Branding A City: Lessons From Brand Victoria

In this opinion piece Sean Sammon, the ceo and director of government consultancy firm Bastion S+GO discusses what marketers and branding experts can learn from the government branding of ‘brand Victoria’.

The launch of Brand Victoria expertly unifies Tourism Victoria, The City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government, paving the way for marketing activities under the one umbrella, rather than forcing brands to directly compete with each other for attention in a crowded marketplace.

Sean Sammon

The relaunch raises two important questions for marketers and branding experts: how to apply lean thinking to their portfolio of clients, and how best to engage government to promote the growth of these brands on a local level.

One of the biggest challenges Victoria has faced is how to celebrate a place that encompasses so many different cultures, whilst being commercially minded and opens opportunities for the tourism dollar.

It’s almost impossible to sum up millions of people from different regions in one tag line. Brand Victoria’s strategy to combine the states many successful taglines to create one giant brand, expertly places slogans such as ‘the world’s most livable city’ and ‘the sporting capital’ under one umbrella.

The rebrand also highlights the value mutually beneficial partnerships between government and a brand can deliver to a region. Melbourne has many great qualities, and the role the government has played in the growth and marketing of the city has been significant.

Clever marketing tactics and partnerships with the State government have seen Melbourne become the place to be for world-class sports events and as such, experienced an increase in the number of events held in the City and large spike in the amount of people visiting each year.

Major sporting events such as the Australian Open and the Spring Racing Carnival have created huge opportunities for brands and organisations to partner with the government to achieve marketing outcomes, visitors to the City and global audiences.

This has been no accident; rather the sum of hours of conversations between influential government figures and those in decision-making roles at some of Australia’s most iconic venues.

With this in mind, it would be fair to argue the Brand Victoria price tag of $20M is certainly justified. By condensing the value of Victoria’s attractions and elements that make it a unique place to visit and live, Brand Victoria expertly opens possibilities for conversations around future marketing activities and creating its own assets.

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