to advertise our Visit Southampton campaigns, we are also working on refreshing current public art and facilitating new installations. Watch this space!

Dominic Hiscock and Jeff Davison, Purple Flag Assessors, have said “We know from our experience of visiting towns and cities during Purple Flag assessments that such high standards are very difficult to achieve but… it is clear that Southampton has a very hard working and effective team delivering this standard of cleanliness, and many other areas would gain a great deal by following their example.”

If your business requires support from our BID cleaning team, please contact Debbi on rangers@gosouthampton.co.uk

Street cleaning crew receives high praise for impeccable

Diving into Southampton’s consumer landscapes

To help us understand our datasets and the city centre landscape we commissioned a data analyst to provide trends and recommendations that will help drive our programmes of work. Key takeaways included:

Footfall is back to pre-pandemic levels, but spend isn’t

Food and drink spend was higher in 2022 than in 2019

City footfall is at its highest during Christmas

Footfall in the city centre peaks during lunchtime

Fridays are generally the busiest days in the city

Post pandemic, the city centre has lost visitors from outside Hampshire

In September, we will be working with Destination Research to repeat our annual consumer research in the city centre. This will allow us to benchmark against last year’s findings in order to gain further insight into consumer behaviour in Southampton and how it may have changed. If you would like more information please email marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

Visit Southampton Easter Trail a cracking success

Over the April half-term, we launched our free Visit Southampton family Easter trail, around Bedford Place, Carlton Place, and London Road.

15 levy-paying businesses displayed ‘Easter Eggs’ in their front windows for families to find and receive a small prize at the end.

We designed the trail to be ‘free roam’ where families explored a clearly marked area to increase dwell time.

486 adults and 628 children took part, with 332 individuals entering our prize draw giveaway. Compared to our Christmas trail, we saw a 30% increase in participation. The responses we received from participants and businesses were very positive.

If you would like to get your business involved in our next trail, please email marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

Portside perks for Southampton’s cruise crew

Southampton is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world with an increasingly growing market for the city’s businesses.

Together with Carnival UK and Associated British Ports, we are working to encourage cruise crew to spend their time in the city through a Visit Southampton marketing campaign.

The campaign highlights places offering free WiFi, gifts, cafés, entertainment as well as special offers and discounts exclusively for staff with a valid ID.

If you would like to get involved with this ongoing campaign, please email marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

Soaking up Southampton’s summer fun with launch of new campaign

From July – September, we launched our ‘Soak up Summer in Southampton’ campaign to inspire residents, workers and visitors to experience all that the city has to offer throughout the summer holidays.

From city centre events and alfresco dining to affordable family activities and shopping, we created a Visit Southampton campaign page that was packed with ideas and levy-paying businesses for people to plan a memorable summer. The campaign was promoted across our social media channels and newsletters, the So SO Show podcast, paid ads and digital screens around the city.

It’s beginning to look a lot like

Christmas

We have lots of exciting plans for Christmas 2023 and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Our free family Christmas trail will be making a comeback as well as our cross-media marketing campaign which shines a light on all the festivities taking place in the city.

This November will also see the return of our Countdown to Christmas event in which we hope to spread the activation across the BID area and across the weekend.

If you want to be involved by hosting any activities, workshops or entertainment please email marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

This year’s Christmas market will see 2022 providers S&D Leisure return to the city and deliver an even bigger and better event for Southampton.

2023/2024 event sponsorship roundup

This year we have continued to support citywide events through financial and in-kind contributions, as part of our Culture, Events and Partnerships work programme. Event sponsorship can not only help connect businesses to event organisers for an opportunity to promote their business but also helps them to grow their audience and strengthen their city offering.

GO! Southampton has sponsored

If you would like to learn more about sponsorship for an event that you are planning from April 2024 onwards, please get in touch at marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

A monumental salute to strength and unity with I Want to Live sculpture

In April we funded the large-scale art installation to visit Guildhall Square as tribute to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Standing with Giants, the not-for-profit community group behind the 13-foot tribute, honours those who have fought for freedom, both past and present. We hope it served as a powerful reminder that many families are still affected today.

GO! Southampton gives warm welcome to students Southampton Forward

Over the last six months, the team has continued to attend student Open Days and events at both universities. As well as welcoming people to the city and answering any questions about Southampton life, we promote our BID members and Visit Southampton as the go-to tourist information platform.

If you have any printed materials relevant to students you would like to distribute at future events, please get in touch.

We’ve also been updating our heritage leaflets and A3 visitor maps and distributing them across the city, including cruise passenger terminals, cultural venues, hotels and halls of residence.

Don’t forget you can add an offer to the SO card which we give to students, particularly during Freshers.

Now that Southampton Forward, the former Southampton Culture Trust, is in full operation, we are continuing to show our support as Founding Partner. Our Marketing team will be working closely with the organisation to improve our tourism offer and promotion, particularly through the Visit Southampton channels and events listings.

Cost savings made easy Local Plan

As overheads rise, the BID has increased its cost savings support for businesses. Rishi, the BID’s impartial cost savings expert, can now arrange an appropriate time to visit your business and find ways to save on your overheads. For free, unbiased advice on energy bills to insurance, contact Rishi and his team at savings@gosouthampton.co.uk

Carlton Place

The city council’s local plan, City Vision, will set the direction of travel for the next few years. It is currently in the consultation phase, with GO! putting forward proposals for a strong and vibrant city centre for business and visitors.

Pedestrianisation

We are keen that the city centre becomes a place which is safe and pleasant for those who live, work and visit here.

Pedestrianisation is a key means to achieve this aim and we have supported the city council in this project.

We worked with the council on the design, consultation and delivery, ensuring the necessary disruption to businesses by the construction works was kept to a minimum. It is now an attractive, traffic-free area for relaxing, browsing in the local shops or sitting and enjoying a meal or drink at one of the many outdoor tables.

Motivating young minds at Get Inspired 2023

Your BID supported the 2023 Get Inspired event at Southampton Solent University, showcasing local industries to young people in Southampton and the New Forest.

The event aims to broaden the career paths which students from years 7 to 10 see themselves in. At this event, we highlighted Town Planning, and the apprenticeships available locally at Savills, in their Planning team. Thank you to EBP South and partners for organising.

BID hosts first Jobs and Careers Fair

In April, we held our first Jobs and Careers Fair in partnership with Southampton City Council and FigFlex Offices.

In total, 43 businesses signed up to exhibit, including nine BID businesses, to discuss their opportunities in person with potential candidates. Over 230 candidates dropped in throughout the day, many of which noted that the event was easily accessible and insightful.

For further support with recruitment, BID businesses can advertise their live vacancies on the city Jobs Board, for free. This webpage showcases city centre roles and is promoted at Job Fairs and Student events.

Add your role via this online form: www.gosouthampton.co.uk/job-vacancy-form/

New events exclusive to BID members

In addition to our quarterly City Networking events, Business Crime Intelligence Briefings and Licensing Link meetings, the BID now offers these new business events for you:

• Breakfast with the BID – a monthly get together at Network Eagle Lab where you can meet the team and other like-minded businesses over coffee and breakfast.

• BID City Tours – From vault visits, to city insights, get to know the city with our fully funded lunchtime tours. Each tour has a new theme and tour guide, so you can find out more about the city you work in.

To start organising a free tour for your team at a time that suits you, email gemma.pratt@gosouthampton.co.uk

For all our upcoming business events check www.gosouthampton.co.uk/events

We’ve moved!

Our office is now located at Network Eagle Lab on Portland Terrace, directly opposite Quilter.

If you are ever in need of a chat, whether it is to discuss our marketing services, our radio scheme, or simply to say hello and meet the team, our doors are always open. Simply call our office or email a member of our team to arrange a visit on a day and time that suits you.

Welcoming new team members

Since February we have welcomed two new members of staff to the team including:

Jade McCauley Operations Manager Tom Winyard Finance and Business Manager

If you need to speak with either of them, or any other member of the team you can find all our contact details at www.gosouthampton.co.uk/contact

OUR SERVICES

Cleaning

Our cleaning team can provide extra cleaning services to our members, including jet washing and graffiti removal. Reach them at cleaning@gosouthampton.co.uk

Security

Our security team patrol the BID area seven days a week Monday – Saturday 10am to 8pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm (start times are flexible to meet the needs of businesses). You can contact them on 07725 737236 or via the SBCP radio scheme, mentioned below.

Radio Scheme & DISC

Access The DISC portal which has updated information about offenders in the city, alerts on live incidents and other local crime intelligence. Sign up for free by emailing sbcp@gosouthampton.co.uk

Businesses can hire a radio for £5+ VAT a week, which will connect you to the Citywatch CCTV control room and link you directly with our security team to support with any incidents. To find out more about obtaining a radio please email sbcp@gosouthampton.co.uk

Rangers

Debbi our Ranger visits businesses and reports environmental and cleaning issues around the BID area. You can contact her on rangers@gosouthamptonco.uk

Waste Recycling

GO! Southampton works with Southampton City Council to offer savings on your business’ dry mixed recycling and to help reduce the levels of general waste reaching landfill. BID members are entitled to savings of up to 50% off their dry mixed recycling costs. To sign up, email us at recycling@gosouthampton.co.uk

Business Cost-Reduction Service

Levy payers can save on their core business services (energy, merchant fees, telecoms and water) via our independent cost reduction service. To get started, Place Support Partnership (working on behalf of GO! Southampton) simply need a copy of your recent bills, which will be analysed in confidence by a team of experts who will be able to advise you on saving opportunities. To find out more you can call 0333 0156 289 or email us at savings@gosouthampton.co.uk

Business Rates Consultancy

If you believe you might be paying too much in business rates or that your rateable value or property description is incorrect, please email info@gosouthampton.co.uk. We will be able to link you to an expert for a free half-hour consultation.

Business Training Hub

Businesses and their employees can access free online courses and webinars that cover a number of topics from customer service and marketing to mental health and Excel training. To get started go to www.gosouthampton.co.uk/training

Marketing

Our marketing team can help promote consumer-facing businesses via the Visit Southampton channels (website, social media and email). We can also promote B2B businesses via our GO! Southampton channels. Please get in touch with us to discuss how we can support you by emailing, marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

Photography Service

Levy-paying businesses are entitled to one free half-day photoshoot with a professional photographer to help boost their own marketing. For more details, please email Flo at flo.bevis@gosouthampton.co.uk

PR Opportunities

Our ongoing work with PR agency Blakeborough includes securing press trips for a variety of different journalists and influencers across the year. If you are interested in hosting journalists in your venue in return for press coverage, please get in touch with Flo at flo.bevis@gosouthampton.co.uk

SO Card

Reach new and existing audiences by providing an offer, promotion or experience via the SO card, a free discount card promoted via the Visit Southampton channels. Email us at marketing@gosouthampton.co.uk

Carol Bowers Crime Reduction Administrator

Debbi Martin Ranger

Gemma Pratt Business Relations Manager

Stephen Manion Executive Director

Jade McCauley Operations Manager

Christina Schembri Marketing Assistant

Flo Bevis Marketing Manager

Martin Conlan Case File Builder

Tatenda

Office Administrator Tom Winyard Finance and Business Manager