SERVICES

Understanding places, defining their positioning, and creating opportunities

Cities, regions, and destinations have stories, capabilities, and experiences that can make them relevant to different audiences. The challenge is to recognize their strengths, understand who values them, and build a strategy that connects their identity with tangible opportunities.

I help places and promotion agencies navigate this process. My work brings together place branding, destination strategy, narrative, and place marketing to help them decide how to position themselves, what to promote, and how to engage their audiences.

I offer consulting projects, strategic advisory, talks, and workshops. Each engagement is tailored to the context, the team’s capabilities, and the challenge at hand.

Place Branding & Positioning

Building a brand around what a place is and what it can come to represent

A place brand is built through the associations, experiences, and expectations a place creates. Its strength depends on a credible connection between its identity, what it offers, and how it wants to be recognized.

I help cities, regions, and destinations discover what sets them apart and turn that identity into meaningful positioning. This involves exploring their history, culture, economic strengths, tourism assets, and vision for the future, while listening to the people who live in, manage, and represent the place.

The process clarifies what the place stands for, which audiences it wants to reach, and what evidence supports its positioning. From there, I develop a narrative that helps stakeholders communicate consistently and align their initiatives around a shared vision.

What can we work on?

Research and assessment: reviewing existing research, strategies, the local context, and the competitive landscape.
Identity and perception: identifying attributes, strengths, and tensions, and examining how the place is understood internally and externally.
Value proposition: defining what the place offers its priority audiences and why they should choose it.
Positioning: establishing a distinctive, relevant position grounded in the place’s capabilities.
Narrative and messaging: developing a central story and supporting messages for tourism, investment, talent, events, or other priorities.
Stakeholder alignment and governance: establishing principles for participation, brand adoption, and long-term continuity.
Activation: recommending ways to bring the positioning into communication, promotion, and the experiences the place offers.

When is this service useful?

When a place needs to build or revisit its brand, struggles to explain what makes it distinctive, communicates through disconnected messages, or wants to establish a shared vision among institutions, businesses, and the community.

What does the process deliver?

A strategic foundation for the place brand: clarity on its identity, audiences, value proposition, positioning, and narrative, along with guidance for management and activation. This foundation also provides direction for visual identity development and promotional initiatives.

Let’s Talk About Your Place Brand

Destination Strategy

Deciding where to focus and how to compete

Promoting a destination requires choices: which audiences to prioritize, which opportunities to pursue, which attributes to highlight, and how to allocate resources across markets and objectives.

I help destinations and promotion agencies set that direction. The starting point is understanding their offer, capabilities, competitive environment, and the expectations of the people and organizations they want to attract.

From there, I connect tourism, investment, talent, and events according to the place’s priorities. The aim is for each area to contribute to a shared development vision and for promotional activities to serve clear objectives.

I also help teams translate that vision into a roadmap that reflects their resources, partnerships, and capacity to deliver.

What can we work on?

Destination assessment: analyzing its offer, assets, capabilities, and promotional challenges.
Competitive landscape: reviewing comparable destinations, trends, and opportunities for differentiation.
Audiences and markets: establishing criteria for prioritizing segments and focusing promotional efforts.
Value proposition: developing specific arguments for visitors, investors, talent, or event organizers.
Connecting the destination’s offer: identifying links between experiences, sectors, and stakeholders that can strengthen its appeal.
Promotion strategy: defining guidelines for messaging, content, channels, and partnerships.
Roadmap: setting priorities, actions, and progress measures to guide implementation.

When is this service useful?

When a destination needs to review its strategy, explore new markets, strengthen its value proposition, or coordinate initiatives that currently operate separately. It is also useful when a promotion agency needs to sharpen its focus and priorities.

What does the process deliver?

A strategic direction that clarifies what the destination wants to achieve, whom it wants to reach, and why those audiences should consider it. Depending on the agreed scope, this translates into market priorities, promotional arguments, and a roadmap to guide the team.

Let’s Discuss Your Destination Strategy

Strategic Advisory

A space to test ideas and make informed decisions

Leaders and promotion teams face decisions that call for analysis, an independent perspective, and experience in interpreting the context. Sometimes the immediate need is to review a proposal, resolve a strategic question, or assess an opportunity before committing resources.

I advise investment promotion agencies, tourism boards, convention bureaus, governments, and organizations involved in regional development.

I work directly with their leaders and teams to examine challenges, ask useful questions, weigh alternatives, and develop practical recommendations. An engagement can focus on a specific issue or provide ongoing support as decisions and priorities evolve.

How can I support you?

Review the positioning and value proposition of an organization or place.
Assess the coherence of a strategy, promotion plan, or campaign.
Refine narratives, messages, and arguments for specific audiences.
Explore opportunities related to new markets and emerging trends.
Analyze reputation and institutional communication challenges.
Prepare discussions to align teams and organizations.
Identify applications of artificial intelligence for research, benchmarking, analysis, and planning.

How does it work?

We start with a specific question or challenge. We review the context and relevant materials, hold working sessions, and define recommendations and next steps. In ongoing engagements, we revisit progress and adjust priorities as circumstances change.

When is this service useful?

When you need a second perspective before making a decision, want to strengthen your team’s strategic judgment, or need support through a period of change, planning, or growth.

What does the process deliver?

Greater clarity on the options available, their implications, and the next steps to take. The value lies in having an adviser who understands the relationship between communication, promotion, and regional development and can help you assess decisions in that context.

Let’s Discuss Your Next Decision

Talks and Workshops

Understanding change and connecting it to your organization’s challenges

The ways places build reputation and attract opportunities are changing. Traveler expectations, competition for investment and talent, local identities, and artificial intelligence are raising new questions for those working in place promotion and development.

I speak and facilitate sessions at events, government bodies, businesses, universities, and professional gatherings. I combine concepts, case studies, and lessons from my experience to make these changes understandable and connect them to the decisions participants face.

Talks offer a perspective on a topic and open up discussion. Workshops focus on a specific challenge through exercises, dialogue, and collaborative work.

Topics I cover include:

Place branding beyond the logo: connecting identity, positioning, reputation, and development.
City and regional narratives: building distinctive stories grounded in the reality of the place.
Destination strategy and competitiveness: defining priorities and relevant value propositions.
Tourism, investment, and talent: bringing these areas together within a shared vision for the place.
AI for destinations: exploring ways to strengthen research, analysis, and promotion through informed use.
The future of promotion agencies: examining changes in their roles, capabilities, and relationships with audiences.
Governance and stakeholder alignment: building agreement and ensuring continuity in a place branding strategy.

How is each session tailored?

Before the event, we define the audience, context, and purpose of the session. I then adapt the approach, examples, and depth of the content.

For workshops, we also agree on what participants will work toward: identifying attributes, reviewing a value proposition, developing messages, establishing shared criteria, or setting priorities. This ensures the exercises have a practical application for the group.

What does the process deliver?

Talks offer fresh perspectives and questions to guide reflection. Workshops help participants develop agreements, criteria, or initial proposals that the team can build on.

Invite Me to Speak or Lead a Workshop

Let’s Talk