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How important is city/regional public support to the firm/sector? What types of support has your firm/sector received?

The experience of the case study firms with regard to public support can be divided into direct and indirect forms of assistance. Direct forms of public support such as business assistance or financial backing are not seen as particularly important for this sector and are very limited for these marketing and public relations companies. There were few mentions of this at all and none had made substantial use of such support in setting up and growing their firms. However

indirect support is seen to be very important: There are three main areas of relevance to city

ƒ The creation of a conducive physical environment for the growth of the sector, especially in central and inner city districts; this involves the development and regeneration of areas with a distinctive sense of place and the conditions for concentrations of firms and activities in marketing and related sectors; it also includes, more specifically, provision of suitable accommodation for small and more mature businesses

ƒ Policies to improve Birmingham’s image: in particular the external perception of the city’s marketing/public relations sectors, perceptions of Birmingham as a centre for professional services and media activity more generally; also important in this regard is the holding of events and activities that generate a ‘buzz’ in the city

ƒ Improving the city’s transport system: especially public transport and internal connectivity within the city, particularly between different parts of the expanding central districts that house the majority of new and growing firms in this sector; this is seen as essential to facilitating easy access for business meetings and for employees in this sector

What are of public support need to improve?

The main priorities for action cited by interviewees can be summarised as follows:

1. Accommodation: there is great demand for workspace that is affordable, modern,

interesting; especially for firms beyond the start-up phase of their trajectory; it is also important that this be located in a safe environment. This provision of premises relates to the next point……

2. City environment and distinctive urban districts/quarters: there was plenty of support for

the facilitation of districts that are lively and conducive to the growth of the sector, both as a stimulating place for their own businesses to be and for mutual benefits that can accrue to the sector as a whole. The idea of encouraging suitable spatial clusters of marketing and related businesses (combined with places of social and business interaction) was also seen as important for external perceptions of this sector in Birmingham. Eastside/Digbeth is seen to have potential to emerge as such as district but interviewees felt there was much work needed to improve the environment, create a sense of place, and raise perceptions of security; some cited the possible need for a suitable anchor tenant or activity to set the tone for the district and create confidence within the sector. There were some views that the city should work more proactively with the sector on this, including more established firms that could be enticed to move and help establish this critical mass. One such firm owner commented:

‘There ought to be an initiative to bring things like the digital, the designers, the PRs all together so they feed off each other and that’s location wise really… It shouldn’t just be about supporting the one man bands and start-ups. It should be about picking out some big companies and, like ours too probably, and saying ‘right, we are planning this sector, this quarter in Eastside or whatever, we feel the mix should be this because it’ll feed off each other, we’ve got the university there and it would be great to attract your recruits and keep them there and everything and have the vibrancy of putting an ad agency there, putting PR consultancy there and giving the smaller companies room to go on the back of them and get it really feeling great.’ (C4)

The importance of using high profile firms to drive such spatial concentration was echoed by another business owner:

‘To use the analogy of retail, I think in the creative sector for example and, indeed, in professional services, you need anchors. You need anchor tenants and what we’ve got to do I think is to work like mad to get some really interesting, unique, big, important anchor tenants into different parts of the city. If you had a massive Microsoft research centre or an Apple research centre or whatever sitting in the midst of Eastside, I mean, boy you’d get other people clustering around it. So we almost need to put undue emphasis and investment in getting anchors and not just great, big shiny offices but, you know, interesting organisations which are going to act as a magnet impact on bringing the rest of that sector and the supply chain with them and so we need some serious target.’ (C1)

Connectivity between different areas of growing business activity, such as the Jewellery Quarter and Digbeth, was also seen as important and in need of improvement.

3. City Marketing: several interviewees stressed the need for an approach that is much more co-ordinated, more vigorous and true to Birmingham’s qualities and values; this was commonly mentioned due to the issues raised elsewhere in this section.. One interviewee echoed the sentiments of many in suggesting that Birmingham lagged its counterparts in this respect:

‘Some of the cities seem to have a stronger single voice and a greater consistency of message from the people who are in senior places in other cities. Without getting into debates about mayors, and all manner of other things, I think there is a sense that we need a greater sense of unity and purpose in Birmingham, in order to keep up with the challenges.’ (C1)

4. Opportunities for Networking: there was some support for provision of greater

opportunities for creatives (including the more professional services end of this such as marketing and public relations) to network and interact

5. Mentoring: the one aspect of direct support that was mentioned was the value of

mentoring-type support for start-ups and very small firms; this was seen as more useful than finance or more bureaucratic types of programme.