Small City Branding Around the World

New Book: Destination Branding for Small Cities – Second Edition, Now Released

I am pleased to announce that my second book, Destination Branding for Small Cities - Second Edition has now been released. This expanded and revised edition has updated our 7A Destination Branding Process and includes new place branding elements, advice, checklists and techniques. Some of the changes include:

• Explanations of the different forms of place branding, branding in tough times, selecting place branding expertise and the important role of product development, placemaking and wayfinding in place branding.  
• Actions to introduce a stronger strategic focus to enhance city competitiveness.
• Interesting insights from some of the world’s leading place branding consultants, academics and practitioners.
• Worldwide examples from the USA, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Australia, moving beyond the USA focus of the first.

While the title is Destination Branding for Small Cities, the underlying principles and processes can just as readily be applied to regions, counties, Downtowns, Main Streets, resorts, and even states and countries.

I hope that you enjoy this edition as much as the first. Worldwide sales are available through Amazon.com.

Colorado Invites Audiences to “Come to Life”

 

Colorado Tourism Office is taking an interesting approach in its forthcoming television advertising campaign aimed at boosting summer visitation. Instead of focusing on its geographic and iconic features alone, the advertising features the transformative qualities of the state with an invitation to Come to Life. The focus is squarely on the prospective visitor and the emotional rewards of spending time in the outdoors away from their everyday hectic lives. Actually, Colorado is not identified until the end of the 57^th second of the ad.

The emotive film shows how viewers can come to life in lakes, cascading waterfalls and open fields, and prods them to rejuvenate by exploring spectacular mountains.

The campaign is supported by print advertising, a visitor guide and web and social media marketing programs providing critical links to towns and operators throughout the state. It will be interesting to review the results of the advertising and how it translates to increased Summer business for the state’s towns and tourism businesses.

Xiamen Slogan Competition to Create a Brand Without Research or Strategy

Xiamen also known as Amoy is a major city on the south east coast of the People’s Republic of China and is known for its scenic beauty and tree lined beaches.  

The Xiamen Tourism Bureau is calling for public suggestions for a new tourism slogan, logo and souvenir to represent the city.  The Bureau has established a web site for the competition which closes on April 30. The winners will be announced after public online voting and expert review, seemingly in that order.  Winners will receive approximately $US 3,200 each.

Unfortunately this is another example of a DMO attempting to take a shortcut to acquire some of the key elements for shaping their city’s brand identity.  Not only is it a mistake to run a competition to obtain logo and slogan suggestions, but to then turn it over to residents to make the choice further compounds the problems of this strategy-less and research-less approach. The Xiamen Tourism Bureau will be left to then shape their brand strategy around their new logo and tagline, rather than have those elements emerge from a well-researched strategy that is based on their most competitive positioning, personality and benefits.

Xiamen could be well advised to take a page from the research and strategically focused branding approach of nearby Shaoxing which I blogged about several weeks ago.

An Epidemic of Anemic City Taglines

In recent weeks I have seen what must be an epidemic of anemic and insipid taglines that had me reaching for the quote that my colleague Tom Buncle at Yellow Railroad in Scotland gave me for my forthcoming book. Here it is…

“Taglines are brilliant when they are inspired, convey a destination’s benefits succinctly in a way that evokes the essence of the place, and could be nowhere else. It helps too if they say something new to you and say it in a way that grabs you, make you smile or think “yeah, that’s nicely put”  i.e. impactful, memorable and, usually containing one strong idea. But mostly they fail spectacularly. And how much money has been wasted with expensive agencies generating mediocre calls to action in insipid taglines?”

Buncle adds, “The risk is that a destination looks amateurish and hick if it tries too hard and fails to come up with a compelling tagline – in which case no tagline at all is better than an embarrassingly lame one that patronizes consumers – and residents. If you can’t come up with the Holy Grail of a killer tagline, use a descriptive one or one that anchors the place in a single powerful idea, e.g. Angus: Scotland’s Birthplace or Innsbruck: Capital of the Alps which at least paints a picture of your destination, or be brave and don’t have one. In other words trust your product, get your brand and marketing right, and treat consumers as potential visitors who want to be inspired and informed, but not patronized.” 

These are wise words that every place, committee, leader and firm should read before they start a place branding assignment.

New Destination Video Sings the Praises of Brand Vancouver

Tourism Vancouver’s new destination film takes an innovative approach in projecting the city’s brand messages using multiple platforms. Central to the film is the original music of local band Watasun and their song, “It’s You… Vancouver”.

Watasun is a Vancouver-based duo that fuses urban beats with traditional folk sounds. One-time buskers on Vancouver’s Granville Street, singer/songwriter Adam Bailie and percussionist Reid Hendry now record, produce and sell their own albums, taking inspiration from everyday experiences in the city.

Throughout the three-minute video, the duo perform their catchy tune while making appearances in, near or atop iconic Vancouver attractions. It’s nice to see a destination really trying to make all of its brand communications distinctive and authentic – and hopefully exposing a few locals to a larger audience.

A Great Case Study in Worst Practice Place Branding

It’s very hard to know where to start with this one. There is a fineline where edgy and funny can become crass and plain stupid. KJCT8 TV has shone a light on Fruita, CO where a bumper sticker has evolved into being proposed as the city’s tagline. The bumper sticker reads “WTF”, meaning “Welcome To Fruita”.

"We saw them and thought it was pretty funny and thought it might be a good idea," Fruita city manager Clint Kinney told KJCT8. "And so before we ran with the idea we wanted to get feedback from the community."

Mr. Kinney might like to also get the opinions from prospective visitors, potential new residents, or executives considering relocating a business to the city. Does the acronym hint at any benefit or reward for them? What message does it convey to them? Has The City of Fruita also considered that it really doesn’t come any more generic than “welcome to”? There’s zero distinctiveness about that.

This contains so many examples of what small communities shouldn’t do when they want to establish a verbal identity to project their competitiveness. If Fruita adopts this as their tagline, the reaction to it from outsiders might well be, “WTF!” Cities need to take their competitive identity way more serious than this. It has a direct impact on the income and well-being of the comunity as well as the tax receipts of the city council. It deserves much more serious and informed consideration than to base the city's identity on a joke from a bumper sticker.

Image: Fruita.org

England's North East Tourism Secures Its Brand Equity

Well-developed place brand strategies can falter for a wide variety of reasons.  Some of the most common pitfalls can relate to a lack of funds for consistent implementation or changes to the structure and emphasis of the lead organization.

An interesting situation has been resolved in North East England, where their successful destination branding strategy was under threat because the lead organization One North East is due to close in March due to government cuts. The Passionate People Passionate Places campaign was launched in 2005 by One North East. The region’s tourism industry was very loyal to the brand and recognized its value to business i.e. its brand equity. Importantly, they didn’t want to contemplate life without the brand.

BBC reports that the Passionate People Passionate Places intellectual property and brand elements have been purchased by NewcastleGateshead Initiative on behalf of their tourism partners across the North East for £2,500.  It’s good to see that the region can capitalize on its hard-earned brand equity and ensure that it continues to deliver for them.  This highlights our conistent point that a destination brand is not owned by the DMO but its stakeholders and residents.

A Mixed Bag of 2011 City Taglines

The Atlantic Cities has an interesting take on some of the city taglines and slogans that were announced during 2011. Some make sense and seem to be an important element in a comprehensive brand strategy, while others are real head scratchers that seem to be a clever line in search of strategy.  Some are aimed at a addressing a specific problem, e.g. Downtown Las Vegas’ effort to establish its own identity in the shadow of The Strip. Others could apply to just about any other city. While others might cause us as outsiders to exclaim, “So what. What’s in it for me?”  I sense that a number of them are feel good lines for locals and are not part of a brand strategy aimed at projecting the competitive identity of the place for external audiences.

Is it Really The Greatest Place to Live, Work and Play?

We rarely conduct a brand workshop or focus group for a community when someone doesn’t say, “this is the best place to live, work and play”. Further, many advocate that it should be the city tagline.  Unfortunately, for many communities that do not use objective outsiders to assist their brand planning, they too often pat themselves on the back and agree that they’ve found the holy grail of place branding for their city - and “a great place to live, work and play” it is.

I am currently researching and writing an updated edition of “Destination Branding for Small Cities” and decided to Google the term, “a great place to live, work and play” and found over 4 million results. There are also over one hundred videos on YouTube with various spokespersons for communities using the term.

Scrolling through Google, I lost count of the number of communities that actually use the term as a tagline. So if you are considering joining the masses in building a brand based on being “a great place to live, work and play”, you have simply identified a threshold credential to play the game. There are tens of thousands of places in the USA and even more around the world that can match the claim. This is where you have to dig deeper to uncover the true essence of the place that will be valued and meaningful to target audiences. And why use the line to communicate with residents? They already live there and know it!

It’s amazing how many places pat themselves on the back and settle for this self-adulation and waste their time, on a line that is probably the most commonly used by citizens to describe the place where they live. Why bother! Even worse, they call it their brand.       

Alberta Launches Stunning Brand Advertising Campaign

 Differentiated and compelling experiences and emotional connections are the hallmarks of strong destination brands. The brand advertising campaign recently launched by Travel Alberta displays these hot buttons in excellent fashion. Travel Alberta unveiled several visually stunning and emotive television spots that are full of the usual icons - mountains, horses, cowboys and skiers –but they were filmed and paced to allow viewers to share in the emotion of the experience. Some stunning work and the tagline, "remember to breathe" is so appropriate.

Alberta’s new tourism brand is the result of an 18-month process which included consultation with industry stakeholders representing all regions of the province as well as opinion research with frequent travelers in Alberta’s target tourism markets in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

Though Travel Alberta has had logos, slogans and brand promises before, this is its first overall tourism brand, said CEO Bruce Okabe. “And not having a brand in this competitive market is like going into a street fight with one arm tied behind your back.” I couldn’t agree more. However, it’s one thing to have a brand strategy; it’s another thing altogether to execute it brilliantly! Mind you, it does help when you have a place as stunning as Alberta.

Minneapolis Launches “City by Nature” Brand

Meet Minneapolis, the organization contracted by the City of Minneapolis to market the city has unveiled its new strategy for positioning the city as an attractive convention and visitor destination.  The tagline is “City by Nature” and seeks to capitalize on Minneapolis’ natural environment.

KARE 11 Television reports that the State tourism organization, Explore Minnesota is also conducting research for a statewide re-branding. "We hope to have a state brand and a narrative soon," says John Edman, the Director of Explore Minnesota Tourism. "People around the country only know about our weather, we need to change that. People look back to that TIME magazine with (former governor) Wendell Anderson on the cover, holding up that fish and talking about the good life," says Edman. "We need to get back to that."

Destination brand positioning based on nature is a fairly crowded field. The new positioning for Minneapolis immediately reminded me of Seattle’s MetroNatural, but without the edginess. I am also not sure if it goes very far enough toward addressing the overwhelming negative perception that they are trying to combat of being regarding as having a very cold climate.  It will be interesting to see approach taken by Explore Minnesota on behalf of the state.

Downtown Las Vegas - The Other Vegas with Soul

An important element of most successful city and destination brands is their ability to resonate with local residents, as well as external audiences. A challenge for Las Vegas is that the it’s iconic brand strategy with its famous, "What happens here. Stays here." tagline probably doesn’t work with the community in ways that generate self-pride and project it as a place to live. While I am sure that residents respect the success of the tourism brand, it really is aimed 100% at external audiences – and does a darned good job! However, the Las Vegas identity that it supports is mainly focused on The Strip and not on the city’s central business district in Downtown Las Vegas.  

Downtown Las Vegas is a few miles south of The Strip and is the city’s original gambling district. This area in recent years has played second fiddle to the larger and more famous Strip. However, the City has been working on revitalization efforts to entice more visitors and residents to downtown. This has involved the redevelopment of Downtown and the surrounding older commercial districts to create jobs and eliminate urban blight.  With an unemployment rate hovering around 14% and one of the worst real estate markets in the country, it is important for the economic vitality of the city to extend way beyond The Strip. Revitalization efforts have joined property and business owners for a $5.5 million streetscape improvement program over a three-block area that includes pedestrian-friendly street redesign, landscaping and retro-looking neon signage.

A new slogan was unveiled Wednesday for Downtown Las Vegas. The winning line, "Every City Has a Soul", captured 35 percent of more than 1,200 votes in an online contest between four finalists. While we are not fans of community competitions for slogans, on this occasion it was important because this time residents would be a priority target audience.  While it will not rise to the stellar heights of the famous tourism slogan, it does have an important role in addressing what has been an economic development void for the city.   

Austin Celebrates 20 Years as the “Live Music Capital of the World”

 

One of America’s most enduring and organic place brands belongs to Austin, TX. This week the city celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the City of Austin’s visionary vote to proclaim the city the "Live Music Capital of the World", a label that has stuck for two decades. To me this is not what distinguishes Austin. It’s that they didn’t sit on their laurels, but instead continued to live the brand that they had envisioned and kept it fresh.

The decision to adopt this positioning was based on Austin having more live music venues per capita than any other city in the country, including New York, New Orleans, Nashville and Los Angeles.

KXAN reports that Mayor Lee Leffingwell said the city has grown in 20 years to include 250 live music venues featuring 50,000 live music performances on average every year. A 2001 impact study showed live music has a $1 billion dollar economic impact every year for the city.

Max Nofziger, a former Austin city council member who voted on the "live music capital" name back in 1991, said  "I'm amazed that this is still a slogan of the city. I'm shocked it hasn't been repealed, frankly," he said jokingly during Thursday's celebration.

I must share Mr. Nofziger’s amazement because one of the greatest hazards for city brands is the challenge of new councilors, employees and executives wanting to adopt something new so that they can put their own stamp on it. So, Bravo Austin! And congratulations to the thousands of stakeholders responsible for keeping Austin weird and building one of America’s best place brands – even though they may not have recognized how enduring it would become.

New Brunswick Burns $230,000, Then Holds a Competition for a New Slogan

Two years ago, the provincial government of New Brunswick, Canada adopted “Be ... in this place” as its slogan for use on license plates to aid the promotion of the province. It is reported that this fine piece cost an estimated $230,000 to develop. Needless to say, it quickly became a joke with residents and gained no traction within the Province. In March after two years, the government quietly buried it. Didn’t they research it in the first place?

Now in a stroke of genius, the new government is inviting residents to participate in a competition to come up with a new slogan. Yes, you’re right. We’ve seen a lot of this going around lately!

I can understand that after spending $230,000 just two years ago for “Be .…in this place”, they might not want a repeat. What we have here is a series of extremely bad decisions that resulted in the launch of “Be.…in this place”, now giving way to another bad decision or cop-out to pass the slogan over to the public.  I guess their thinking might be that they couldn’t do any worse. Will they be doing the same for the design of new buildings, roads and bridges?

New Jersey Governor Promotes the Real Jersey Shore

 

A few weeks ago I blogged about the negative impact that the reality television show The Jersey Shore was possibly having on the destination of the same name. It seems that a lot of New Jersey residents agree with me. A survey by Quinnipiac University in 2010 revealed that 50% of New Jersey residents felt that the reality show was revolting and negatively impacted the image of their state.  On the other hand, The Daily Mail is reporting that tourism numbers are up and that surveys reveal that the show is not having a negative impact on the real Jersey Shore.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has stepped up to lead the fight to reclaim the state’s image. This is after cutting $2 million from the state’s tourism marketing budget last year. He is visiting many prominent Jersey destinations and a video featuring the Governor has been released to push back and portray the positive aspects of the state and its beaches. While it’s good to see the Governor supporting tourism, I hope he has few more tricks in his bag such as replenishing the tourism marketing budget because ad hoc efforts are no substitute for a comprehensive, integrated marketing program.  

St. Kitts Unveils New Brand Identity

The St. Kitts Tourism Authority has announced their new brand identity which includes a new logo, tagline and an update of its web site.

The new logo features an elegant script with an open-heart shaped signature graphic and a new tagline that encourages potential visitors to “follow your heart” to the island. The color pallet was inspired by the colors in St. Kitts’ natural landscape.

The new branding serves as the basis for the website redesign and has also been rolled out in a new cruise magazine, official social media accounts, e-newsletters, wedding flyers, tradeshow backdrops and banners, and will continue to appear on new materials as they are produced.

Some nice work, but I don't get the sense that it has clearly differentiated St. Kitts from competitor destinations in the Caribbean. This is the ongoing challenge for Caribbean islands needing to build a distinctive brand identity that captures the essence of the place.

Zambia’s Branding Effort Again Bypasses Distinctive Positioning

Which African nation can best support the slogan, Let’s Explore? I think that it’s a pretty hard choice. For a start, just about every one of Zambia’s competitors could claim it, yet that’s the new slogan that Zambia will be using. Let’s Explore Zambia replaces Zambia the Real Africa which has lead its marketing efforts for 30 years.

The Lusaka Times reports that World Bank senior private sector development specialist Marie Sheppard said Zambia’s new brand is a creative innovation that will attract more tourists from across the globe. She said the World Bank was one of the partners the Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) engaged to create a new brand for the sector.

In January I blogged about Zambia’s brand development becoming mired in a beauty contest in which stakeholders were trying to decide between various tagline options. I remarked that they should actually be researching consumers, then debating and agreeing on the strongest positioning possible and rallying support behind it, before making the common mistake of taking the shortcut to Tagline and Logoville, without going through the tough neighborhood of Positioning. It doesn’t come more bland and generic than Let’s Explore. This is so disappointing because Zambia is a much better destination than this effort represents. Although, the good news is that they have continued to use Victoria Falls prominently in the logo.

Is Nevada Really Looking For a Magic Wand Instead of a Destination Branding Strategy?

The Nevada Commission on Tourism has initiated a $250,000 research and development program intended to promote the state as a single brand and revitalize visitor numbers which have fallen 3.1 percent in the past five years.

There are many aspects of this story that I find puzzling.  Foremost among these is the prominence of logo and slogan fixations in the comments by key stakeholders involved in the project.  It is as if they are searching for a magic wand – not a comprehensive brand strategy. 

The actions seem to be directed toward communications solutions or unrealistic expectations of a slogan rather than the development of a unifying brand strategy that will also address issues such as partnership development, product development and experience delivery. On a more positive note, it’s good that they had the courage to reach outside the state to tap an agency for an objective point of view.

Chicago’s “Second to None” Slogan Comes in Second

After launching its new slogan “Second to None”, the Chicago Convention & Visitors Bureau has found itself in second place in claiming the line.  It seems that the second largest city in Illinois, Aurora has been using the line “A City Second to None” since 2005. 

The Daily Herald reports that Aurora mayor Tom Weisner being a good sport said he is flattered by the bureau's imitation of his city's slogan, but Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau officials say the words best fit Chicago.

“Perhaps it's not totally original,” Weisner said. “But they're borrowing our slogan, which simply tells us that, indeed, we are ‘Second to None' if we have a big city like Chicago copying one of their smaller neighbors.”

I really have to wonder how thoroughly the existing use of destination slogans and taglines are researched before being introduced.

New Zealand 100% Pure Slogan: 100% Correct

OK. I’m an Aussie and we are rarely able to praise or agree with New Zealanders, but kudos where it’s due. Over the past decade or so, New Zealand’s tourism branding efforts have been about the best out there. This was not always the case. I recall when I was engaged in the marketing of Australia in The Americas and Europe, Australia had a well-developed sense of identity but New Zealand consistently struggled to articulate a coherent brand identity.  I have to admit that on occasions these days I feel that the tables have turned.

Since its launch in 1999, New Zealand’s brand strategy, based on its pristine environment and sense of adventure and summarized as 100% Pure New Zealand, has enjoyed amazing success. Yet, it’s hard to believe that it was greeted with skepticism when it was first announced. Even harder to believe is that there is still criticism of the brand within New Zealand.  This further reinforces the point that I frequently make to communities - they will never get 100% agreement from stakeholders for their brand positioning, logo or slogan, so don’t wait for it.

Recently, there has been some criticism from within New Zealand of the country’s ability to deliver on its promise 100% of the time. As the editorial in the New Zealand Herald advocates, “effective marketing slogans, as this one is, can seldom be taken literally. They need to convey an essential truth, not a precise one. New Zealand, in the eye of anyone who has seen the world, is notably clean, green, fresh and wholesome.”

I couldn’t agree more. Additionally, great strategies and creativity often have to be supported by great leadership. Of course filming the Hobbit Movie there will no doubt provide even more impetus and reinforce the essence of this great brand.

Bergen, Norway Deserves Two World Heritage Listings

I am in Bergen, Norway to speak at a conference later this week. This has given me the opportunity to take a close look at what makes this delightful place one the most popular small city destinations in Europe. Bergen bills itself as “The Gateway to the Fjords”. The city most certainly earned this credential. Normally I would advise any city wanting to brand itself as a gateway to anything to forget about it. However, in this case the city is surrounded by fjords and there are no other places that offer the lodging, tours and ambience of Bergen.

It is no accident that Bergen and the surrounding region are included twice on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The city is situated between Norway's longest (and second largest in the world) fjord, the Songnefjord, and the Hardangerfjord, making it the best starting point for exploring these majestic waterways with their richly contrasting scenery. Waterfalls cascade down mountainsides, small villages with green pastures line the fjords, while perpetual snow glistens on the summits of the tallest peaks. Any wonder that National Geographic ranked the Norwegian fjords as one of the top destinations in the world.

The very first buildings in Bergen were situation at Bryggen (the wharf) and were established in the 12^th century from where this seaport dominated trade for 400 years.  Bryggen has remained basically unchanged over the centuries despite the odd fire or two. Like the fjords, it has also been placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and the city of Bergen is a designated World Heritage City. The world heritage site consists of the old Hanseatic wharf and buildings, and one of the best townscapes dating from Middle Ages. Today, you can stroll through the narrow alleyways and overhanging buildings that make this a living part of the city’s cultural heritage.

This is a tough job, but I will have to go out today to uncover more about this fascinating city.

Salem: It’s a Witch’s Hat – No It’s a Sail!

 
Salem, MA has a fascinating history as both a seaport and the location of the famous witch trials of 1692. Destination Salem recently launched a new logo and tagline to refresh the city's identity in a way that taps into its history and current appeal as a seaport.

The logo cleverly presents a pointed witch’s hat and sailboat in the same design. The tagline, “Still Making History” is aimed at moving the city’s identity beyond the infamous witch trials.

While the new logo and tagline are important elements of the city’s brand identity, there does not seem to be a brand strategy that includes stakeholder adoption, product development or the brand management guidelines.  But what they have done is certainly much better than the efforts of many other communities we've seen recently.

Austin TX, A True Original

Many cities that establish their brand on a cultural attribute often have difficulty in sustaining the brand. An exception is Austin TX which has established its brand based on it being the “Live Music Capital of the World”. It also has an unofficial slogan, “Keep Austin Weird” that is widely used by locals and lives harmoniously with the official tagline. Both of them seem to capture the zeitgeist of the city.

Kevin Lynch in the U.K.’s Daily Mirror visited Austin and his story shows how the city delivers on its brand promise as the live music capital and why Austin should be kept weird. I love how some places don’t have to tell you what makes them unique. They are able to just let the experience speak for itself. They are the true originals.

A Shared Vision on City Branding in Europe Loses Focus

It was recently stated in LEADERS magazine that European place branding was at least a decade ahead of the practice in the USA. So it was with great anticipation that I began reading the report, "A Shared Vision on City Branding in Europe". 

Last weekend I collaborated with my friend Robert Govers who is Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Leuven, Belgium and author on Place Branding in writing a brief critique on the report, which is posted here on Placebranz blog. I must admit that the report has left me scratching my head and thinking of the old Peggy Lee song, “Is That All There Is?”

The authors state that the objective of the report is to produce a “best practice guide”, but instead they became fixated on logos and slogans, without providing consistent insight into the strategic rational needed to successfully underpin them. Some of the slogans included:

• Zaragoza “A challenge, a city”
• Manchester “A mature city”
• Lyon “Only Lyon”
• Ghent “So much city”

With slogans like these, I seriously doubt whether place branding in Europe is really a decade ahead of the practice in the USA. Afterall, we have plenty of similar slogans in the USA founded on generic, parity or irrelevant propositions. I think that we’ve all still got a long way to go.

I was hoping that the report would serve as a building block to advance on the existing publications on place and destination branding. One of the most recent being the excellent Handbook on Tourism Destination Branding produced by the World Tourism Organization and the European Travel Commission which had a strong foundation in the branding of European cities. Unfortunately, the European Cities report produced by a working group comprising representatives of forty European cities, fell way short of the mark.

Kilgore, TX: The City of Stars

Oil-rich Kilgore, TX is nearing the end of a three year process to design a new city logo and tagline – that’s all, just a logo and tagline. No research needed, just various committees providing their thoughts on micro-managing the design of the logo and tagline. This may be OK if the target audience is only comprised of local citizens and the need is only to make City stationery look more attractive.

The News Journal reports that unfortunately Kilgore leaders became averse to engaging a brand planning company after nearby Longview, TX had a bad experience with a large company a few years ago. This has led them on a self-guided path to manage the logo and tagline creation process themselves.

The new logo has now been released after three years and a final fine-tuning, but has only been "unofficially" approved.

I just hope that they remember the words of City Manager Jeffrey Howell when they finish. Howell said, “A logo is not a brand and will cost the city only what it pays the two designers. That’s far less than marketing outfits command for months-long research campaigns associated with branding.”

So Kilgore, don’t start calling it a brand, thinking that it’s a competitive identity or using it externally because outsiders will be confused when they hear that Kilgore is “The City of Stars”.  We wouldn’t want prospective visitors to think that they are heading to Beverly Hills or Hollywood.

Santa Monica Celebrates as America’s Most Celebrated Beach City

Santa Monica, CA has celebrated the award of its latest accolade with the release of a new logo and tagline to commemorate the occasion.

The logo with its accompanying tagline, "California's most celebrated beach city" was spurred by the National Geographic recognition of the city as “One of the Top 10 Beach Cities in the World”. The recognition prompted the Santa Monica CVB to contact local groups to compile a list of honors received in 2010.

The survey revealed that more than 75 accolades were collected by local businesses, government organizations and individuals during the year. These included the award to Fig’s for Best Use of Bacon in Los Angeles magazine's Best of LA issue. Now, that’s seriously important for one of the country’s best brunch destinations!

B.C. Cities Join Forces for 'Handpicked in the Valley'

Several cities in the Fraser Valley outside of Vancouver, BC, Canada are entering into a joint marketing agreement. Tourism Abbotsford has entered into a marketing partnership with Tourism Langley and Tourism Chilliwack to jointly target priority markets. The program will enable the tourism groups to gain greater efficiencies from their combined budgets while targeting common markets.
 
"We all agree that by working together to create a multi-jurisdictional marketing campaign, we will benefit more than by working independently. Creating routes by combining key products for each community will only strengthen people’s awareness of the Fraser Valley," said Deborah Kulchiski, executive director of Tourism Langley. 
 
The groups will develop the brand identity for the region and promote under the marketing umbrella, "Handpicked in the Valley – Where Adventures Take Route". Promotional tools such as the website, www.handpickedinthevalley.com, will be launched this Spring.

"I Love New York": An Insider’s View

Having worked on Australia’s "Come and Say G’Day" campaign (better known as "Shrimp on the Barbie"), I know first-hand how much myth and misinformation can develop around these iconic campaigns. I am delighted that Peggy Bendel, one of the key insiders of the seminal "I Love New York" campaign has contributed a chapter to Keith Dinnie’s latest book City Branding in which she outlines the individuals, extraordinary efforts and partnerships in what were very difficult economic times for New York City.

It is sometimes forgotten that "I Love New York" was launched at a low point in the city’s history. As Peggy outlines in City Branding, "New York City’s fiscal crisis had reached epic proportions, with default on the City’s debt a possibility. Seeking help from Washington, then-Mayor Abraham Beame woke on the morning of October 30 1975 to the New York Daily News blaring on its front page: Ford to City: Drop Dead!" Peggy concisely retraces the steps and individuals who managed to garner the funding, creative talent and strategy to launch one of the most iconic destination marketing campaigns of all time.

This chapter whets my appetite for even more of Peggy’s stories that I am sure would make an excellent book in their own right. What’s more, there may be some great learning and inspirational moments from New York’s story for many more cities that are currently struggling to find their way forward in today’s tough times.

New Place Branding Book: City Branding - Theory and Cases

Several months ago I was honored to be invited by my friend Keith Dinnie to write the Introduction for his new book, City Branding – Theory and Cases. This is a follow-up to his first book Nation Branding – Concepts, Issues and Practices.  I just received my copy of City Branding and I don’t think I've seen a more comprehensive range of city branding examples.

The first part of City Branding is devoted to many of the principles and concepts behind successful city branding, while the second part of the book shines the light on cities as diverse as Accra (Ghana,) Ahmedabad (India), New York and Paris.

Branding Cities explores the theory of city branding and illustrates a variety of approaches taken to address the circumstances of a wide range of cities. The examples reveal the complex, multi-dimensional elements involved in defining city brands. Importantly, the book highlights not only those cities which have been successful, but also some that have faltered or failed.

City Branding – Theory and Cases is available at Amazon.com.

Super Bowl XLV Boosts the Arlington, TX Brand

 
This weekend's Super Bowl XLV in Arlington TX will give more than the usual boost to its host city. In May 2009, the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau revealed its new brand strategy with the tagline, "and the crowd goes wild". This replaced their previous positioning as "Fun Central" which was largely based on the city's Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor theme parks, and the Texas Rangers Baseball Park. The new Dallas Cowboys Stadium added to Arlington's already impressive crowd-pleasing capabilities and stimulated the refinement of the original brand strategy.

Like many Super Bowl hosts before them, the Arlington CVB is making the most of the opportunity. They are hosting the media, celebrities and opinion-leaders to promote their city. But possibly no previous host city has had the event so closely aligned with its brand essence. No doubt they will live up to their promise and the crowd will go wild!

So, will it be the Steelers or Packers?  

Mesa, AZ: “Power Knowledge Corridor”

The East Valley Tribune reports that Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa AZ plans to develop the brand identity for eleven miles of highway as “The Power Knowledge Corridor”.

The Mayor said the city will replace street signs this year in what will be the first step in establishing the brand identity for the corridor. “Branding is important,” Smith said. “It’s really the first step in getting people to think differently about an area, to focus on an area and to really differentiate that area from other areas.”

The mayor is making a great start, but to develop a brand for the area will take more than installing new signs. It will take a comprehensive strategy that should engage the citizens and also address the identity issues relating to Mesa as the region’s major city. But at least he's heading in the right direction.