Mega Events and City Branding Opportunities

Case study 2012

ADAM JONES

Mega Events and City Branding Opportunities

• Hosting and staging mega events, costing billions of pounds and taking years of planning, are the most expensive branding and repositioning strategies undertaken by cities

The Need to compete

• Cities have long felt a need to differentiate themselves from each other and to assert their individuality in pursuit of various economic, political or socio-psychological objectives (Kavaratzis and Ashworth 2005).

• Cities are used by global capital as a basing point in the spatial organisation and articulation of production and markets (Friedmann 1986)

Construction, communication and management of the city’s image

• This process predominately uses slogans, logos and promotional literature to portray a positive image of the city (Ward 1998).

• This involves the considered attempt to purposefully reconfigure or re-present ideas or conceptions held individually or collectively of a city’s image (Smith 2005a).

• Sport mega events are a media friendly vehicle that allows cities to achieve these objectives

London 2012

• Ken Livingston. ‘everything is set up around us becoming a more international city with many more people coming from abroad’ (Lee 2013, p. 211)

• Lord Coe ‘repair the damage in one of the hardest pressed areas of the country’ (Lee 2013, p.214).

• The task or opportunity of utilising London 2012 was to reconcile the conflicting themes of heritage inclusivity, youthfulness and modernity (MacRury and Poynter 2010).

Anholt’s City Brand hexagon

Presence

international standing and

status

Place

physical aspects

Potential economic and

educational

Pulse

vibrant urban

lifestyle

Prerequisites

what it would be like to live there

People

fit into a

community

Presence Culture,

Science & Government

PlacePhysical aspects

PulseHow exciting

PotentialGet things done

PeopleHow welcoming

PrerequisitesQuality and accessibility of public services

Conclusion

• Hosting the Games did facilitate the use of media coverage to publicise, and consolidating the city’s image (Gold and Gold 2008).

• Reduced the time frame for urban redevelopment of the East End of the city (Derudder et al 2003)

• ‘find people who appreciate my culture and with whom I could easily fit in’ (GFK 2013)

• Great Britain replaced the USA and gained first place in regard to its soft power status (Rapoza 2012).

• The Olympics and…. Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France and Andy Murray winning the Tennis Grand Slam in New York and popular culture including the James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ played a significant role in promoting Britain and its soft power (Moban 2012).

However for how long?

• London was overtaken by Bangkok as the top 2013 city destination by international visitor arrivals (Hedrick-Wong and Choog 2013)

• Germany replaced Great Britain as the country regarded as processing the most soft power (Monocle 2013)

• If as expected the competition between cities will continue to increase, authorities will need to evaluate the long term effectiveness of hosting expensive mega events against other city branding and positioning options.

References

• Anholt, S. (2007) Competitive identity: The new brand management for nations, cities and regions. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.• Derudder, B., Taylor, P.J., Witlox, F. and Catalano, G. (2003) ‘Hierarchical tendencies and regional patterns in the world cities network: a global urban

analysis of 234 cities’, Regional Studies 37(9), pp.875–886.• Friedmann, J. (1986) The world city hypothesis, Development and Change 17, pp. 69–83.• Gold, J. R. and Gold, M. M. (2008) ‘Olympic cities: regeneration, city rebranding and changing urban agendas’, Geography Compass, 2(1), pp.300-318.• GFK (2013) ‘London And Sydney Knock Paris Off The "Best City" Pedestal’, GFK Press Release 30 September [online]. Available at: <

http://www.gfk.com/us/news-and-events/press-room/press-releases/pages/london-and-sydney-knock-paris-off-the-best-city-pedestal.aspx > [Accessed 04 December 2013].

• Hedrick-Wong, Y. and Choog, D. (2013) ‘MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index’, MasterCard Worldwide Insights [online]. Available at: < http://insights.mastercard.com/position-papers/top-20-global-destination-cities-in-2013/ > [Accessed 20 February 2014].

• Jones, A. (2015) London 2012: Urban imagery and city branding In Merkel, U. (eds.) Identity Discourses and Communities in International Events, Festivals and Celebrations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 96-115.

• Kavaratzis, M. and Ashworth, G. J. (2005) City branding: an effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick? Tijdschrift voor economischeen sociale geografie, 96(5), pp.506-514.

• Lee, M., Warner, A. and Bond, D. (2006) The race for the 2012 Olympics: The inside story of how London won the bid. London: Random House.• MacRury, I. and Poynter, G. (2010) ‘‘Team GB’and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities’, The International Journal of the

History of Sport, 27(16-18), pp.2958-2975.• Moban, S. (2012) ‘FPC Briefing: A ‘New Hope’ as the ‘Empire Strikes Back’- British Soft Power in 2013’, The Foreing Policy Centre 18 November

[online]. Available at: < http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1532.pdf > Accessed [16 February 2014].• Morgan, N., Pritchard, A. and Pride, R. (2011) Destination brands: Managing place reputation. (Eds.).Abingdon: Routledge.• Rapoza, K. (2012) ‘The Empire Strikes Back: U.K. Beats U.S. In 'Soft Power', Survey Says’, Forbes 18 November [online]. Available at: <

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/11/18/the-empire-strikes-back-u-k-beats-u-s-in-soft-power-survey-says/ > [Accessed 20 February 2014].

• Smith, A. (2005) ‘Reimaging the city: the value of sport initiatives’, Annals of Tourism Research, 32 (1), pp.217-236.• Ward, S. V. (1998) Selling Places: the Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities 1850–2000. London: E and FN Spon.