Madrid and Lyon both use city branding campaigns to promote their cities on the global stage. Madrid's campaigns emphasize the city's culture, food, parks and atmosphere of being welcoming to all. Lyon promotes innovation, business opportunities, cultural events like the Festival of Lights, education and quality of life. While both cities have successful campaigns, critics note they could better reflect the unique character of each place and engage local citizens in co-creating their city's identity.

1. City branding campaigns
Cultural marketing | Betty Tsakarestou
Team: Anagnostaki Eva, Koukouli Marilena,
Mavriki Rania, Rizou Anastasia
Madrid | Lyon

2. Madrid

3.  It’s the Spanish capital, yet city branding aficionados fall for
Barcelona
 City branding as part of its 3rd consecutive bid for the
Olympics.
QS Best Student Cities ranking: 22nd
 According to the Reputation Institute  Well-known city with
a strong reputation & significant Reputation halo (emotional >
rational)
 It hosted the “European Cities Marketing meeting” for the first
time, in February 2016, focused on “democratic city branding”.
 30th
place in the Global Liveability Ranking of 2015 (EUI)
Why Madrid?

4. According to Richard Florida (2011),
Madrid ranked 14th in “The 25 Most
Economically Powerful Cities in the
World”
Recession & unemployment?

5. Madrid or maybe Madriz?
You are probably familiar with...
Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabeu, Prado, Reina Sofia
But..did you know that?
 Madrid is the 3rd
largest European city
 It’s one of the most popular international students destination
 It’s the highest capital city in Europe and one of the sunniest
 Madrid’s river is Manzanares
 It΄s the European city with the highest number of trees and
green surface per inhabitant
 Currently, there is a plan on behalf of the mayor for car banning
in the centre and bike lane construction

6. 13th
in the Economist
Intelligence Unit Special
Report
Madrid ranked 13th in the Economist
Intelligence Unit special report of
2012.
The Economist Intelligence Unit
(EIU) teamed up with data sharing
company BuzzData and hosted a
competition offering users the
opportunity to combine data from the
Worldwide Cost of Living and
Liveability surveys with other
sources to provide a ranking of their
own.

7. City branding
 “Promoción Madrid” the agency for the city’s marketing.
100% financed and run by the city hall.
It offers 4 main communication channels:
 Website: www.esmadrid.com
 TV channel: esMADRIDtv
 Magazine: esMADRIDmagazine
 Mobile apps: esMADRIDmόvil
 Goal  promote Madrid’s image and inform about its
cultural, touristic, recreational and business assets
 “Madrid is for everyone” claim
www.esmadrid.com/en/choose-your-madrid

8. City branding
So, what is Madrid?
 In 2005, Landor was asked to develop a unique, differentiating
positioning for Madrid→ lack of specific landmarks, the emotional
draw was the lifestyle but not really known
 Research has corroborated that Madrid is a surprise to many
visitors. The surprise consists of finding a world-class transport
infrastructure, a dynamic economy etc. In short, they find a great
European capital.
 NEED TO BUILD A CLEAR IMAGE?

9. Campaigns by “Promociόn Madrid”
[2010 Madrid] about you
 Key Points: Arts & Culture, Business feeling, Luxury &
Relaxed lifestyle, Sightseeing, Gastronomy,Nightlife

10. Campaigns by “Promociόn Madrid”
[2011] Madrid. A way of life
 Key Points: Good weather, Friendly & Open-minded People,
Arts & culture, Food, Family destination, Parks, Nightlife.

11. Campaigns by “Promociόn Madrid”
[2014] Madrid, reserved for you
 Key Points: Good weather, Culture, Food, Shopping, Parks

12. Campaigns by “Promociόn Madrid”
[2016] Madrid, a city where everyone is welcome.
 Key Points: Madrid feels like home and is accesible to
everyone

13. Madrid’s campaigns at a glance
 Metropolis with a feeling of home, open-minded and friendly people,
business centre, arts and culture destination, entertainment, shopping,
food, fiesta, parks.
But
 City branding so far focuses more on promoting Madrid, rather that
involving the local community.
Initiatives for the locals seem to be independent from the city
branding/touristic approach
 The locals’ spirit and easy-going lifestyle are almost absent from the
city branding campaigns
 Is “Madrid for everyone” effective or a more precise image
needs to be built?

14. LYON
France
ONLYLYON campaign

15. Why LYON?
 Smart city
 Top quality Universities
 Artistic city
 Business friendly
 Festival de la lumiere
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0SJ0J0DAUoc
501,000 inhabitants

16.  Launched in 2007
 Top-down approach
 “Addicted to Lyon” campaign, since 2013 and still on
the campaign

17. the campaign || initiative & partners
Main objective: to build Lyon’s international reputation
Make Lyon better known
Generate appreciation for Lyon
Bring people to Lyon
→ with 28 private and public partners

19. the campaign || Where does Lyon stand?
Rankings
 38th
on the Mercer 2016 ranking
 Global Liveability Ranking (EUI): 30th
place
 Based on Reputation Institute: Lyon is a
little-known city with a strong reputation → so
it needs to communicate its brand to a wider
audience.
-- Between Milan & Singapore | Lyon is 33rd

20. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
1. Innovation, part of Lyon’s DNA
Lyon as the first smart city in France www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjo_TSOOTsM

21. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
2. Dynamic Business and Economics
Video for promoting the creative industries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2ck_lY29CQ
A dynamic and innovative economy - ranked 17th in the IBM 2014 rankings for the world most
attractive cities in terms of investment. (main sectors: Life Sciences & Chemistry/environment).
Ranked 1st most business-friendly city in France - L’expansion L’express 2014
in 2014, the Festival of Lights was “exported” to Dubai in order to attract international interest +
ongoing collaboration with Emirates for advertising Lyon at all their flights

22. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
3. Lyon, an ideal quality of life
 An urban heritage (classified a Unesco World Heritage site and the second most important
Renaissance site after Venice)
 Smartness

23. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
4. Culture & Events
 20% of the city’s budget is dedicated to cultural projects
 Vivid cultural life throughout the city/multiple events/festivals
 Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights)
→ This 4-day festival attracts more than 4 million visitors each year | a flagship event for the city’s
brand (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp9bYDmj0YQ)

24. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
5. Excellence in Education
 10% international students
 46th Best Student City, according to QS
6. Sports & Leisure

25. the campaign || How they did it?
Communication tools
“Addicted to Lyon” Campaign (since 2013) →
storytelling approach
Ambassadors
http://www.onlylyon.com/en/

26. the campaign || How they did it?
Communication tools
 Social media innovative approach - the 1st city to implement large-scale social media
campaigns in order to promote its city branding (in 2009). On 2016 they plan to implement:
 10 international digital campaigns on FB, youtube and twitter
 2-month targeted international business campaign on LinkedIn (to reach 900,000 decision
makers)
 Strong INSTAGRAM presence, where Lyon fans upload photos of the city
 “ONLYLYON buzz”: collaboration with Lyon’s higher education institutions specializing in
communication, acting as creative incubators to produce videos and photos inspired by the
City and create a buzz → going “viral” approach
 Press - multiple events for international journalists

27. the campaign
Results
 Achieved target of 100 million
views across Facebook activity in
2015
 Achieved 50,000 Twitter followers,
against a target of 35,000
 ONLYLYON social media activity
and branding program contributed
to Invest in Lyon, attracting 80
international companies to set up
business in Lyon over the past two
year.

28. the campaign
Results

29. the campaign
Results
Politically: Since January 2015, the wider
area of Lyon, its suburbs and other 58
small cities, have all been paired to
Métropole de Lyon → greater political
power of Lyon, to the wider area |
strategic plan on making the wider area
SMARTER:
www.grandlyon.com/fileadmin/user_upload/m
edia/images/institution/20141218_gl_com
petencesmetropole_1200.jpg

30. Thoughts & Critiques

31. The Lyonnais are participating in the campaign either as ambassadors or as social media users -
it doesn’t seem as if its citizens are fully engaged and integrated to the marketing campaign.
 having the opportunity to participate but not to co-create
Although the campaign was launched based on an innovative approach, investing in social
media (in 2009), nowadays it seems like this innovative spirit has reached a plateau.
→ bringing new investments in, but not start-ups and creative industries
LOGO similar to other campaigns (beBerlin, MADrid abot you, I Amsterdam etc)
→ more of a reproduction rather than a creative idea, reflecting a local character
GRAND LYON’s main goal was to make LYON the #1 European city for start-up companies
 lack of creativity in design, communication strategies.
About the campaign...

32. About the city of Lyon...
 Lyon is a vibrant city with a unique vibe, ideal for young creative
individuals and with a strong cultural presence
→ its unique vibe is not communicated to the world, but if you visit
it, it’s there
 Lyon needs to build a unique city identity and build on it, in a
GLOCAL way.
→ challenge for contemporary cities:
As Michael Speaks (2002) points out “cities are faced with the
paradoxical problem of constructing identities based on
differences that disappear at a rate proportional of the growth of
global sameness.”
 Mid-size cities like Lyon face a difficulty in defining their
competition.
→ it doesn’t have the capacity to welcome and satisfy everyone (as
large metropolis like Paris, Tokyo etc can), its city branding
should be more narrow, but not in a restrictive way.

33. Conclusion for both cities
Contemporary cities sometimes fail to create a unique identity, because
they focus on the global competition and instead of starting with their
best, original raw material, they try to find “external” ideas to promote
their city.
 Benchmarking is very helpful, but it requires a deep knowledge of
one’s identity, nature, social nexus, history and tendencies.

34. • es.globedia.com/campana-promocion-turistica-2011-ciudad-madrid
• http://blog.bolden.fr/french-tech-definition-objectifs-enjeux/
• http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/papillon-local/uploads/14/33/social
%20media%20onlylyon.pdf
• www.citylab.com/commute/2013/12/madrids-big-plan-swear-cars/7744/
• www.citylab.com/work/2011/09/25-most-economically-powerful-cities-
world/109/#slide14
• www.esmadrid.com/
• www.grandlyon.com/
•www.imercer.com/content/mobility/rankings/index.html?
mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRovuKvJce/hmjTEU5z16ustXqezhpx41El3fuXB
P2XqjvpVQcRlNLDORw8FHZNpywVWM8TIKdIRt9F4PQznCWg%3D
• www.lyon.fr/page/accueil.html
• www.madrid-destino.com/en/72-tourism/tourism-news/1222-madrid-hosts-
the-european-cities-marketing-meeting-for-the-first-time
• www.onlylyon.com/en/
• www.topuniversities.com/best-student-cities
Links

35. THANK YOU!!!