Creative firms feeling the benefit of MIPIM links

Mar 13 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE creative firms have been winning business at French Riviera property festival MIPIM.

The Riviera event is the world's biggest property festival, and every year Liverpool has a stand at the event as it bids to attract investment from around the globe.

The focus may be on property, but the supporters of Liverpool's delegation include several creative firms – and they say that by networking at MIPIM they are winning business that could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Liverpool design agency Uniform said it had secured £500,000 worth of business thanks to its five years at MIPIM.

Uniform designed Liverpool's stand at MIPIM, which sits in a prominent location at an entrance to the Palais de Festivals overlooking Cannes' waterfront.

Managing director Nick Howe said: “It's a great opportunity for us, even if we weren't designing the stand, to meet clients from across the globe.

“You need to be in MIPIM for the long term if you want to get something out of it. The more years you keep coming back, the more it will snowball.”

Dougal Paver, managing director of Liverpool PR and marketing firm Paver Smith, said his firm had already secured two contracts and six more appointments with potential clients on his return to the UK.

He said: “What's different this year – and it's a function of Liverpool's growth – is that people are now coming to the Liverpool stand looking to do business with companies from Liverpool.

“It's the most expensive bit of marketing we do, but it's the best marketing opportunity there is.

“I would cancel my clients' shooting tours, golfing tours and pub crawls just to do MIPIM.”

Michelle Helsby, who runs computer-generated imagery firm Evolve with her husband Stephen, said: “We've really consolidated relationships with existing clients. The access to prospective clients here is invaluable – the decision-makers are here.

“We know we've got work to go back to. There's at least six prospective jobs.”

Rebecca Dewhurst, account manager at marketing agency Clarity Creation, said she hoped her business would generate new leads from MIPIM.

She said: “It's a chance to get to know people from Liverpool. We have clients here like Downing and LiverpoolVision, and we did the Liverpool MIPIM website.

“We've had some definite leads and I'm going to follow them up when I get back to the UK. It's been great for building relationships with people.”

alistairhoughton