It has an advantage, not because of its location, but by a history that pushed it to have a set of World Heritage buildings: The Hill of Fourvière with its Roman theater and the Basilica of Notre-Dame, Old Lyon (Vieux Lyon) of medieval times, and La Croix-Rousse and Presqu’île marked by its industrial evolution to the present.

Monumental Lyon on the banks of the Rhone

Up to these modern times we come with a long history of great technological and innovative challenges (banking, printing, engineering, chemistry, medicine) from medieval times to the contemporary age. Reflection of the strength of knowledge that is observed in the most avant-garde and attractive buildings, marking a clear identity of the Lyon city, unique in all France.

An example of this urbanism is the majestic Cité Internationale (International City) of Renzo Piano. This contemporary district is a crossroads of the services sector of the city of Lyon, a major tourist attraction and a pole of cultural movement for all residents: offices, conference rooms, cinemas and auditoriums, hotels, Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon and much more.

Sculpture by Xavier Veilhan at the Congress Center of the Cité Internationale

It hosts international meetings at its Congress Center and it is even the headquarters of Interpol, bringing together in a single city an innovative character of research and an international vision of its urban relations.

From here we also highlight the presence in Lyon city of Euronews, with their offices that draw attention to their outstanding forms and this is a meaningful image of the city. This communication channel was created in 1993 by SOCIEME to give informative coverage to all the countries of Europe and the Mediterranean basin in 13 languages, being the news channel most seen on the European continent today. A mass-media giant in Lyon is a true example of the attraction of foreign sources in the field of innovation and technology in this French city.

Euronews Headquarters in La Confluence Neighborhood

The success of the city and its urban brand are currently well coordinated through Only Lyon, a consortium that manage Lyon’s city branding in a very participatory and transversal way, being a case of success of the place marketing in Europe.

This platform emerged in 2007 as an institutional tool of several public partners (Lyon City Council, University of Lyon, CCI Lyon, Eurexpo, ADERLY, etc.) and private partners (Renault, KPMG, JCDecaux, Veolia or Emirates among others) in a collaborative and transparent governance system.

The main purpose was to enhance the national and international image of Lyon to stand out in the global urban rankings, very oriented to those who visit it mainly from great metropolis of Europe and from emerging countries.

The good use of social networks and communication campaigns comes from the hand of Lionel Flasseur who gave a pioneering vision with digital marketing strategies to an urban project in the use of social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin) being also the first city to create its own network of urban promoters with Only Lyon ambassadors, a very original way of enhancing membership in Lyon’s urban space, both for those who reside there permanently, as those who visit it to study, to travel, to research and to work, to feel it and to end up being the true current influencers, whose mission is to promote the city as a “unique and exceptional” place, to detect opportunities for new projects and contribute to publicize its city branding. All this in exchange for receiving regular information on the urban agenda, participating in Lyon events and meetings of Only Lyon outside the city and also to be able to contact to more than 23,500 ambassadors that have joined today.

Addicted to Lyon campaign focused on Lyon ambassadors

The current image of the Only Lyon promotional platform is reminiscent of the existing Grand Lyon, which took corporate colors and the lion. Moreover this logo was also seen in different places of the city in an action of dynamization that helped to push the urban mark and to interact with it.

3D Logo of Only Lyon

More than once, the simple municipal term is not enough, and the concept of city that we have goes beyond its limits, as it is the case of all the urban zone that passes the Greater Lyon. In addition, the concepts of space precisely are obsolete according to the consideration that the old city had until now.

From the Roman ruins to become the best French city in technology and the first Smart city, Lyon was able to attract talent and adapt to each of the historical circumstances that it faced.

These circumstances in the information age also turn into great opportunities. It is fundamental the use of images, the collaboration of citizens and the interaction with the messages to make the city feel as the Lyonians have done. It is a unique example of city branding in a town, not small, but eclipsed by the central and universal Paris.

With a clear intention to communicate, a city that is not a state capital can be in the top positions of the international rankings with a basic strategy of explaining the urban product updated to the current digital media.

Puducherry offers an incredible confluence of the ancestral heritage and modern progress. The old French flavor is clearly visible in the well-laid gardens, magnificent churches, historical monuments, splendid mansions, and clean and wide roads, which still has French names.

French colonial architecture

This dual personality is its DNA and the city branding that make it special and unique within the Indian territory.

Puducherry has always absorbed different cultural and religious festivities. For example, the festival Kinni Radhothsavam in the Kamatchiamman Temple or  the International Yoga Festival. Since Puducherry is the former colony of France, the influence of French culture is evident in architecture, cuisine and lifestyle of the inhabitants of Puducherry. The influence of the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala is mixed in this heterogeneous culture.

Yogafest official image

The union territory of Puducherry has a rich cosmopolitan culture. In this city, its inhabitants speak French and English, besides Tamil and Telugu. Its colonial past makes some of the schools in Puducherry use French as the lingua franca and an another interesting fact about the town of Puducherry is that half of the territory’s population has dual nationality both French and Indian.

Posters in French

Within the metropolitan area of Puducherry we highlight a unique and spiritual space called Auroville, several kilometers north of the city. This is a community that started in 1968 as an experimental population of “Mother” (a French woman named Mirra Alfassa, the first that came to the area in 1914) in order to realize human unity, or as Alfassa indicated, creating a “place in an international community life, where men and women learn to live in peace, harmony, beyond all beliefs, political opinions and nationalities.”

Auroville planned by Roger Anger

An inalienable place that does not belong to any nation and a place where all human beings can live freely as citizens of the world.

The original idea was presented at the UN and also at the Indian Government in 1965 and the guiding principles in this community were marked until today:

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

This spirituality, which includes Auroville, and cultural events that we have exposed have made Puducherry a film reference.

Recently, the city was known to the world by the successful film “Life of Pi” (Ang Lee, 2012) which tells the story of young Pi Molitor Patel in an adventure that takes place initially in his town, Puducherry, which is the backdrop for many of the sequences of Life of Pi that were filmed in this city such as Pi’s childhood in the French quarter of Aayi Mandapam or scenes in the zoo run by the protagonist’s father, that really is the Garden Botanical city.

This film helps to show the colonial part of the city, the quiet life that was lived in the early 70’s and other delights in the middle of its urban nature, a showcase for breaking the Indian clichés, and we are sure that it has helped to promote Puducherry in Western cinema halls.

In addition Puducherry throughout its metropolitan complex with its exclaves in the rest of the Indian mainland formed a territorial union with other urban municipalities such as Oulgaret, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. They also have been nominated as Smart Cities for the Indian Government.

Exclaves of Puducherry including Yanam in the North, Mahe in the west coast of the subcontinent and Karaika, the nearest in the South.

At a federal level this urban territory carried out various improvements to enter into the optimum cities of the Indian Union such as the provision of sanitation of public water in homes, improvement that began in 2011, and also improving public accounts that are audited to improve urban transparency. For this civic accountability, the municipal corporation also began to show the public accounts of recent years so that any taxpayer can check how their taxes go, something new in the cities of India.

Gandhi monument

Specifically, in Puducherry we have to pay special attention to the municipal district of Oulgaret (Ozhukarai). In this town a pilot program has been planned to see voting the opinion of people regarding areas to promote within the smart city of Puducherry: urban waste management, TIC and e-government, monitoring the entrances and exits of the city, intelligent tourism, urban mobility, traffic management , monitoring of public transport by GPS and smart electricity meters and water supply.

Of all these, the points most voted by the majority will be included in the Smart City project carried out by the consulting firm Mahindra with the Country Planning Department of Puducherry in order to carry out a master plan pioneer in the history of this urban environment.

The city is renewed maintaining its charm to draw attention of the traveler. This year the Pondicherry Tourism Departament wanted to make a special and modern promotion of this urban brand that invites visitors of Pondy to forget everything, relax and discover the sensory pleasures of this part of India, under the message “Give time a break“.

A striking and unique place that awakens all the senses and brings spirituality, peace and history, as an example of intercultural coexistence.