Campaign aims to turbocharge the Midlands Engine bid

The Midlands Engine, which covers the West Midlands conurbation, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, is seeking more involvement from firms across the region.

A key part of the campaign is creating a Team Midlands philosophy to drive growth in the region.

The key message of the ad campaign that accompanies this is 'Harness the power of the Midlands' with firms urged to sign up at midlandsengine.org

Among the businesses who will be featured in the marketing campaign are luxury car maker Jaguar land Rover, which has its engine manufacturing centre at the i54 north of Wolverhampton and Gymshark, which has its headquarters at Solihull.

A Midlands Engine team ‘trailer’ filmed for the campaign will be previewed at MIPIM, Europe’s largest exhibition and conference for property professionals, running from March 12 to 15 at Cannes in France.

A delegation from the Midlands will be promoting more than £11 billion of investment opportunities in the region.

More than 40 events for the Midlands will be held during the MIPIM exhibition and conference and Sir John Peace, chairman of the Midlands Engine, will be joined by a range of senior keynote speakers who will be addressing the global investment community.

There will be a Midlands UK Pavilion at the real estate event. Representatives from JLR and Birmingham Airport will also be attending.

Through the Team Midlands programme businesses and organisations will be encouraged to join and be a part of the Midlands Engine.

The coalition of councils, local enterprise partnerships, universities and businesses across the region, which was launched in 2016, is actively working with Government to attract fresh investment into the region from the UK and overseas.

The region is home to more than 10 million people and 800,000 large and small businesses.

The Midands Engine's Vision for Growth sets out our five priority areas to help the Midlands drives the UK economy including maximising new technologies to deliver a radical transformation of the Midlands transport network tackling the mismatch between business skills needs and the skill levels of Midlands residents, growing international trade and investment, increasing Innovation and enterprise and promoting the Midlands as a great place to live, visit, learn and work.

Mark Stansfeld, Chair of the Midlands Engine digital connectivity board, comments: "The Midlands Engine is at the heart of UK industry and has the power to drive forward Industry 4.0, with the UK economy reaping the benefits. The Worcestershire 5G Testbed, which sits within the Midlands Engine, is a critical blueprint for UK infrastructure. The Testbed has just switched on the UK's first smart factories, using 5G, and this will lead to productivity improvement and increased investment in the UK at a time when it is most needed."