1284 founder George Oliver had co-founded the Leicestershire Innovation Awards in 2019 while serving as Editor of the Leicester Mercury. Its purpose was to celebrate place-based R&D excellence.
Three years later, 1284 was commissioned by the LLEP to provide comms for Leicestershire Innovation Festival. From there, George was co-opted to provide comms to the LLEP Innovation Board as it prepared to publish its strategy.
The outcome was the Innovative Leicestershire brand - developed by 1284 as a means of pulling together the disparate partners and pillars of the strategy. It became a comprehensive brand identity enabling the ecosystem to speak with authority and consistency across the strategy, festival, and awards.
1284 created brand guidelines, tone of voice frameworks, and a central website. It positioned the brand across diverse stakeholders from social entrepreneurs to some of the UK's leading universities.
The communications strategy supported rapid growth of the place brand: the Innovation Festival expanded from three events in 2018 to 22 in four years later. Some attracted Ministers and other guests.
In 2024, the festival topped 1,000 attendees for the first time, while award nominations grew to 100+ entries each year. In 2023, the CEO of Innovate UK provided the keynote at the opening ceremony. The following year, it was the Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses.
In 2023, 1284 was awarded the CIPR's Mark of Excellence for its work on East Midlands small business innovation.
The project went full circle in 2025 as George was offered a place on the emerging Leicestershire Innovation Advisory Group - the replacement body for the original LLEP Innovation Board.
Pictures by Will Johnston for Innovative Leicestershire.
