It starts by understanding your customer – who you want to reach, why and what would make them engage with your place brand - and then acting based on that information. That hasn’t changed but it has got a lot smarter.

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.

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

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 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.

Creating a nation branding strategy is no small challenge. To be successful, it needs to be grounded in the everyday reality of that country, and to achieve that, you need data. Eglė Kudzmanienė, Chief Advisor at Brand Lithuania Unit, detailed how the nation created a data-centric approach to country branding that allowed them to react rapidly to changing perceptions of Lithuania.

We talked last week about the importance of having reputational resilience as a place brand or marketing organisation, but of course, this is only one facet of the solution. You have to be able to secure the future of your own organisation to be able to continue delivering on your place brand and place marketing success.

Whilst the impact of the pandemic is ongoing, the 2021 Survey has been able to look back on the past year and forward to the next, to explore the longer-term changes this is bringing to the practice of place branding and marketing for cities, regions, and nations around the world. There are a few key issues that places were grappling with that we’d like to highlight and explore…

Data is at the heart of an agile brand strategy. Khaled Tash, Deputy of Marketing & Communications for INVEST SAUDI, shared with us how the Kingdom is building an investment brand and using comprehensive data reporting to demonstrate the tangible results and to refine their approach.

Last week, we were delighted to welcome over 600 delegates from around the world to join one or more of the events for the City Nation Place World Congress. Whilst this list really doesn’t begin to tap into the wealth of learnings at the World Congress, we’ve pulled together a summary of the overarching themes that resonated most with us

Your place brand has intrinsic value – akin to that of your personal savings – and the investment strategy you choose for your reputation capital will regulate the return on investment. What strategies can you use to leverage your data in your decision-making?

As we move from lockdowns into what comes next, travellers have different behaviours and priorities than before. New behaviour poses brand new questions, and with no playbook, we must learn to adapt along the way