Produced by Tower Hamlets Council and endorsed by Visit London, The Essential Venue Guide for London Eastside, now in its 6th year, helps individuals and companies find that perfect space for any occasion in the East End of London.

Detailing over 50 venues, it ranges from restaurants and purpose-built conference centres, to the hippest bars, galleries and cinemas as well as London's only lighthouse and the world's oldest music hall.

In order to monitor the effectiveness of each entry within the guide, Tower Hamlets uses Pocket London's tracking system, Media Intelligence, which has proven an invaluable asset in planning the marketing strategy for the publication.

By assigning a individual 0870 number to replace the venues actual telephone and fax numbers and allocating a specific Venue Guide URL instead of the actual venue web site, the Council can give each venue and supplier a monthly break down of enquiries generated by the guide, thus keeping them up to date on their entry's performance.

•  Page from Venue Guide showing allocated 0870 and URL for monitoring purposes

•  Example of monthly reports sent to venues

 

Pat Holmes, head of the Council's regeneration team, believes that Media Intelligence is an indispensable tool.   "The most difficult hurdle in marketing is being able to quantify the response an advert receives, and yet establishing an adverts success is vital for the growth of any company or project.   Media Intelligence solves this frustrating and all-too-well-known Catch-22 situation."

•  Testimonial from venue about the effectiveness of the monitoring system

 

By monitoring call volumes, the Council can also review its activity and identify which distribution methods are creating the most impact on call volumes and enquiries. For example, October saw the highest volume of enquiries, which resulted from September's many activities including the BTA workshop, Business Tourism Workshop and the National Venue Show.   March also showed an increase in enquiries following attendance at the International Confex trade show.

Through Media Intelligence, Tower Hamlets continuously monitors the response to its Venue Guide, ensuring that its marketing efforts are achieving the most for its clients' businesses and helping the publication become Highly Commended in the Business Tourism category at the London Tourism Awards 2003.

•  To download a copy of the venue guide, click here