As we gear up to the 9^th City Nation Place Americas conference, taking place in Ottawa on May 21^st & 22^nd, we’ve been surveying place leaders across the USA and Canada to provide a better understanding of where they are currently focusing their attention and what challenges they face. With just under 60 responses, 44% of which were from place leaders [defined as Mayors, or President/CEOs of their organisations] and 39% as representing the strategic leadership team, this survey provides a fascinating picture of priorities.

How much progress is being made towards a place-led, unifying narrative and brand?

We often talk about the opportunities and challenges of developing a single place brand identity and narrative for your city, region, or state. This requires collaboration, but also fosters improved collaboration, and a consistent way of talking about your place can deliver more impact in a world where there are so many messages and marketing campaigns. 19% of our respondents stated that they have a single narrative used by all stakeholders across resident communications destination marketing to attract visitors, talent, investment, business, and events, whilst 37% are working collaboratively towards developing one.

How confident are place brand and marketing organizations in the effectiveness of their collaboration across all stakeholders?

Asked how confident they were in the effectiveness of collaboration between government, destination marketing and management, economic development and business improvement districts, our place leaders gave an average score of 6.8 out of 10, where 10 would have been “very confident”. Asked about collaboration with other key stakeholders – i.e.: educational institutions, community organizations, the cultural sector, the private sector, and citizens – the greatest confidence was in relationships with community organizations [with 55% of respondents scoring this at 4 or 5 out of 5], and the cultural sector [53% scoring this at 4 or 5 out of 5]. Only 27% of our respondents were confident in their effective collaboration with their citizens and 8% said that they were not confident at all in their collaboration directly with their community or citizenry.

What are the barriers to achieving place-led collaboration? 

The survey unleashed a high level of frustration at what our place leaders saw as the barriers to effective collaboration! From the free-form responses, the most commonly-cited challenge was the issue of individual egos or a sense of competition between organizations who ultimately should all be working for the positive development of their place. Structural challenges were the next most commonly cited challenge – the funding structure, KPIs, silos, differing mandates etc. There’s also a recognition that effective collaboration requires resources – with many respondents citing a lack of time or funding to enable them to focus on this.

The sustainability imperative

94% of our respondents recognise that having a clear strategy to achieve sustainable development, and having a sustainable approach to tourism and economic development strategy, gives a competitive advantage. Just 19% of our place leaders said that their organisations had a clearly stated ambition to meet sustainable development goals and that consideration of sustainability sits at the heart of every policy, plan, and campaign as a core facet of their place brand. 60% said that they are at the start of the journey and working towards this, whilst 21% said that they do not reference sustainable development goals in policy, plans or communication campaigns for their place – it is not part of their place brand strategy.

Understanding place brand and marketing priorities

The top five organisational priorities according to our place leaders?

1. Changing perceptions of their city, region, state or province
2. Developing an authentic, stand out, stronger place brand or narrative
3. Advocating for the work of their organisation
4. Ensuring growth delivers equitable benefits across their community
5. Engaging their community in the place brand and marketing strategy
   
   

Does this all ring true for your own organization and your own priorities and challenges? As we build the agenda for the City Nation Place Americas conference, we’ll be ensuring that our speakers provide you with the ideas and direction you need to make a difference. 

We’ll be focusing on:

• Making the economic case for a unified place brand and marketing narrative
• How to structure a more place-led approach, working across all stakeholders, to solve challenges and deliver better results
• Strategies for engaging with education, cultural, and community leaders to turbo-boost your place brand and marketing success
• How to capture and leverage the sometimes-hidden assets in your place to build and change perceptions
• How to do more for less

Find out how you can join us at CNP Americas 2025 here, and if you would like to nominate a speaker, please email Clare