Fuga Peccadilloes | Marketings & Design | Website | Hastings, East Sussex

In 2001, pro bono, and working in partnership with John Knowles of 36 Hours, Fuga developed a concept that was to be presented to Hastings Borough Council, a concept that outlined a route to support the promotion of success in Hastings & St. Leonards to both prospective investors and residents of the local community.

The idea was to create an event that focused on individual, entrepreneurial and business success stories, as well as creating a forum within which local businesses could promote their services to prospective customers that were not historically contributors to the local economy.


Refocussed - “Look again at Hasting”
To succeed in this venture, we proposed that an annual “business event” should be hosted in Hastings, an event that was not just an arena in which local companies touted for each other’s business, but rather a “business fair”, an event that was entertaining, social and educational, and a celebration of success in Hastings & St. Leonards. This was no new idea as in 1939 the “World’s Fair” in New York attracted over 44 million visitors to participate in an event that promoted the innovation and ideas that were to become the essential tools that helped shape the ‘world’ as we know it today ...

“A new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow - familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future” (extract from a World's Fair pamphlet)

Our idea was obviously a little smaller than the “World’s Fair” but the goals were similar. If local authorities responsible for leading the regeneration of our communities invested some of the substantial funds granted to them into building “attractions” for the area that were focussed on encouraging interest from our geographical neighbours (London & Dieppe for example) the opportunity for local companies to trade outside of our local economy would grow … and it is this focus on economic growth that inevitably benefits the community at large with an increase in income streams into the local business community, an increase in job opportunities and in obvious terms, a boost to our economy via “tourism” associated with the events themselves.

Talk up Hastings / Brand Hastings
We hear quite a lot about creating a “strong vibrant identity” for Hastings and St. Leonards-on-Sea ... call it “Brand Hastings” or “Talk up Hastings” ... call it what you like, but in the end a brand is built in the mind of consumers. Therefore to succeed in generating a “strong vibrant identity” one needs to deliver both the product and the propaganda. Anyone versed in even the basics of brand building will tell you that if the product and service don’t mirror the propaganda, there is little chance of building a good, strong, vibrant and sustainable brand identity.

Distinctive and unique events for Hastings & St. Leonards
Hastings is already known for distinctive and unique events – “The Green Man” attracts thousands of visitors and the May Bank Holiday plays host to thousands of bikers filling our seafront with colour excitement and energy. Hence it is not a huge leap in imagination to envisage the potential of an entertaining “Business Fair” focused on our “Tomorrow’s World” that showcases ideas that capture the imagination. This event could showcase inventors, environmental entrepreneurs, include educational establishments and feature just about anything that is innovative and imaginative, whilst concomitantly delivering a dynamic trade event (similar to, yet broader than “Let’s do Business”) aimed at promoting local business to a much wider audience through actively courting visitors and businesses outside of the immediate area.


The business brand message for Hastings
To accompany this “Business Fair” and to reinforce Hastings and St. Leonards’ potential as dynamic business arenas we proposed a trade show with a difference – an exhibition that “unified” individual local companies under the brand of a thriving and progressive business community. To succeed in this objective the “trade show/exhibition” would need to remove any disparate, parochial message that many formulaic trade shows present by default and raise the proposition to a higher level. Whilst this concept was indeed designed to present specific industry messages tailored to individual local exhibitors, more importantly, it was designed as a dynamic brand message for Hastings promoting the town as a valuable service resource for potential enterprises looking to expand their service base or even relocate their businesses.

We were proposing the development of a synergistic brand for Hastings & St. Leonards as a business opportunity.

The Synergistic Effect
It is not uncommon for the effect of two chemicals on an organism to be greater than the effect of each chemical individually, or the sum of the individual effects. The presence of one chemical enhances the effects of the second. This is called a synergistic effect or synergy, and the chemicals are sometimes described as showing synergism. [Oxford University]

(2008) A lot has happened since 2001
There has been significant progress in Hastings & St. Leonards since 2001 – huge investment in the local infrastructure, an Innovation Centre, Media Centre, University Centre, eBiz Centre, the Marina Pavilion which is now almost complete and a further huge investment in the Foster & Partners Pelham Place proposal that could someday see an architectural masterpiece sitting next to St. Mary in the Castle.

We also have the “Let’s do Business” networking opportunity which was introduced by 1066 Enterprise in 2003. Aldi, Asda and the Blue Reef Aquarium are investing in our towns and there is a plethora of new developments proposed by Sea Space.

These are all positive steps towards successful regeneration and a bright future — yet it would appear that what we still do not have is “the product / the big idea” designed to attract interest and significant “foot-fall” from outside of our immediate area — and as with any organisation seeking growth, new customers and new blood is what is needed to make that growth sustainable. | Top |