Interbrand beats five to brand city of Edinburgh

Interbrand is set to create Edinburgh’s brand identity, as the Scottish capital moves to position itself as one of the world’s major cities.

The London group beat FutureBrand, Wally Olins’ venture Saffron Brand Consultants, Corporate Edge, The Edinburgh Consultancy and The Leith Agency to the project, which carries an £800 000 budget, after an unpaid credentials pitch in late May. The branding is set to launch next spring.

‘Edinburgh has a diverse image, but it’s not all that clear. It really needs to be more coherent,’ explains project manager Ailsa Falconer. If the capital continues to rest on its laurels, it risks ‘losing ground’ to cities that have been promoted more successfully, such as Prague, Barcelona and Copenhagen, she adds.

Interbrand has been tasked with developing a brand identity that attracts investment, a talented workforce and the tourist pound, according to Falconer. This could either take the form of a single, umbrella brand or a family of brands that represents the city’s different sectors.

‘It all depends on what comes out of market research,’ she explains.

Interbrand and the Edinburgh City Region Brand Project team will spend the next three to four months jointly interviewing Edinburgh’s key stakeholders, before the consultancy turns to developing a new visual and verbal identity and peripheral materials.

Interbrand has also created the brand identities for London and Estonia, both of which launched in 2003, as well as for Johannesburg, which rolled out in 2002.

The Edinburgh City Region Brand Project is a public/private sector partnership.

Public sector partners include the City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh and Lothians Tourist Board and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian.

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