There’s nothing like being able to share your experiences with others facing similar challenges and opportunities, right? At City Nation Place Global earlier this month, we invited delegates to join a discussion on one of three key topics to get the international perspective on what is working – and what, perhaps, isn’t.

Thanks to our expert partners, we’ve collated some key learnings from each room to share more broadly. So, if you were bemoaning your inability to be in three rooms at once – we’ve got you. Here’s a quick look at the conversations that were had on each topic…

MEASURING SUCCESS: KPIs FOR PLACE BRANDS

While marketing KPIs are well-established, there is still uncertainty around what brand KPIs should be tracked. This a particular challenge when organisations don’t have a centralised body in charge of the place brand, as metrics are notoriously difficult to track and measure across different departments as it is.

There is also tension between the metrics that would show long-term progress, and the short-term wins that are often demands by stakeholders. KPIs are rarely long-term, but shifting perceptions is inherently a long-term project. Changes in leadership can throw an additional spanner in the works as new governments can require different metrics, creating inconsistencies in the way your benchmark your performance. Ultimately, more education is needed for stakeholders on the timetable needed to achieve impactful results for your place. Even implementing a CRM-tracking system or conducting perception surveys can be a two-year journey before you have meaningful data at your fingertips – and that’s to say nothing of the long-term push to change your reputation.

However, there were a few clear measurement priorities outlined in the discussions:

1. Stop focusing on big numbers to impress decision-makers and start showing the KPIs that measure the impact of your branding efforts.
2. Audit your stakeholders to understand the value your organisation brings to their own work; this shows your impact beyond campaign metrics.
3. Ask yourself – are your messages actually sticking? This is essential to proving long-term shifts in perceptions rather than just measuring overall sentiment.
4. Finally, does your brand storytelling resonate with your residents? This is a crucial success metric, as it demonstrates that your strategy is authentically representing your community.

Solving the challenges of branding vs marketing KPIs could be key to unlocking new budgets. City Nation Place are currently working with our Advisory Group to create a best practice guide to measuring the KPIs for your place brand – we look forward to sharing more on this soon.

TOOLS & STRATEGEMS FOR ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS

Stakeholders were a central part of the discussions regarding KPIs and identifying new ways to measure success, but before any of that, you have to keep them engaged and interested in your work. So where are cities and nations around the world finding success when trying to engage government, private sector, and their community in their work?

Your stakeholders are vital to your place vision; whether resident, business, or government official, these are your ambassadors for your place, and so you need to make sure their voices are being heard. As well as validating your strategy as authentic, it’s also key to securing ongoing funding for our budget. Being data-led is important to showing your progress, but it’s not enough to just have numbers on a page; you need to present your data with a story that will catch hearts and minds. You also need to be clear with your values and show how they weave through your actions. By marrying your values with data to show that your values are more than just talk, then you can attract the partners you want to engage and foster greater commitment.

However, engagement isn’t just a one-off event. You need ongoing, proactive communication with your stakeholders, rather than reaching out reactively when there’s a challenge. In addition to this, providing a toolkit of brand assets (infographics, fact sheets, photos, etc) to your partners encourages them to become more vocal ambassadors for your place vision, whilst remaining on brand.

NEXT STEPS ON THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY IN PLACE MARKETING

The pandemic forced place brand and place marketing teams to rapidly adopt new digital tools, but most organisations are still in a trial-and-error phase. With more innovation, there are more tools and platforms available to us, but convincing your executive team that testing a new tool is worth it can be challenging.

Many place teams are trialling AI tools internally, from transcription to ideation, from distilling long reports to identifying relevant sources. Whilst there was initial energy behind using AI in content creation, it’s now felt that this is not as good as creating custom content.

The key challenge lies in finding ways to connect AI with human expertise. As it stands, local-level intelligence still trumps the best tools on the market, and no matter how good the tool is, human intervention is always necessary. That said, access to more powerful tools has proved transformative for small teams, providing more time to think strategically.

There are still discrepancies between which tools teams are allowed to use; some delegates highlighted that they were restricted from using ChatGPT of TikTok due to security or privacy concerns. However, it’s not always distrust driving these rulings – often it’s that technology is outpacing policy.

Ultimately, you need to have visionaries on your team who will push for new ideas and approaches to open the door for new innovation, but you also need the people on your team with the resilience to make those ideas a reality.

Thank you to all our partners who moderated a roundtable for us at City Nation Place Global: Amadeus, Audley, Bloom Consulting, Brand Finance, CivicBrand, C Studios, The Data Appeal Company, DNCO, Miles Partnership, MMGY Global, Resonance, Simpleview, TOPOSOPHY, and Zartico.