Archives for the 'thoughts' Category
Place Matters
My mother, who is 86, slammed the phone down yesterday on her well known UK bank after being transferred to some foreign call centre. Was it because my Mother doesn’t like foreigners? Well actually no not at all. She objected to her bank, which positions itself as English, not living up to what it promises. [...]
Speech at MIPIM
In Cannes for MIPIM the world’s leading real estate development event. Giving a speech here today at the Palais des festivals, on the Branding of Cities. Will be on the Oslo stand, with Oslo’s governing Mayor Stian Berger Røsland, talking about the work we are doing at UP with the city’s branding process. Oslo is [...]
Yahoo! or Yahoo? Have they totally lost the plot regarding remote working?
Yahoo has announced it is taking measures to ban its staff from “remote” working. After years of predicting working from home as the future for everybody, why has this high tech company taken this step? “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.” says the memo from the Yahoo! HR department. Virgin [...]
The Fabulous Faroe Islands
It’s not often these days we get a chance to really get off the beaten track. Well I’m lucky enough to be doing just that. I’m visiting the Faroe Islands, having been asked to give some thoughts on how this group of 18 islands could market themselves more effectively. First question a number of my [...]
Breaking Bad. Good or bad for Albuquerque?
Thanks to my oldest son, I have become hooked, as it were, on the hit AMC television show Breaking Bad. The show is set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and follows the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the [...]
The Next Big Thing
John Simmons, of the UK based writers group Dark Angels, asked me if I minded being tagged as part of a project called “The Next Big Thing” by the Scottish writer Kate Tough. The project is a way of spreading news around of what writers are up to in their writing lives by blog, facebook, [...]
Celebrating the City (Part 1)
As people who know me will tell you, one of my personal passions in life is Liverpool football club. Anfield, the kop and that song by Gerry Marsden always stir me. And Liverpool itself is a great city going through a dramatic urban renewal. So why was it that two weeks ago I was in [...]
The importance of sports & cultural events
Sports and cultural events can often be a huge success factor in a Destination Marketing programme. Just look at the Montreux Jazz Festival or the Cannes Film Festival. Such events are big drivers and brand builders for those destinations. Look at some of the worlds great Place Brands such as Liverpool, Manchester, San Francisco, Barcelona [...]
A CRISP Approach to Place Marketing
At my organisation – *UP There, Everywhere – we work a lot with place marketing. Now although place marketing is a highly demanding and very specific area with its own unique set of challenges, learning from some of the best practices of regular consumer goods brands is important, and many practices and issues are applicable. [...]
A Walk Around…Lisbon
I’ve always thought that you can best judge a city by taking a good walk around it early in the morning. You need to get out really early though, around five thirty, before the cleaners have managed to cleanse the streets of the nights various passions. It’s the theory that a chain is best judged [...]
