Marketing Sheffield is harnessing the togetherness and community spirit that Sheffield has shown throughout the COVID-19 crisis to help drive the city’s economic recovery. We want to see our members front and centre of the new campaign, ‘Make yourself at home’ – a platform for businesses to show how they are working hard to get Sheffield back up and running. This is an opportunity to gain some great visibility by sharing the ways you are supporting clients to reopen safely or to stay connected at home, and how you are getting back open for business.

Make yourself at home

This campaign has both short and long term goals. Initially the focus is about promoting the ways that local businesses are safely reopening, encouraging residents to buy local and support the economic recovery. Longer term, it’s about building on stories of innovation and creativity and the strength of our communities, to encourage more people to make themselves at home in Sheffield, whether it be through tourism, investment or talent attraction.

Why is this a tech sector thing?

The essence of Make yourself at home is about gradually moving forward whilst remembering the safety and comfort of home that we’ve come to rely on – whether it’s finding that safety whilst out, or having the best of ‘out’ at home.

Throughout the crisis, members of the tech community have been playing their part. They’ve made desperately needed protective face shields and automatic hand sanitisers linked to door locking systems; they’ve developed live music streaming services, free educational materials and local food delivery apps; and they’ve helped to mobilise thousands of volunteers to vital community-based roles.

So when it comes to staying connected at home, or staying safe whilst out – Sheffield’s tech sector is at the forefront of making this happen.

Through the campaign, we’d like to see:

• our members become better recognised in the wider business community, and in local communities;
• the city feel a sense of pride in the incredible tech companies that we have and the innovations that helped Sheffield to respond and recover;
• Sheffield’s digital industries to be a bigger part of the city’s brand, performing an important role in attracting more people to make themselves at home here.

How can you use this campaign?

We’d love to see you talking about the ways that you are supporting other businesses and communities in the recovery effort. We also want to hear about your own plans to safely reopen your workspace. How will you make your team feel at home? Are you asking staff to return? Are you enabling them to stay connected at home? Or has lockdown shown you that a more flexible, hybrid approach is both possible and more productive? Are you inviting clients back into Sheffield and into your office? How are you showing that Sheffield is back open for business?

What we really like about this initiative is that it is flexible and far reaching; there aren’t lots of rules around how and when you can use the campaign and the overarching messaging is broad, so you can make it work for you. Plus, there are lots of very attractive assets including social media images, banners, logos and a campaign guide, all free to download here.

You can share your stories on social media tagging in @visitsheffield and using #SheffieldMakes (tag us in too so we can share your stories) and you can submit content to the Make yourself at home online hub. We’ll be running dedicated content as part of this campaign so keep an eye out on social media and your inbox for requests for contributions, plus we’ll include a Make yourself at home feature in our fortnightly newsletter. To share stories with us, email claire@sheffield.digital.

Visit the campaign hub for more details.