Chief Marketing Office Rotterdam

Rotterdam has a population of about 650,000 in a region of about 1.3 million. It is a city famous for its port, shipping history and architecture and has therefore developed a cosmopolitan atmosphere. The Chief Marketing Office Rotterdam is primarily responsible for branding policy and brand management for the city of Rotterdam in a coordinating role through cooperation and collaborative partnerships between a variety of stakeholders including the municipality, the business community, the city institutions, event organisations, the tourism sector and the general public. The Office was set up three years ago and is funded by the municipality and business. It has a staff of eight people and has links with over 120 people across the city. It has a board comprising 20 CEOs from the business and university sectors, which advise the Office. Rotterdam found that the City has many strong brands and unique charactersistics and the Chief Marketing Office Rotterdam looks at how they can be strengthened in a coordinated way. There is no generic city branding campaign, instead the Office has focussed on developing the simple brand tag or “signature” of “Rotterdam World Port World City”. As an offshoot of this message, different angles can be developed by different stakeholders e.g. World Sport, World Medicine, World Architecture and World Hospitality etc. The Office developed a short 1 minute and 50 second video, which gave a visual representation of what Rotterdam’s brand is. There is also a city logo – a green R - that the municipality uses and that all stakeholders in the city can use. Rotterdam focuses on a theme for each year (e.g. culture, sport etc) and then works closely with a variety of stakeholders to reflect in some way that theme in their communication and promotion activities. For further information, see Rotterdam Chief Marketing Office http://www.rotterdamworldbrand.rotterdam.nl/