It was interesting in reviewing the various entries from around Sweden and to reflect on what made for an outstanding entry.
The official criteria, which are extremely valid, were a Place Branding project that led to the growth of the destination in terms of tourism, inward investment, residential growth or an increase in activity such as congresses and exhibitions.
The three things I look for
But what more was I looking for as a judge? What else was important to see that went beyond these initial worthy criteria?
1. One of the striking things is that too many place branding activities are ‘campaign focused’. Campaigns in my mind tend to be too short term. Places are difficult things to market and create strong brands for. Branding takes time and a campaign tends to be a shorter term, one off, event. I think part of the issue is that traditional advertising agencies themselves are very campaign oriented. Traditional advertising agencies aren’t terribly good at dealing with the greater complexity that Place Branding really demands.
Equally the place or destination itself needs to clearly identify goals with definable long term strategic objectives. What is the place trying to achieve? What are their goals in terms of either inward investment, tourism or residential growth. Too often these are missing and even when present, tend to be expressed in generalities. Each place is different and demands a different, long term, set of objectives.
2. Once these longer term goals and objectives are identified the focus should be on creating a really distinct positioning. The art of marketing is the art of branding. The art of branding is the creation of a distinct positioning. Being number one in your chosen category. It is the hardest thing to get right. We did it wonderfully well with the work we did for Stockholm – as The Capital of Scandinavia. A simple and clear proposition. A distinct positioning means being just that – distinct. You can’t be all things to all people. You need to stand for something and that will probably lead to some people not liking it. But if you produce wallpaper that doesn’t stand out, odds are you won’t offend anyone- but equally you won’t stand out either.
3. Communications that really communicates. Beyond the branding elements I obviously look at the communications thinking and increasingly a good mix between traditional media and activities and social media use. I think nearly all places and destinations engage in some form of social media activity nowadays, but unfortunately too much of it is disjointed and sporadic. The world of marketing has been turned on its head in the last ten years and nowadays customers are in control of what they want to see and experience. They can get more information, and form opinions about places, and brands, without ever looking at your website or following your social media posts. The whole focus nowadays should be built around attracting the right customers to seek you out and the way you do that is with great quality Content and strong Inbound Marketing programmes. If you are not using this approach in your marketing yet, odds are you are producing lots of content but it is probably being wasted, and measurement of results is not being utilised to refine messaging and campaigns. The key is creating great quality content, without it being overly sales oriented. It firstly needs to be great quality content on a topic. Approach it as you would a relationship with a person. On the first date you don’t normally offer to get married and have kids. You get to know each other and gently build the relationship. It’s like that with marketing and especially content and inbound.
If you have not yet started thinking about Inbound, give us a call or visit the Inbound page on the UP THERE, EVERYWHERE website. We have teams of Inbound experts globally who can advise and help.
www.upthereeverywhere.com/inbound-marketing-services/
Tag Archives: place branding
3 Lessons in Place Branding Excellence
- Saturday, 11 October 2014 11:36
- Written by Julian Stubbs
- 0 Comments
I was recently fortunate enough to one of the judges on the PlaceBrander of the year awards in Sweden. The ceremony event was held at the very modern and stylish Copperhill Mountain Lodge resort in Åre, Sweden. The very worthy winner of the event this year was Umeå, which is the European Capital of Culture.
It was interesting in reviewing the various entries from around Sweden and to reflect on what made for an outstanding entry.
The official criteria, which are extremely valid, were a Place Branding project that led to the growth of the destination in terms of tourism, inward investment, residential growth or an increase in activity such as congresses and exhibitions.
The three things I look for
But what more was I looking for as a judge? What else was important to see that went beyond these initial worthy criteria?
1. One of the striking things is that too many place branding activities are ‘campaign focused’. Campaigns in my mind tend to be too short term. Places are difficult things to market and create strong brands for. Branding takes time and a campaign tends to be a shorter term, one off, event. I think part of the issue is that traditional advertising agencies themselves are very campaign oriented. Traditional advertising agencies aren’t terribly good at dealing with the greater complexity that Place Branding really demands.
Equally the place or destination itself needs to clearly identify goals with definable long term strategic objectives. What is the place trying to achieve? What are their goals in terms of either inward investment, tourism or residential growth. Too often these are missing and even when present, tend to be expressed in generalities. Each place is different and demands a different, long term, set of objectives.
2. Once these longer term goals and objectives are identified the focus should be on creating a really distinct positioning. The art of marketing is the art of branding. The art of branding is the creation of a distinct positioning. Being number one in your chosen category. It is the hardest thing to get right. We did it wonderfully well with the work we did for Stockholm – as The Capital of Scandinavia. A simple and clear proposition. A distinct positioning means being just that – distinct. You can’t be all things to all people. You need to stand for something and that will probably lead to some people not liking it. But if you produce wallpaper that doesn’t stand out, odds are you won’t offend anyone- but equally you won’t stand out either.
3. Communications that really communicates. Beyond the branding elements I obviously look at the communications thinking and increasingly a good mix between traditional media and activities and social media use. I think nearly all places and destinations engage in some form of social media activity nowadays, but unfortunately too much of it is disjointed and sporadic. The world of marketing has been turned on its head in the last ten years and nowadays customers are in control of what they want to see and experience. They can get more information, and form opinions about places, and brands, without ever looking at your website or following your social media posts. The whole focus nowadays should be built around attracting the right customers to seek you out and the way you do that is with great quality Content and strong Inbound Marketing programmes. If you are not using this approach in your marketing yet, odds are you are producing lots of content but it is probably being wasted, and measurement of results is not being utilised to refine messaging and campaigns. The key is creating great quality content, without it being overly sales oriented. It firstly needs to be great quality content on a topic. Approach it as you would a relationship with a person. On the first date you don’t normally offer to get married and have kids. You get to know each other and gently build the relationship. It’s like that with marketing and especially content and inbound.
If you have not yet started thinking about Inbound, give us a call or visit the Inbound page on the UP THERE, EVERYWHERE website. We have teams of Inbound experts globally who can advise and help.
www.upthereeverywhere.com/inbound-marketing-services/
It was interesting in reviewing the various entries from around Sweden and to reflect on what made for an outstanding entry.
The official criteria, which are extremely valid, were a Place Branding project that led to the growth of the destination in terms of tourism, inward investment, residential growth or an increase in activity such as congresses and exhibitions.
The three things I look for
But what more was I looking for as a judge? What else was important to see that went beyond these initial worthy criteria?
1. One of the striking things is that too many place branding activities are ‘campaign focused’. Campaigns in my mind tend to be too short term. Places are difficult things to market and create strong brands for. Branding takes time and a campaign tends to be a shorter term, one off, event. I think part of the issue is that traditional advertising agencies themselves are very campaign oriented. Traditional advertising agencies aren’t terribly good at dealing with the greater complexity that Place Branding really demands.
Equally the place or destination itself needs to clearly identify goals with definable long term strategic objectives. What is the place trying to achieve? What are their goals in terms of either inward investment, tourism or residential growth. Too often these are missing and even when present, tend to be expressed in generalities. Each place is different and demands a different, long term, set of objectives.
2. Once these longer term goals and objectives are identified the focus should be on creating a really distinct positioning. The art of marketing is the art of branding. The art of branding is the creation of a distinct positioning. Being number one in your chosen category. It is the hardest thing to get right. We did it wonderfully well with the work we did for Stockholm – as The Capital of Scandinavia. A simple and clear proposition. A distinct positioning means being just that – distinct. You can’t be all things to all people. You need to stand for something and that will probably lead to some people not liking it. But if you produce wallpaper that doesn’t stand out, odds are you won’t offend anyone- but equally you won’t stand out either.
3. Communications that really communicates. Beyond the branding elements I obviously look at the communications thinking and increasingly a good mix between traditional media and activities and social media use. I think nearly all places and destinations engage in some form of social media activity nowadays, but unfortunately too much of it is disjointed and sporadic. The world of marketing has been turned on its head in the last ten years and nowadays customers are in control of what they want to see and experience. They can get more information, and form opinions about places, and brands, without ever looking at your website or following your social media posts. The whole focus nowadays should be built around attracting the right customers to seek you out and the way you do that is with great quality Content and strong Inbound Marketing programmes. If you are not using this approach in your marketing yet, odds are you are producing lots of content but it is probably being wasted, and measurement of results is not being utilised to refine messaging and campaigns. The key is creating great quality content, without it being overly sales oriented. It firstly needs to be great quality content on a topic. Approach it as you would a relationship with a person. On the first date you don’t normally offer to get married and have kids. You get to know each other and gently build the relationship. It’s like that with marketing and especially content and inbound.
If you have not yet started thinking about Inbound, give us a call or visit the Inbound page on the UP THERE, EVERYWHERE website. We have teams of Inbound experts globally who can advise and help.
www.upthereeverywhere.com/inbound-marketing-services/
Cool Ideas in Place Branding and Place Marketing
- Sunday, 21 September 2014 07:11
- Written by Julian Stubbs
- 0 Comments
THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT IS TAKEN FROM THE BOOK WISH YOU WERE HERE– THE BRANDING OF STOCKHOLM AND PLACES, BY JULIAN STUBBS. AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
Getting people to visit a destination that lies above the Arctic Circle in the middle of winter and then pay a premium price for the privilege has to be seen as a truly great marketing achievement. But that’s exactly what The Ice Hotel in northern Sweden has achieved.
In 1992 an ice seminar was organised by Yngve Bergqvist, who was looking at ways to improve tourism in his home town of Jukkasjärvi, which lies around 17 kilometers from Kiruna in northern Sweden. An igloo of some 60 m2 containing ice sculptures was built to house the event. Unfortunately accommodation at the hotel Yngve managed had run out and so some hardy individuals agreed to spend the night in the igloo. They slept on top of reindeer skins in sleeping bags and the next morning, by way of compensation I should imagine, were given certificates to prove they had done so.
The Ice Hotel
Twenty years later the Ice Hotel brand has spread and now there are ice hotels in sev- eral countries as well as a successful Ice Bar franchise with Absolut Vodka.
The hotel in Sweden is constructed every December and lasts through to the following April, when it melts. Each Spring, around March, 10,000 tons of ice are cut from the frozen Torne river to store for building the following winter’s hotel as well as for creating the unique products that the hotel markets, such as glasses and sculptures made of ice.
Whenever people or organisations com- plain about the difficulties they face in attract- ing people to their particular destination, I like to use the Ice Hotel as an example. Despite severe difficulties, any place, given enough focus on what they have that is truly special and some creative thinking, can succeed.
Few Place Marketing stories can be as inspirational as the one concerning The Ice Hotel in northern Sweden.
LuLeå university;
Great Ideas Grow Better Below Zero.
Similarly Luleå University, which is around 350 kilometers south of the Ice Hotel, has also used their seemingly remote and frozen geographic location to stand out from the crowd. The university has created some impressive marketing ideas and used them to great effect.
To get a free chapter of WISH YOU WERE HERE click this link:
http://page.upthereeverywhere.com/destinations-marketing-book-chapter?utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upthereeverywhere.com%2Fup-for-real%2F
To get a free chapter of WISH YOU WERE HERE click this link:
http://page.upthereeverywhere.com/destinations-marketing-book-chapter?utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upthereeverywhere.com%2Fup-for-real%2F
Place Branding: July 4th, 2013. And I am in Amsterdam I am.
- Monday, 08 July 2013 09:48
- Written by Julian Stubbs
- 0 Comments
July 4th, as we all know, is a rather special day. And for me its special for a couple of good reasons. Firstly its the day our colonial cousins mistakenly threw off the rule of mad King George and us British. It was an obvious mistake by the yanks as since then they have never managed to win anything at cricket and their football team, or soccer as they call it, is absolutely rubbish. Just think what they might have achieved. I write this knowing full well that a few of my American friends will respond with outrage at these remarks and want to correct my lack of appreciation and understanding of their own culture and what they call sports (these are generally activities that no one else in the world wants to play, so that they can declare themselves world champions).
Place Branding. Is Breaking Bad good or bad for Albuquerque?
- Sunday, 20 January 2013 12:55
- Written by Julian Stubbs
- 0 Comments
Thanks to my oldest son, I have become hooked, as it were, on the hit AMC television show Breaking Bad.
Now as a rule I try and not watch too much TV – I actually prefer a good book. But Breaking Bad is compulsive stuff. The show is set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and follows the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, with the aim of securing his family’s financial future before he dies. It’s compelling viewing – but aside from being a great show what is the impact on the setting – Albuquerque, New Mexico. It presents the city in an interesting yet contrasting light: on the one hand being very middle class America, swimming pools and suburbia and on the other as a hotbed of drug dealing, crime and Mexican cartels. It also shows the consequences, which are sometimes utterly appalling, of the choices the characters make. But, from a place branding perspective, is it good or bad for Albuquerque? Would I want to live there or even visit?
But what about the power of television and film?
I have a theory. New York City cops act the way they do because they have seen how New York cops act in the movies. Similarly, film and television can have a huge impact on how a destination acts in terms of their marketing activities.
In a marketing sense, nothing can have as great an impact on a Destination Brand than careful usage of mass media, especially film and television. When we visit cities such as London, New York, San Francisco we more or less know what to expect based on the media picture we have been influenced by. As a kid I watched programmes like The Odd Couple, Streets of San Francisco, Kojak and Bergerac. Films like Bullitt, Puppet on a Chain, Notting Hill and any of the James Bond movies all brought destinations and places to life in vivid technicolor. It made me want to live in New York, visit San Francisco and travel the world. Thats the impact of film and TV on our lives.
UK tourism has enjoyed a huge boost from increased visitor numbers to TV and film locations such as The Da Vinci Code, Gosford Park and Balamory. Frighteningly, I am told 20% of Americans visiting Scotland do so because theyve seen Braveheart. The Harry Potter films alone have led to a 120% increase in visitor numbers to Ainwick Castle in Northumberland, a significant increase in tourism to the region.
Consider the impact of Miami Vice. You can arguably say that undercover narc cops Sonny Crocket and Rico Tubbs helped save south beach from being torn down 30 years ago. When the show first aired in 1984 Miami was at a low point following race riots, the influx of drug cartels and a rise in violent crime. The show, directed by Michael Mann, almost reinvented the city as a star in its own right. His famous edict of the show no earth colours carried over into real life and all the decrepit south beach hotels did themselves up in pinks and blues and the district exploded back into life.
So what about Breaking Bad? With its seedy plot of drugs and crime is it good or bad for Albuquerque?
In some respects the sage advice of P.T. Barnum, the great American showman, could apply: ‘I don’t care what they say about me, just make sure they spell my name right!’
“When Breaking Bad began airing five seasons ago, we were less than thrilled by the subject matter, which is based on a fictional character and story,” says Dale Lockett, head of the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau. But given its popularity, “people are traveling to our city to see the locations featured in the show and then spending time at our attractions, restaurants and hotels,” he adds.
One local tour operator, the ABQ Trolley Co., added a three-hour, $60 per person Breaking Bad tour timed to the shows season premiere – and promptly sold out all seven scheduled departures.
Without doubt it seems whatever the subject matter, TV and film are powerful mediums and brand carriers for locations and places. Added to that its just a damn good TV show.
Anyway, thank god it’s now over. I can return to reading my books.