Gimme’ what the other guy’s got. That’s all City Hall tends to want. Buzzwords. Hype. Tourists. That’s why every city’s racing to be Green, World Class and Creative. City Hall thinks that’s good marketing and it is . . . if you actually are Green, World Class and Creative.
But what if you’re not?
You might be successful in conning tourists to come your way once, but never twice. Worse still, once you’ve alienated them, you’ve alienated all their friends and family too. A convention centre doesn’t make you a Centre of Finance any more than touring productions of Phantom make you Cultural.
Smart cities spend their energy being what they want to be. Foolish cities waste their time (and money) telling you what they think you want to hear. One is hard, cheap and fruitful, the other is easy, expensive and useless.
See, Paris is World Class. It doesn’t need to tell you that. How often do you see a government-sponsored ad for Paris? Rarely, I bet. I haven’t seen one in years. Paris doesn’t need advertisements. Paris sells itself. Similarly, Stockholm is Green; San Francisco is Creative.
Decide what you want your city to be and commit to it. It’s not easy, but it works.