My training is in public administration, yet I study place branding and marketing. When attending conferences, this usually leads to people looking at me funny and asking me some variant of this question: “So how is that public administration?” Perhaps a brief introduction to my background will help answer that – and help put it…
Malcolm Allan discusses a recent conference on building Brand Morocco By Malcolm Allan On 27 May in Casablanca, the Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy of the Kingdom of Morocco, Maroc Export and the Amadeus Institute held the first annual conference on developing a strategy for Brand Morocco. As MD of Placematters,…
Every territorial marketing professional has been faced with the following dilemma at one point or another: “How can I get my social media community to grow?” That inevitably leads to a slew of creative ideas from all sides. Marketing professionals advocate for social media advertising. Creatives push great community building ideas into your hand, while…
Nikola Tesla is the most famous and influential Serb in the world. I’m writing about him on the subject of ‘nation branding of Serbia’ because the nation branding of Serbia was in fact his last wish. This is a story about how ‘nation branding’ is a natural thing rooted in every good person. Put simply,…
There’s pasties, sandy beaches, cream teas, picture postcard fishing villages, pirates, surfers, and jolly old ‘seadogs’. Oh, and let’s not forget the latest addition – Poldark. What more is there to know about Cornwall? Well, firstly, the fact that we can list all of these things about a county is pretty impressive. Most people would…
In our final instalment of this mini-series, Malcolm Allan of PlaceMatters shares his thoughts on how to solve the misunderstanding by placing greater emphasis on strategy, competitive advantage and the importance of a common narrative. He also points out that discounting the value of PR and advertising agencies is unwise, as they can and do…