City Branding: Overview

These days, increasing inter-city competitiveness means that councils and municipal bods face the challenge of making their towns stand out from the rest. But whereas a product can have a simple USP or a clear brand identity, a city is a complex, changing organism that tends to shun definition. Laura Swinton examines the art of pinning down and selling the mercurial metropolis

Good news for creatives and strategists who wasted too much of their youth playing Sim City – place branding is big business and every municipal council with a vowel in its name is turning to advertising agencies and PR companies to put their city on the map. The task of distilling a pulsing, bustling hive of millions of people into one simple slogan can seem, on the face of it, a daunting challenge. It ain’t like working on a new brand of baked beans. Or is it?

City branding may be on the rise, but it’s no new phenomenon. Chinese, for example, is littered with ancient ‘chengyu’ (sayings) that praise the beauty of various cities and have lived on for hundreds of years. The ancient Greeks were keen on raising awe-inspiring temples to impress visitors, and the Athenian statesman Themistocles is said to have boasted “I understand the art of raising a little village into a great city”. Also, by the 19th century, the term ‘boosterism’ was coined to describe the rampant promotion of young American cities by venal estate agents and eager civic leaders. But when it comes to raising their profile, cities of the 21st century face a far greater challenge than those of the past. For one thing there’s an awful lot more of them competing to be heard, and for another, modern cities are bigger, noisier and more complicated than ever before.

Hunting the kernel of truth

So how does one go about creating a brand for a modern city? Joe Zhou, the vice president of public affairs at Ogilvy Beijing, explains the agency’s approach to the task of rebranding the Chinese city of Chengdu. Its Pambassadors campaign, which recently gathered a Cannes PR Lion nomination and a clutch of awards, including an Effie and an Asian Marketing Effectiveness Award, sought to reposition Chengdu, which boasts an important panda conservation centre, as the home of the Great Panda and a centre of research and nature. According to Zhou, the key to building a city brand is to ask the same questions that one would when starting any campaign, and to see past the ever-changing ephemera of metropolitan life.

“On its face, building a city brand can be very similar to building a brand for any other product: What are the core insights and elements that make the city unique? What are the values that bring the people together and lend the city its character? How are these elements expressed in the day to day environment?” says Zhou. “However, a city is a very complex and multi-faceted product, and it requires constant attention to make sure that the brand vision is captured and channeled effectively. The challenge is to find the kernel of truth in the city, and to constantly focus on that, without being distracted by the hundreds of daily happenings, events, announcements, and new strategies.”

But the idea that a city can truly be reduced to one essential truth is not one that sits comfortably with Simon Anholt, a policy advisor whose research into the idea of city brands has led him to less positive conclusions. “The idea that you can reduce a city down to something so simple like a logo or a brand is to reduce it to a promise or a product,” sighs Anholt. “The whole essence of branding is simplicity; the essence of place is complexity. The reason I like London is that it is not just one thing. I like Persil because it can get my whites white. I like London because… well because I don’t know why I like it.”

Surprising travels in psycho-geography

Nonetheless, while the idea of simplifying a city might feel strange, municipal authorities around the world are queuing up for a brand new brand. Joe Zhou at Ogilvy notes the proliferation of so-called second and third-tier Chinese cities attempting to boost their profile and capitalise on the country’s growing international economic clout. “Many Chinese cities are already interested and are actively building their global brand and reputation. This is a reflection of their need to connect with global audiences, whether they are visitors, investors, immigrants, emigrants, or any other interested group. The key change that we are seeing is the vision and commitment of resources that is changing the branding approach,” explains Zhou. “One of the things we need to remember is that although some of China’s major cities are thousands of years old, they are new to the tools and techniques of modern PR and branding. They also often stand in the shadow of China’s key metropolises which get most of the foreign visitors, and the lion’s share of media coverage.”

Meanwhile, in Europe one recent study by think tank the Urban Land Institute (ULI) insists that inter-city competition for investment and consumers is increasing and that it is branding that will determine which cities will emerge victorious. Of course this search for an essential, authentic, unifying ‘truth’ of a city may take creative teams on some surprising psycho-geographical journeys – but what happens, though, when what you discover is less than palatable?

While working on the branding for the Northern Irish capital, Belfast, the team at Lloyd Northover had some very tricky issues to negotiate. The city has a rich, fascinating history, dating back to the early Bronze Age and including, among other things, the building of the Titanic. Plus, no visitor can fail to be taken in by the warm and witty ‘craic’ of the local population. Nonetheless, in many minds, Belfast is still inextricably linked to The Troubles. According to chairman, Jim Northover, it was important to acknowledge the city’s recent history, while also looking to the future. Indeed, in one respect, the whole idea behind the Belfast campaign ‘Be Here Now’ was to capture the spirit of change and positivity as the city emerged from the shadows of strife following the Good Friday Agreement. “Looking at what we achieved, the people involved did not become so over-obsessed with the past that it constrained their future. But you can’t deny where you’ve come from. When the power-sharing agreement took off it was an exciting time. Belfast has always punched above its weight in terms of international profile – not always for the best reasons. However you can tap into that,” explains Northover. “The idea of ‘Be Here Now’ is that Belfast was emerging from 30 years of strife, a change more positive than anything that it had seen for generations, and this moment needed to be captured.”

That said, a brand can’t be imposed on a city in the same way as any other product. For one thing, instead of having one demanding client to please, an agency has to juggle the opinions of thousands of residents, businesses and institutions. And of course each has his or her own opinion about what their home town means to them. Get it right and you have a rallying banner for municipal pride – get it wrong and your campaign will be reduced to the butt of the joke in local newspaper columns.

Grit, grime and ‘Glasgow smiles’

Indeed, the idea that a brand must be rooted in authenticity is a cornerstone of the ULI report. Successful campaigns are those that come from the people. It’s no coincidence that the most iconic city brand is one that arose organically, gleefully misappropriated by the residents of New York. As every design nerd knows, Milton Glaser’s seminal ‘I Í NY’ campaign was never originally intended to represent New York City – it was created for New York State. And yet, to millions of people around the world, these four simple characters represent the vibrancy of the city that never sleeps. Glaser himself has been quoted as remarking “no one could have had any idea how significant the logo would become, certainly not me”. Which begs the question – is it even possible for an agency to manufacture the spontaneity and popular appeal that characterises the world’s most persistent and pervasive city brand?

Well, perhaps. As Northover explains, while it may be tempting to whitewash the murkier elements of a city’s cultural or political makeup, getting in touch with the grit and grime of a city’s history can help maintain authenticity. “There are a lot of cities trying to do a branding job, but so often with the same sense of bonhomie and blandness. If you look at cities like Belfast or Berlin, there is a recent history of conflict and division. People don’t want to go anywhere dangerous or unsafe but they do want to go somewhere interesting. The world has a tendency to homogeneity – the ‘Starbucks effect’. You can go to lots of cities in Europe and have the same experience. People are looking for something different.”

A similar story can also be seen with Glasgow. The earliest high profile example of city branding in the UK, the ‘Glasgow’s Miles Better’ campaign’ took off when then Lord Provost (a sort of Scottish mayor), Dr Michael Kelly, decided that his city could use some of that ‘I heart NY’. With the permission of Mr. Men illustrator Roger Hargreaves, the character Mr Happy became an honorary ‘weegie’ (Glaswegian). The campaign launched in 1984 and was immediately embraced by local residents. The city saw the opening of a plethora of cultural facilities and was by 1990 named European Capital of Culture. And in the spirit of authenticity and honesty (and local humour), it should be noted that behind the child-friendly logo and slogan lurks a darkly playful pun on the infamous ‘Glasgow Smile’. Small wonder that even though the campaign was retired in 1989, it re-emerged, back by popular demand, in 1994.

Not everyone is convinced that it is quite so easy to change people’s perceptions. Simon Anholt also oversees the Anholt-GfK Roper City Brands Index, which surveys a sample of nearly 20,000 people in 20 countries each year, asking about their perceptions of various cities. In his experience working on the city index and monitoring research on the topic, people’s perceptions of cities and countries is surprisingly robust and he has seen no academic paper that has demonstrated that a city branding campaign has had a quantifiable effect. Where a city’s international profile does appear to have improved, Anholt reckons that is due more to real-world economic, structural or cultural change than branding. “I would argue that ‘I Í NY’ didn’t change anyone’s opinion, it captured something that already existed,” he muses. When it comes to branding, he argues, people often confuse cause and effect. Glasgow, he argues, didn’t experience rejuvenation because of the classic ‘Glasgow’s Miles Better’ campaign, rather the city could afford such a campaign because it was experiencing an economic upswing. “Places are judged by what they make and do, not by what they say about themselves.”

The spirit of ‘boosterism’

What’s more, with all this talk of ‘changing perceptions’ and ‘managing opinions’, exactly whose opinions are place-branding exercises attempting to alter? Unlike traditional advertising campaigns which may be directed at one particular demographic, city-branding exercises tend to have rather more ambitious aims. They don’t simply aim to increase visitor numbers or convince investors to set up shop, as Greg Clark, senior fellow at ULI explains: “It is not enough for a city to have a brand that attracts tourists. Cities must have an identity that reaches across different markets and customers and tells a unifying story about the value the city can add to the activity that is looking for a home. The key point is that identity does not just help us to sell our city; it is also critical to shaping and building our city and providing the magnet that can draw people and institutions together for a common identity and purpose.” It’s an ambitious undertaking, however, and by attempting to create brands that are ‘all things to all men’ don’t we risk blandness and confusion?

However, not all city branding projects are necessarily aimed at changing perceptions and some do have very clear briefs. While it may be tricky to negotiate the baggage of an ancient metropolis, it is surely even more challenging still when the city you’re working on has no such history to draw from. That’s exactly what Lulu Raghavan, country director for Landor India, came up against when she and her team were invited to work on creating the brand for a shiny new Indian city.

So how did the team cope without the raw materials of romance and mystery that come with an old metropolis? And how did they avoid creating a sterile paradise? “That’s a very Western perspective,” Raghavan retorts. “It’s very different here as a concept. Lavasa is positioned as an alternative to congestion which allows you to live freely and not have to deal with the chaos of life in an Indian megapolis. This is
not a case of managing sterility – it’s about escaping the chaos; seeking some order because everything is so chaotic.”

Indeed even Anholt, a self-confessed skeptic acknowledges the merit of city branding. “If you are building a new place, in a way I am more sympathetic to branding because you do need to fast track the sense of the place that you are selling.” And in that sense, the Lavasa project is, at heart, the true heir to the old American spirit of ‘boosterism’.

And while it seems a city’s fortunes are unlikely to be shaped by branding alone, when a campaign is accompanied by real change – whether that’s Chengdu’s efforts to recover from the earthquake, Glasgow’s cultural renaissance, Belfast’s peace agreement or, heck, the creation of a brand new city – then it can at least create a symbolic rallying point.