‘We are a proud coastal resort but we need to change the narrative’ – committee is told

A presentation from Arun District Council’s marketing partner Vinco Marketing outlined what could be done to improve the town’s image and drive the economy.

Victoria Hilditch, managing director of Vinco, said the target was to ‘change the narrative’.

“We have worked with BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) and we have experience with town centre management,” she said.

“We set up Love Bognor Regis as our own passion project. The town needed its own modern brand. Because we have got all the skills in house, I knew that we could do it. What is a place brand? What do people think when they hear ‘Bognor Regis’?

"We are a proud coastal resort, youthful, vibrant, skilled. We feel that Bognor is quite different to any other town and we are passionate here and we are proud of our town.”

“I do have my own personal opinions and I set up Love Bognor Regis to try and change the narrative. I spent time in London — I have seen some things.

“When I came back to Bognor I thought about how lucky I am.

“We live in such an amazing place and it took me until my late 20s to realise what an amazing and safe place this is — we need to create pride.

“We need to change the people’s ideas and perceptions of the town and stop dissing it, we need to change that.”

She suggested a number of ‘community developments’ which included handing out media packs and an image library to educate businesses on how to use social media.

It was also suggested that taxi drivers in the area should be encouraged to tell passengers what they can do in the area and discourage them from speaking negatively about areas.

Councillor David Edwards said the town has, for a number of years, been ‘slightly a figure of fun’.

He said people poked fun at the town with the whole ‘oh you’re off to Bognor kind of thing’ and that was fine as it was ‘traditional seaside larks’ and he didn’t have an issue with that.

“However, if you look on social media you will see some absolutely brutal criticisms,” he said.

“How do we think we are going to be able to change that perception?

“It’s not everybody because there quite a lot of people on there who are quite positive.

“I think that’s a major challenge.”

Victoria responded: “I agree. Everything we put out is positive — it’s about how you spin these things.

“Yes, Bognor is changing, but the whole of the country is changing.”

The chairman of Bognor Regis BID also said the group was working to ‘change the narrative’ and said: “I have a very big passion for this town and I hope as chairman we can deliver a number of new things.

“The only way we are going to get more people coming to the town is to be different.

“We need to take it to the next level, everything is now about Instagram.

“It’s about how it looks and how it feels.

“Shopping now needs to be an experience.”