Every category is designed to showcase the work of destinations, towns, cities, regions, and nations of all sizes. Our Jury will consider each entry’s achievements against the objectives you describe and when you make your entries on the platform, you will be invited to provide the judges with an understanding of your budget and team size.

NEW FOR 2024: THE CITY NATION PLACE LEADERSHIP AWARD

Free to enter, this Award will be presented to the leader of a place brand or marketing organisation [nation, region, or city brand team, destination marketing organisation, economic development or investment attraction organisation etc] who has demonstrated leadership, passion, and innovation in the building and managing of an effective place brand strategy. Over the past ten years, the City Nation Place team has recognised that great place brand leaders have to develop a multiple set of skills – creativity, bravery, patience, diplomacy, and determination, amongst others – and we look forward to celebrating these leadership skills.

This category is open for entry by place organisation teams.  Expert partners, agencies, and consultants are also welcome to nominate their clients. Our jury will consider all entries but we will not announce finalists as we do with other categories in these Awards. Following the first stage of judging, we will contact the top three nominees and ask them to confirm that they are happy to accept the nomination and can confirm that they would be willing and available to attend the City Nation Place Global conference in London on 6th & 7th November.  We will announce the chosen nominee in advance of the conference and invite the winner to address the delegates as they accept their Award.

NEW FOR 2024: THE CITY NATION PLACE FUTURE LEADER AWARD

This category is also free to enter. We invite place brand and marketing organisations to nominate team members for this new Award which aims to recognise those who are doing the hard graft to deliver what can be very complex and demanding initiatives and/or campaigns that contribute to the effectiveness of the place brand strategy. If you have a rising-star, and/or a stand-out team member whose passion for their place brand shines through and whose commitment to their role impresses you, then our jury would like to hear from you. All finalists will be offered a complimentary ticket to join the City Nation Place Global conference in London, providing them with the opportunity to network and learn with other place teams from around the world.

BEST CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT

This category is all about the people factor: a place brand is all about its people and requires the support and endorsement of the citizens. Our Jury are keen to hear how place brand teams are proactively engaging with their citizens through research and communication to understand the essence of their place brand, and to ensure buy-in for the vision for place-making, tourism development, and economic development. Or alternatively, perhaps you have implemented a stellar strategy to promote civic pride and community spirit to build positive momentum around your place brand strategy and create a strong sense of identity. Places which are able to demonstrate that their citizens are actively supporting and collaborating with the place branding approach will do well in this category!

BEST COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

There will be three separate Awards for Best Communication Strategy:

• Best Communication Strategy: Tourism for campaigns with the strategic aim of attracting visitors and growing your tourism economy
• Best Communication Strategy: Economic Development for campaigns with the strategic aim of attracting investment, or attracting talent
• Best Communication Strategy: Place Brand for holistic campaigns with the strategic aim of promoting place attractiveness across all audiences – citizens, visitors, business, talent, and investors

These categories celebrate great place brand story telling – our jury will be looking for communication campaigns which are rooted in the place DNA and which put your place on the map. The jury will also be interested to hear how you have tailored your messaging to your audience, and about creative and effective use of owned, social, and paid media channels – or indeed the creation of completely new ways of communicating your place values and place attractiveness!

BEST USE OF DATA

This category is all about the strategic use of data and how a place has refined and shaped place brand and/or marketing strategy through insights. You may be using data to understand your stakeholders’ challenges; perhaps you traced the tourist footprint or investment decision process to understand their journey and develop an improved offering. You may have improved your measurement of the tangible impact of place branding initiatives and place marketing campaigns on international and residents' perceptions. Our jury will be looking for detailed, thorough and innovative new approaches in how you have gathered information and then translated that into actions – for data gathering as well as data management and analysis.

BEST USE OF DESIGN

Our Jury will be looking for evidence that the development of design around brand identity is rooted in the process of research and planning for place brand strategy and for a creative approach that works for the long term and across key audiences. We will want to see examples of the brand identity in use and to understand how it is contributing to the strategic approach to engage citizens, attract talent, attract investment and/or tourism.

BEST PLACEMAKING INITIATIVE

Developing your place attractiveness proposition is a key element of a successful place brand initiative and more destination marketing organisations and economic development teams are focusing on investment in product development and placemaking. This category is designed to celebrate the best projects implemented to create and enhance public spaces, foster community interaction and build the attractiveness of a district, town, or city – involving urban design or landscaping, and/or cultural programming. Our jury will be looking for evidence that the placemaking project has an integral part of an overall vision for the place brand and contributes to the place brand narrative. Judges will be looking for effective collaboration between place stakeholders – including government, citizens, private sector, tourism and/or economic development and for evidence that the project has made a measurable difference to the quality of life and attractiveness of the place.

PLACE BRAND OF THE YEAR

This category is intended to recognise the achievement of place branding teams who bring everything together effectively – who are able to demonstrate a committed approach to building team structures to support a long-term strategic approach to managing and promoting the place brand, who have established a clear framework and both short and long term objectives and who, over the past year (April 2023 - July 2024) have implemented a project, or strategic endeavour, or capitalised on an event, or achieved a particular goal – or perhaps even demonstrated how a strong place brand can provide resilience in a crisis. Our Jury will also be looking for evidence that the place is factoring in considerations for the sustainability of the place brand strategy: for a destination or place management strategy that is working to balance the needs of the place environment, of citizens, of business, and of visitors.