For the fourth year in a row, Brand Finance once again participated in the City Nation Place UK and the City Nation Place Global conferences, that took place on Wednesday and Thursday, 9th and 10th November 2022.
Held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London, the conferences were joined by place branding and marketing practitioners from all over the world, who will lead discussions on how to engage citizens, work in partnership with the private sector, and develop a strategic approach to attracting talent, tourism, and investment.
Brand Finance hosted a roundtable at the UK Conference on Wednesday, 9th November on: "Setting strategic goals and measuring success in place branding", as well as a breakout session at the Global Conference on Thursday, 10th November on the topic: "Focusing on what really matters".
Understanding the perspectives of different target audiences is central to a successful place brand strategy. It enables you to focus on what really matters and get improved results.
Surveying opinions of 100,000 respondents from 100 markets worldwide, Brand Finance’s Global Soft Power Index offers more data points on place brands than any other research study. This allows us to analyse what particular brand attributes drive reputation and influence among different audiences, and to help you design a successful place brand strategy.
Use perceptions research to uncover what really matters and how that differs across audiences – from the United States to China, from Gen Z to Boomers.
Watch the full recording of the session here.
City Nation Place provides a forum for cities, nations and places to collaborate and share best practice on place branding and place marketing strategies in order to generate sustainable tourism and economic development, build cohesive communities, and encourage global cooperation.
The first City Nation Place Global conference was launched in London in 2015 and is now an established, must-attend, annual event for engaged decision-makers from around the world who are actively involved in developing and implementing place brand strategy for their city, region, nation, or place.
The Americas conference launched in 2017, in partnership with Resonance Consultancy. This annual event now brings together the leadership teams of municipality, city and state marketing boards, DMOs, CVBs, and EDOs across the USA and Canada, who are keen to increase economic opportunities by taking a forward-thinking, collaborative approach with all stakeholders engaged in placemaking and place story-telling to attract talent, tourism, and investment.
City Nation Place has also organised events in Asia [Singapore], Latin America [Costa Rica] and in the UK for a specifically UK audience, and is actively engaged in the process of developing more opportunities around the world.
David is the Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance Plc – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand, and intangible asset valuation since 1991. He specialised entirely in the field after becoming the Director of Brand Valuation for Interbrand in 1995. He subsequently left Interbrand in 1996 to launch Brand Finance which is celebrating 25 years in business this year.
David represented the British Standards Institution in the working parties responsible for crafting international industry standards: ISO 10668 on Brand Valuation in 2010 and ISO 20671 on Brand Evaluation in 2019.
David is a passionate writer and has authored many articles on brand valuation, published in numerous marketing and finance newspapers and magazines, such as: Financial Times, Accountancy Age, and Marketing Week. He has also lectured on the topic of brand valuation for Harvard, Chicago, and London Business Schools.
David graduated from Bristol University with an English degree, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a practising certificate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Konrad leads Brand Finance’s place branding and soft power practice. He liaises with clients, directs consulting projects, and is responsible for the creation and promotion of the annual Global Soft Power Index, Nation Brands, and City Index studies.
Konrad has extensive experience in advising clients in the fields of place branding and public diplomacy. Before joining Brand Finance, he worked at the Polish Embassy in London where he developed and delivered successful marketing communications campaigns as well as media relations programmes of official engagements by the president, prime minister, government ministers, and the ambassador.
In his role at Brand Finance, Konrad has advised a variety of place branding organisations, including the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign, New Zealand Story, and Cape Town Tourism.
Before moving on to grow the place branding practice, Konrad was the Communications Director of Brand Finance and Managing Director of Brand Finance’s PR agency – Brand Dialogue for 5 years. He has a proven track record in executing integrated communications strategies, having been responsible for publishing nearly 100 industry and country reports on the world’s most valuable brands on an annual basis.
Konrad has qualified with the Professional PR Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). He studied European Studies MA at King’s College London and the Humboldt University in Berlin, and International Relations with Political Science BA at the University of Birmingham.
Steve Thomson leads the survey component of the Global Soft Power Index programme. He has a wealth of experience gained across a 30+ year career focussing on understanding consumer values, attitudes and behaviour around the world. Steve leads the market research practice at Brand Finance including management of our proprietary research programme in over 30 markets. He has widespread expertise in consumer values and trends, brand positioning and strategy, public opinion, nation branding, and advertising effectiveness. He has direct research experience in 60 markets across a diverse range of cultures, from single-market deep-dives through to the management of large global insight programmes. He is an acknowledged expert on the impact of social forces (online social media and offline word-of-mouth) on brand choices, and how these drive commercial outcomes for brand owners. As such he is a regular speaker at industry conferences.
City Nation Place provides a forum for cities, nations and places to collaborate and share best practice on place branding and place marketing strategies in order to generate sustainable tourism and economic development, build cohesive communities, and encourage global cooperation.
The first City Nation Place Global conference was launched in London in 2015 and is now an established, must-attend, annual event for engaged decision-makers from around the world who are actively involved in developing and implementing place brand strategy for their city, region, nation, or place.
The Americas conference launched in 2017, in partnership with Resonance Consultancy. This annual event now brings together the leadership teams of municipality, city and state marketing boards, DMOs, CVBs, and EDOs across the USA and Canada, who are keen to increase economic opportunities by taking a forward-thinking, collaborative approach with all stakeholders engaged in placemaking and place story-telling to attract talent, tourism, and investment.
City Nation Place has also organised events in Asia [Singapore], Latin America [Costa Rica] and in the UK for a specifically UK audience, and is actively engaged in the process of developing more opportunities around the world.
