Specialised Training for Place Branding & Marketing
Looking for a place branding course that blends strategy with hands-on learning? Equip your rising stars with the skills, tools and confidence to navigate the unique challenges that come with branding and promoting places.
In this live, interactive training programme, a small group of emerging leaders will have the opportunity to learn from expert-led sessions, collaborate with international peers, ask questions, and receive feedback on practical assignments.
Learn more about the programme below and contact our team with any questions.
AVAILABLE COURSE DATES:
2nd June - 7th July 2026
Every Tuesday at:
BST 2pm / CEST 3pm / EDT 9am
WHO’S IT FOR?
The CNP Accelerator training is designed for early to mid-career professionals working within:
- Nation, region, and city brand teams
- Destination management and marketing organisations
- Economic development teams
- Investment promotion agencies
Whether your organisation’s goals are focused on tourism, economic development, investment promotion, talent attraction or broader place growth, this course will help equip you to build, execute, and support your place brand’s strategy.
HOW WILL YOU LEARN?
Our online place branding course gives you the practical tools, expert insight, and peer network to design and deliver a successful place brand strategy. A hands-on, interactive course designed to help you create a real plan for your place.
You'll learn through:
- Live sessions: Six two-hour online modules over six weeks
- Expert tuition: Practical insight grounded in global case studies
- Applied assignments: Build your personalised Place Brand Development Plan step by step
- Small group learning: Limited to 15 participants for maximum interaction
- Global network: Collaborate online with peers from around the world
- Certification & toolkit: Earn a certificate of completion and take away a reference guide on place branding success, capturing all your key learnings
WHAT TOPICS WILL BE COVERED?
 Week One: The fundamentals of place brandingLay the foundations for success. Understand why place branding matters, what it can achieve, and the hallmarks of strong strategies. Learn how to avoid common barriers and recognise the stages of the branding journey, ensuring your strategy is rooted in an effective understanding of what a place brand strategy can achieve for your country, region, or city. Topics: Emergence and evolution of the industry Core concepts Strong place brand hallmarks Barriers to place branding Stages of the place branding journey |  Week Two: Place positioning and identityDefine what makes your place stand out. Understand how to uncover your place’s true identity, align around a core idea, and articulate a brand story and vision that resonates with both internal stakeholders and external audiences. Topics: Blind alleys and common mistakes What place identity is Methods for unveiling place identity Place personalities |
 Week Three: Working with stakeholdersTurn collaboration into advantage. Learn how to identify, map and engage stakeholders, build genuine partnerships, and activate your brand through both the private sector and citizens. Topics: Stakeholder mapping Stakeholder personas Collaboration compass Amplification and activation through private sector partnerships Best practice in citizen engagement |  Week Four: Communicating your place brand essenceBring your story to life. Explore how to build brand equity through creative communications, behavioural marketing, and innovative activation, moving beyond advertising to create lasting impact. Topics: Value creation in place marketing Marketing for place personalities Seven golden rules of communication Best practice in brand activation |
| Week Five: Building your brand in a changing media landscape Cut through the noise. Understand shifting audience behaviours, and learn how to make your brand discoverable in an era of disinformation, crowded content, and AI-driven search. You’ll understand how to amplify your brand to the right people at the right time through the right media. Topics: Audience segmentation Audience journeys Earned vs paid strategies Discoverability in an AI-driven world |  Week Six: Measuring success and building for the futureSet your brand up for success. Learn how to choose the right KPIs for place branding and place marketing and use them effectively. Understand when and how to get the best work from consultants, and build governance structures that sustain momentum. Topics: Strategic vs performance KPIs Presenting the right KPIs to the right audiences How to be the expert client and work with contractors Best practices in governance and structure Graduation pub quiz |
WHAT WILL IT COST?
£995 per person + VAT (if applicable).
Includes: 12 hours of real-time online training, all course materials, and personalised feedback on assignments. On completion, you'll receive a digital certificate along with a toolkit on place branding success, capturing all your key learnings.
ALL THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACCELERATOR CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
RECENT TESTIMONIALS:
FEEDBACK FROM RECENT GRADUATES:
| "The CNP Accelerator course was fantastic! I've worked in marketing for years, but never had the opportunity to study place marketing before. This sharpened my marketing skills and honed my understanding of how to best brand my region." | "I was amazed and impressed by the scope and depth of the place branding content that was covered in 6 sessions. Each session left you with clear actionable takeaways to use. The team leading each session had incredible knowledge and expertise that was engaging. I highly recommend taking this course." | "This course was exactly what I needed! A perfect blend of theory and practice, it was informative, thought-provoking, and always enjoyable. I would recommend to anyone wanting to build their knowledge and skills in place branding." |
If you have any questions, you can contact the team here.
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Clare is the Founder and Director of City Nation Place, the global forum for the people and stories behind places.
City Nation Place creates connections and shares best practice between country brands, regional brands, and city brands around the world through articles, interviews, surveys, white papers, the advisory group network, and conferences.
Clare’s interest in the complex area of place branding was sparked whilst working on a series of Nation Branding Masterclass events, led by Simon Anholt, one of the first thought-leaders to speak about and promote the concept of place branding. Having listened to Simon address audiences in Accra, Delhi, Dubai, London and Singapore on how policy, governance, and symbolic actions need to combine with branding and marketing to create a competitive identity and drive economic growth, she continued to follow the growth in this sector.
Clare launched the first City Nation Place Global conference in London in 2015. CityNationPlace.com has been steadily building followers and in 2017, the first City Nation Place Americas conference was launched. In 2018 City Nation Place Asia Pacific took place in Singapore, and 2019 saw the first City Nation Place UK, specifically for towns, cities and regions across the UK, and the launch of the first City Nation Place LatAm & Caribbean event.
Clare manages the small team at City Nation Place alongside providing event consultancy and management for a number of clients in the publishing and trade association sector, including running the World Media Awards for the World Media Group and event consultancy for the UK Association for Online Publishers.
Dr Natasha Grand Norman is the Director of Institute for Identity (INSTID), which she co-founded in London in 2012. She is a proponent of the people-focused approach to place branding that upholds place’s way of life rather than infrastructure. Trained in national identity (a Lord Dahrendorf Scholar at LSE), Natasha leads INSTID’s qualitative research and speaks at conferences and in the media from the anthropological angle of the place branding field. She has been both a recipient and a judge at City Nation Place awards, and is a longstanding member of The Place Brand Observer Expert panel. Natasha has run projects across 3 continents with the combined population of 20+ million people.
Mary is an expert in place marketing and branding with a wealth of experience working with destinations and place-associated organisation such as airlines, airports and hospitality across Bahrain, the city and county of Limerick, Oman, Qatar, the UK, Slovenia, Croatia and more. She is experienced at working in complex stakeholder environments and within governments across Tourism, FDI, travel, hospitality, and talent attraction. Mary’s background is integrated and she support places with everything from: brand strategy and identify; full funnel advertising and lead generation campaigns; marketing consultancy and culture change. Mary was proud to be a judge of the prestigious National Business Awards, City Nation Place Awards and the World Media Awards.