Gloucestershire towns make big impact in The UK Digital Influence Index

Cheltenham and Gloucester have made it into the top 20 of The UK Digital Influence Index, a database measuring a location’s online presence in a bid to increase its footfall.

Along with Stroud, which also saw its index ranking rise, the three Gloucestershire locations were part of the pilot #WDYT campaign between July 2016 and February 2017 aimed at increasing high street retailers’ digital activity in a bid to attract consumers.  

The campaign works by asking retailers to share a photo each day across their social media channels, using #[Town] and #WDYT, to increase their digital influence and engage with consumers who are encouraged to also join in the conversation.

‘Digital influence’ is any town or city’s ability to be found by consumers looking online and encourage them to come into their high street or business instead of going somewhere else.

It is calculated by measuring the digital output of a town or city based on each retailer's activity across their social media channels.

Since the launch of the pilot campaign, Cheltenham has now broken into the index’s top 10, rising from 22 to eight, topping cities like Birmingham and Leeds, while Gloucester is at number 12, up from 50, ahead of Belfast, Cardiff and Reading. Stroud meanwhile has jumped from 268 to 120.

Cheltenham BID Director Kevan Blackadder said: “#WDYT has given me a different way of engaging with businesses. It’s given the town a more joined up feel. It’s about closing the gap between shopping online and shopping on the high street.”

Jason Smith, Chief Executive of Marketing Gloucester, said: “This campaign is a catalyst to enabling collaboration in our city. It demonstrates how you can use social media and digital channels to drive high street footfall. And is proving to be an essential part of the jigsaw in the development of Gloucester as a pathfinder for digital high street and smart city solutions”

The index measures the digital influence of over 1300 towns and cities across the UK. The data is being linked with local footfall devices to reveal the impact of digital influence on local footfall.

Eastgate Street in Gloucester has a group of independent tenants with a strong Digital Influence ranking and reported a 26% increase in footfall on Mother’s Day 2017, compared to the week before, following a flurry of digital activity promoting their products.

Gloucester is now adding another 50 footfall devices to enable the city to carefully and comparatively measure the impact of digital activity. This information will then be shared to inform wider trends on the UK’s high streets.

Polly Barnfield OBE, CEO and Founder of Maybe* which is delivering the #WDYT campaign, said: “With the increasing culture of online shopping, reviews and research, retail is now a 24/7 experience. The use of digital channels influences 78% of purchase decisions.  Embracing these channels can reap significant benefits for both individual retailers and their combined towns and cities.

“The pilot campaign was a huge success, engaging with over 200 retailers and over 50,000 consumers all using #WDYT - we are here to help all retailers across the UK drive local footfall through digital channels.”  

Given the success of the pilot scheme, the campaign has now been rolled out into another four towns including Winchcombe and, most recently, Tewkesbury. Since February 2017, Winchcombe has seen its Digital Influence ranking rise from 804 to 430.

A further 15 towns and cities are already in discussions to go live, prior to a nationwide roll-out later this year.

A copy of The UK Digital Influence Index is available for all 1300 UK towns. To see where your Town or City ranks and for more information about the #WDYT campaign, see www.wdyt.org.uk