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06/03/2007
2006 Anholt City Brands Index ranks Sydney as strongest city brand, but London still has the highest potential for the future...
The 2006 edition of the Anholt City Brands Index (CBI), an annual survey which measures the strength of a city’s brand, has found that London, England favourite city brand in 2005, has slipped into 2nd place behind Sydney Australia, which climbed up two places to take the top spot.
However, London is still seen as having the most potential for the future, with respondents ranking the city as top for higher education and ranking it highly in terms of finding work and doing business (top three). London also came top in terms of awareness, with respondents ranking the city as the one they knew most about, whether they had been there or not.
Even though this ranking seems to mirror the recent trend set by our nation’s cricketers and rugby players of showing great potential and high awareness, but ultimately being doomed to lose to the Australians, all is not lost for the UK’s capital city. When respondents were asked which city they felt had contributed to the world the most over the last 30 years, London was ranked 3rd whilst Sydney came in at 14th place. Respondents also felt that London had more on offer to keep them entertained, whether they were visiting London on a week-long holiday or living there as a resident (top three).
The survey, now in its second year, polled 15,255 people in 20 countries to rate the presence, appearance, amenities, people, life and potential of 60 cities around the world. The City Brands Index, created by government advisor Simon Anholt and powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite Inc.), is designed to show how people react to a city’s brand in the same way they react to high-street brands.
Overall rankings showed Paris in France coming in 3rd, closely followed by Rome in Italy (4th) and New York in America (5th). Edinburgh, the only other UK city included in this year’s City Brands Index, came 30th.
London "more attractive than Edinburgh"?!...
London was perceived to be more physically attractive than Edinburgh, which was ranked 19th against London’s number 4 spot. However, despite receiving less sunshine and more rain than London, Edinburgh was perceived to have a better climate. Similarly, Edinburgh faired better than London in terms of cleanliness, despite its “Auld Reekie” image. Edinburghers were perceived to be as welcoming as the Milanese and New Orleanians (19th place), whilst Londoners were perceived to be significantly less welcoming, in 37th place.
The top and bottom ten cities from the 2006 City Brand Index are: |
1 |
Sydney |
51 |
Warsaw |
2 |
London |
52 |
Havana |
3 |
Paris |
53 |
Jerusalem |
4 |
Rome |
54 |
Bangkok |
5 |
New York |
55 |
Cairo |
6 |
Washington DC |
56 |
Dubrovnik |
7 |
San Francisco |
57 |
Mumbai |
8 |
Melbourne |
58 |
Manila |
9 |
Barcelona |
59 |
Lagos |
10 |
Geneva |
60 |
Nairobi |
SOURCE: www.citybrandsindex.com |
“This year’s CBI shows again how perceptions of a city vary greatly from the actual reality. London came in 3rd this year for public amenities, which include public transport, something that many of us who use the London tube would strongly disagree with,” explains CBI report author Simon Anholt.
“A city’s brand is extremely complex and can be very hard to change. Many of us will only visit a handful of overseas cities in our lifetime, but you can almost guarantee that when we do visit a place, we already have a fixed idea of what we will find before we get there. Whilst you may never have visited Paris, many will always associate it with romance, and the same is true of Milan and style. This is a trend that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future,” concludes Anholt.
To download a copy of the 2006 CBI executive summary report, please click here.
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