The launch of a long-term place marketing and major events strategy to promote Wollongong under a unified brand has attracted strong support from the State Government and key regional stakeholders.  

Wollongong City Council’s progressive “Brand Wollongong” program has received $100,000 in seed funding from the NSW Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services.

A consortium of leading Council, government, business and industry body representatives has started work to begin a collaborative strategy that aims to get Wollongong noticed and attract people to the region.

This will result in the launch of a number of integrated initiatives over the next 12 months across the business, tourism and community sectors, with immediate goals being:
• a revitalised city centre marketing campaign
• an integrated events strategy
• a collaborative marketing program

Council’s Acting General Manager Andrew Carfield said the wide-reaching program had the full support of many key groups across various sectors.

“This is a long-term strategy that aims to promote awareness and enhance the perception of Wollongong, both locally and from outside the region,” Mr Carfield said.

“The level of support we’ve received, both by way of initial funding from the Minister for the Illawarra, Greg Pearce, along with the enthusiasm and expertise provided by key regional stakeholders, augers well for a unified approach that will achieve real market traction.”

The announcement of Brand Wollongong follows the launch on 24 June of a number of proposed tourism-based business tools to assist local businesses in promoting the region in conjunction with a pending destination campaign. The proposed tools include a brand usage and image library; online calendar of events, workshops and social media platforms.

The Brand Wollongong program also seeks to attract or develop a number of key events that provide significant economic impact and/or regional exposure, with a series of initial announcements planned over coming weeks.

What is it?

Brand Wollongong is a collaborative place marketing program initiated and part-funded by Wollongong City Council, with support from the State Government.

The objective of Brand Wollongong is to promote awareness of Wollongong and its surrounds by choosing a distinguishing position through a unified brand. This is to be achieved by developing a collaborative marketing program, integrated events strategy and city centre marketing and events campaign.

Who is involved?

The Brand Wollongong Steering Committee is completing the research, planning and strategy stages over an initial 12-month period. It includes senior representatives from:
Wollongong City Council; NSW Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services; Tourism Wollongong; Illawarra Business Chamber; University of Wollongong; Regional Development Australia – Illawarra; Wollongong City Centre Limited; Illawarra Mercury; Port Kembla Port Corporation; KPMG and Property Council of Australia.

What will Brand Wollongong deliver?

Brand Wollongong will
• Create a key image, message and theme as a core component of a collaborative marketing campaign
• Develop an integrated events strategy, including an online calendar, attraction of signature events, tiered structure for assessment, and streamlined application process 
• Create a revitalised City Centre marketing campaign
• Develop ancillary business tools to help local businesses and complement the over-arching campaign  

For more information you can visit Wollongong City Council’s website at www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au or call the Customer Service Centre on (02) 4227 7111.