Deb Oxley: The placebrand pioneer helping to shape a new story of the Humber
‘We’re not trying to be Leeds or Manchester – we know who we are’: Deb Oxley
By Phil Ascough
Humber Business Week was assured of at least one positive outcome months ago, such is the level of interest in the placebrand campaign being driven by Future Humber to explore ideas around how the world sees our region.
One certainty is that the initiative will continue, drawing on the input from businesses and institutions to shape and share a new story of the Humber, one compelling enough to help the region compete for talent, investment, visitors, and jobs.
Another certainty is that some day there will be something similar. We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again because things change. The place changes, the people change, the competition moves on and so must the Humber.
At one of the launch events for the current project back in February I found myself surveying the attendees in a packed conference suite at the DoubleTree and taking great encouragement from seeing hardly anybody I knew.
I didn’t want to see the same old faces from the Wolff Olins sessions of the late 1990s. It’s all about new ideas, new influences and new energy, and there was plenty of that from people who in those days weren’t living or working in our region, weren’t old enough to be in business or weren’t even born.
Future Humber was around then as the Bondholders, which marks its 30th anniversary this year. Deb Oxley was also around and has harnessed her skills and experience in marketing to become recognised internationally as something of a placebrand pioneer.
She’s also done a lot of other stuff including ten years at the Employee Ownership Organisation, with six as CEO, and more recent roles as chair of trustees at CatZero and one of the deputies to Jim Dick, Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding.
The roles are linked by Deb’s passion for Hull and Humber, her determination to strive to make it a better place and her recognition that the challenge is a programme rather than a project. Every success leads to new ideas and opportunities.
“It’s all about prosperity, economic and social prosperity,” she said.
“What we all want for this area is more jobs and better jobs. More opportunities and better opportunities for everybody. A better place to live and bring kids up. We can’t just sit back and expect that will happen of its own volition.”
‘It’s about economic and social prosperity’: Deb Oxley
Like so many influencers in our region Deb lives here because she wants to. She was born in Hull, went to Ainthorpe Primary School and then Sydney Smith. She regularly leaves the area for work and to visit her own children, now adults, who moved away, and she boomerangs back.
“I have been very lucky because I have had the opportunity to work in lots of other parts of the UK but I have always believed I would stay here,” she said.
“My children live in different parts of the UK and I go to lots of other places and I always come home. I like what we have here, the fact that it’s grounded and rooted and has a real sense of community.”
It’s that authenticity which is the key. We talk about what pulled me back to Hull after working in Bermuda for three years, It’s not so much Hull City and the Adelphi Club which lure you back, it’s the Hullness which underpins them.
“We are very authentic and grounded and we call a spade a spade,” said Deb.
PASSION: Deb Oxley, who has become recognised as a placebrand pioneer
“What you get here is genuine, straightforward authenticity and sincerity and in business and in social life people really respect that. It’s about being distinct. We are not trying to be Leeds or Sheffield or Manchester. We know who we are and we are very happy with that.”
In the 90s one factor which triggered the urge to review Hull’s profile was the demise of Humberside County Council. Hull City Council announced its ambitions to become a top ten city but there were fears that the plan would be hampered by the city’s poor image. Concern turned to bemusement when Wolff Olins reported that Hull didn’t have a good image or a bad image – it basically had no image.
Nearly 30 years on everything has changed. The Deep delivered the WOW! factor to our waterfront in 2002 and that’s been enhanced by an improved marina, state-of-the-art workspace at Humber Quays, C4DI and Arco, a riverside walkway and a global engineering business standing as a symbol of the city’s status in renewable energy.
Across the city centre we have St Stephen’s which, along with the new transport interchange next door, opened in 2007. On the other side of the shopping centre, the award-winning Hull Truck Theatre opened its new home in 2009 with facilities which played a big part in supporting the city’s cultural achievements.
Completion of the redevelopment of that section of Ferensway also put the city centre within walking distance of the MKM Stadium, opened in 2002 and bringing us Premier League football and some of the biggest names in global entertainment, with the Connexin Arena joining the party in 2018.
At the same time the grassroots cultural community has driven transformation by inspiring our own big events. Humber Street Sesh has its roots in the pubs of Princes Avenue. The Freedom Festival grew from the bicentenary of William Wilberforce in 2007. Larkin with Toads in 2010 was indigenous, ingenious, and an inspiration for the bid which brought us City of Culture in 2017.
With achievement comes ambition and expectation. We’re walking tall and asking what’s next? When we needed a bridge across Castle Street we demanded great design and got it with Murdoch’s Connection.
The game is bigger and Hull has risen to the challenge, ensuring that the links between city and region are so much stronger.
“When I started doing this it was very much a Hull story,” said Deb.
“We have been change makers and pioneers and trailblazers, but we also have a bigger story to tell as the Humber. There was a reframing of the Bondholder base extending across the Humber region rather than just Hull, and a recognition that the prosperity of the city was dependent on the economic prosperity of the Humber region and vice versa.
“We are recognised internationally as the place to come to look at decarbonisation because it’s all happening here. Who would have thought five years ago that the World Economic Forum would look at the Humber as the place to come for that?”
UNIFIED VOICE: The audience at a Future Humber event
The placebrand programme recognises that the region has sorted its own identity and is now ready to take its message to the world.
Deb said: “We already know as a region what we are about and we are quite good at speaking with one voice. That’s important when we speak externally about the region because if you unify the voice you have greater impact.
“If all the businesses are telling the same story and focusing on the same strengths it’s incredibly powerful when people hear that. If you transmit that sense of collaboration and a collective approach, people know it’s a good place to do business.
“If we could capture the pride that people have had at different moments in this region and you could bottle it that would be incredibly powerful. This is about releasing that pride.”
We’re back with authenticity. The story – and the brand – have to resonate with us and be authentic. We have to recognise it as the life we live, and we have to ask if it’s right for us.
“We are not unique in needing to work hard to make sure that we achieve proper recognition,” said Deb.
“People get very competitive about their place. Most places have their nice bits and their not so nice bits. What we are doing with this brand is trying to take control and ownership of what people think of that story.
“I have been around place developments and place shaping and place making for 30 years. I am proud of having been born here and having lived here all my life and that’s made me even more excited about this.”