West Midland Brand Family

Key public and private sector partners have come together to ensure the region makes its mark with the new branding. This was first used by the West Midlands Combined Authority at MIPIM in March 2018, when it unveiled its £10 billion investment prospectus. Organisations across the region are now being encouraged to adopt the branding within their own activities, to help grow the area’s reputation further.

Neil Rami, West Midlands Growth Company Chief Executive, commented: 

“Working with our partners, we can boost the region’s economic growth by sharing the messages about what this area stands for, its strengths and its future. Bringing together that narrative has been a central part of the West Midlands Brand Family project – which has now progressed from development to delivery. I hope you’ll join us in telling our region’s story widely.” 

The project has been through several rounds of research with local businesses and those involved in economic promotion. It looks to tell the West Midlands story by focusing on four pillars:

• Heritage – a history of creativity, innovation, design and making
• People – a region full of youth diversity and opportunity
• Place – located at the heart of the nation
• Spirit – a region of doers and achievers, where deeds mean more than words

There are also guidelines on how to visually portray the region with images and several place marks are available to be used.

New West Midlands invest and tourism portals

Bringing the brand to life are the new invest and tourism portals that are hosted on the West Midlands Growth Company’s website. These provide an overview of the regional offer, before linking out to the local sites for more details. 

Neil Rami added:

“The new invest and tourism portals will support our work to attract jobs, businesses, investment and visitors to help accomplish the objectives set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Strategic Economic Plan. This provides a focal point for targeted promotion of the region, and complements existing local information. 

“The impact of working together to help the region make its mark nationally and internationally has been demonstrated by its recent success in attracting Foreign Direct Investment and overseas inbound passengers. The West Midlands has bucked national trends as the only UK area to see an increase in both foreign investment projects and foreign investment employment. In addition, overseas inbound passenger numbers to Birmingham Airport, the gateway to the region, are up 14% - with the increase linked to our key markets.”

Find out more

To find out more about the branding work please visit the toolkit, where you’ll also find a selection of images, publications and key facts to help promote the region. You can view the invest and tourism portals on wmgrowth.com/invest or wmgrowth.com/tourism.