THE FUTURE OF THE HIGH STREET
“Don’t get me wrong, nice is a good place to start, it’s better than being rubbish.” David Jackson pulls no punches when speaking about the challenge he faces in his new role as manager of Marketing Cheltenham. Speaking to Punchline just three months after setting sail from his post as executive director of the Islands Partnership on the Scilly Isles, Mr Jackson is aware of the task awaiting him. He knows he has landed in a nice spot, but he is also aware that with that comes the task of changing long-held and perhaps unhelpful assumptions the wider public have of Cheltenham. “We must not be complacent and think that nice is Cheltenham’s brand,” he said. “There’s a hell of a lot more to the place than that. “For years, Cheltenham hasn’t had someone telling its story. Tourism, inward investment and place marketing is something that hasn’t been done. “Marketing Cheltenham’s role is to try and create that brand, create that sense of identity and get that image told in a strong and clear way.” The role as Marketing Cheltenham’s manager is the latest assignment in a career that has seen Mr Jackson take something of a UK tour. A native of Spalding in Lincolnshire, he has swapped flat sugar beet farms for the Cotswolds by way of posts in Warrington, Bath and, most recently, nearly five years on the Scilly Islands. He is now at the head of a small five-strong team of people who are charged with marketing Cheltenham across the globe. While he appreciates being able to build on some already enviable foundations: The world-renowned racing and cultural festivals to name but two, he knows that it won’t be an easy task. Not that any of that seems to faze the man who left
“Enid Blyton picture-book upbringing” he offered his wife and two young children on the stunning Scillies to come ashore. “There are parallels, but that would be the case anywhere,” he says of taking Scilly Isles lessons to his new role. “It’s all the same challenges just different circumstances. “Everyone wants more visitors. Everyone knows that it’s a competitive environment and everyone is upping their game and investing more. “There is never as much money as you want there to be and the internet is changing the marketplace entirely, so everyone has an access to a market that they didn’t have before. “All marketing has to be more agile to respond to that than ever before. “A lot of the experience I gained in the Islands Partnership I can use here. In the first year, we will be able to sell on promise of what investment will bring. “In the second and third year, it’s more of a challenge as we have to prove what the investment has brought.” That investment has been made possible thanks to a five-year mandate secured in the Cheltenham Tourism Strategy, signed by the borough council and supported by the Cheltenham BID in 2017. In November that year, Marketing Cheltenham was born. Until now, much of its work has been outsourced, but with Mr Jackson and a full-time staff now on the books, bigger and braver plans can now be devised and put into action. Currently working on a £300,000 budget, the new manager will be tasked in increasing inward investment and create a larger pool of cash to use, and the cycle starts again. Among his first tasks will be to find a way of working
90 | December 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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