Idea/Objective/Challenge
The Promotion Festival of Cities and Regions was the largest event in Europe dedicated to place branding. Furthermore, it provided a 5-year platform for dialogue, for building relations and trust with local governments and social environment of Ströer Group in Poland. The aim of the project was to change the authorities’ attitude to the company as well as to establish contacts with the individuals having the greatest impact on its business operation on the side of the local government administration.
The festival fitted in the new reality of Poland, involving the growing awareness of local governments regarding the need to conduct well-thought-out promotion activities that directly impact on the economic successes of cities and regions. The festival has significantly contributed to creating ‘the market’ of territorial marketing in Poland.
At a strategic level the objective of this long-term venture included:
- Developing the awareness of the company among the highest-ranking officials (the most important ones from the standpoint of the company's decision-makers) from the largest cities
- Building a broad communication platform between the company and local government administrations, in particular with the decision-makers
- Creating opportunities for establishing more frequent and more intensive contacts with local governments
- Enabling access to the knowledge concerning current activities of local governments significant from the stand point of the company's business operations
- Building Ströer Group's image as a reliable, strong, professional partner in cooperation with cities, particularly in the field of implementation of promotional projects
Moreover
- Creating an important and prestigious forum for the exchange of knowledge and experiences between individuals who on a daily basis deal with the development and implementation of promotional strategies aiming at building a strong, recognisable city image
- Integration of the environment of the local government, business and advertising sector. Enabling contacts of local governments with professionals from Poland and from abroad
- Promoting the highest standards of work, creativity, reliability and commitment in the process of city image building and promotion
- Honouring outstanding promotional projects implemented by local governments in Poland
Realization:
The two fundamental components of the Festival included:
A conference dedicated to the issues of broadly considered place promotion with the participation of eminent specialists in the fields of territorial marketing, representing, inter alia, cities and regions from all over the world that have been greatly successful in terms of image and economy from, inter alia, Barcelona (Spain), Virginia (USA), Philadelphia (USA), Berlin (Germany) Edinburgh (Great Britain), Amsterdam (the Netherlands) as well as many Polish cities and regions. In every edition of the Festival the Presidential Panel was a prestigious component, attended by presidents and marshals of voivodeships with outstanding results of city and region promotion.
The Golden Formats Contest, whose aim was to honour outstanding promotional projects implemented by local governments in Poland and an official Gala event during which the Golden Formats prizes are awarded.
The event was accompanied by a wide-scale publicity campaign, public affairs and public relations activities comprising, among other things: enlisting honorary institutional partners of the event, a national advertising campaign and communication activities addressed directly to local governments.
Results
- Each year the Festival gathered more than 400 participants from 270 local governments and representatives of academic circles, research centres, business and advertising sectors
- As a result of media activities undertaken more than 1000 publications appeared, containing chiefly information about the Festival, the Gold Formats Contest and about Ströer Group. The publications appeared in the national, regional (14 out of 16 voivodeships) and professional press
- Over 200 projects from nearly 100 cities were submitted for the Golden Formats Contest
- Ströer Group has fulfilled all its business and image-related goals
- The event has become a mandatory engagement for all the individuals who are involved in place branding on a professional basis. It has been received with significant recognition and approval of the representatives of cities and regions. It served as an international forum for the exchange of thoughts and ideas regarding modern place promotion.
Citybell Consulting was supporting our company for 5 years in the planning and implementation of public affairs activities addressed to the local government circles, which has always been a particularly important group of stakeholders. Citybell is a highly professional and knowledgeable partner that has greatly contributed to our success.