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.

Currently, apart from being the capital of Peru, it is also the political, cultural and financial center highlighting the other parts of the country, since its metropolitan area comprises 30% of the total population.

Lima residents in the city center

In the 20th century the historic center of Lima underwent a modernization and its population growth finally came to deteriorate in the late 70’s and 80’s when the traffic did damage the image of the city and the tranquility of pedestrians.

Original Pizarro’s Chess Board

To avoid some of this deterioration and promote recovery by the Peruvian authorities, UNESCO declared World Heritage the Convent of San Francisco in 1988 and three years later included the entire area of the historic center of Lima thanks to the originality of its plane and more than 600 monuments that one can find in what is known as Pizarro’s Chess Board. From this change of mind at the time of Alberto Andrade Carmona, Lima city experienced the recovery of all its architectural heritage, reducing crime and it was the key element for the start of the recuperation of a more walkable capital and with less pollution for the citizens.

Currently the corporate image of Lima is being developed, as the authorities are seeing the opportunities that are created to attract international investment in projects that are in progress, and what is on the table is, on the one hand, turn away from the own brand Peru, already exploited and reporting directly to the central government, and also, as was indicated by Armando Andrade, President of Interbrand and Pragma group and Head of the future brand-Lima  it is wanted  that “Citizens of Lima to stand and do Lima the city Peruvians and the world deserves”, also clarifying that it has to ward off the gastronomic clichés that has labeled the urban image and to focus on new more cross contemporary values.

PromPeru logo that includes all Peruvian cities

Meanwhile, the city of Lima grows in every way and also its outside promotion. Like the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games are a quadrennial sporting event but as its name suggests is held only with the participation of countries of the American continent. Has been held since Buenos Aires 1951 and in many cases it was a boost to global Olympic bids as it was Rio  in its celebration of the 2007 Pan American Games, a prelude to the Olympics 2016 in regard to facilities, events and receiving countries and athletes.

Recently it was held in Toronto (2015), but in the edition of 2019 in Lima is where we will see a massive change in the Peruvian capital.

It is important at this point to explain what this Master Plan 2019 is. The Lima city is adapting its entire vial, sport and hotel infrastructure to meet the challenge of the Pan American Games. Its main project in the sporting arena is the creation of a stadium for athletics, one for baseball, a velodrome and a new sports pavilion, and furthermore as it is logical in these projects, a large area of accommodation for sports teams and a medical area. These facilities will remain in the hands of the Peruvian population, as well as improving mass transit, that is comfortable and that gives confidence to national and international  visitors of this event.

Master Plan facilities

The spatial reorganization that involves a sporting event like this always has an impact which will benefit the long-term future of the city as well as its new urban image and identity, leading opportunities for integration, sustainability and urban improvement.

Thus, the main objective is incentive afterwards new program opportunities to strengthen this condition of urban space:

• A first-level sports infrastructure with an image and unique identity, linked to history and local culture.
• Green areas that are integrated into the city reassessing vacant and abandoned areas that Lima has now.
• Public spaces for social integration to help improve the quality of life of the surrounding neighborhoods.

To promote Lima brand and its Pan American Games it was presented a modern image that would help contextualize Peru with all its cultural background in the Latin American context.

Official Logo

The new logo is represented by Amancae flower that combines history, culture and tradition of the Pan American community with joy that surrounds the sport. The identity of the city is reflected in the colors and pistils that unite the Peruvian capital with the rest of the participating nations in the Americas. Its creation comes from the hand of the artists Juan Diego Sanz and Jorge Luis Zarate.

Specifically, it asserts that Amancae flower represents three athletes with open arms and the three Americas with the deepest and most remote identity of the ancient city of Lima.

Lima and the challenges of sustainable growth

The Pan American Games will be ultimately much more than a whitewash of the city. It is not only the creation of a differentiated own urban identity of the rest of the country, but it is improving a city that will be very influential, as an emerging capital that it is, in the next decade and that will target Lima residents in the new approach to its urban development.

Krakow, the second largest city in Poland and one of the most fashionable cities in Europe, had already hosted the World Volleyball Championship in 2014 and continuing this line of work, it will host the European Handball 2016 in Kraków Arena.

There is a curious combination in this city that considers as its the sport courts, the books and the Catholic faith in a spiritual fusion made for young people (only for certain young people, we should add).

Krakow Arena

So, Krakow is prepared to be the Capital of Youth 2016 and it is no strange knowing how its history was. For some time it is known as the capital of Divine Mercy -as the organizers explained- and it is also an important city in contemporary Catholicism.

A great character of Krakow was John Paul II, Pope Karol Józef Wojtyła, native from Lesser Poland (Wadowice) and archbishop of Krakow just before he became the first Polish pope.

Both the figure of the pope, who during the Cold War became an openness symbol for Soviet bloc countries, as the singular figure of Krakow, a city with free tradition that ended up being a communist productive link, were relevant in the Soviet fall and the evolution that Poland had with the advent of democracy. Two observer symbols of Polish civil society that managed to change as its neighboring countries in the recent history of Europe.

But this liberal Krakow had already silenced before the release of the Soviet army. We must not forget how this region of Poland was to be annexed and cleaned by the army of Hitler. The Nazi regime wanted Krakow to be entirely German finishing first with the Jewish inhabitants and then the Poles. In fact, in the operation Sonderaktion Krakau many academics were taken to concentration camps.

Indeed, the scene that best explains these years was the clean-up of Krakow ghetto in Shindler’s List.

Years later, after the war had finished and the People’s Republic of Poland was raised, Krakow created the Lenin Steelworks, a major production center that is now popularly known as Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks. Both civil claims of its employees and the aesthetics of this area of Nowa Hutta are essential to really know what the spirit of this city is and its urban identity.

Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks, the Lenin’s factory

With all these ingredients, Krakow carved out a very specific urban marketing these recent decades, to balance both visions that have exposed. On the one hand its tragic past and the other hand, its intentionally European future opening itself to the world.

Is it possible to create an image of a city open to the world by getting rid of a dark decades without falling into clichés of a more traditional Poland?

It is not only possible but necessary. Krakow has in Warsaw the capital of the country, but its goal is to be the national leader in the academic and cultural fields, differing from it and creating an authentic brand.

Thanks  to be a World Heritage Site by Unesco since 1978 and a European Cultural Capital in 2000, with the arrival of the millennium, Krakow has been creating a highlighted city branding.

Logos that Krakow used in recent years to relaunch its corporate image of integrated city in Europe

Currently the motto is “Krakow open city“ and one of its core values is to create fraternity among other sister cities: Curitiba, Kiev, Seville and Nanjing recently tightened ties with this Polish city.

Krakow’s partner cities

Krakow’s cultural agenda is, as we say, vibrant and unique. It was also chosen as the most attractive tourist town in Europe in 2015 and it is one of the best destinations for outsourcing as ranked by Tholons.

Current Krakow logo

The location of the city as a gateway between East and West, the quality of its trained workers and good price of its services make this a good example of a city to invest. With a great heritage, it is not surprising moreover, that such a beautiful city is well worth visiting.

This city branding is another clear example of overcoming, giving a modern image and urban identity not only differentiate other Central European cities that might be similar, but also the other major cities of the Polish country.

How is it possible that Krakow does not achieve excellence?

Partial view of Krakow

This beautiful city has a challenge ahead to actually be a completely open city. The Foundation for Tolerance of Krakow has spent years fighting for civil and social rights of the LGBT community and gender equality, and it is a clear example of “bridge” between diversity in Western European capitals and the other religious and traditional Poland.

Year after year, despite the conflicts they generate, this group aims to show the artistic and educational activities that are part of a minority (not a really minority) sector of the city, which also attracts attention from many other parts of the country and the continent.

It is not a perfect city but it is an open city. If there is a turning point and change to create a more tolerant society in Poland, this undoubtedly is Krakow.