Opportunity knocks
WALKING around central London this week sent a tingle down my spine as everywhere I turned I saw the name ‘Guernsey’ leaping out of hoardings, on the side of buses and on posters in the tube stations. When people chatted to me and found out that I was from Guernsey, they immediately mentioned the film or said they have read the book. They were keen to learn more about the island. What a great publicity vehicle for Guernsey – and it’s an opportunity we must capitalise on. We all need to sell, sell, sell. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie has provided a wave of publicity and interest in the island and we need to surf that wave.
The whole Guernsey sales and marketing effort needs to get straight into overdrive and additional funding should be provided immediately if backed up by an appropriate business plan.
Deputy Lyndon Trott (ever the salesman) recognises this and he was right to recently highlight the importance of a well-funded Locate Guernsey, VisitGuernsey and We are Guernsey. Deputy Laurie Queripel and others who doubt this clearly do not understand the vital importance of sales and marketing and how hard Guernsey has to fight on the international stage to maintain and grow its trade and influence.
The private sector is already there – Luke Wheadon was quick to recognise the opportunity of signing up as the official gin partner for the release of the film. Guernsey Woollens made mini guernseys as a bottle wrapper – pure genius. It also proves we are not just about finance and that all of our indigenous industries, large and small, can benefit from this unique opportunity.
We can all play our part in selling Guernsey. Despite JD Wetherspoon’s doubts about social media, it is and can be a force for good and a fantastic marketing and promotional tool.
We should all post one great picture a day on Facebook or Twitter and retweet positive messages about Guernsey and post videos on YouTube. This is a modern and cost-effective way to promote our island and collectively we could reach millions of people around the world.
What many people do not realise is how much a traditional advertising campaign can cost. A million pounds buys you virtually nothing in London, let alone nationally or internationally. One-off adverts are not effective. To get your message across, you need a campaign of multiple adverts across several media platforms over a decent period of time. A mass social media campaign on several platforms would be worth millions in publicity to the island.
The country of Iceland did exactly this back in 2010. Parliament, schools, shops and ordinary citizens and friends of Iceland abroad focused on sharing a story that was positive about Iceland. Within 10 weeks there were nearly 22 million positive stories about Iceland and they were topping Google searches. The next year saw a 16.6 per cent increase in tourism, the following year a 20 per cent increase and this trend continued.
I have personal experience of this working, a couple of years back, as a result of my wife posting a photo of our dog, Max, enjoying one of our gorgeous beaches on a golden retrievers owners’ Facebook group. She had loads of interest in the island and two families actually visited last year.
On the other hand, we could do without some locals whose only purpose in life seems to be to put our beautiful island down and criticise it, many hiding behind a pseudonym or ‘address withheld’. These are the Grumpy Guerns who need to turn their energies into being positive. It’s rather like the L’Ancresse ‘Lone’ Rangers. Why on earth spray doggy doos blue and highlight it when it takes the same amount of energy to just pick it up and put it in the bin?
Guernsey is special, very special, and we have a great story to tell as a marvellous place to work, live and visit. We need to capture that positive enthusiasm that swept Iceland and all of us should promote the island home that we love. In tandem with this, we should encourage and fund our politicians and business leaders to take the message in person abroad – in a digital age, we must remember that personal relationships still matter and help to build the trust and confidence for trade and investment.
When I worked with the ‘We are Guernsey’ team in China and Hong Kong, we came up with an elevator pitch for what Guernsey can offer our trading partners and investors. We came up with three words – security, stability and quality. It is easy to build conversations and stories around these key words.
Security: The low crime rate is something we take for granted, together with an excellent police force and legal system. It’s a very safe environment to bring up a family.
Stability: Our unique constitutional position and the fact that our original Royal Charter predates the Magna Carta by 10 years. Although sometimes the States’ decisions can be slow in coming, our consensus government stops wild swings from the left to right or vice versa.
Quality: Not only the beautiful environment, but also the quality of a well-educated and skilled workforce. The quality of our finance and tourism sectors and other local industries.
By riding this current wave of publicity, we have a fantastic opportunity for Guernsey to be known as something other than a ‘tax haven’. Of course, we all know that we are definitely not a tax haven, but years of this myth being repeated has made it stick in many quarters.
Guernsey is a well-regulated modern democracy with much to offer locals, business and tourists – this is the message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops very loudly.
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set to be a hit and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the island, yet that opportunity is limited in time. What we need now is Economic Development to show some real leadership and initiative in taking this forward and quickly. This time they really do need to be both nimble and creative. It is not just about getting some extra funding for the established promotional agencies, it requires a plan to get the whole of the Guernsey public and all industries engaged in promoting the island.
In the meantime, please get tweeting and posting – I’m sure we all have a positive story to tell, let’s tell it.
