Facing hard economic times in an era of globalisation, the City of Eindhoven realised the region level was the ideal one to combine proximity and global competitiveness. It joined regional economic stakeholders from the triple helix (public authorities, industry & knowledge institutes) in the “Brainport Foundation” and had them work together in strategic projects as part of a regional economic agenda focusing on regional assets. Today Brainport Eindhoven is a knowledge intensive industrial region highly ranked in international charts and is recognized by the national government. It shows that a long term commitment between partners is key to sustainable economic growth, which was again proved while successfully combating the economic crisis.

The tourism arm of Brighton & Hove City Council, VisitBrighton, established and launched Business Partnership Scheme five years ago to ensure the whole city’s tourism industry was committed to, and supporting, its destination marketing vision. This was a specific recommendation from the previous year’s Tourism Strategy which had been formulated as a joint public/private initiative.

At the same time VisitBrighton completely re-invigorated their entire destination marketing approach in acknowledgment of the shortening lead times for bookings, the increasing dominance of the short break markets and increased use of the internet. The changes made were:

Glasgow City Council has developed the Style Mile project alongside a range of public and private partner organisations, with the aim of reinforcing Glasgow’s position as the top UK retail destination outwith London’s West End. The Style Mile’s strategic aspirations were focused on positioning Glasgow city centre as a stylish and vibrant place to live, work and visit. The project has been a proactive response to the unprecedented economic climate, and has delivered a new approach to the management of the city centre in Glasgow. Key outputs have included new winter lighting, targeted marketing campaigns, enhanced public realm maintenance programme, area branding, and new event activity.

1 April 2009 saw the formal establishment of Edinburgh’s new city promotion body Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA). It provides a 'one stop shop' for the leadership and co-ordination for destination marketing. It is a business and public sector partnership established as a private company, with a business led board of directors.

DEMA aims to build on Edinburgh’s existing high value as a brand and consumer awareness (currently 22nd in the Anholt City Brand Index) as a tourist destination, and to extend promotion of the destination as a world class place to do business and to live, work and study. DEMA will achieve this by managing customer perceptions and destination reputation, and cross selling across tourism, talent and trade. Promotional objectives are integrated with the city’s Economic Development and regeneration objectives.

In 2009, the inaugural Innovation Dublin festival was launched to promote innovation and creativity in the capital.

After a call for submissions in May, Dubliners from all walks of life responded with hundreds of event ideas: talks, tours, performances and workshops - all celebrating the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit of the city.

The results exceeded all expectations. In seven days 465 events took place, attended by over 40,000 visitors. In the midst of troubled economic times, Dublin proved it had the capacity to inspire, the desire to interact, and the talent to innovate.

DO IT IN BARCELONA is a comprehensive city initiative promoted by BARCELONA ACTIVA, the Local Development Agency of the Barcelona City Council, in order to attract talent and entrepreneurship activity to Barcelona. DO IT IN BARCELONA goes beyond a traditional city branding initiative by offering a portfolio of landing support services addressed to four specific targets: foreign entrepreneurs, qualified professionals, researchers and postgraduate students, who are considering coming to Barcelona to set up a business, find a qualified job, do research or take post graduate studies.

The programme offers four specific tracks of professional services for those targets and one common track of personal services on issues such as migration permits, city facilities and housing and schooling support. The programme works in collaboration with other city, regional and national partners, such as university and research institutions, business schools, economic stakeholders, and others.

Frees State of Amsterdam - Exploring the city’s future in an open planning process The “Free State of Amsterdam” was the Dutch’s capital contribution to the 4th International Biennale Rotterdam 2009, which took the “Open City: designing Coexistence” as its theme. It was an exhibition combined with a programme of events and debate about Amsterdam’ future. Residents and visitors were encouraged to join the discussion and share their thoughts.

The 2009 initiative “binnen30minuten.nl (denk mee over de toekomst van de stad!) - take 30 minutes (share your thoughts about the future of the city!” – was also aimed at more actively involving Amsterdam’s citizens in the formulation of special plans, asking for their input towards the new structural vision. Using internet-accessible “social media”, which allowed the public to generate the content of a website, the organisers tried to elicit responses, coax ideas out into the open and gauge the mood in the city.

The “Free State” exhibition was effectively the physical counterpart of this internet campaign.

On 9 October 2009, all of Leipzig commemorated the "Peaceful Revolution" of 1989. The day’s highlight was the Festival of Lights: “Leipzig, dawning of a New Era – 20 Years of Peaceful Revolution and Unity in Europe” which excited 150.000 attendees and 300 media representatives from more than 11 countries.

Along the historical demonstration route on the inner-city ring road, the city and location marketing department of Leipzig Tourismus and Marketing GmbH (LTM), the City of Leipzig and the initiative group “Autumn 89” created a new format of commemoration. 28 audio, video and light installations dealt with the subjects of freedom, overcoming of boundaries and civic involvement.

The ONLYLYON banner was launched in 2007 as the first example of city branding in France. The objective of ONLY LYON is to communicate internationally on the economic, historical and cultural assets of the Lyon metropolitan area. ONLYLYON is developed and shared by 12 local and institutional communication and marketing strategy.

In order to be successful internationally, an urban brand must be firmly rooted locally. To stimulate citizen’s ownership of the ONLYLYON banner, the ONLYLYON Ambassador’s network has been established. Everyone who loves Lyon in invited to join this network of ambassadors to promote the city all over the world.