What does it take to give away £3,000? A lot more that you’d thinkâ¦
The Liverpool BID Company has launched an attention grabbing stunt to promote Superfast Broadband Connection Vouchers, which offer SMEs a grant of up to £3,000 to improve their access to ultra-fast broadband.
In order to further promote the offer, bundles of £20 notes were left across Liverpool city centre today (Wednesday, June 24) with a message saying: Would you walk past £3,000?
Scattered in strategically important locations across the Commercial District of the city, including Exchange Flags, St Paul’s Square and The Cotton Exchange, the £3,000 bundles of cash were left for the city’s workforce and business owners to stumble upon.
However, the notes were in fact imitation and on the back provide more information for businesses about how they can claim their Superfast Broadband Voucher.
WATCH THE VIDEO OF PEOPLE FINDING THE MONEY
The stunt is part of an awareness raising exercise for businesses across the region that are yet to take advantage of the government offer. Just over 100 have in the city centre but many more have not taken up the offer.
The campaign, which has been devised by Liverpool marketing firm PH Creative, will also include the social media prompt #GetSuperfast to help promote the offer and start conversations among smaller business about the game-changing effects that access to superfast broadband have for growing companies.
The vouchers, which are available in 50 cities across the UK, are aimed at helping small to medium sized businesses upgrade their physical broadband connection, giving them access to superfast internet connections and assisting in their growth.
The Government backed scheme, which received £40million of funding, makes £3,000 grants available to SMEs across the country as part of their efforts to improve broadband infrastructure for businesses.
Bill Addy, Chief Executive of Liverpool BID Company, which represents more than 1,400 businesses in the city centre, said: ”We want SMEs in Liverpool to take full advantage of this scheme as superfast broadband can make a real difference to their performance and ultimately their turnover and profit.
”100 businesses is a good start but we can easily double that. If a company is eligible and is not looking into this offer, then they are basically walking away from £3,000 – and that make no business sense.
”The idea to film people’s reaction to bundles of cash just waiting for them to pick up is clever as we can all relate to that scenario. At the same time it raises the very serious question to Liverpool’s business community: Would you ignore £3,000?”
To be eligible for the vouchers businesses:
• Must be an SME, charity or social enterprise.
• Must agree to a contract with their supplier of a minimum of 6 months and must select a service that is capable of achieving 30Mbps or higher or a doubling of existing speeds.
For more information on the scheme, businesses can go to www.liverpoolbidcompany.com/superfastbroadband
An eligibility checker is available at: www.connectionvouchers.co.uk/liverpool
