We were pleased to attend Ipswich Borough Council’s new ‘Ipswich Place Brand Strategy’ unveiling at the University of Suffolk yesterday [9th September 2026].
Aimed at redefining the vision and changing the narrative around our historic town, we were introduced to the new ‘The home of opportunity’ brand strategy by Shaun Bailey, of place / destination marketing specialists, Jacob Bailey Group.
The ‘word cloud’ highlighted what many of us already know about our fantastic town: that we have passion, are warm, welcoming, exciting, ambitious, with an enviable heritage and vibrant cultural background.
Expertly facilitated by Shaun Bailey, the panel of Amy Vaughan, Bid Director for Ipswich's ‘UK City of Culture 2029’ campaign, Bryony Hope of DanceEast, Chris Brown of Halo, Rachel Allen of University of Suffolk and Richard Brame of WTW discussed how we all need to collaborate to help to build the town of the future that we all desire: attracting and retaining talent; creating a destination that people want to visit; where people want to live, work, thrive and stay.
There is now an ever-clearer appetite to work together to regenerate our town, and this new brand strategy is a first major step on that journey, offering huge potential and opportunities, both economically and culturally.
Steve Flory, Chair of Ipswich Central, summed it up excellently with Rocky Balboa’s famous quotation about resilience and determination: “It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
We will be keeping a keen eye on how the brand strategy evolves and exploring how we can play our part in helping to change and reshape the narrative.