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Meet the Place Marketing Experts
Trusted Consultants, Agencies and Partners for Place Organisations
Looking for the right consultant or agency to help you develop and implement your place brand and/or marketing strategy? We're delighted to make some introductions.
Our network of partners includes experts working across place branding and place marketing. The list below is a collection of destination marketing agencies, economic development marketing firms, independent consultants, placemakers, data providers and industry partners.
Filter by the area of specialisation or browse through the list and explore how each partner helps place marketing organizations reach their goals and craft innovative solutions.
Amadeus
https://www.amadeus-hospitality.com/destination-management/Travel broadens horizons, creates connections and builds economies. Travel powers progress. And Amadeus powers travel.
We build the critical solutions that help airlines and airports, hotels and railways, search engines, travel agencies, tour operations and improve the travel experience, billions of times a year, all over the world.
Amadeus harnesses in-depth travel data analytics from the millions of journeys we process every year (10s of billions of searches; 1,000+ airline schedules; 1+ billion annual air booking). Amadeus for Destinations combines these insights with a broad range of marketing channels to help you reach highly-targeted audiences, make your marketing spend more effective and drive visitor growth in your region.
Audley
https://audleyadvisors.com/Audley is the high-stakes strategy, advocacy and communications firm for leaders and future leaders. We are trusted advisors to governments, business leaders and private individuals around the world. By applying our principle of Unconventional Wisdom, we find creative solutions to help our clients achieve their goals.
Bandwango
https://www.bandwango.com/Bandwango's mission is to enable communities to support local businesses through the creation of unique experiences. The Destination Experience Engine (DXE) enables all things to do, including attractions, restaurants, retailers, outdoor activities, points-of-interest and more, to be organized into memorable experiences designed to drive website conversions, capture first-party data, and deliver customers into your community. Consumers are delivered fully interactive web applications directly to their phone with no apps to download. With over 1,000 passes launched, Bandwango has now delivered over 3 million customers (and counting!) into more than 450 communities across North America.
BBC
https://bbcnews.bbcstudios.com/BBC Studios is responsible for the global, commercial operations of BBC News.
As the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster, accurate, impartial news is available via the 24 hour news channel - BBC World News - and BBC.com, along with a broad range of insightful and in-depth features across BBC Sport, BBC Worklife, BBC Culture, BBC Future, BBC Reel and BBC Travel.
As a commercial arm of the BBC, we work with brands to create partnerships which connect them with our curious and globally-minded audience through bespoke branded content, sponsorship and advertising opportunities.
Bloom Consulting
https://www.bloom-consulting.com/Bloom Consulting is a company 100% specialised in Nation and Place Branding headquartered in Madrid, with offices in London, Lisbon and Sao Paulo. The specialisation in Country Branding makes Bloom Consulting one of the most advanced and globally renowned companies in the sector with more than 70 projects implemented across 5 continents.
Bloom Consulting publishes its own Country Brand Ranking, with the aim of analyzing the Brand performance of 180 Countries and the Digital Country Index and Digital City Index which measure the digital identity of Nations and Places.
Nation Brand Builders, Bloom Consulting's latest book is available on Amazon.
Brand Finance
https://brandfinance.com/Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand evaluation and strategy consultancy. We help place brands measure their marketing activities and develop successful strategies. Headquartered in the City of London, we are present in 25 countries worldwide.
We have published the Brand Finance Nation Brands study into the strength and value of the world’s top nation brands for 20 years. In 2020, we launched the Global Soft Power Index – the world’s most comprehensive research study on perceptions of nation brands, surveying opinions of 150,000+ respondents in 100+ markets and ranking all 193 member states of the United Nations. Our Brand Finance City Index – published for the first time in 2023 will be extended in the coming years to cover more city brands in regional rankings across all continents.
Brandkit
https://brandkit.comBrandkit® is a leading brand management platform built for Destination Marketing, Place Branding Organisations, and Economic Development Agencies.
Our platform combines digital asset management, media centre, CMS, customisable Brand Portal, File Transfer, Content Distribution, and Stakeholder Collaboration tools that enable brands and their marketing teams to find, manage, curate, share and deploy images, video, brand assets, brand guidelines, infographics, pdfs, design files, press releases, blog posts, story ideas, links to earned media, and more, at scale, all in one unified content library.
Brandkit® is headquartered in New Zealand and works with a number of DMO’s, Place Brands, Economic Development Agencies, and other businesses globally. Including Tourism New Zealand, VisitScotland, Brand Estonia, and Brand Tasmania.
C Studios
https://www.c-studios.com/C Studios is the marketing communications agency for places, with expertise in investment promotion, talent attraction and trade promotion. We enable destinations to thrive on the global stage by developing strategies and campaigns that attract investment, draw top talent and boost trade. In doing so, our mission goes well beyond marketing – we're committed to fostering sustainable economic growth and cross-border understanding throughout our work. Based in the Netherlands and partnering with locations around the world, we help cities, regions, countries, real estate developments, science parks, economic zones and trade hubs become more findable, credible and loveable in the eyes of decisions-makers.
Civic Brand
https://www.civicbrand.com/CivicBrand is an agency with over a decade of experience in research, branding, consulting, design, and marketing. We’re a team of strategists, creatives and storytellers with a passion for helping communities tell their story. We work directly with cities, economic development, and DMOs including convention & visitors bureaus (CVBs), chambers of commerce and business associations to develop and implement branding, engagement and destination marketing strategies. We focus on public engagement at the core of place branding and implementing strategies that cut across residents, visitors and business.
Creos
https://www.creos.io/en/Creos offers expert consulting and project management services for designing, planning and developing technology and art in public spaces, with the goal of transforming these areas into lively, attractive spaces that combine creativity and efficiency.
A world-leading agency for touring interactive installations, Creos transforms public spaces into must-see destinations worldwide that enrich the lives of citizens and tourists alike. Creos offers a diverse portfolio of interactive installations tailored to venues, offering visitors a unique and memorable sensory and interactive experience.
Cúpla
https://www.cuplastudio.co/We are Cúpla – brand, marketing and design specialists who develop actionable strategy and exceptionally crafted communications for organisations that exist to make life better for people. From place and destination branding, to social enterprises and not-for-profits, to Governments at every level, to products that deliver against a real human need, we work on purpose-driven projects and brands. In particular, we are experts in helping regional, rural and lesser known, or appreciated, places and destinations to uncover and share their unique stories; to represent and activate their communities, attract visitors, new residents and businesses, and investors, and build thriving local economies.
Destination Marketing Store
https://www.destinationmarketingstore.com.au/DMS sets a new standard in place and destination branding and marketing. We create strategies for places, precincts and destinations, driven by our commitment to excellence and innovation. DMS is your strategic partner, unlocking your place’s potential. Together, across the range of our two core offerings, DMS Advisory and DMS Digital, we can reimagine possibilities and deliver results. Let’s avoid the ‘sea of sameness’ and pioneer change for destination success.
Development Counsellors International
https://aboutdci.com/Known as the “Leader in Marketing Places” since 1960, Development Counsellors International (DCI) is an international marketing and communications agency specializing in tourism, economic development and talent attraction.
A full-service creative agency, DCI offers research, destination marketing strategy, place branding, public relations, websites, lead generation, digital advertising, creative services, travel trade and business events marketing.
Our team of in-house creative place makers designs high-impact marketing campaigns that will help attract more visitors, business and talent to your destination.
DNCO
https://dnco.comDNCO is a studio of experts in place and culture. Based in London and New York, they are unified by a rallying belief: design has the power to shape the world we need next. They work with cultural leaders, governments, developers and businesses to create award-winning place strategies and brands, with clients including the City of San Francisco, the Mayor of London, and great cultural institutions including the V&A and National Galleries of Scotland.
Epsilon
https://www.epsilon.com/emeaEpsilon is a people-based marketing platform and sits at the heart of Publicis Groupe. By combining Epsilon’s data and technology capabilities with the Groupe’s media and creative firepower, we provide a truly differentiated offering to the market.
Epsilon offers a full-service data centric digital media platform (display, mobile, video/CTV, social) which enables brands to replace ineffective retargeting budgets with full funnel customer targeting using AI to deliver 1:1 personalisation. In addition, the solution leads the market by focussing on incremental measurement to make a genuine difference to client revenues.
Epsilon is also the only loyalty provider in the industry to be named a leader in both Loyalty Technology and Loyalty Services by Forrester. Epsilon’s comprehensive loyalty offering helps brands to create lasting connections with customers through personalized interactions at every step of their journey.
Epsilon
https://www.epsilon.com/emeaEpsilon is a digital media company that leverages data to drive destination demand. Our digital media solutions allow destination marketers to utilize real-time, person level data to have proactive conversations with the right travelers. We provide DMOs with the ability to use transactional spending data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to build and manage campaigns that speak directly to real people like midweek travelers, past visitors to your destination, bourbon purchasers, golfers, etc. Our measurement solution, Net Economic Impact, measures the direct influence your campaign had on true visitation and visitor spend, yielding an unmodeled measure of economic impact. This reporting will help you prove the value of tourism marketing to your stakeholders by demonstrating how much money visitors spend at hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and more.
FINN Partners
https://www.finnpartners.comFINN Partners is one of the fastest-growing global, independent agencies, with a heart and a conscience. We serve clients through a powerful combination of hands-on partnership, highly specialised expertise, and a values-driven culture that champions integrity, collaboration, and innovation. More than an agency, we are a bold collective of communications advocates, stewarding brands, protecting reputations, influencing public policy, and leveraging data and analytics to shape the most important conversations of our day.
Headquartered in New York, and with more than 1,400 professionals across 33 offices, FINN provides clients with global capabilities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Hunden Partners
https://www.hunden.comMr. Hunden and his Chicago-based firm offer extensive experience in the economics of placemaking, primarily via transformative real estate projects. He has provided economic development, market and financial feasibility, impact, developer selection and planning expertise for more than 800 projects and studies over the past 25+ years, totaling more than $6 billion in developed real estate. The firm completes approximately 60 assignments per year with its 12-person professional staff. Hunden’s background in economic, real estate and tourism development combine to make him a unique resource for communities looking to develop their destinations and projects in a viable, transformative and sustainable way. Some compelling projects include the Chicago Riverwalk and Navy Pier, Distrito T-Mobile in San Juan, a mega mixed-use destination in the Middle East (in pre-development), and Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, ON.
Joy Riot Agency
https://www.joyriotagency.com/We create pleasant interruptions.
To us, the term “joy riot” is more than a clever juxtaposition of words. It’s the pure essence of what marketing should be: something that gets your attention and drives action.
We specialize in connecting destinations with their audiences by cutting through the clutter and connecting on an emotional level. We do this through branding, marketing, and websites.
Our work isn’t defined by one particular category or region. The one thing our clients have in common? They’re unafraid to start a joy riot.
LMNL
https://www.lmnlstudio.com/LMNL Studio is a design firm that brings place-based narratives to life. Our multidisciplinary approach pairs strategists and storytellers with architects and technologists to shape physical places as well as the digital and virtual layers of a connected ecosystem. We call this approach omnispatial design.
Whether you seek to activate a specific space or create a more magnetic destination, our approach to purposeful placemaking aims to inspire, educate, and build community. Our innovative design process integrates spatial technologies as a material layer of place so environments come alive with art, real time data, digital wayfinding, and moments of pure delight.
Localis
https://www.localis.co/Localis is a leading analytics company that empowers government bodies and destination management organisations by providing actionable insights into tourism, economic development, and community engagement. By integrating diverse data sources, we help cities and regions make informed decisions that drive tourism growth and enhance quality of life. We leverage AI technology to deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that support sustainable development and long-term success for our partners.
Miconex
https://mi-cnx.com/Miconex works with over 200 business communities to retain spend in their local area, providing essential support for local businesses of all types and sizes. With the Town & City Gift Card program, local and loyal shopping becomes not only easy for customers, but desirable, contributing to the evolution of high streets and downtowns around the world.
Miconex’s technology is backed by an experienced implementation team, with full technical program setup, materials and support. Our industry leading client success program will connect you with other programs, sharing best practice and helping you to quickly grow your gift card sales and deliver local spend. When you’re ready to introduce your own gift card program, we’re here to support you every step of the way.
Miles Partnership
https://www.milespartnership.com/Miles Partnership is a strategic marketing consultancy focused exclusively on travel and tourism. Our mission is to enrich lives through travel by positively impacting communities and travelers with audience-focused, results-driven solutions. Our team is skilled in every aspect of travel and tourism, from marketing and communications to destination management and sustainability.
Today we work with more than 150 destinations, hospitality businesses and other travel industry clients worldwide to develop marketing and management strategies that amplify local experiences, boost visitation, improve community relations and increase overall economic impact.
MMGY Global
https://www.mmgyglobal.comMMGY Global is the world’s leading integrated global marketing firm specializing in the travel, hospitality and entertainment industries. With eight operating brands across the world, the award-winning organization maintains a global communications practice in all marketing channels, serving many of the world’s premier travel and tourism brands. As a company dedicated to the global travel industry, MMGY Global strives to create a connected, inclusive and peaceful world by promoting travel as a cultural bridge of understanding.
Propulso
https://propulso.io/en/Propulso empowers decision-makers with rapid, ethical location intelligence. For over seven years, we’ve developed pioneering technology solutions that transform raw data into actionable insights.
Our GeoIndicator product delivers detailed market analysis and visitor movement insights in minutes—at a fraction of traditional costs. Meanwhile, our GeoMarketing solution optimizes ad campaigns and audience targeting, enabling businesses to achieve measurable, real-world engagement and conversion.
Organizations and companies worldwide trust our platform for reliable, ethically managed business intelligence. With Propulso, they gain the precision and insight needed to make informed decisions and drive impactful actions.
Reputation Lab
https://www.corporatereputationlab.com/Reputation Lab is a firm specialised in the management of corporate reputation and other intangible assets of companies, organisations and countries. Its partners are pioneers in reputation analysis and management. Reputation Lab helps companies and institutions to create sustainable competitive advantages through the integrated management of two of their main assets: brand and reputation. Reputation Lab has adapted the most advanced methodology for measuring and managing the reputation of companies to the reputation of countries (RepCore® Nations).
Resonance
http://resonanceco.com/As leading advisors in economic development, tourism and real estate for more than a decade, Resonance combines business strategy and marketing creativity to help shape the future of countries, cities and regions around the world.
Our team has advised destinations, communities and governments in 20 states and more than 70 countries. We provide leading public and private sector organizations with consumer research, strategic planning, marketing strategy, place branding and economic development strategy to help places realize their full potential.
Simpleview
https://www.simpleviewinc.com/Simpleview, now part of Granicus, is a worldwide leading provider of CRM, CMS, website design, digital marketing services, and data insights for convention bureaus, venues, tourism boards, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and attractions. The company employs 425+ staff and works with 900+ travel, tourism and convention marketing customers on six continents, from towns of less than 30,000 to world capitals, including Los Angeles, New York and 14 more of the top 20 U.S. meetings destinations, Dubai, East Sweden, Guadalajara, Melbourne, Prague, Reykjavik, South Africa and the countries of Malaysia, Norway and Scotland.
Sojern
https://www.sojern.com/Sojern is a leading digital marketing platform built for travel marketers. Powered by artificial intelligence and traveller intent data, Sojern provides multichannel marketing solutions to drive direct demand. More than 10,000 hotels, attractions, tourism boards, and travel marketers rely on Sojern annually to engage and convert travellers around the world.
Our mission is to support smart and sustainable tourism growth for our customers. We help destinations all over the world attract the travellers they want through multichannel campaigns, co-op marketing programs, and partnerships that deliver the right messaging at the right time to attract the right travellers.
The Culturist Group
https://www.culturistgroup.com/The Culturist Group is committed to creating a more inclusive industry by empowering global travel brands and destinations. We are multicultural strategists who leverage community, cultural, and travel industry insights to grow trust, activate diverse travelers, and generate business results. We create value and business impact for our clients by crafting award-winning multicultural brand marketing and communications work that prioritizes social inclusion, cultural relevance, multicultural resonance, responsible reach, and authentic representation of the communities that will fuel the future of the travel industry. We are a 100% diversity-owned enterprise. We are a force for good.
The Data Appeal Company
https://datappeal.io/The Data Appeal Company, a leader in big data and decision intelligence, empowers destinations and tourism organizations to become more efficient and sustainable. By analyzing online feedback, geospatial data, and key metrics—such as sustainability, events, flights, and accommodations—we provide essential insights for DMOs to understand their territory, enhance visitor experiences, and stay competitive. Acquired by Almawave SpA in 2022, our mission is to make data accessible and actionable, enabling destinations to make informed decisions and boost their appeal.
The Travel Foundation
https://www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/The Travel Foundation is a global charity with technical expertise in understanding and managing the impacts of tourism in destinations, for the benefit of communities and the environment. The charity works across the public and private sector, encouraging collaboration in placemaking to manage the burdens of tourism on communities (see www.invisibleburden.org) and future risks to the visitor economy, and to maximise opportunities for sustainable product innovation and local SME supply chain development. Their headquarters are based in the UK and are active across the globe.
thinkingplace
https://www.thinkingplace.co.ukthinkingplace is the UK’s leading place marketing and place branding specialist, it’s all we do and all we have done for the last 17 years. We help places stand out, get thought about, to develop and grow, compete and be chosen.
We work with places and destinations that want to be more successful; whether nation, region, city, town, development or neighbourhood, and enable this by working with them to create a place strategy that makes their place the ‘hero’.
We’re proud to have worked with places such as Staffordshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Torbay, Hemel Hempstead, Wakefield, Lowestoft, Reading, Eccles and Gloucester.
Toposophy
https://www.toposophy.com/For more than 15 years TOPOSOPHY has been inspiring and supporting clients to transform places, whether these are neighbourhoods, cities, regions or whole countries, through the design, development and delivery of innovative and impactful placemaking and marketing solutions that are built to last.
Our in-house team of 20 dedicated professionals, and global network of 20+ associates, includes some of our industry’s most experienced researchers, analysts, strategists, marketeers, designers and field experts. We have delivered place-based projects in 40+ countries across four continents and are trusted advisors to some of the world’s leading international organisations, multinational brands and government agencies.
Trajectory
https://trajectoryco.com/Trajectory’s place brand clientele ranges across North America, from urban/suburban communities to rural and wilderness destinations. Working with neighbourhoods, BIDs, municipalities, counties, regions and development agencies, our integrated strategy, design and implementation know-how drives economic, tourism and talent attraction successes for over 30 communities, from Washington DC to Vancouver Island. What connects them is the need to communicate a powerful message of “Why choose here.” Based in Toronto, Canada Trajectory’s reputation has been built on robust stakeholder engagement; evidence-based strategies; distinctive design systems; authentic storytelling; savvy marketing; plus sustainable implementation plans and tools.
Trove
https://www.trovetourism.com/Trove Tourism Development Advisors ("Trove") is the leading tourism marketing and strategy agency, based in New York and London. With a mission to help destinations "stand out", Trove has worked with 25+ tourism boards worldwide on destination marketing and destination development projects.
Trove's Destination Marketing Team develops tourism branding and marketing campaigns targeting travel audiences globally via digital, social, influencer, PR and trade marketing and tools. Trove's Destination Development Team serves as a market research and strategy advisor to the world's leading destinations, supporting on master planning, product development, surveying, research, analytics and training.
The Trove team works in 6 continents, supporting 25+ destinations including Malaysia, Barbados, Jamaica, Samoa, Aruba, Ras Al Khaimah, and several others on key projects. Learn more at www.trovetourism.com.
Vetrano Digital Marketing
https://vetranodigital.com/Brianna Vetrano is a digital place marketing consultant specialising in paid media, SEO and analytics for place brands.
Over the past decade, she has partnered with over 85 global place organisations to craft result-oriented digital strategies, guide internal marketing teams and harness data to showcase meaningful, measurable impact to stakeholders.
With expertise across economic development, tourism, investment promotion and talent attraction, Brianna helps cities, regions and countries reach target audiences online and drive the results that matter most.
As an independent consultant, Brianna offers flexible support tailored to help teams of all sizes maximise their budget, time and resources.
Violet PR
https://www.violetpr.com/Violet PR is an award-winning public relations agency based in the New York City metro area, specializing in economic development and place branding. Founded in 2010, Violet PR has earned a stellar reputation among our client base for our creativity, personalized service, speed and results. The firm’s team manages media relations, content development and social media projects for places across North America and internationally. In the last three years, Violet PR won over 40 national and regional awards for PR and social media excellence, including 2022’s “Best Boutique Agency” from PR News and Bulldog Reporter.
We Are Fred
https://www.wearefred.co.uk/We design and craft legacy creative that will endure for decades.
Challenging creativity across the real estate landscape including placebranding, luxury hospitality to commercial and private residential. Digital. Brand design. Social. Animation. CGI. Verbal identity. And more.
Our passion lies in challenging conventions, creating culture and driving social change through strategic design, with a unique ability to craft narratives that inspire and provoke.
We combine strategic flair with a deep understanding of branding, having demonstrated our craft internationally in markets across Europe, MENA and Asia.
All for a world of brands in constant motion.
We Are Fred – Destination Brand
Zartico
https://www.zartico.comZartico’s mission is to provide the clearest perspective of the visitor economy. As the world’s first Destination Operating System, Zartico combines science, technology and domain expertise to positively impact the tourism and visitor economy. By harnessing the power of proprietary data streams, Zartico answers the “why”. With over fifty years of destination and travel experience, Zartico is uniquely positioned to lead the transformation from global destination marketing to global destination leadership.
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