Humber’s Place Brand Launch

Places don’t need brands, places are brands

“It all starts with the realisation that all encounters with [place] take place through perception.” 

Prof. Mihalis Kavartzis, “From City Marketing to City Branding”

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: places don’t need brands, places are brands. Your brand is the mental image that people hold about your place. That already exists – but place branding allows you to gain control over it.

How does that work when your ‘place’ is a huge region, with undefined borders, four local authorities crossing two counties, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the UK’s busiest port complex and so much more…? This is the challenge Future Humber (the country’s oldest and biggest bondholders scheme) took on, wanting to redefine and reposition perceptions of the Humber region as a major driver of the UK economy and decarbonisation agenda. 

CTConsults worked with Hemingway Design and local partners Pace Communications to define Humber’s core values:

Revolutionary – embracing the spirit of the estuary: bold, dynamic and ever-evolving.

Resourceful – redefining what it means to be an ‘Industrial Powerhouse’: resourceful, reliable, radical, and working together for change.

Real – unapologetic industrialists and enthusiastic environmentalists: responsible, sincere and vital.

Remarkable – self-starting and standing as a beacon of industrial modernity: leading with a community-focussed, creative and can-do attitude. 

These four values combine to create Humber’s place brand filter, a practical tool against which strategic planning decisions across the region should be measured; be that a housing development, new business location, community programme or major event.

The values were launched at Humber Business Week to c.300 stakeholders, with some great film footage and a full toolkit. You can read more, watch the films and download the toolkit here:

https://www.futurehumber.com/humber-place-brand 

No one single person or organisation owns a place brand; it belongs to the place. We are now supporting Future Humber with their partners through the implementation of their place brand values, as they support stakeholders to adopt joined-up behaviours and decision-making processes. Now it’s time to take collective action to shift perceptions of Humber.