Collaborative working wins The Marketing Collective a place in Venus Award finals

As a finalist in next week’s Venus Awards, business woman Jo Cooper of The Marketing Collective would be a worthy winner in the ‘New Business Award’ category.The Marketing Collective celebrates its second birthday in August, and its success has developed on the basis of its ethos of working collaboratively with other businesses across Southampton and the wider Hampshire region. It now represents over 100 businesses which, through The Marketing Collective, work together to raise their profile in a way that working in isolation could never achieve.Two years ago, Jo Cooper identified a gap in the market to offer a marketing agency service to help predominantly small and medium sized businesses in the tourism, arts and hospitality industries, a sector which has been particularly affected by the downturn in the economy and public sector funding cuts. Jo said: “By working in partnership and marketing collectively, small businesses can adopt tactics which were previously thought to be the reserve of far larger companies”. Jo also adopts this collaborative policy with her own team, pulling in relevant expertise from freelancers and small businesses to deliver sharp campaigns.Consequently, The Marketing Collective now manages the marketing campaign to promote ‘Hampshire’s Top Attractions’, a consortium of over 30 key visitor attractions, to attract visitors from outside Hampshire into the county, and Southampton’s Oxford Street Traders Association to raise the profile of the street as a must-visit destination within Southampton. It also produces the Hamble Valley Visitor Guide, Southampton Pocket Guide, Southampton Guest Guide and Southampton Events Guide to attract visitors and ensure they get the most out of their visit.  This is backed by The Marketing Collective’s own distribution network across the region for the tourism and arts industries. Never one to rest on her laurels, Jo said: “The Marketing Collective is planning to expand its range of visitor publications across Hampshire, including Guest Guides for Portsmouth and Winchester and creating an arts and cultural partnership across Southampton to connect groups”.When asked about the significance of winning the Venus Award for New Business of the Year, Jo added: “This award would reinforce my belief that by working together, businesses and individuals can achieve so much more. The Marketing Collective is a young, innovative Company and these awards recognise the importance and value of entrepreneurship in business today.” www.themarketing-collective.comThe Southampton Venus Awards recognise, reward and inspire women in business in the Southampton area. Winners will be announced on Tuesday evening 22 May at The Grand Cafe. The New Business of the Year category for which the Marketing Collective is one of three finalists, is sponsored by Rothmans.-