A major drive to thrust Birmingham and the West Midlands into the marketplace is set to be launched.

Advantage West Midlands and Marketing Birmingham have lined up a series of separate initiatives aimed at bringing in millions of pounds.

They come as a new campaign - reported on page five in today's edition of The Birmingham Post - ensures that powerful commercial and business leaders, operating with Advantage West Midlands, will act as regional ambassadors across the world.

A spokesman for Advantage West Midlands (AWM) said the organisation had ploughed £900,000 into a new advertising campaign which will target quality national print titles.

There will also be a direct mail campaign to 200,000 contacts.

The regional campaign comes as Marketing Birmingham gets set to spearhead its own drive to boost the city.

An AWM spokesman said its aim was "to highlight the cultural diversity, academic excellence, skilled workforce and vibrant environment we can provide to businesses".

Director of communications and corporate support Sara Moseley said the campaign was an opportunity to "prove the critics wrong and demonstrate that far from suffering, the West Midlands is flourishing."

The campaign will run in a range of broadsheets including The Times, The Guardian and Independent over the summer and again in September It will also run in business magazines targeting titles such as Management Today, The Economist, Accountancy Age and The Lawyer.

Using the strap-line "at the heart of it all" the series of three ads has been designed to raise awareness of the West Midlands as a great place to do business.

The direct mail campaign will build on this theme and will run in three waves starting in September and culminating in

a full brochure in early 2006.

Marketing Birmingham is set to launch its own drive to boost the city. Chief executive Neil Rami said the agency - which has a budget this year of £3.4 million - was set to launch a major lifestyle campaign in the autumn to highlight the city as a culinary capital in the UK.

It is also set to fire off 250,000 booklets at hotels, airports libraries and public points to welcome visitors to the city.

Marketing Birmingham was

not in a position to reveal the costs. The guide, Birmingham Welcomes You, offers an insight into the highlights of the city, including a top-ten attractions list and bite-sized information on getting into and around the city by air, rail, bus and car.

It also gives advice on Birmingham by night, eating out, shopping and what to see for free.

Former Birmingham lawyer Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, is chairman of the new regional Ambassadors scheme - and a keen supporter of initiatives to promote the city.

He told The Birmingham Post: "These things tend to go in stages, you make tremendous progress and then it tends to plateau off.

"For example, between about 1989 and 1995 major developments in Birmingham were at the forefront and then things tended to level off.

"You find other cities have there turn. I think we now have to gather around again and push again and make sure that the middle of this decade belongs to Birmingham."

Mr Rami agreed and said that, to some extent, people still came to Birmingham and see the city on foot and only then realised what a huge amount it has to offer.

He said: "We are Europe's youngest city, with more people aged under 15 than an other city in Europe.

"We are cosmopolitan city, we have great creativity. We are a centre for meetings that is second to none."

His organisation's challenges included developing hugely successful lifestyle campaigns, to promote Birmingham's cultural offering, both new and traditional, and to make the most of the city's status as an unbeatable centre for meetings.

He aimed to focus on gaining TV coverage of our major events - and push to make sure people dip in their pockets while they are here.

Mr Rami said: " We have a range of initiatives in the pipeline, we're going to the coalface of what we do and we have every confidence of success."