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Sydney Takes the Title of World’s Favourite City Brand from London2006 Anholt City Brands Index ranks Sydney as strongest city brand, but London still has the highest potential for the future London, January 24, 2007 – 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, favourite city brand in 2005, has slipped into 2nd place behind Sydney, which climbed up two places to take the top spot. 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 CBI, 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 coming in 3rd, closely followed by Rome (4th) and New York (5th). Edinburgh, the only other UK city included in this year’s CBI, came 30th. 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 CBI are:
“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. About the Anholt City Brands Index The first edition of the Anholt City Brands Index (CBI) was launched in December 2005, ranking 30 cities around the globe. This 2006 CBI edition was expanded to accommodate 60 cities. The index was compiled from the results of a survey conducted online between November 14th and December 27th, 2006 on the GMIPoll platform among 15,255 men and women aged 18-64 from a wide range of income groups. A 200-1,000 representative sample based on age, gender, and where applicable, geographical region, race and ethnicity, was collected in each of 20 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. For further information about the Anholt City Brands Index methodology, please contact GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) or visit www.citybrandsindex.com. About Simon Anholt Simon Anholt is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the branding of countries, regions and cities. He is a member of the UK Government’s Public Diplomacy Board, and works as an independent advisor to around 20 other national, regional and city governments on brand strategy and public diplomacy. He is founding editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, and the author of Brand New Justice, Brand America and Competitive Identity – the New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions. In addition to creating the Anholt City Brands Index, Anholt is the author of the Anholt Nation Brands Index (www.nationbrandindex.com) and the Anholt State Brands Index (www.statebrandsindex.com). For further information, please visit www.earthspeak.com or email speak@earthspeak.com. About GMI GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only provider of comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2,000 companies. Solutions include Net-MR, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, desktop analysis tools, 24/7 service bureau capabilities, and one of the world’s largest, highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels, providing reach to six million consumers and spanning across 200+ countries. In addition, GMI offers high-value, real-time enterprise feedback solutions for customer, partner and employee programs. Founded in 1999 with world headquarters in Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on six continents. In 2006, the company ranked #93 in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500, #4 in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 for Washington State and #105 in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for North America. More information is available at www.gmi-mr.com or by contacting us. Media contacts
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