Marketing and Communications
UNESCO requires that work must be done to provide coherent communications about the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site, and this work, through the individual potential for contact, also provides the greatest opportunity to maximise growing the resources available to support the World Heritage Site reaching its full potential.
The Hadrian’s Wall Trust is the Destination Management Organisation for the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site and Hadrian's Wall Country and has driven a powerful change in both domestic and international interest and understanding of the importance and heritage of Hadrian’s Wall, creating a unified understanding of the scale and meaning of the World Heritage Site, capturing latent interest in the Wall and delivering new tourism related business to our communities and visitor facility providers.
All marketing activity will serve to:
• Continue to establish an internationally successful brand to inspire market growth thus supporting local businesses and communities
o Develop marketing led business engagement and community training opportunities aligned with commercial and fundraising activities
• Deliver brand communication and development of new audiences
o Implement national and international product based partner communications campaigns to target best prospects and generate new audiences, and identify best prospects for friends, sponsorship and fundraising activities
• Grow the visitor economy
o Increase visitor numbers and accommodation occupancy for job creation and benefit to the tourism supply industry
The Hadrian's Wall Trust will work in partnership with VisitEngland as a destination partner to deliver activity over the three year period of the plan within their themed countryside and heritage strands. A priority will be to implement activity to develop a sense of one complete destination and growing/retaining visitors and increasing length of stay. Currently the Trust provides information for up to 1.2 million enquirers per annum. These enquiries are mostly on-line, and also through TICs, by phone and mail. It is the volume of people with whom we have contact, and the focus on the whole of the WHS, which provides the most effective protection of the WHS. The consumer facing activities from this audience development activity also build the foundations for the development and business case of the Hadrian’s Wall Country Hadrian business engagement programme.
The development of a network of Hadrian's Wall Country businesses is key to the success of any destination marketing campaign. Through the concept of a network club of businesses, the Hadrian AD2022 business engagement programme is the sole way in which Hadrian's Wall Country businesses, SME's and enterprises can directly access the ongoing marketing and promotional activity associated with marketing campaign and PR delivery.
A strategic fundraising and commercial income generation programme aligned to international marketing and PR campaigns will be delivered to ensure future sustainability and diversification of audience development channels and techniques, and developing and generating audience interest and awareness of the opportunity to support the World Heritage Site.
Online retail and charitable giving operations have been developed and managed through the hadrians-wall.org website. The core communication is the knowledge that individuals are supporting the conservation and preservation of Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site, an internationally important historic monument through enabling strong communications to improve visitor management, increased learning opportunities for our many audiences and thus increasing the potential for future understanding and care of the WHS by future generations.
Investment in and development of future sponsorship and communication techniques associated with charitable operation status will be anticipated from incomes derived from the activity. This activity will be further developed and enhanced, with key delivery through on-line presence for retail providers as part of the Hadrian’s Wall Country AD2022 business engagement programme. Further business network fundraising opportunities will be developed. Collectively this activity will over time reduce dependence on the public purse which has struggled to find sufficient resource for the total care of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site.
