It’s sometimes possible that, when you are convinced of the value of what your organisation is achieving, you neglect the task of helping others to share the same vision.  At City Nation Place events we’ve often talked about engaging citizens, politicians, and the private sector in the process of place branding – working together to understand your place’s assets, creating a plan to grow and leverage your assets, and implementing that strategy with the consensus and contribution of all stakeholders.  However, in our research for future agendas, a new word is appearing in the conversations we are having with place branding practitioners around the world: “advocacy”.  There’s a growing recognition of the need to advocate for the beneficial impact of your place branding strategy – as Victor Hoskins, Director of Arlington Economic Development in Virginia USA  [one of the winning places in the race to host the new headquarters for Amazon] commented, ironically it can be when you are most successful that you need to advocate the most.

David Aboulkheir is an expert in place branding and is currently in charge of attractiveness at Lille Metropolis development and urban planning agency (ADULM). This article draws on the learnings of a workshop organised for the 39th national meeting of French urban planning agencies, which focused on design and innovation. It took place in Lille and Dunkerque, November 2018.

To make sure we’re on the right track at City Nation Place, we’ve been talking to place branding leaders around the world – those responsible for place making strategy, for tourism promotion, for economic development, for nation branding, for regional development and for city marketing strategy. There are come clear themes emerging around the common challenges, and perceived opportunities and so, as a preview of the topics we will be building into the Forum agendas, here’s our list of the eight key place branding trends for 2019…

Some of the scariest words in economic development are, “it’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” It’s a trope because it’s a sentiment people express every day. It speaks to the reputation of a place in general, and to aspects of that perception specifically. Cities and nations are places where people live, visit and work.

Amazon’s search for a second North American headquarters city has made economic development a headline-grabbing topic. So it’s important to ask: What drives the reputation of a place?

Bleisure travel, whereby business travellers extend their work trips for leisure purposes, is a fast-growing worldwide phenomenon.

According to a recent study by CNBC, over three quarters (77 per cent) of international business travellers have taken a “Bleisure” trip in the last 12 months, with the typical stay lasting an extra three to four days.

Cities the world over are planning furiously for their futures. But what does the future hold for travelers who visit them? How will they get there? Where do they stay when they do? What will they explore? How will they capture and share memories of their encounters? National Geographic Travel knows that tourism is booming, but in an increasingly globalized world, how do the destinations we love manage environmental impacts from legions of new fans?

The term “placemaking” is seemingly everywhere, bandied about by planners and developers as a kind of cure-all for most any development objective. But when properly understood—and implemented—it transcends city planning and marketing silos and spotlights a city like few initiatives can.

From Blockchain and crypto-currencies to retail banking, FinTech has exploded onto the global stage. Average global adoption now stands at 33%, up from 16% in 2015 and one-third of consumers utilise at least two or more FinTech services and are increasingly aware of it in their daily lives. (Ernst and Young FinTech Adoption Index)

The emergence of ‘FinTech hubs’ has mirrored this growth.

As controversy continues to rage in the United States over Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad campaign, it turns the spotlight on the “values” of the brand.  Brands have always been about more than the logo or slogan: brand managers have always focused on brand values to create customer loyalty.  But in recent years companies have had to think more carefully about how the statements of CEOs around political issues will impact on customer perceptions, or on whether their communication strategies can add to their brand values by making statements about societal values.  So what about place brands?

We caught up with Caio Esteves, CEO at Places for us, and also a judge for the City Nation Place Awards  

We caught up with City Nation Place Awards judge Colin Ferguson, President & CEO at Travel Manitoba ahead of the start of the judging process. 

Ahead of the judging for the City Nation Place Awards, we caught up with our judge Guðrið Højgaard,  Director of Tourism - CEO at Visit Faroe Islands

We caught up with Natasha Grand, Director at INSTID (Institute for Identity), and also a judge for the City Nation Place Awards 

We caught up with Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, ahead of his participation at the City Nation Place Global conference.

In the lead up to the City Nation Place Awards, we asked our judges to outline what they believe is essential to a good place branding strategy. Their insights should be invaluable to anyone involved in place branding and, throughout their responses, there were key ideas that continued to resurface: community engagement, authenticity, creativity and demonstrable results.

Home is a reflection of who we are, at our best, and who we hope to be. There is always a deep, meaningful reason why we choose to live where we live. We want to express our pride in an authentic way, celebrate what makes us unique, and reinforce it in the way we plan and build together. What gets in the way of powerful place-branding?

Investment promotion agencies and economic development teams are increasingly adept at attracting international companies and growing their locations. We see sector specific segmentation and an understanding that “liveability” and the values behind your place brand are as important as tax incentives. However, relatively few locations have developed the policies, processes and mindsets necessary to help the businesses they have worked so hard to attract actually thrive. This blog discusses the basic principles of Aftercare, and, with a couple of examples, shows the value Aftercare can deliver.

A summary of our conversations with delegates from around the world, to see how the City Nation Place Global conference will address your own challenges and define your next opportunities

We spoke with Mitch Whitten and asked him to share his thoughts on the challenges faced by those working in place branding and marketing.

We caught up with Don Skeoch, Chief Marketing Officer at Los Angeles Tourism, ahead of his participation at this year’s City Nation Place Americas conference in a session that will look at how marketing teams can manage political stakeholders.

That’s right, it sounds counter intuitive. As economic and tourism developers or promoters, we are always trying to outdo our competitors with more, bigger, better (more restaurants, more tourist attractions, the largest population of college educated workers). Or perhaps, some places go the opposite direction with less, lower, simpler (low taxes, few regulations, simpler lifestyle). READ MORE

A sneak peek into the Digital City Index–Asia which Bloom Consulting will unveil the Asia edition at CNP Asia Pacific. READ MORE

How can a collective negativism affect a neighbourhood, city, region or nation’s ability to transform its economic fortunes? What does it take to unlock that negativism?  Read this perspective on how to understand the psychology of your place and engage stakeholders in a more positive and effective outlook.

We caught up with Sylvie Gallier Howard, Chief of Staff with the City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce, ahead of her participation at this year’s City Nation Place Americas conference in a session that will look at what the Amazon RFP process has taught those participating about their “pitch readiness” - specifically at how economic development and tourism promotion teams can work together more effectively to the benefit of all objectives.

We caught up with Kristian Sonnier, VP President of Communications & Public Relations at the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, who will be opening the City Nation Place Americas conference on June 5^th with the story of 300 years of place branding and how New Orleans’ brand strategy will capitalise on its tri-centennial.  How does he see the connection between tourism and economic development?  What does he think is the key to great place branding?

One of the most pressing issues that place brand strategists need to deal with is the increasing interest in the impact of their strategies on the places where they work, particularly from brand stakeholders, politicians and the media.

Read the perspective of leading place branding consultants who are increasingly having to address this issue for their clients and who believe that this will continue to be a major consideration for individuals and organisations funding the preparation, implementation and management of place and destination brand strategies.

On 8^th November 2017, the day before the main City Nation Place agenda, the City Nation Place Think Tank convened for the third year.

This year the theme of the Think Tank was “The difference between place branding and place marketing”. The Think Tank was organised in association with the International Place Branding Association, guided by esteemed academics and place branding experts Robert Govers and Martin Boisen and was sponsored by The New York Times.

The purpose of this series of blog posts is to share our collective experience (including working with each other) as practicing place brand consultants on developing and implementing place and destination brand strategies. Our purpose is to inform current practice and contribute to the debate among practitioners and academics about what might be effective and cutting edge practice in the field.

The New York Times is hosting the pre-conference Think Tank session at this year’s City Nation Place Global conference where our delegates will be considering the differences between place branding, and place marketing. We caught up with Nahim Mehenni, Director for Place Branding at The New York Times and Raquel Bubar, Director, T Brand Studio International to discuss the media owner’s interest in this topic, to find out what The NEW YORK TIMES team has learned from working with clients in the tourism and investment promotion sector and to provide some tips on how place brands can get the most out of a relationship with a media company…

How can tourism marketing work more effectively within an aligned strategy? Read the full Interview with Paul Sloan, CEO of Tahiti Tourisme

We caught up with Jessica Wardle, Managing Partner at M&C Saatchi, who will be hosting a breakfast briefing at the upcoming City Nation Place Global conference in November, focused specifically on the FDI Decision Making Journey. We’re keen to understand what changes she's witnessing across the FDI sector and in the promotion of investment opportunities by cities, nations and regions.

Our team of place and destination branding consultants recently prepared a strategic advice note for a seminar in Dublin for the Irish government and key stakeholders to explore refreshing the country’s national brand of Eire, the Republic of Ireland.

Read the full Interview with Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir, Director, Visit Iceland & Creative Industries at Promote Iceland.

Read the full Interview with Petra Theman of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland for tips on successful place branding

In this post, our team of place brand practitioners examines what causes some place brand strategies to fall short of some, or all, of their objectives. There’s been little analysis of what can go awry, how to remedy a failing initiative, or avoidthe most common pitfalls altogether.

This is the first  in a new series of blog posts for City Nation Place created by leading place  brand consultants to share their experience and contribute to the debate about  best practice in place branding.  At a  time of political turbulence in many places around the world, this first blog  addresses the topical issue of working effectively with politicians. 

The challenges of  working effectively with politicians and the politics of organisations

Andrew Davis, a speaker at the City Nation Place conference shares his views on how investment promotion strategies fit in to the place brand mix and how the place brand is so important when it comes to attracting talent and business.

We live in an interconnected, hyper-connected world. Local events take global proportions. Latin America is experiencing a moment of transition: political and economic crises, major changes in Argentina, tottering democracy in Venezuela and impeachment in Brazil.

The concept of place branding is fairly new in the new world. The geographical and cultural distance between our sub continent from the rest of the world contributes to an isolation that apparently enhances this abyss. I say apparently because, in fact, this cultural distance is not so big.

An Interview with Ina Rodin from CNTO (Croatian National Tourism Office) USA

Interview with Joanna Murphy, CEO, ConnectIreland

This blog post is about the creation of Place Brand Strategy Books and the benefits they can bring.If you have never seen one you might well be asking what brand strategy books are, who are they for and where they fit into the place brand process?

An interview with Chris Gottlieb, Director of Strategy, Brand & Communications, London & Partners