entered by Today Designer's B.V, Best Use of Design Finalist 2019

The Utrecht Region is located in the heart of the Netherlands and called home by over 1.2 million inhabitants living, working and studying in 26 very diverse municipalities and areas. The Utrecht Region is designated as the most competitive region of Europe (European Commission, 2016) when it comes to innovation, health, doing business and education. To maintain and excel its position in an ever-growing competitive world, the Utrecht Region needs to be highly distinctive but remain true to its identity. As far as external communications are concerned, the challenge is to interest and attract talent, businesses, innovation leaders and investors to come and settle in the Region. The Region has a lot to offer, but it seems to be too modest in communicating its USPs and not used to creating cross-overs in its communication. Since the biggest city (Utrecht) bears the same name as the Province and the Region, the internal difficulty is to overcome local sentiment. Instead of collaborating together, the smaller municipalities tend to interpret the city of Utrecht as an authority. In order to make a change on the international playing field, the local marketing teams need to team up and form a strong alliance.