Background
Basel is situated at the heart of the continent with excellent transport links and infrastructure to support growth and business. A vibrant culture scene and a high standard of living make Basel one of the foremost life science locations. Whatever you know about Basel, there is more to discover.
The brief
Basel is a rich, vibrant city and home to two of the world's biotech giants – Roche and Novartis. Despite this, Basel Area Business & Innovation wishes to expand its economic base still further and be considered as a strong option for businesses looking to expand or relocate. Basel Area needed to establish a strong proposition to stand out from other Swiss cities such as Zurich, Geneva and Lausanne.
As a city and region, Basel Area also had relatively low awareness, compared to some of its peers, and knowledge of the benefits that the region could offer was low.
It was UP’s job to show that Basel Area had more to offer, and to start to put it firmly on the map.
The solution
In the summer of 2018, we began to examine existing research to understand how Basel was perceived, especially compared to other Swiss cities. Then, to really understand what Basel Area had to offer, we immersed ourselves in Basel with a concentrated 24 hour deep-dive discovery session.
We had back-to-back meetings with stakeholders and businesses around the region and we roamed the city to really experience all that it has to offer. Concentrating our deep-dive helped us to understand and distill the essence of the region which was that no matter how far we went or how many people we talked to, in Basel, there was always more to discover.
The project was set to have a complex digital component so in the summer of 2019 we enlisted the help of our digital specialists UP for Digital. They met with the Basel Area team to understand their digital needs and took them from sitemap to wire framing through to website mockups. Three new sites were created with distinct focuses.
