Hull
2001
To be a grim city no more
By the 90s, in spite of the city’s enormous efforts to regenerate its economy, Hull’s image was falling into obscurity. Hull needed to clearly differentiate itself from rival cities. Cityimage, a public – private sector partnership, was set up to oversee this transformation. Wolff Olins was approached to help Hull with a unique task – we would be the first consultancy to ever brand a city.
Making Hull 'pioneering'
Working closely with Cityimage, Wolff Olins began by identifying Hull’s reasons for needing a brand. Hull had lots of good things to offer, but not enough people knew about them. A brand would provide that focus, enabling the city to play to its strengths and in so doing build a better Hull. After creative consideration of our research about the city, we eventually pinpointed Hull’s promise was ‘to be pioneering’. We identified the five values by which Hull pioneers as: challenging, discovering, creating, innovating and leading. These values could underpin everything anyone does in the city. With these five values in place we were then able to define what the city’s goal should be: Hull wants to be Top Ten.
£1.5 billion of investment
Hull continues to be a city on the up. Since 2002, Hull CityBuild, now called Hull Forward, has helped with the establishment and adoption of the City Centre Masterplan, a framework for the city's physical regeneration, which has secured £1.5 billion of investment. Hull is witnessing many projects that are making the brand a reality including; shopping centres, office developments and hotels. Businesses in the city deliver an annual turnover of £8 billion. Hull attracts over 5 million annual visitors who contribute over £210 million to its economy.
