Objective One Marketing Grants

The Objective One CMN Marketing Grant Project was Cornwall Marine Network’s first project funding application, submitted by the Board of Directors in 2005.

As a result of CMN winning a project worth £1,070,000 to provide professional marketing advice and mentoring to marine businesses, support them to write company marketing plans, offer additional support of 50% grants towards the costs of marketing approved within the company marketing plans, we were able to employ a staff team for the very first time.

The project had ambitious targets, and was expected to support 75 Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) businesses, create 100 new jobs, and increase the turnover of participating businesses by £15 Million over 3 years.

The project massively exceeded its targets. For the same funding allocation, 104 businesses were supported, 214 new jobs were created, and the benchmarked turnover of the participating businesses increased by £41.6 Million over 3 years, with a prediction this would increase to £98.8 Million within two more years.

This scale of achievement is without precedent, with just £535,000 funding giving a +195% return through increased turnover of £51 Million. The marine sector turnover at the end of 2008 was measured at £500 Million, nearly four times the scale originally identified before the project.

Critically, CMN started with a major win, which resulted in growth of our membership and an immediate excellent reputation with our supported members.