How does place branding evolving during a pandemic? Mark Thomas, President of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance - and one of our jurors for the upcoming City Nation Place Awards - joined us to explain the thinking behind Pittsburgh's re-brand and how they're putting the focus on inclusive recovery. 

Austin has seen phenomenal growth in recent decades, but what does this mean for the future of the city’s place brand proposition? We reached out to Tom Noonan, President & CEO at Visit Austin, to understand how they’ve been managing the momentum of their growth and what they’ve done to support their local residents and businesses as they recover from COVID-19.

As we recover from COVID, there will be lessons from this that continue to affect and shape longer-term strategies going forwards. But what does this mean for the KPIs that we use to measure success? We reached out to Kelly Brough, President & CEO at Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, to understand how they’re evolving KPIs to match new success-criteria and what this means for the future of economic development.

We talk about the key ingredients for a successful place brand strategy, but what about the reverse? Here are the six roadblocks to watch out for if you’re launching or managing a place brand strategy…

There has been a monumental shift in the way that consumers engage with places. However, despite early commentators highlighting that this could be the end of the high street and the physical store, in fact the recovery has begun. What do places need to do to bring visitors back to their high streets?

As Charles Landry - the renowned pioneer of the “creative cities” concept - notes, “the stories we tell ourselves are a big part of how we become us.” At a most basic level, Landry asserts, places can say “yes” or “no.” In other words, is this locale open to change and possibility or not?

What if we could conclusively demonstrate the link between place branding and the growth of your economy?

It’s the holy grail of place branding. Which is why we’re delighted to be partnering with Bloom Consulting on a ground-breaking research project to do just that – and we’re inviting place brand, destination marketing, and investment promotion organisations to join the study.

With people forces to cancel or postpone their trip to the Faroe Islands during the spring of 2020, the team at Visit Faroe Islands developed 'Remote Tourism' - an innovative campaign that allowed virtual visitors to control the actions of their guide using a digital remote controller.

Since 1996, Lithuania has made several attempts to build a national brand. Unfortunately, historically, these efforts have not been very successful. Taking into consideration the previous lessons learnt, the Brand Lithuania Group has decided to build a new strategy for presenting Lithuania abroad based on strict nation brand methodology surveys

Vauxhall is the central part of Europe’s largest regeneration area. Find out how they tapped into their fascinating history as London's Pleasure Garden to create a truly unique place brand identity.