Place branding can seem like a daunting challenge. It encompasses a huge number of different sectors and partners, and it can be several years before you start seeing real shifts in perceptions of your place. But every strategy has to start somewhere. We caught up with Mayor John Taylor of Newmarket, Ontario, to understand how they’re starting their place brand journey and what advice they have for others preparing to take their first steps.

Sustainability is becoming an important differentiator for places. Nine of our expert partners shared their advice on how you can make sure that you grow and communicate your sustainable values in a way that is authentic, actionable, and compelling. 

In just three weeks’ time, we’ll be welcoming 200 place leaders from across the USA and Canada to New Orleans for the seventh annual City Nation Place Americas conference. Here's just a sneak preview of the discussions you’ll be able to join in order to get you excited ahead of the conference on June 7-8^th!

When you represent arguably the most famous city in the world, launching a rebrand can be a daunting task. Nancy Mammana, Chief Marketing Officer for the newly re-named New York City Tourism + Conventions, talked us through how they’ve developed their strategy and what they’re doing to engage their stakeholders along the way.

Whether you’re a city or a country, your values should be at the heart of your place brand strategy. Asbjørn Overgaard Christiansen, CEO of Copenhagen Capacity, joins Constanza Cea, then the Director of Marca Chile, to discover how Chile is connecting values and social entrepreneurship to drive investment into the country.

A place is its people – and engaging your community is essential to ensuring that your residents see themselves reflected in your strategy. Here are eight top tips to help you adopt a more strategic and integrated approach to citizen engagement.

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. But it’s not Australia’s most famous city. To tackle misconceptions about the city, the team at Canberra are unearthing the city’s DNA to position the city in a way that reflects their everyday reality and showcases Canberra’s strengths to a domestic and international audience. Isaac Mizrachi, Senior Director – Marketing for VisitCanberra, caught up with us to outline the strategy and vision for the city, as well as his top tip for other destinations looking to grow awareness of their place.  

Chile set out to communicate not only what they had been given, but what they had to give – the contributions of Chilean men and women who are creating a better future for our country and our world. Discover how Imagen de Chile launched the 'Chile Creating Future' strategy and how it's engaging stakeholders from across the country in the vision for the country.

To talk about cities is first and foremost to talk about people and how people interact within public places. Bloom Consulting's Caio Esteves explores the intersection between place branding and placemaking and dives into the shift brought about by the pandemic.

Medway in Kent was one of 25 areas in England awarded a share of £3 million to help them set their own standards for design locally. We asked Virginie Giles, Place Manager & Director for We Are Medway CIC, to explain more about the impact placemaking is having on the area, including the importance of bringing Medway’s diverse communities together to deliver positive change.

Even as the pandemic restrictions lifted, many workers who could work from home chose not to return to commuting to Washington DC. The challenge: How to encourage people to return to their DC office, and return to participating in all the aspects of city life they used to love in DC?

How can you prove the long-lasting impact of your strategy when you’re advocating for the value of your work to your key stakeholders? Ten of our expert partners shared their thoughts on how place brand and marketing organisations can re-think their approaches to the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] that they use and how you can make sure you’re measuring impact in the areas that will make a difference for your organisation.

Maria Lypiatska, Head of BRAND UKRAINE and Strategic Communications Advisor for the MFA, outlines how they’re telling Ukraine’s story to the world during a war and shares lessons from crisis communications that hopefully you’ll never need to use.

On the 24th of February 2022, the war in Ukraine started, forcing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to leave their home country. As a multinational country, many of whose citizens had previously expressed pro-Russian views, Moldova faced a communication crisis. Discover how Invest Moldova launched a campaign to unite the nation.