Letters / Throwing away a unique asset
It is said that we often totally underestimate the value of what is closest to us and then miss it, when it has gone (Trust loses Promote Shetland contract; SN, 07/06/2017).
There is a clear and present danger that after eight years of council investment and just as other locations around Scotland start to think about how to best promote themselves in our digital age, our council decides to throw away the unique asset and service that is Promote Shetland – a service that is literally a decade ahead of its nearest competition.
Make no mistake. Promote Shetland is a very special innovative service and in a short few weeks it could be lost if the powers of common sense don’t prevail.
Promote Shetland has been at the forefront of place promotion and marketing. It has made full use of digital broadcast (live and recorded) to showcase the people of Shetland, their stories, land, sea and culture.
While others across the UK were still playing with leaflets and outdated websites, Promote Shetland commissioned great writing, radio, images, film and originated the best in place design.
It has broadcasted to the world through 60 North TV and syndicated Shetland images and content to hundreds of thousands of people through all the main TV channels.
What has been achieved is truly amazing and Shetland has the right to feel really proud of the innovative positive way it has been represented to the world.
This was not done by chance or by accident, it was done by a rare team of dedicated creative people who had the vision to do something different and in doing so they have set a new standard that should be recognised, valued and nurtured.
Let us celebrate and build on what we have, rather than risk regretting something needlessly and expensively lost.
Gwilym Gibbons
Whiteness
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