Again, from Global City in Abu Dhabi

Posted by Carol Coletta on April 08, 2009

Tweeting again today from the Global City Conference in Abu Dhabi.  Read my posts here.

I was on the branding panel with an outstanding group of people. Thomas Sevcik, CEO of Arthesia, moderated very smartly.  Her Excellency Reem al Shemari, General Manager, Abu Dhabi Office of Brand, showed off what she has been able to do in just one year.  The Abu Dhabi brand will be built around "respect," and the research with local citizens and influentials puts her on solid ground.  Walter Anderau, on the board of Greater Zurich and a client of Arthesia, showed the clever way Zurich has moved from its brand from a one-note financial center to a series of four "themelands" that marry Zurich today with the city's aspirations in inspired ways.  (Zurich themes:  Machine in the Garden; Knowledge Eccentrics; Corporate Utopia; Cultural Innovation.)  And Dr. Kathy Alexander, CEO, City of Melbourne, told a great story about a great city using great photos. 

Interestingly, neither Zurich nor Melbourne pursued branding in a traditional way -- no slogans, barely a logo.

My contribution was to tell sad stories of place branding that didn't work.  Here's the way I started my remarks: 

"On the flight from London to Abu Dhabi, I found myself sitting next to one of our speakers, Wilben Short.  He will talk this afternoon about his work in London on transport for the Olympics.  We didn’t introduce ourselves until the plane was making its descent, but when finally we did, I realized that he should probably have been on this panel instead of me.

"Here’s why: Chicago is a finalist for the 2016 Olympics and when I left on Sunday, the Olympics evaluation committee was making its final visit.  As Wilben explained to me, to win the Olympics you have to convince only the 106 people who actually vote on the site.  And the way London convinced them was not with a litany of features that would be associated with the games.  Instead, London sold a story, a story about how the games would get more people – especially young people --  into sport, and transform the poorest district in one of the world’s richest cities. 

"London, in effect, sold the games with a three-step program: 

"Know your market and what they need to make a decision.

"Don’t sell features; Don’t even sell benefits.  Sell a story.

"And make that story transformative for the market you want to influence.  Help them understand the difference they will make if they buy what you are selling.

"That’s the best summary of place branding I’ve ever heard."

I warned our audience that places talk back.  "McDonald’s hamburgers conveniently can’t comment on their brand.  The liquid known as Coke has no voice.  Nike shoes are silent (unless you own the ones outfitted with iPods).  That is a real advantage when you are attempting to give life to a brand.

But cities talk back because they are full of opinionated people who feel they have every right to comment when you hang a tag on them that tells the world what they are all about."

Conference is now over.  Tomorrow, I head 90 miles by car to Dubai for a 36 hour look.  I was told that there are a lot of dark (read: empty) towers there.  Interested to see for myself.  Is it a train wreck?