Barcelona Rebranding Barcelona: City for Business, Talent, Innovation

Background Barcelona, with just over 1.6 million inhabitants (the entire Greater Metropolitan

Area totals 3.8 million), is Spain’s second largest city in terms of population and the capital city of the region of Catalonia. It’s the main economic engine of Spain and accounts for more than 25% of all Spanish exports. It's a city with more than 2,000 years of history and rich cultural heritage.

Over the last 20 years, Barcelona has successfully positioned itself among the top cities around the world. It is widely associated with creativity, culture, sport, gastronomy and high quality of life. Barcelona has also become one of the main tourist destinations in Europe, with more and 7.5 million tourists in 2013, and is a popular place for corporate, scientific, cultural and sporting events and congresses.

Today, Barcelona is a modern, advanced, cosmopolitan, open, creative and inspiring city boasting a high quality of life.

Game Changer: 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics

For this process, the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games were fundamental since they marked a before and after, a turning point in the push for the transformation and international projection of the city. The resources generated and the tremendous energy unleashed by a challenge of such magnitude acted as a catalyst for the process of transformation that the city had planned.

The Games, allowed Barcelona to show the world a redesigned city, as well as the enthusiasm and capacity of the people of Barcelona to develop and manage with creativity and efficiency an event of such characteristics and complexity.

After the 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona became a modern, cosmopolitan and touristic city. Tourists, students and professionals from around the world wanted to visit, to study and to work in what had become a very fashionable place.

And the city continued transforming itself and also innovating and creating all kind of initiatives, events, etc. that contributed to increase the awareness and attractiveness of the city.

So it is not just communications that have made Barcelona a strong and powerful global city brand, but the continued and consistent effort from the key public and private city leaders and organizations transforming the place and communicating effectively this transformations and the identity of the city.

Business and innovation In November 2010, a new Strategic Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona –

Vision 2020 – was presented: the result of the joint work of over 650 experts in different fields, who collaborated for more than a year to create and shape a projection for the future.

The vision of the Strategic Metropolitan Plan for Barcelona for 2020 consisted of consolidating the AMB (Metropolitan Area of Barcelona), with its model of quality social cohesion and integration, as one of the most attractive and influential European regions for innovative global talent.

Aims The Strategic Metropolitan Plan, the new city government – together with public and

private stakeholders – created and implemented a new city development and brand strategy.

Objectiveto position Barcelona as one of the most attractive and influential European regions for innovative global talent and as the best setting for economic and business growth. With this objective in mind, different initiatives and actions have been put in place both

from the public and the private sectors.

Strategy, Action, Tools Public sector new economic development strategy: ‘Barcelona Growth’

Under the ‘Barcelona Growth’ program, 30 main economic measures were identified to focus on. Those recommendations led to the rebranding of Barcelona from ‘Mobile World Capital’ (the city is host of the annual World Mobile Congress) into a ‘Smart City’ (Smart City Expo World Congress also held in BCN), positioning Barcelona as a city of knowledge and innovation.

Private sector involvement (Barcelona Global)

In order to implement the strategies and actions put forward in the Strategic Metropolitan Plan – Vision 2020, ‘Barcelona Global’ was created, a private, independent and non-profit association: a citizen’s platform of ideas and action, made up by people and companies who care about Barcelona and its future. The association’s mission is to actively contribute to making Barcelona one of the most attractive cities in the world, to attract and develop talent and economic activity.

Barcelona Global develops executive projects related to the competitiveness of Barcelona. These projects look to:

Strengthen the Barcelona brand associating it to sectors and activities with higher added value and quality.

Facilitate the attraction, retention and landing process of foreign investment and talent in Barcelona.

Bring together innovative talent and business decision centers and institutions. Encourage dialogue between sectors and across different groups as a way of

detecting development opportunities. Collaborate with other institutions, organizations and public authorities on various

types of projects and initiatives.

One of the main ideas and strategies under the action of Barcelona Global is how to make Barcelona a truly ‘business friendly city’, as well as how promote and position Barcelona through its main economic sectors.

A new Barcelona brand strategy The City Council of Barcelona also decided in 2011 to start a new project whose

main objective was to review and develop a new brand strategy for the city. The project included the identification and confirmation of the main brand attributes and the unique and different values of the city, the definition of the brand vision and new brand positioning and the development of a new brand story and value proposition.

Available tools were identified to strengthen and build the new brand positioning and a brand building strategy devised for those economic sectors most relevant to the city. The project also contemplated the definition of a brand management model through the establishment of a separate agency with the participation and involvement of the main actors of the city, public and private, which is yet to be created.

A new positioning statement was developed for the city, following in-depth strategic analysis and extensive consultation among key stakeholders.

A new city brand communication strategy

 

City Branding Impact Barcelona is consolidating its position as one of the leading cities in the area of ‘Smart

Cities’ and ‘Mobile Technologies’ (in line with the objective of positioning itself as the Mobile World Capital).

The city was awarded with the title of ‘European Capital of Innovation’ by the European Union in 2014 and is ranked the 4th Smart City in Europe and the 10th in the world.

The city has also been ranked as the 4th city in Europe in Scientific publications and the 10th in the world, the 1st city in southern Europe in economic development and the 1st European city in quality of life for workers.

Also, according to a recent international survey by the City of Barcelona in 2013, Barcelona is being perceived as one of the most creative cities in the world.

After the new brand positioning was defined, a communications strategy was put in place in 2013 under the idea or ‘motto’ ‘Barcelona Inspira’ (Barcelona Inspires). The objective of the communication strategy is to help visualize, communicate and value all the city assets and initiatives aimed at positioning Barcelona as a place for business, entrepreneurial talent and economic activity.

Future Challenges of the Barcelona Brand

The success of any city brand, including Barcelona, basically depends on a strong vision of great city leaders, and its coherent and consistent implementation, which is only possible with strong commitment of the civil society, and continued collaboration between all city stakeholders – public and private.

However, Brand Barcelona still faces challenges that have to be addressed and solved. The first is how to coordinate the main city stakeholders and their efforts in branding and promoting the city.

The second challenge is how can we protect and ensure the proper use of the brand (name) of Barcelona.

And third, there are practical challenges, such as how to develop a more sustainable touristic model for the city, how to make the city more attractive and welcoming for investment and talented people and, in general, how to involve and engage the citizens with the brand.