Hall of Fame: 15 of the best place branding and place marketing examples
Over the years, we've been privileged to see the best and brightest place branding and place marketing campaigns from around the world. Looking for global inspiration for marketing a city, country, or region? We’re delighted to spotlight the most innovative and impactful campaigns from across destination marketing, investment promotion and economic development.
As we gear up for the 2026 City Nation Place Awards, we wanted to highlight 15 of our personal favourites from the Place Brand Portfolio, the world’s largest collection of place branding and place marketing case studies.
BEST EXAMPLES OF CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Brand Tasmania
Tasmanian Youth Story | 2024
With graduation levels well below the national average, the plight of young people was a major concern for Tasmanians. Were they dropping out of school because of systemic issues? Something at home? How could they be encouraged to stay on and enter into industries that were facing desperate labour shortages? Young Tasmanians were trained in how to conduct one-to-one interviews with their peers to identify what made them proudest to be Tasmanian – and where and why Tasmania was letting them down. This research has led to the development of a Youth Voice Network, a panel that allows government and other organisations to tap into the experience and ideas of young Tasmanians, allowing Tasmania’s younger residents to co-design government policy and build a Tasmania they can be proud of. This isn’t a dusty policy document – it’s an action plan to drive real change.
Tartu City Government
Visions in the spotlight: Creative engagement for Tartu’s development plan | 2025
What do you do when only eight residents submit proposals for the city’s development plan? You turn it into a song and dance. Or, at least, that’s what Tartu City Government did. Recognising that they needed to find fresh ways to spark genuine dialogue with the community, the team turned to playful and theatrical approaches that would make complex planning topics both fun and understandable. Six humorous videos were launched, each featuring a unique character that encapsulated different perspectives for the future of Tartu. And on June 13th, they turned Tartu into an immersive theatre, with themed engagement points where residents could meet with actors performing as different characters who would set the stage to collect feedback from residents on how Tartu could grow in the future. This playful, human-centric approach collected 212 proposals from 87 residents – a huge increase from the previous approach, and proof that this new initiative sets the precedent for future planning and consultation processes.
The Citizen Engagement Toolkit:
The how-to advice, resources, and best practice you need to launch or improve your citizen engagement strategies.
BEST COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FROM NATION, REGION, AND CITY BRANDING TEAMS
Action Greensboro
Boomerang Greensboro | 2024
This idea is both deceptively simple, and impressively impactful. Having noticed that there was an increase in ex-residents becoming cornerstones of the community upon their return to Greensboro, the team decided to lean into the phenomena. Residents were invited to nominate old friends or much-missed family members who had moved away to receive a care package by post. These custom boxes were packed with goodies from home, information about how Greensboro was developing, and a cost-of-living comparison with their current hometown. On top of what was already high-touch, targeted outreach, Action Greensboro offered a concierge service to ease the transition back into town, including reaching out to prospective employers or schools.
Business Iceland
Welcome to the Icelandverse | 2022
You have to commend an organisation who can turn around a destination marketing campaign in less than a fortnight. Just twelve days after Mark Zuckerburg announce the launch of the Metaverse, Business Iceland was in market with their parody film, “Welcome to the Icelandverse” – an entirely immersive experience that is actually based in reality. The tongue-in-cheek campaign caught the world’s media by storm, and Mark Zuckerberg himself weighed in less than 23 hours after the campaign went live, saying “Amazing. I need to make a trip to the Icelandverse soon.”
Visit Faroe Islands
Self-navigating cars | 2025
Like many destinations, the Faroe Islands were facing the pressure of too many tourists travelling to just a handful of popular spots. Enter the self-navigating cars, an innovative experience that encouraged visitors to veer from the beaten path and that caught the imagination of the world's press. Travellers could rent a car from local providers and then receive self-navigating itineraries with mystery stops that were only revealed en route. These itineraries were designed by locals to showcase hidden fjords, turf-roofed churches, tiny pools, and remote villages, shifting pressure from over-visited hotspots. The designated ‘self-navigating’ cars received a 90% utilisation rate, with the initiative generating over 2 billion PR impressions globally.
Wesgro
Made in the Cape: Pop-up Store | 2024
The Western Cape’s ‘Made in Cape’ campaign was a dedicated region of origin exports campaign, but while it has initially achieved considerable success in key export markets, there was a desire to deepen the effort. The result was the creation of a physical space where the stories of the Western Cape’s rich heritage could be shared, increasing engagement with local products and driving tangible economic benefits for the region’s exporters. This pop-up store was designed to reflect the diverse landscapes of the region, and digital storytelling was integrated throughout the physical spaces using AR to allow visitors to engage with the stories of local producers. The installation attracted over 2 million visitors, accumulating 16,810 minutes of engagement and successfully driving users towards the online Cape Trade portal.
BEST USES OF DATA FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Enterprise Estonia
Turning insights into tools for smarter nation branding | 2025
Data is the lifeblood of a good place brand strategy, but it means very little if your partners can’t access it. Following a validation and refresh of the Estonian nation brand strategy, the team turned their focus to making dense data sets usable and accessible, and pairing it with clear, on-brand messaging. Two tools were developed from this initiative. An AI chatbot called Lume produced tailored, context-rich talking points to meet any prompt, whilst the new Estonian Facts Dashboard turned spreadsheets into multilingual, presentation-ready resources. Together, these tools are ensuring that Estonia’s story stays current, targeted, and easy to share – the gold standard for data in the 2020s.
Glasgow City Council
Using data storytelling | 2023
One of Glasgow’s greatest assets was their emerging technology ecosystem – but no one had been able to effectively map it. Any data that did exist was gated, creating challenges to developing a data-driven approach to storytelling. Rather than treating data as something to be hoarded, Glasgow City Council is making open-source intelligence available to the tech community through a bespoke, comprehensive database of the rapidly growing ecosystem. The platform provides the insights needed to inform the decisions of founders and investors operating in, entering, or investing in the Glasgow startup market. On top of this, it is creating the foundation for a data-driven storytelling approach that will continue to build awareness of Glasgow’s flourishing tech ecosystem.
Place Branding: Solving the measurement challenge.
How place brand and marketing teams are investing in data and research to shape their strategies, engage stakeholders, and stay ahead of the curve.
BEST USE OF DESIGN AND PLACE IDENTITY BY PLACE BRANDING AND MARKETING ORGANISATIONS
Imagen de Chile
Chile, We Care | 2024
Chile’s international promotion was fragmented: a joined-up approach was needed to deliver a more impactful return on limited resources. After eight months of discussion, a new, adaptable narrative was launched for Chile built around sustainability, democracy, and diversity as three key pillars. However, this new narrative positioning needed a graphic identity that would provide a unified presentation for Chile whilst being adaptable to the needs of each stakeholder. To address this, they adopted a ‘Lego’ graphic. These graphic systems allowed each area to use the images they wanted to promote into a common mosaic or photo montage format. This approach prioritised flexibility to respond to individual needs, while still providing a distinctive and authentically Chilean visual identity.
South Australian Tourism Commission
Celebrate the simple pleasures | 2025
South Australia’s regional brand reflects a long-term strategy that does more than just sell a holiday – it expresses a philosophy of living. Where the strategy really shines, though, is how they’ve partnered with local artists, filmmakers, and musicians to bring the brand strategy to life. The result is a love letter to the region that is deeply rooted in South Australia’s DNA and that serves as a platform to lift up and celebrate the creativity of its residents.
BEST EXAMPLES OF PLACEMAKING INITATIVES IN ACTION
Hastings District Council
Waiaroha: Placing life-giving water in the heart of Heretaunga Hastings | 2025
Following a water contamination crisis, the Hastings District Council needed to do more than just upgrade their water infrastructure: they also needed to rebuild trust and elevate water from an invisible utility to a visible, treasured part of the community. The newly built Waiaroha – Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre is a bold placemaking initiative that transforms public infrastructure into a community centre and classroom, positioning Hastings as a place of integrity and environmental leadership.
Wonderful Copenhagen
CopenPay | 2024
Wonderful Copenhagen believed that tourism could be a force for good in their community. They just needed a pathway to incentivise eco-conscious behaviour amongst their visitors. CopenPay turned sustainability into a currency by rewarding activities like collecting litter or cycling with free access to the city’s major attractions. This strategy delivered a better experience for tourists, enhanced profile for tourism businesses, and a better environment for residents. And on top of all that, it also solidified Copenhagen as a world-leading sustainable destination.
BEST PLACE BRANDING EXAMPLES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
City of Ghent
The Ghent State-of-Mind | 2024
Ghent is a city with a rich heritage, inspiring food scene, growing tech scene, and a fine quality of life. However, all those are equally applicable to many other cities around the planet. In an increasingly globalised world, the city launched a participatory process to identify just what it was that made Ghent ‘Ghentian’. The end result was a focus on the way that Ghent handles things differently and the development of a brand filter that asked whether activities reflected the Ghentian brand or if it could be ‘copied-and-pasted’ to another city. The strategy makes reflecting and strengthening Ghent’s DNA a top priority across multiple verticals.
Marketing Sheffield
Sheffield Inspires | 2025
Sheffield had a perception problem. While the city had been climbing the rankings for liveability, the city was held back by a lack of awareness. Rather than leading with distinctive assets, the Marketing Sheffield team decided to highlight how the city has impacted people and their lives, celebrating how Sheffield has inspired people across a range of areas, including climbing, electronic music, and the global health tech revolution. In partnership with local artists, the team bought this to life with bold new visuals and began working with all major stakeholders to activate the brand across the city.
New Zealand Story
Defining a country’s values - Ngā Mātāpono | 2024
New Zealand were looking to unite their government and exporters around a cohesive brand proposition – but first they needed to agree on the values that expressed New Zealand’s identity. The team landed on four Māori concepts that underpinned New Zealand’s care for people, connection to place, and the ingenuity and adventurousness of the country’s spirit. However, there was some hesitation in adopting these values due to fears of cultural appropriation or misunderstanding. To tackle this, the team embarked on a mission to educate all stakeholders involved in the international promotion of New Zealand to empower them to tell this story authentically and confidently.
If you’d like to dive deeper into the initiatives listed below and access all 450+ campaigns from the Portfolio, start your Place Brand Portfolio subscription for just £49/yr.
