Renewal ballot won, with the receipts to match.

The challenge

• A 380-strong levy base spread across hospitality, retail and independent traders, most of whom hadn't heard from the BID since the last AGM.
• Previous renewal ballot scraped through at 54%, with feedback citing 'invisible' communications and a lack of evidence of impact.
• The board wanted a weekly drumbeat of press coverage tied to specific levy-funded initiatives, ahead of the 2026 vote.
• No dedicated comms hire in budget, the BID manager was doing PR on Friday afternoons.

The approach

• Migrated all member intake into a single branded Newsroom inbox, with a one-page submission form sent monthly to every levy payer.
• Built a 64-contact regional and trade media list, segmented by retail, hospitality, place and council reporters.
• Templated three release formats (new opening, levy-funded scheme, sector milestone) so the BID manager could draft and approve in under ten minutes.
• Stood up a public-facing 'In the press' page pulling automatically from coverage tracking, used as proof in the renewal campaign.

The results

• Renewal ballot returned a 78% Yes vote, the strongest result in the BID's history.
• Press mentions grew 3.4× year-on-year, with 41% of coverage naming a specific levy payer.
• Board meeting prep dropped from a half-day spreadsheet exercise to a one-click dashboard export.
• Three new sponsor partners signed up after seeing themselves named in regional press in the same week.