"Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People

MA - Strategic Management in Global Communication

The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People Veronika Bigulova Tutor: Toni Muzi Falconi

Barcelona, December 2014

This thesis is dedicated to all talented concerned individuals that feel assurance and strength to change the world for the better.

The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction

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2. Smart City Strategy and ICT International Office Barcelona

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2.1.About Smart City Strategy and ICT International Office

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2.1.1. General view 2.1.2. Strategy 2.1.3. Solution 2.2. The Umbrella brand

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3. City Branding

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3.1. Background

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3.2. The main view of nation Branding

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3.3. Why city branding?

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3.4. The main challenges

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4. Smart City and Smart Society

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4.1. Background

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4.2. The key parameters of a Smart City

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4.3. What are the sources of added value for a city?

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4.4. Creative Class & Smart Class

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

5. The Brand Barcelona

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5.1. Introduction

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5.2. The main Indicators of the «Smart» Barcelona. A city ranking according to the Barcelona Observatory research.

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5.3. The Brand Barcelona in the world

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5.4. SWOT analysis

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6. Top 5 cities with SMART strategy

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6.1. Introduction

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6.2. Chicago

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6.3. Rio de Janeiro

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6.4. Stockholm

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6.5. Boston

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6.6. Hong-Kong

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6.7. Barcelona’s position

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7. The main ideas and recommendations

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8. Bibliography

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9. Acknowledgements

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Barcelona’s Smart City Strategy is currently formed by about 122 projects classified into 22 programs that cover all areas of the city’s management, from Lighting, Water and Waste Management to Innovation and many others. Within Barcelona’s Smart City Strategy it is worth highlighting the importance of horizontal and open technological solutions and platforms applied in a horizontal way to all city services. This helps achieve the goal of breaking from silos’ in information gathering and solutions by enhancing efficiency and coordination. For this reason, two of these 22 programs are of extreme importance due to their transversal and horizontal nature, allowing for many vertical solutions to be integrated into them: the Telecommunications Network and the Urban Platform.

“We are not really putting focus on a concrete area, but going little steps forward and thinking about how technology can be used to transform the lives of our citizens. When I am referring to citizens, I am referring not only to those citizens like me who live in the city, but also to companies who are part of the city. As our mayor always says, we have a social dream, which is to transform the city in a generation’s time through technology. We think this is the only way to create a sustainable model of living.”

Julia Lopez, Coordinator of Smart City Strategy, City of Barcelona

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction At the beginning of this year I knew nothing about the Barcelona Brand and the crucial role of the City Hall in its creation. This is how the story began.

When I started this thesis about the Barcelona Brand like a smart city I had mixed feelings.

On one hand I was not sure that I could find sufficient materials for analysis, because in that period, in my opinion, Barcelona just made several steps to transform it’s position on the world stage, and its new brand was not very strong.

On the other hand I had my background experience in the spheres of place branding, territory development and creative smart cluster analysis of such cities, like Saint Petersburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Malmo, San-Francisco and others, so I understood that even comparing these material with the experience of Barcelona, could give an interesting result at the end.

During the firsts week I realized that I really wanted to know what Barcelona has already done to have reasons to add the term «smart» in it’s title. To brand a city is always a fascinating process, and it is very different from a product promotion, and even a personal branding, but a city, itself, reflect the sum of benefits, values and characteristics of its citizens.

I was really surprised, that the City Hall of Barcelona was ready to transform the strategic plan of the city and put «smart» perspectives in every field of the city development and in all areas of the society. They didn't want to make a simple rebranding, because of popularity of usage of the term «smart»; the idea was to make it real in practice - to put all strategic projects under one «umbrella brand» and govern them into one direction, using «smart» decisions and new technologies.

It is important to mention, that one of the most essential parts of the brand transformation was an active cooperation with the citizens, because a city is the people, who live there. It is crucial to inform citizens, to create a smart community and to change the cultural climate and attract new talented generation and creative educated professionals to stay and work for the best future of the city.

So I started reading articles, consulting web pages, making content and SWAT analysis and contacting with city branding experts from the City Hall of Barcelona and other places.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Honestly it was hard; although there was a wealth of information available, understanding and organizing all this input material proved challenging, and there was also an understanding of the main goal and objectives of the research: to analyze the city position in the global arena according to the most relevant city rankings, elicit the basic indicators of smart Barcelona; and seek the positioning of the main perspectives of the city, understanding where and how we should operate to achieve the best future for Barcelona according to the best practices of the top 5 smart cities in the world (Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Boston, Hong-Kong). Fortunately, the patience and kindness of the City Hall Smart Office employees , helped me to overcome moments of stress and encourage me.

Several months later I now present these thesis that summarises most of the knowledge I acquired about city branding, smart city promotion and about the role of the governance to support in this process. More than 100 web sources reviewed, 30 case studies analyzed, 2 public presentations, 2 databased research.

At the beginning of this year I didn't know anything about Smart Barcelona, now I believe I know just a little about it.

This is how the story continues.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

2. Smart City Strategy and the ICT International Office Barcelona1

2.1.About Smart City Strategy and the ICT International Office In 2011, the current mayor of Barcelona made the integration of city technology as a key component of his election platform. After taking office, his administration immediately began implementing a comprehensive Barcelona Smart City program. The first overarching goal of was to improve efficiency of city services and to address sustainability and environmental concerns. According to Ms. Lopez, the coordinator of Smart City strategy for the city of Barcelona and coordinator of the ICT International Office for Urban Habitat of Barcelona, the mayor wanted “to transform the lives of our citizens , the companies who are part of the city.”

The Smart City Strategy and ICT International Office appeared almost two years ago. There is just 10 people who are dealing with a huge amount of information and are trying to coordinate all work of the city representatives and project managers to achieve the main goal - realize the idea of the SMART Barcelona in real life. It is a long term project and they have made just several, but serious steps towards this goal.

The Barcelona Smart City program aims to provide city services at multiple levels to all citizens based on the use of Internet and telecommunications technology. Smart City Barcelona seeks to efficiently provide city services at multiple levels to all citizens by harnessing information and communications technology (ICT) through development and implementation of the Barcelona Smart City Model.

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Information obtained from BCN Smart City webpage www.smartcity.bcn.cat/en and interviews with the coordinator of Smart City strategy for the city of Barcelona and coordinator of the ICT International Office for Urban Habitat of Barcelona Ms. Julia Lopez, made by CISCO «IoE-Driven Smart City Barcelona Initiative» and other companies.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

The model identifies 12 areas under which Smart City projects are initiated: environmental, ICT, mobility, water, energy, matter (waste), nature, built domain, public space, open government, information flows, and services.

One of the main ideas behind the concept of a “Smart City” is that, in order to foster efficiency and use the resources of the city wisely, it is necessary to break with the traditional silos in which the city is organized. A city becomes truly “smart” when it lets data and logic flow across its different domains.

This strategy is already being implemented in the city and many of its solutions can already be found throughout Barcelona. Some technological solutions are naturally integrated into the citizens’ everyday life who are already enjoying their benefits. The private sector is also sharing in Barcelona’s vision, collaborating with the city to innovate and develop new solutions to meet its challenges.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

2.1.1. General view The involvement of top-down political leadership to ensure that projects have full support is a key factor, as well as having a leadership structure to coordinate the different aspects of the project. “You have to think ‘Do you want to be smart? What do you want the city to be as it grows, and how can you use technology to accomplish this?’” she said. By strategizing early on, potential roadblocks can be seen and needed resources identified before challenges arise. “You have to start setting up the projects and, once you have the vision and a good army to help you develop the projects, it is easier,” Ms. Lopez explained.

The city’s mantra: “To become a city of productive neighborhoods, at human speed, interconnected, eco-efficient, renaturalized, energetically self-sufficient and regenerated at zero emissions, inside a high-speed interconnected Metropolitan Area”

2.1.2. Strategy Underlying Barcelona’s approach to its Smart City efforts is the idea that the city functions as a “network of networks.” Ms. Lopez indicated that an initial part of the city’s strategy development was to consider how it could connect the different city- affiliated “networks” — for example, transportation, energy, and technology. From this, a blueprint was established.

Barcelona’s mayor has placed significant emphasis on development of Barcelona’s Smart City capabilities. One key step has been the establishment of a Smart City Strategy team within the mayor’s office. This office is charged with promoting and coordinating Smart City

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

application development throughout the city organization. This senior-level political support has been crucial to Barcelona’s ability to develop is Smart City projects.

Increased government transparency has also been a critical component of the Barcelona Smart City strategy, helping city officials communicate and explain why they are developing new smart applications or publicly sensitive solutions, such as newly reconfigured bus routes.

This has been helpful in gaining public support for projects, especially in a difficult fiscal environment.

Ms. Lopez believes that the political desire to examine and create a Smart City is vital to successfully implementing these projects. “This would not have been possible if we did not have top-down political vision,” she says. “This has been very important. You can start thinking bottom-up, but the big, final push was at the political level. If you don’t have political willingness, it is impossible.”

When initially rolling out the project, Ms. Lopez indicated that coordinating across the various city departments was a challenge. The key to success in this case became the toplevel support from the mayor, which helped to cut through various layers of city bureaucracy and bring departments together.One cannot breakdown silos in any organization without explicit, visible and continued engagement and support from the organization’s leadership.

2.1.3. Solution Barcelona is structuring the various projects in three technological layers. The first layer consists of sensors that have been deployed throughout the city in conjunction with the various projects. Currently, this platform is being used for smart water, smart lighting, and smart energy management projects, as well as others. The city plans to expand use of the sensor network in coming years.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

The city’s sensor platform is called Sentilo2 and was developed specifically to aid the city in bringing all of its sensor data together. Barcelona has since made the Sentilo platform fully open source and provided it for download on Github so other cities or organizations can use it for similar purposes.

The intermediate, or second, layer of the technology architecture is the City OS, a platform created by the Barcelona city government to aggregate and analyze all data gathered from various city applications. This includes modeling for data analytics and predictive analytics applications. According to Ms. Lopez, this initiative is still in development, and there is a tender out for bid.

The third layer of the “urban platform” is the sharing of data and analytics provided by the City OS with both clients within the city government and external data users. This will enable both public and private sector development of applications to improve city services and operations, along with helping to produce a better educated administration and citizenry. “If we can pull this off, I assure you it will be a revolution,” Ms. Lopez stated.

2.2.The Umbrella brand In 2012, the city government structured its Smart City projects under the umbrella of “Smart City Barcelona.” In addition to implementing smart technologies, the city has also utilized these connectivity projects to deliver coordinated services across departments.

This has helped to eliminate departmental silos and improve the residents experience in Barcelona. IMI, the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Information Technology, played a key role in this initial organizational process, which emphasized involvement of the government, residents, and the business community in developing and shaping the city’s technological initiatives.

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www.sentilo.io

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Barcelona Smart City has already had a large impact, both in terms of improving efficiency and the quality of life of city residents. For example, 50 percent of Barcelona’s lighting power is controlled remotely, and it is estimated that 12 percent of parks will have remote irrigation control by the end of 2013. While the long-term impacts of these measures are difficult to quantify in their various stages of development, it is clear that Barcelona Smart City has already and will continue to serve as a best practice for other global cities seeking to employ the best available technologies to develop long-term sustainability initiatives in the best interest of their citizens3.

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http://cityclimateleadershipawards.com/barcelona-barcelona-smart-city/

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

3. City Branding «With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire, or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made up of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else»4

3.1. Background The concepts of national branding, city branding, and place branding are really common nowadays, and the field itself is not new any more. All of these refer to the branding of nations, cities or places. According to Simon Anholt «all places certainly have their brand images, but the extent to which the can be branded is still, quite properly, the subject of intense debate». Most consultants, many governments and even some scholars persist in a naive and superficial interpretation of «place branding» that is nothing more than standard product promotion, public relations and corporate identity, where the product just happens to be a city or a country rather than a store or a dress.

The need of proper understanding in this area is crucial. Today, with globalization, I would even say glocalization5, new technologies and high speed Internet, all the world is one market; it means that every country, every city must compete with every other for its share of the world’s consumers, tourists, investors, students, entrepreneurs, international sporting, cultural events etc., and for the attention and respect of the international media, other governments and the people of the countries.

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Calvino, I. (1997) Invisible Cities, London: Vintage. p: 44

5 A portmanteau of globalization and localization. (Think global, act local). According to the sociologist Roland Robertson, who is credited with popularizing the term, glocalization describes a new outcome of local conditions toward global pressures. At a 1997 conference on "Globalization and Indigenous Culture," Robertson said that glocalization "means the simultaneity --- the co-presence --- of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

3.2.The main view of nation Branding The reason why I love to work especially in the area of territory development, because here we can see less of lie, because the place is real, and everyone can come and see it, touch it and feel the atmosphere, which we promote abroad.

Places are unique, they all have their own characteristics, and they are not as simple as a pair of running shoes, for example. Because every place is made of people who are live and work there. People are the main unique resource of every place. That is why it is so important to understand that the first step should be made inside the place, together with people there, and only after that we can create a fancy name and disseminate it with and towards selected publics.

All places get their brands from public opinion, not from marketers or governments, in general; but of course the process is much more complex.In a present busy and crowded world, most of us do not have time to learn about what other places are really like. We try to navigate through the complexity of the modern stylish world armed with a few simple cliches, which come from our mostly stereotyped opinions. For instance, Paris is about style, Japan is about technology, Tuscany about good life and most African countries about poverty, corruption, war, famine, disease. Most of us are too busy think about ourselves to spend too long trying to form balanced and informed and complete views about other people and other countries. ÂŤWhen you have not got time to read a book, you judge it by its coverÂť.6 National image matters; and it matters more and more as the world becomes more connected and the globalization of society, education, commerce, communications, politics continues to advance. ÂŤCountries, cities and regions that are lucky or virtuous enough to have acquired a positive reputation find that everything they or their citizens wish to do on the global stage is easier: their nation brand goes before them like a calling card, opening 6

Simon Anhalt (2001)

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

doors, creating trust, generating respect and raising the expectation of quality, competence and integrity. Places with a reputation for being poor, uncultured, backward, dangerous or corrupt will find that everything they or their citizens they to achieve outside their own neighborhood is harder, and the burden of proof is always on them to prove that, as individuals or as organizations, they do not confirm to the national stereotypeÂť7.

It s important to have active concerned citizens, to support grassroots campaigns, which move towards their beautiful goals, like to change the situation in a city, to create new community or to solve all social problems and challenges. But much more important becomes to make all responsible governments and regional administrations understand that they should become a moving power in these processes. And, on behalf of their people, their institutions and their companies, they need to discover what the world’s perception of their place is, and to develop a strategy for improving it. An important part of their job is to try to build a reputation that is fair, true, powerful, attractive, genuinely useful to their economic, political and social aims, and honestly reflects the spirit, the genius and the will of the people. This could be called a huge task, which has to become one of the primary skills of national and regional administrations in the 21st century.

3.3.Why city branding?

There are reasons why people choose particular cities in which to live. Certain cities are making comebacks even when the industries they were built on have become obsolete.

Brands evolve, and cities that survive have managed to evolve. Progress and technology have become both friend and foe. If you doubt that a new market for city brands is emerging, consider the loyalty a city can command. Strategists and planners are working at a feverish pace to re-brand cities or to brand a city that’s never had a strong brand in order to create a community where people will want to live. City planners are spend- ing millions of dollars in brand investing to bring their cities to life, or in some instances, back to life.

Volume breeds mediocrity, and the sheer scale of today's cities prevents them from excel-

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Rita Clifton Brands and Branding (The Economist) page 207

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

lence in all but pockets, quarters, and precincts. But, of course, other professionals suppose that much of these investments benefit only those who are involved in the process.

If a city is to be considered a brand, it must start with a brand’s most important characteristics and its fundamental properties.

This means that a good city must have the following8: • Offer attractive employment.

• Not be unduly expensive in relation to wages.

• Provide good and affordable housing.

• Have reasonable public transportation.

• Have good schools and recreational/cultural attractions.

• Have a reasonable climate.

The way that brands work for a city is how these qualities are projected: by word- ofmouth, public relations, and in some cases, advertising. These attributes must be based on something substantial. The city must be “live-able”. There must be an attraction to individuals. But it is not only about communications - it is the part os the whole complex process.

Competition for residents has increased substantially among cities. This is in part because of globalization and technology. Society now has the choice of living in one place and working in another because of the Internet, laptops, home offices, and wireless connections. Living in one place but working for an employer in another state, city, or country is no longer an idea but a reality. Living in one particular city if you want to succeed in a certain industry still exists, but is starting to erode. People now have the option of being able to do business anywhere in the world and can decide what is the best location- wise to provide them with the most benefits. Cities are also attracting foreign manufacturing and can no longer bank on their own traditional industries as a means to keep them alive. To do this, they need to brand themselves as good places to live, where a diverse range of technology, industry, retail, and other attractions can thrive.

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Hodges, Tony. “Brandwatch. The Rigour of Competition.” Locum Destination Review. Winter 2003 p 39

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Sometimes, I think, cities are competing for people’s lifestyles, and in order to do this successfully they need to maintain a strong brand. Dying cities are weak in these areas. For instance, if a city possesses not successful brand image, it is difficult to shake that perception and change public opinion about the city. Bruce Katz, director of the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution comments: “A pack of cities is racing away from everybody else in terms of their ability to attract and retain an educated workforce. It is a sobering trend for the cities left behind.”9 3.3.1.The communication technologies for a city promotion All cities and countries communicate with the outside world, and thus create their images in the minds of others,

through six basic channels or areas of activity, according to Si-

mon Anhalt:

Tourism Promotion

Exports of products and services

Government policy

As well as people’s first-hand experience of visiting the country as tourists or business travellers.

This is the most serious and popular way to brand the nation, city or any other place, because tourist boards usually have the biggest budgets and the most competent marketeers.

In this case we can act as powerful ambassadors, but only where their place of origin is explicit.

Either foreign policy or domestic policy.

Diplomacy is traditionally the main route by which such things are communicated to the outside world, but there is an increasing closeness between policymakers and the international media.

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Harden, Blaine. “Brain-Gain Cities Attract Educated Young.” Washington Post. Sunday November 9, 2003 p A01.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Inward investment attraction & foreign

Cultural exchange / cultural activities /

The country of city inhabitants

How the city attracts inward investment and recruits foreign «talent»; the attitude towards expansion into the county or region by foreign companies.

A world tour by a national opera company, the works of a famous author, national sports teams.

High-profile leaders, media and sports stars, and the population in in general - how they behave when abroad and how they treat visitors.

All these channels of communication are shown as the points of hexagon, which show the «competitive identity». This term is more preferred, than «nation brand», better communicates the fact that managing the reputations of places has more to do with national and regional identity and the politics and economics of competitiveness than with branding as it is usually understood in the commercial sector.

In 2005, Simon Anholt, Anholt10 (2005) developed the Nation Brands Index as way to measure the image and reputation of the nations of the world. «The theory behind managing the identity and reputation of a country, city or region is that if you have a good, clear, believable idea of what the place really is and what it stands for, and co-ordinate the policies, investments, actions and communications of all six points of hexagon so that they rein-

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Anholt - GFK Roper Nation Brands Index. Webpage: www.simonanholt.com

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

force this message, you stand a good chance of building and maintaining a powerful and positive internal and external reputation.

This will benefit exporters, importers, government, the culture sector, tourism, immigration and almost every aspect of international relations»11 These six dimensions gathered in the Nation Brand Hexagon are a visual rendering of the total Index score. When we are talking about «brand images» of places, we are talking about something rather more significant than mere popularity., even if non every government, or every population treats international approval as an important goal.

A city’s brand is a simple and clear measure of its «licence of trade» (Simon Anholt, 2002) in the global marketplace, and the acceptability of its people, hospitality, policies, products and services, culture to the rest of the world. All of the cities and countries could be separated by the quality of what they can sell to the other world: the products of a country with a weak or negative brand will generally sell at a discount on the global market; those of a country with a middling or neutral brand will sell at their intrinsic market value; and those of a country with a powerful and positive image can sell at a premium.

11

Rita Clifton Brands and Branding (The Economist) 2003. page 208

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

If a city, a country wants to present itself on the global arena, i should build its reputation, it is the duty of every responsible government: to hand over that reputation to its successors, whatever their political persuasion, in at least as good health as it received it, and to improve it if possible for the benefit of future generation.

3.4. The main challenges It is important to understand that not every project for a city branding is successful. It depends on many details, and must be unique, but not universal. Because, as I mentioned before, every city, country, every place is like a human, and there is no exactly the same human on the planet, so it is necessary to find «the personality» of the place. But first it would be useful to learn some bad examples, some failings of the place branding, and understand why sometimes it happens.

According to the city metric’s research12 and to a study by consulting firm k62913, about 86% of all city branding campaigns fail. It is a huge number, but they are still trying. many cities around the world face exactly these odds in their attempts to rebrand themselves.

Such campaigns can revitalise a city, and secure it a more prominent place on the map.

Yet more often than not, mayors find that their hopes were misplaced: the average branding campaign is just an expensive damp squib.

As an example, we can take Adelaide: in 2013, the South Australian city spent over A$1 million on a new logo. Everyone hated it. A comedian and TV host, Wil Anderson, even likened it to a “particularly crap origami Pope hat”.

So why do cities keep bothering with branding? And what do they need to do differently?

From an international perspective, a great brand is certainly a valuable asset. It can help a

12

citymetric.com

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http://www.carmodyconsulting.com/our-process/

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

city to attract everything from tourists to investors to talent. It can help promote exports. It can boost residents’ pride.

And it’s not just for famous cities, either, says José Torres14, of Bloom Consulting: “There’s something special about every city. City branding isn’t about inventing something; it’s about discovering what’s already there.” So we shouldn’t create a fancy name, we first should understand what we have inside the city; well known quote appeal to «change yourself first and the world around you changes too», the same with a place: we need to change our city first, if we want to change an attention of the world to it.

The better example is Seoul, South Korea15.

«Every city has its own distinct image and a nickname. Paris is about romance. New York is about high skyscrapers, and don't forget the Big Apple. How about Seoul, South Korea?

The Seoul Metropolitan Government took on an ambitious global project to answer this question, asking global citizens to submit 5-minutes-or-less video clips about Seoul. This creative and unique city branding project resulted in an unprecedented movie featuring people's diverse, honest, and truthful perceptions of Seoul. Read on for details!»16

14

http://countrybranding-josefilipetorres.blogspot.ru

15

PRNewsFoto/Seoul Metropolitan Government

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SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

City Branding Trend – Be Truthful and Show the Reality. In this case they decided to show everything through a film17. Seoul is not the only city that has been pursuing creative and engagement-focused branding projects. New York also has launched a project called "Recalling 1993"18, where New Yorkers could drop by a phone booth to dial a certain number and hear about what happened in particular areas of New York in the past. In this campaign, New York did not try to hide the sad history of the World Trade Center bombing or other historical accounts that are not proud. Instead, it embraced it as part of their life and history, and provided people with flashbacks of the bitter-sweetness of New York.

Seoul's latest global movie project is probably the first attempt where someone tried to portray the truth of a city by using others' participation. This movie will help everyone see the true side of the city. However, this movie will not help to grasp what Seoul is really about, because Seoul is what one can make of it and how one can live it. Personal unique experience and feelings of Seoul is what completes the brand of Seoul.

These two opposite examples can create the picture of what is better to do, and what mistakes should be avoid.

17

http://www.youtube.com/seoulourmovie

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http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/new-york-city-recalling-1993/

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

4. Smart City and Smart Society 4.1. Background After general view on the place branding, and understanding that it is important to show not only a beautiful cover, but a qualify content, it is necessary to focus on direction of the city strategy.

Nowadays most of the cities want to be smart in every field and this caused by new technologies’ development and globalization, for sure. But what is it to be smart?

The concept of ‘smart cities’, has emerged as a hot research topic in recent years, with cities, national governments and businesses all seeking ways to harness information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve quality of life in cities and achieve efficiencies in delivering services.

Cities are competing for people’s lifestyles, and in order to do this successfully they need to maintain a strong brand. Dying cities are weak in these areas. For instance, if a city possesses a bad brand image, it is difficult to shake that perception and change public opinion about the city. Bruce Katz, director of the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution comments: “A pack of cities is racing away from everybody else in terms of their ability to attract and retain an educated workforce. It is a sobering trend for the cities left behind.” 19 4.2. The Key Parameters of a Smart City According to the «Smart Cities Supplement 2014»20 and to the Senior partner and the Head ofVisionary Innovation Group, Frost & Sullivan, Sarwant Singh, «the concept of a smart itself is based on the foundation of connectivity, networks and big data which makes products, buildings and even cities intelligent and interoperable. For this to work, every city 19

. Harden, Blaine. “Brain-Gain Cities Attract Educated Young.” Washington Post. Sunday November 9, 2003 p A01 20

http://issuu.com/burohappold/docs/the_living_city

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

would need broadband connectivity, network intelligence, and a singular holistic platform that connects different sectors of the cityÂť.

They also emphasize the main parameters that will define a smart city in 2020. This is a goal that every city should achieve if it want to become a smart city.

When it comes to achieving the high-tech, sustainable, and smart cities of the future, there is one word that sums up the pathway to success: partnership.

Imaginative and collaborative partnerships between local authorities, utilities, universities and the private sector – whether it is bus companies or software providers – are the defin-

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

ing characteristics of "smart thinking", according to leading figures in cities around UK and Europe. All agree that so-called "smartness" – which at its most basic level is about using new technology to improve lives – is necessary to adapt to the demands of urban growth.

And, paradoxically, some see the new financial restrictions forced on the public sector in the UK as being a force for good, by promoting smart thinking to increase efficiency and improve use of resources. These kind of partnerships can range from multi-agency infrastructure ventures aimed at transforming the lives of millions, to simple projects improving digital access for everyday users of public services. They include new ways of using mobile phones and smartcards to pay for a wide range of goods and services, to schemes designed to recycle waste water for heating.

Dr Drew Hemment, whose Manchester-based thinktank, FutureEverything, is examining ways of living and working in the fully wired world of tomorrow, says these must be "elegant partnerships". He says: "There has to be a huge cultural shift from working in silos to working collaboratively. We must create partnerships in which all sides understand each others' demands. We need a new ecosystem for cities, to enable an innovative smart-city ecology to grow.''21 4.3. What are the sources of added value for a city?

Added Value can come in many forms, most of them non-functional and emotional and not as quantifiable as the functional ones. Outlined below are four of the added values that brands must have in order to succeed22.

1. People’s Experience of the City: Much city branding is based on peoples experience. Although we have the most technologically advanced ways of reaching people with advertising, most information is still communicated by the old fashioned way: word-of-mouth.

21

http://www.theguardian.com/smarter-cities

22

http://www.surrey.ca/city-government/6670.aspx

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

If people have a good experience with a city, they communicate this. On the other hand if the experience is negative, the result is the opposite. Census taking was not widespread before 1800, but since then the proportion of the world’s population living in cities has been studied and reported with fair accuracy, and between 1800 and 1950 the world urban population increased from 2.4 to 20.9 percent. By 1990, the figure was about 43 percent.

2. Perception. How is the population perceived?

This is an important component of city branding. Take New York. When people think of New York, the normal associations are a city that’s cosmopolitan and rich. New York offers inhabitants and visitors everything one could demand of a city: finance, commerce, industry, colleges and universities, historical sites, and an enormous array of cultural as well as economic opportunities.

3. Belief in the City. Does it stand for something?

In order for a city to have a brand, it has to stand for something. San Francisco, named the “City by the Bay”, has stood for industry, technology, and culture. The rolling hills of California surrounding the city, boasting one of the world’s most famous suspension bridges, have long been key in San Francisco’s economy. Apple, Intel, Oracle, Blue Matrix, GetThere, Xpedior, Jamcracker, MediaPlex, Genentech, Cisco, Salesforce.com and SunMicrosystems are just some of the firms that reside in San Francisco. Since the dot.com bust and the added economic consequences of September 11th, San Francisco is a city that needs to focus intently on a serious economic comeback.

The good news for San Francisco, however, is its diversity. This includes Chinatown, Sausalito, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Silicon Valley, the retail environment, the Museum of Modern Art, and the proximity of Monterey and Carmel. There is a strong belief in the San Francisco brand from many of the images that have defined San Francisco for the better part of the 20th century. “A municipality is a product for everyone, but in order to brand this product you must be able to deliver the experience”. San Francisco delivers that experience.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

New York City stands for not only its cultural icons, but its financial district and Wall Street, and has a strong presence of some of the world’s largest financial institutions including American Express, WorldBank, CitiGroup, J.P. Morgan/Chase, Deutsche Bank, United Bank of Switzerland (UBS), Wachovia, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Janus, and investment firms such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. Wall Street and The New York Stock Exchange are perhaps the most important elements in the financial world there, and have always been key factors in New York’s economy and reputation. September 11th caused economic hardship in New York especially, but the economic consequences were felt in cities worldwide. This particular terrorist attack on a seemingly “untouchable” or “safe” city caused many people to re-think whether or not New York was the best place to be.

4. Appearance: What does the city look like?

An important element of city branding is appearance. What a city actually looks like and the physical characteristics it possesses are extremely important. Cities now are largely defined by location, function, or cultural attainments. Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Barcelona and San Francisco are known primarily for their harbors. Zurich and New York are famed as banking centers. Boston, Charleston and Atlanta are places filled with American architecture and history.

For example, the appearance of the city of Boston reinforces its reputation as an “old” city

by American standards. Its proximity to Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard also is a plus for Boston. While rich in history and architecture, Boston will not allow its historical gems to be bulldozed in order to make room for commercial developers soliciting the highest price.

This is in stark contrast to many established, as well as new and growing cities, that feel the need to sell out to developers in order to make a municipal profit. We can rely on the Boston city brand to keep its history intact for us. This stability is a positive attribute for Boston.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

4.4. Creative Class & Smart Class The most important part of the smart strategy is a very strong collaboration with the society of the city, both citizens and guests.

Richard Florida was the first among experts who explain the meaning of definition «creative class». Florida says that the Creative Class is a class of workers whose job is to create meaningful new forms (2002). It is composed of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and architects, and also includes "people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content”23 The designs of this group are seen as broadly transferable and useful. Another sector of the Creative Class includes positions that are knowledge intensive; these usually require a high degree of formal education (Florida, 2002).

Creativity is becoming more valued in today’s global society. Employers see creativity as a channel for self-expression and job satisfaction in their employees. About 38.3 million Americans and 30 percent of the American workforce identify themselves with the Creative Class. This number has increased by more than 10 percent in the past 20 years, according to the DATA survey.

The Creative Class is also known for its departure from traditional workplace attire and behavior. Members of the Creative Class may set their own hours and dress codes in the workplace, often reverting to more relaxed, casual attire instead of business suits and ties.

Creative Class members may work for themselves and set their own hours, no longer sticking to the 9–5 standard. Independence is also highly regarded among the Creative Class and expected in the workplace (Florida, 2002).

23

R. Florida Creative Class. People who change the world, p 8

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

There is also evidence that The Creative Class has become a force to be reckoned with, one that cities need to avoid overlooking. Florida’s definition of the ‘idea worker’ or ‘creative class’ is people in science, engineering, architecture, education, arts, music, and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and/or new creative content.Studies conducted conclude that it is important to attract this class in order to have a highly educated and open minded city population. This class has an important role in city branding.

The Creative Class is not a class of workers among many, but a group believed to bring economic growth to countries that can attract its members. The economic benefits conferred by the Creative Class include outcomes in new ideas, high-tech industry and regional growth.

Following an empirical study across 90 nations, Rindermann, Sailer and Thompson (2009) argued that high-ability classes (or smart classes) are responsible for economic growth, stable democratic development, and positively valued political aspects (government effectiveness, rule of law, and liberty).

In Cities and the Creative Class24, Florida devotes several chapters to discussion of the three main prerequisites of creative cities (though there are many additional qualities which distinguish creative magnets).

For a city to attract the Creative Class, he argues, it must possess "the three 'T's": Talent (a highly talented/educated/skilled population), Tolerance (a diverse community, which has a 'live and let live' ethos), and Technology (the technological infrastructure necessary to fuel an entrepreneurial culture). In Rise of the Creative Class25, Florida argues that mem-

24

http://creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/4%20Cities%20and%20the%20Creative%20Class.pdf

25

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/glaeser/files/book_review_of_richard_floridas_the_rise_of_the_creative_class.pdf

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

bers of the Creative Class value meritocracy, diversity and individuality, and look for these characteristics when they relocate (2002).

As Florida demonstrates in his books, Buffalo, New Orleans and Louisville are examples of cities which have tried to attract the Creative Class but, in comparison to cities which better exemplify the "three 'T's", have failed. Creative Class workers have sought out cities that better accommodate their cultural, creative, and technological needs, such as Chapel Hill, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Austin, Seattle, Toronto, Ontario and Portland, Oregon. Florida also notes that Lexington and Milwaukee, Wisconsin have the ingredients to be a "leading city in a new economy».

The “Creativity Index” is another tool that Florida uses to describe how members of the Creative Class are attracted to a city. The Creativity Index includes four elements: “the Creative Class share of the workforce; innovation, measured as patents per capita; high tech industry, using the Milken Institute's widely accepted Tech Pole Index…; and diversity, measured by the Gay Index, a reasonable proxy for an area’s openness" 26Using this index, Florida rates and ranks cities in terms of innovative high-tech centers, with San Francisco being the highest ranked (2002).

The Creative Class is becoming a widely talked-about and important class of individuals who are now considered almost essential to the survival of a city. This is a class of people known as ‘idea workers’. The argument that too much municipal regulation can kill the creative potential of a city will also be discussed, and cities without these strict regulations have developed creative communities that have evolved over time. The reason for these communities can be attributed to many factors.

Creativity and culture flourishing in some cities and dying in others. Cities as population centers know that their importance to the future of mankind cannot be exaggerated. If we

26

R. Florida Cities and the Creative Class 2002, pp. 244–5.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

are to market a brand, the brand needs to deliver. In order for a brand to deliver, it needs support. Support for a city brand can be seen in many forms, including the following27: • The city’s equivalent of a brand’s functional properties.

• What does the city deliver? • • The demographics of the city’s population.

• The wisdom and longsightedness of the city government.

• The creative climate.

• How all this is projected in terms of a brand.

This information will help to understand better the specific position of new kind of the society.

27

Copeland, Larry. “Cities In Need Selling Themselves. For Sale: Your City.” USA Today. June 9, 2003. p B02.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

5. The Brand Barcelona 5.1.Introduction Barcelona is the first city in Spain coined a “Smart City” and is named the fifth overall in Europe in 201328 ahead of Paris, Stockholm, and London.

Barcelona is strongly focused to become a smart city. And several steps have been already made.

What it is to be «smart» for Barcelona?29

28

www.fastcoexist.com/3024721/the-10-smartest-cities-in-europe

29

http://smartcity.bcn.cat

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

The Smart City is a new concept defining a city that works to improve the quality of its citizens' lives by guaranteeing sustainable social, economic and urban development. A smart city is based on the use and modernisation of new information and communication technologies (ICT) to provide more efficient management of the city's services and resources.

In practice, a smart city has the capacity to meet the needs of its citizens (in terms of the environment, mobility, businesses, communications, energy and housing) and it thereby improves their daily lives It is a city that facilitates the interaction of its citizens with its administration; where open information is available in real time; and where it is possible to be enterprising. A city that is definitively a place that supports and fosters personal and business development.

A city that wishes to aspire to being a truly Smart city must develop all of its key areas (transport, energy, education, health, waste management, security, economy…) simultaneously and transversally.

5.2. The main Indicators of the «Smart» Barcelona. A city ranking according to the Barcelona Observatory research.

According to Boyd Cohen30, a famed urban and climate strategist, a Smart City ranks high based on these six “Smart” indicators: Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Government, Smart Mobility, Smart Living, and Smart People. Its citizens live in a vibrant culture with an open government trying to improve green living spaces, and it makes wise investments in the future.

30

latitudefortyone.com/ten-reasons-why-barcelona-is-a-smart-city/They are denser, have excellent public transportation system, is pedestrian-oriented, and demonstrates low-carbon policies and sustainability.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

It is necessary to get acquainted with data research made by Barcelona City Council team with the Barcelona Observatory about city indicators and international benchmarking.

Barcelona has a long tradition of working on city indicators. For instance, the municipal Statistics Department is more then 100 years old.

From the economic and competitiveness perspectives, current lines of analysis include: a) measuring and monitoring the Strategic City Map implementation. b) updating and analyzing city indicators about economic activity, business, labour market, innovation, talent‌ See the Barcelona Datasheet as a relevant example.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

c) City benchmarking, in order to compare Barcelona’s performance to that of other cities of the world: the Barcelona Observatory.

The Barcelona Observatory31 an example of cooperation between the public and private sector. It provides up to date information on the most relevant aspects of the city Barcelona from a comparative perspective, based on international prestigious sources (institutions, consultancy firms, universities, ets‌); it offers references which may be used as a basis for decision making by economic agents interested in carrying out or setting up business in Barcelona. Also it allows a periodical comparison of the position of Barcelona in terms of other cities for each of the indicators analyzed (29 indicators), plus the data are obtained for a sample which include up to 60 cities from around the world.

So, they focused on the main six thematic areas:

31

http://www.fabra.cat

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

-

A city for business; Knowledge society; Tourism; Sustainability and quality of life; Prices and costs; Labour market and training.

Here we can see the result of the research: 1) A city for business.

- European cities with best prospects for 2014 / 2015:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

- Main cities in the world receiving foreign investment projects in 2013:

- Entrepreneurial activity in countries across the world in 2013:

40

The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

- Main cities in the world hosting international meetings in 2013:

2) Knowledge society - Barcelona among the world’s top cities for scientific production in 2013:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

3) Tourism - Barcelona has one of the top 10 major airports ranking Europe

- The Port of Barcelona, leader in Europe and fourth world port in terms of cruise passengers:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

4) Sustainable quality of life

- Smart and sustainable cities in 2013:

- Barcelona, among the top world cities in terms of quality of life.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

5) Prices and costs - Cost of living and salaries in the world’s cities:

6) Labour market and training - Barcelona is the only city with two business schools in the European top ten:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

As we can see, Barcelona handle top positions almost in every area. These results demonstrate high potential of the city in the world competition for all kinds of the resources.

In a world where urban areas are the main drivers of global economic growth, city benchmarking is a necessary part of urban indicators analysis. New territorial realities (megarregions), economic sectors (Mobile) and concepts (business friendly cities, Smart Cities‌) demand new indicators and analysis tools. There is a wide range of statistics and data that allow homogeneous comparisons among European cities. In the last years the availability of data comparing world cities has increased, but there is still much work to be done. International prestigious institutions (such as the OECD) and city networks (as IRBC) could make a great contribution to improve this situation.

5.3. The Brand Barcelona in the world Another useful research was made by MA student, Albert Llorens Albareda, for the Barcelona Global Company, where he analyzed the Brand Barcelona in the world. According to this research we can see that Barcelona is known mostly like touristic place, but not like the smart city, among general society. The research provided an overview of some views about the Brand Barcelona in the world taken from a study by ESADE business school (ESADE Brand Institute, 2011) and recent articles and research about city branding.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

The main question from the survey was: ÂŤWhat do you think about when you think of Barcelona? Âť. The question was asked in different parts of the world and the results were summarized in the previous diagram.

As we can see, most of regions associate Barcelona with Spain, sports and culture. Other relevant findings of the study were the associations of the city with creativity, tourism and business events. These categories is much more closer to the Smart city brand of Barcelona. And this study, itself, underlined the need to promote the city as a business city taking advantage of its huge potential as an innovation hub.

Here we can see the main key concepts of the massage of the Barcelona brand: 1) like the business friendly city - it is lend opportunities with great infrastructures, highly prepared people, and facilities and investment policies that stimulate business creation; 2) Barcelona attracts and retains talent - it has the most prestigious school of business of the world, high quality of life and it is the world center of knowledge exchange.

To summarize all results, the brand Barcelona is becoming much more important to all spheres, especially to the business, citizens it represents and organizations . The way it is perceived is depends on the region, but it is mainly associated with Spain, design, sports, tourism. It is recommended to promote the city as sustainable area for investors and all kinds of tourists, taking advantage to focus on creativity, innovation and collaboration between technologies and citizens.

5.4. SWAT analysis 5.4.1. Introduction The reality of the Barcelona Brand is changing, because of a new way of the city development, and new concept of the city strategy. This analyses was made to show the main achievements of the city Barcelona and to predict the main threats; to make better under-

46

The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

standing of strengths and opportunities for the city, like a smart area and the better place for living.

According to the main city rankings, and the opinions of different professionals in the city branding area, I found interesting information about Barcelona. This explains why Barcelona consistently tops the European cities rankings for quality of life carried out, for example, by consultancies such as Cushman & Wakefield32.

The main rankings of the city & indexes.

First of all it is necessary to mention, that during last two years Barcelona moves directly towards the main goals which were discussed at the beginning of the smart city strategy, that is why I found a lot of positive indicators, which could be based in the first square.

5.4.2. Barcelona’s Strengths: 1) Location & surroundings - Barcelona is on the Mediterranean and almost everyone loves to be by the sea. The city has 4.2 kms. of good beaches within a few minutes of

32

http://locations.cushmanwakefield.com

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

the city centre and easy access to some of Spain’s best beaches both to the north on the Costa Brava and to the south on the Costa Dorada. Here we can find the wine regions to the South and West of Barcelona. One hour due north of Barcelona by car is the Empordà region. Few other cities in Europe are surrounded by such a variety of attractive regions.

2) Climate - Barcelona has a pleasant climate that is free of the oppressive heat of Madrid and the South of Spain whilst never being too cold or miserable in the winter. It is one of the few cities in Europe to have a perfectly balanced climate in which one can enjoy the change of seasons and the impact of this change on fashions and menus.

3) Size - Barcelona is big and cosmopolitan enough to avoid the dreaded small town parochial feeling without being overwhelmingly big, impersonal, sprawling and choked up like many of the world’s big cities. Furthermore the fact that Barcelona is hemmed in by the mountains and the sea means that sprawl is not an option so Barcelona is forever destined to be the perfect size.

4) Access - Barcelona is the gateway to Spain from Europe and extremely well accessed by road, rail, sea and air. Its popularity with tourists and the size of its business community ensure a large choice of regular and low cost flights in and out of Barcelona every day from all over Europe.

5) Modernity - Barcelona is undoubtedly Spain’s most modern city. In the present day Barcelona is thoroughly modern with excellent infrastructure, services and some of the best health facilities in the world. Living in Barcelona means not having to compromise on any of the advantages of modern life.

6) Culture & Style - Barcelona oozes style and culture. Designers consider it a leading centre of design flair and innovation, which is why many international design companies have offices in Barcelona or even head offices. The architecture is world famous and stimulating, as is the cuisine. Barcelona is very much a part of the international art circuit and important exhibitions often pass through Barcelona. The city is also a paradise for shoppers looking for both high fashion as well as something different and Barcelona Fashion Week brings in all the big names.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

7) Cost of living - Though the cost of living in Barcelona has risen substantially since the introduction of the Euro it is still a cheap place to live in comparison to other European cities.

5.4.3. Barcelona’s Weaknesses: 1) Languages - A 'we speak Catalan here' culture which tends to drive some would-be foreign investors towards Madrid. Though the Catalans are bi-lingual in Spanish and Catalan it can be difficult to get by in other languages. However this is already beginning to change as younger generations grow up learning and speaking good English.

2) Job market - The job market for foreigners in Barcelona is relatively weak and local employers are somewhat close-minded about the type of people they are willing to employ. This is probably the single biggest reason why more young professional Europeans have not moved to Barcelona. However foreign entrepreneurs are starting to locate in Barcelona (tech companies, hedge funds and so on) and will in time create a job market for international professionals. Nevertheless, for the time being, interesting and adequately paid jobs for foreign professionals are scarce in Barcelona.

3) Safety - It is no secret that Barcelona suffers from petty crime in the main tourist areas of the old town (Raval and parts of the Gothic Quarter).

4) Costs - On the periphery of the European core market with high transport costs. High electricity costs.

5) A three-hour afternoon shut-down for many businesses.

6) Low government investment incentives, such as subsidies or tax-free breaks.

7) A shortage of skilled workers.

Every city has its strengths and weaknesses, the sum total of which determines its quality of life. Many people agree that Barcelona’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses to a greater degree than is the case with most cities.

5.4.4. Opportunities:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

1) Barcelona Catalonia33: this project, led by and with the support of the country's principal administrations, will help to transform the Barcelona Metropolitan Area34 by developing 7 million m2 of land suitable for building, for the use of the knowledge economy.

In Barcelona Catalonia, all investors and building contractors will find the opportunities they seek: different land uses, healthy returns and competitive prices.

2) New vision of 22@35 district: the new district of the city, where the most innovative companies, universities and research centres coexist. This project was set up in 2000 and involves the creation of 4 million m2, most of which is destined for knowledge-intensive production activity. Discover why more than 1500 companies have already set up there. Barcelona City recently published their smart city strategy, which recognises and incorporates existing successful projects, as well as setting an agenda for the future. This will help Barcelona to build upon their existing investment and success, whilst aligning action across the city to a common purpose.

3) Focus on SMART Mobility - implementation of all new technologies to the city areas.

5.4.5. Threats 1) Political issue - the problem of independence - not sustainable economy The trouble is, the Spanish government has flatly rejected the right of Catalans to choose. The constitutional court has rejected the vote, and it remains to be seen whether it goes ahead. If it does, and Catalans vote yes, it will be hard to resist granting its independence. After all, the days when people were forced to remain in a state against their democratic will are meant to be long behind us.One of the most important reasons why Catalonia should not become independent, according to the professionals’ opinion, is the overwhelming risk of destabilization in Europe and consequently disintegration of the European Union. There are 15 sub- state nationalist movements in Europe today 36and if the Catalans decided on independence, this could quickly trigger a domino effect in

33

www.barcelonaeconomictriangle.cat/

34

http://barcelonacatalonia.cat/b/?p=7407&lang=en

35

www.22barcelona.com/

36

Paquin, 2007:55-59

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

other regions with similar claims, which would increase separatist tensions within the European Union. A new independent state would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the Union and the treaties would, from the day of its independence, not apply anymore on its territory.

2) Brand issue - Barcelona vs Catalonia. Barcelona was the capital of Catalonia long before it was the second city of Spain. Barcelona has never been the joint capital of its current state, either because the Catalans did not want it to be or because the institutional power of Spain did not let it. The immense power Catalonia has when it faces Spain is partly due to the fact that Catalonia is backed up by a brand and an internationally renowned city like this. Barcelona has filled this power gap, in terms of state, by fulfilling its mission as the capital of Catalonia and it is from this perspective that Barcelona’s “Catalanness� cannot be overlooked. It is the aroma, the essence and the compendium of all things Catalan, even though many people have always doubted this. Barcelona belongs to Catalonia and Catalonia to Barcelona. This is what guarantees that many of the values and attributes of both brands are shared. They are not antagonistic; they complement each other perfectly. This is the key to ensuring the viability of a cobranding strategy. If we fail to realize that international brand awareness of Catalonia is still very low, we will never hit upon the right strategy, which must be to leverage this cobranding immediately. Some might say that what is called for is a branding plan for Catalonia; that we should forget about Barcelona, which is already well enough consolidated. But anyone who says that is simply unaware of the huge and impossible effort involved in building up a brand from scratch in a couple of years.

The amount of communication resources required (which means huge economic resources) would render the project unworkable. Catalonia must take Barcelona by the hand and they must walk the world together.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________ Barcelona’s Strengths:

Barcelona’s Weaknesses:

1) Location & surroundings;

1) Languages;

2) Climate;

2) Job market;

3) Size;

3) Safety;

4) Access;

4) Costs;

5) Modernity;

5) Siesta;

6) Culture & Stile;

6) Subsidies or tax-free breaks;

7) Cost of living.

7) Skilled workers.

Opportunities:

Threats:

1) Barcelona +Catalonia;

1) Political issue;

2) New vision of 22@ district.

2) Brand issue.

This is the main points, which I decided to mention in the SWAT analysis. I think it is very important to know them and to make a decision how to manage the present situation to achieve better result, according to these findings.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

6. Top 5 cities with SMART strategy 6.1. Introduction The public sector faces particular challenges when responding to the opportunities that the ‘smart city’ and private sector innovators might bring. While all cities are unique, they also have common objectives and face common challenges.

This content analysis of the five cities with a strong smart strategy, according to the cities rankings, has highlighted common themes in cities adopting smart approaches to city management and focused on how these cities are addressing their challenges, and how they are adapting their organizations to deliver new digital services to their citizens.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Source: issue/ smart cities 2014 «They struggle to quantify the impact of novel, disruptive technologies, which can make investment challenging. The organizational structure and culture of City Councils can block cross-departmental long-term strategic thinking about ICT, and the required organizational changes can be difficult to implement»37.

Smart cities no longer place city governments as the top-down drivers of development in the city, but instead they act as one player in an ecosystem. In response to this, smart city strategies should represent the needs and capabilities of a variety of city stakeholders. In particular, relationships with community groups, the private sector and universities are core to developing well-rounded and sustainable initiatives.

Cities were shortlisted for this analysis based on desk research on the investments made by cities to date. The final five were then selected according to geographic and cultural spread, spread of investment types, priorities and approaches, and the availability of and access to information.

They are:

• • • • •

Chicago Rio de Janeiro Stockholm Boston Hong Kong

Core areas of interest during this research included governance and leadership models, the role of open data, smart city projects underway and future investment priorities.

37

George Karayannis http://smartcitiescouncil.com/article/dissecting-iso-37120-economic-indicators-new-smart-city-standard

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Data was collected using a mixed approach of desk research according to the International case studies38 of Smart Cities39 and semi-structured interviews with core city stakeholders, which also were taken from web pages of the cities strategy (information and quotes fom the interviews with 1) John Tolva- Chief Technology Officer, Chicago; 2) Rodrigo Rosa, Special Advisor to the Mayor, Rio de Janeiro; 3) Staffan Ingvarsson, Vice Chief Executive Officer, Stockholm; 4) Nigel Jacob, Co-Chair, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, Boston; 5) Jeremy Godfrey, Commissioner for Communications Regulation, Hong Kong) 6.2. CHICAGO40

38Global

Innovators: International Case Studies on Smart Cities / BIS Research, 2013-2014

39

Department of Business Innovation and Skills https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ smart-cities-international-case-studies-global-innovators 40

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_chicago.html

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The smart city agenda in Chicago was catalysed in May 2011 when Mayor Emanuel was elected, taking over from Mayor Daley, who had been in office for 22 years. He had been instrumental in creating data.gov which instigated the open data movement in the US. On arrival in Chicago, Mayor Emanuel had a very clear understanding of the role of technology and data in transforming a city and set out the digital agenda very clearly from the beginning.

John Tolva (Chicago’s CTO) explains: “At that point (Mayor Emanuel’s election) we were a little behind our peer cities. The previous administration had no open data policy. There was a pent-up demand so that when Mayor Emanuel came along the floodgates opened. I believe there was more attention paid to it than if it had steadily built up over time like New York and Boston.”

The core drivers for the focus on smart city projects in Chicago include41: 1. Transparency 2. Accountability 3. Analytics 4. Economic development Mayor Emanuel sees open data as a central part of solutions to each of these drivers, and as such holds open data policy at the core of smart city action in the City.

Smart Chicago Collaborative The Smart Chicago Collaborative is a partnership between the City, the MacArthur Foundation (one of America’s largest philanthropic foundations) and the Chicago Community Trust. It is a civic organization that focuses on using technology to improve quality of life in the city. The Collaborative “was born in the conversations of the early to mid-2000s around closing the digital divide. As the Internet became an essential tool for citizenship, and a

41

www.cityofchicago.org/dam/city/depts/cdot/Admin/ChicagoForwardCDOTActionAgenda.pdf

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central place for people to gather, it became clear that uneven access to the internet was a problem to be solved.”42 Mr Tolva explains, “The Smart Chicago Collaborative has been vital; it really helps us to be a lot more nimble than we could otherwise be. They give grants on our behalf and they really are the engine behind what is a pretty broad community of interested developers. They host meet-ups, and I know that sounds soft, but actually the social work that goes into a policy of smarter cities is really important. There is a momentum that sustains beyond the government. You can’t have the Mayor’s office constantly trying to drum up interest; it’s got to come from its own momentum. Smart Chicago is one of those ways of fostering that.

It would be very difficult to do the work we do without a function like that. This is an organisation that is specifically focused on digital literacy and government efficiency and it really is proof that this outside-in approach to smart cities works here in Chicago.”

Smart city projects in Chicago The three main application areas for smart city and open data projects in Chicago are: • Infrastructure investment • Economic development • Community engagement Much of the community engagement work in Chicago is carried out by the Smart Chicago Collaborative. Initiatives include43:

- The City that Networks – a key positioning report on what the Smart Chicago Collaborative would do around digital inclusion.

- Digital Skills Initiative – A central hub for coordinating technology training across the departments and delegate agencies that have received federal funding.

42

http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/sample-page/history/

43

http://weconnectchicago.org/about/

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- Connect Chicago – A loose network of more than 250 places in the city where internet

and computer access, digital skills training, and online learning resources are available for free44.

- Smart Health Centres – places that have trained health information specialists in lowincome clinics to assist patients in connecting to their own medical records and find reliable information about their own conditions.

Future plans:45 1. Gigabit Broadband The broadband work in the city is seen as a transformative project. The speeds and the price points that they are aiming to hit are intended to be disruptive. They believe that will be key in fostering innovative and creative responses to the city’s challenges.

2. City as a Platform Chicago has many networked devices (e.g. trash cans, bike sharing schemes). There is an opportunity to get these better connected in a similar way to the open data portal.

3. Dispersed Digital Literacy Digital literacy and digital access in 2013 is much more dispersed than it has ever been, and we are moving away from the era of the PC. Although there are public computer centers in Chicago, the next challenge will be bringing these resources out into the street.

4. Ensuring Sustainability The real sustainability for this work in Chicago comes from its adoption by the community.

6.3. Rio De Janeiro46

44

http://weconnectchicago.org/about/

45

http://www.cityofchicago.org/dam/city/depts/doit/supp_info/DEI/CityThatNetworks.pdf

46

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22546490

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Aerial view of Rio De Janeiro Source: shutterstock.com

When the current city government came into administration in 2009, Rio faced significant challenges. The city was one of the most violent in Brazil, and there were significant political and economic challenges. Rio also had the lowest health and primary care capability in the country.

Rodrigo Rosa, Special Advisor to the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, explains that with the new administration, “The city itself started to find its way, and the public sector played a role in this. We stopped blaming others for our problems and started to take ownership over them. We designed a plan to address these challenges in a sustainable way. That started with the municipal administration in 2009.�

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Rio views the social challenges in the city as one of the most important they have. One of their strategic views is to urbanise all the favelas by 2020, and are working with public finance on this, focusing on the key risk areas (e.g. natural disasters). The developments are focused around their poor communities, and all investments are focused on the bottom of the social scale.

Rio has made a significant amount of their data freely available to the public. Largely these datasets fall into two categories: 1) The data portal data – which provides in-depth city information, such as crime rates, mortality rates etc.

2) Centre of Operations data – which holds information for everyday management - e.g. congestion, weather etc.

Implementing smart city projects As an emerging economy, Rio is focused on attracting new businesses and facilitating the economy. As such, they have created an agency called Rio Business (inspired by Think London, now ‘London and Partners’47), which was created to focus on providing the private sector with information about the city and supports companies that want to do business in the city. It explains the bureaucratic process, public sector nuances etc. This agency communicates with investors to produce information to businesses to promote investment.

Future Plans Rio is becoming the hub for digital start-ups in the country; the level of investment in terms of construction is higher than any other city in Brazil. The city’s main focus here is on growing their creative economy, which is a key strategic goal. In the coming years, Mr Rosa sees “an opportunity for us to create a more integrated, more equal city.”

47

http://www.londonandpartners.com/business/

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6.4. Stockholm48

Stockholm Source: Flicr

The telecoms industry has been a strong presence in Stockholm for the last hundred years, particularly driven by Ericsson, communications technology is part of the city’s legacy. The beginning of the ‘smart journey’ in Stockholm started in the 90s when Stokab was

48

http://international.stockholm.se/Press-and-media/Stockholm-facts/Stockholm--A-vibrant-economic-centre/

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created. Stokab is a 100% city owned company, which laid down a vast fibre network in the city (the total length being about 25 laps around the world). The aim was to provide local businesses with access to great communication at competitive prices. Currently there are about 50 service providers using this fibre, which is accessible to about 80% of households.

Vision/ Strategy The city of Stockholm adopted a vision in 2007 that detailed the core priorities to achieve by 2030. One of the cornerstones of this strategy was to become a more citizen-focused city, and they developed the e-service programme as a response to this long-term goal.

Staffan Ingvarsson, Vice CEO of Stockholm, explained the importance of a vision for smart cities: “Driving the vision around smart is at least as important as delivering the infrastructure, because if we are very clear that we want to create this (and we have been able to be very clear since 2007 and the long term vision) that helps a lot, because the other stakeholders then adapt to that. If the political statement is clear and firm, then it will work.”

E-government A huge part of the smart agenda in Stockholm has been to invest in high quality, accessible e- government services. With an investment of €70 million since 2007 they have created over 50 digital services, which has cut management costs. Mr Ingvarsson also claims “We can see that Stockholmers approve and like the opportunity to choose, and to do business with the city 24 hours a day.”

Another aspect of smart city investment in Stockholm is the Kista Science City49, which is: “A creative melting pot in Stockholm where companies, researchers and students collaborate in order to develop and grow. The foremost sector in Kista is ICT... Ericsson, Microsoft and IBM are just some of the major ICT companies to have established a presence in Kista Science City. There are also over a thousand other ICT companies of all sizes. 6,800

49

http://www.rohab.co.uk/index.php/case-studies

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students are currently studying ICT courses at Stockholm University and the Royal Institute of Technology in Kista Science City.”50 Green ICT “Green IT – a strategy for the City of Stockholm”51 applies to the city’s administration and Stockholm’s Stadshus AB (the parent company for the activities that Stockholm City has chosen to operate as a limited company). The strategy has been adopted by the City Council and is administered by the Executive Office.

The Green IT Strategy for the city of Stockholm explains: “Green IT is a collective name for the measures designed to reduce our environmental impact with the aid of IT. It involves both using information technology to reduce our environmental impact, and reducing the energy consumption and environmental impact of the IT sector as a whole.

Green IT is a strategic and management issue, which is why it is important that environmental issues are considered from an operational viewpoint. Doing so clarifies the ways in which the municipality can reduce its environmental impact across the board.”52 Future plans Potential areas for investigation in the future include working with traffic management and smart grid with Sweden as a whole. The city sees the ‘internet of things’ and connected devices as an interesting way forward for the city in terms of economic and physical development.

Working with people who do not have access to the internet is also a priority for the future.

Currently 90% of communication with the City is via email or the internet. At the same time there are people who are not included, are not comfortable with technology, which is a so-

50 51 52

http://en.kista.com/ http://international.stockholm.se/Politics-and-organisation/e-Governance/A-green-IT-strategy/ http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/GrnIT-strategi_eng1.pdf

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cio-economic dimension. The City is keen to understand this challenge and make it possible for all citizens to be a part of the digital society.

6.5.Boston53

Boston Source: Flicr Mobility is a significant challenge in Boston: with over 300,000 commuting into the city daily, congestion and parking is an issue. "Due to rush-hour traffic and the lack of a distinct

53

http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/SOTC%202013_tcm3-35774.pdf

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grid roadway system, Boston was ranked the fifth most traffic delay-prone city in the nation, according to a recent study.»54 Waste management in the city is also a challenge. The city spends over $40 million each year on residential waste and recyclables, and no issue generates more requests or complaints from citizens. Investment in education and crime are key priorities articulated by Mayor Menino in his ‘State of the City Address’55.

The Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston is entirely focused on working to deliver value to citizens, and focuses its attention at the interface between government and the public. Nigel Jacob, Co-Chair, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics explains:

“We developed an approach that is about active experimentation in what we call the ‘civic engagement space’, how people are able to get involved in civic life generally and with their government.”

Three principal areas of research include56: 1. Clicks and Bricks 2. 21st Century Learning 3. Participatory Urbanism Smart City Projects in Boston Smart city projects in MONUM are carried out under three core programmes: ‘Participatory Urbanism’, ‘Clicks and Bricks’, and ‘21st Century Learning’.

54

http://dailyfreepress.com/2013/02/11/boston-ranked-fifth-most-traffic-prone-city-in-nation/

55

http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/PDF/ResearchPublications/RappaportInstituteAdvBrd.pdf 56

http://www.newurbanmechanics.org/projects/

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- MONUM believes that smart technologies are fostering a new wave of citizen participation in the community. Projects driven under ‘Participatory Urbanism’ are intended to support the creation of new, citizen-centric products and services.

- Citizens Connect – This application for smart phones helps constituents make their neighbourhoods better by giving them an easy tool to report service problems. They are piloting an SMS version called 'citizens connect txt’.

- Community PlanIt – A platform to explore how online platforms can complement in-person community meetings, as well as reach an audience that might not attend a community meeting.

- Innovation District: Welcome home challenge – A competition focused on attracting and growing businesses in Boston’s Innovation District.

- Participatory Chinatown – Participatory Chinatown is a video game-like platform to engage a broader range of constituents in informative and deliberative planning and development conversations.

Other Investments

- Better Traffic Management - This plan will help the Boston Transportation Department be able to spot traffic problems faster, allowing them to spend more time fixing problems and less time looking for them.

- A Healthier Environment - This plan will help the city to understand how their bike, parking and traffic management policies are impacting vehicle usage in the city; with this intelligence, the city will be able to see how it can meet its aggressive climate action goals by 2020.

- Transparency - As part of its commitment to transparency, the city has performance metrics, service request data, meeting notices, and broadcast their meetings via City Council TV. Human Capital Having the right people who can drive this type of work is essential. Mr Jacob argues; “The kind of work that we engage in requires people that can operate in this entrepreneurial mode. In a lot of ways it’s a mind-set to empower your workforce to become

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

entrepreneurial and to resource them that way. A lot of our work is trying to promote these cultures of innovation. We need people that are willing to be creative and take some risks with our support.”

Future Plans The city hopes that the MONUM concept will become a movement across cities both nationally and internationally. Last year, Philadelphia became the first official city outside Boston to set up an office of MONUM. The two MONMUM offices communicate almost daily, to share resources and experiences. There are other cities such as New Mexico, which are beginning to take an interest in this approach.

Within Boston, the city has plans to continue to grow their smart cities work, drawing on extra resources, building the team (currently eight people), to be able to tackle more issues. They intend to tackle harder problems. They believe that these types of innovation centres can tackle the hardest problems that cities face; Mr Jacob explains “it’s a case of ratcheting up and starting small and building confidence, and then moving onto these tougher waters.

6.6. Hong-Kong57

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http://www.emporis.com/buildings

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Under "One country, two systems" Hong Kong has its own economic and political system, distinct from the rest of China. Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading financial centres, and the four key industries include financial services, trading and logistics, tourism and professional services.58 In 1998, Hong Kong identified that ICT investment had the potential to have a positive economic impact. However, they were also aware that driving change in this area would bring about new challenges. In response to this they developed the Digital 21 Strategy as the blueprint for Hong Kong’s ICT development.59 Since then it has been “updated on a regular basis to take into account technological and socio-economic changes.”60

58

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDMQFjAA&url=http%3A %2F%2F acad.wyk.edu.hk%2F~pyng%2F7SS%25202008- 09%2FLau%2520Chor%2520Hang%2520Urban%2520Problems.ppt&ei=J0Z- UfjCEciI0AWG64CYDw&usg=AFQjCNHGQ4O-SZs1y6Rma4jYrDG0d3Jvw&sig2=EcOgLvyBIfvfP8Q9jcIfNg&bvm=bv.45645796,d.d2k 59 60

www.digital21.gov.hk http://www.digital21.gov.hk/eng/strategy/2008/foreword.htm

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

The current strategy contains five key action areas: • Facilitating a digital economy • Promoting advanced technology and innovation • Developing Hong Kong as a hub for technological cooperation and trade • Enabling the next generation of public services • Building an inclusive, knowledge-based society.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) was established in 2004.

The intention was to streamline government structure and leadership for delivering the ICT functions within the Government and to enable the Government to take a proactive, leading role in championing ICT.61

There are three main roles of the OGCIO, in line with the Digital 21 strategy. The biggest role, which takes most of the resource, is delivering the government’s ICT programmes and having oversight of that across the whole of government, being in charge of the ICT professionals within the government, and setting the technical standards. Jeremy Godfrey, CIO of the OGCIO explains: “Whereas ten years ago government ICT was decentralised, and each department had its own ICT-shop, now it is much more sensible to have shared systems and shared data. So OGCIO has a role in understanding what it makes sense to do cen trally and what it makes sense to do in a distributed manner. It is then up to us to deliver the central systems” The second role is to facilitate the digital economy in Hong Kong. There is a particular focus on facilitating the ICT industry; giving government support to the growth of that industry and to enable it to play a global and regional role. Mr Godfrey describes this opportunity: “We see a very substantial (market) opportunity because of the size and the growth of the mainland ICT market and the possibility of the Hong Kong ICT sector playing 61

http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/facts/doc/Fact_Sheet-OGCIO-EN.pdf

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a role as China’s digital entrepôt... This is about Hong Kong businesses playing a leading role in ICT innovation and trade, whilst leveraging the relationship with the mainland - that is the relationship that makes Hong Kong special.”

Vision/ Strategy The Digital 21 Strategy bought together a pan-governmental ICT strategy for the first time.

The core vision associated with this is to "sustain Hong Kong's position as Asia's leading digital city". As Mr Godfrey explains, “The Digital 21 Strategy has at its core the desire that Hong Kong should maintain its position as a leading digital city. Over time, our notion of what that means has changed and our notion of what it is the government needs to do to facilitate that has changed.”

As such, the strategy is regularly reviewed, updated and consulted on.

Organisational Structure of OGCIO

Smart City Projects in Hong Kong - Electronic Information Management (EIM), was central to the 2008 Digital 21 Strategy, and covers three central themes: 1) Content Management

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2) Records Management 3) Knowledge Management.

- E-government The OGCIO is responsible for running the city’s main website. They aim to meet 80% of citizen needs for dealing with the government on that website, through e-government services. Mr Godfrey explains that:62 “The vision is that our clients should find the government service as convenient, as efficient, as pleasurable to use as the best services they get from the private sector.”

- GovWiFi Government Wi-Fi Programme (GovWiFi) aims to transition Hong Kong into a wireless city, providing free wireless internet services to all citizens. The programme places Wi-Fi facilities at designated government premises, and aims to ensure that: • “Citizens can surf the web freely for business, study, leisure or accessing government services whenever they visit the designated Government premises.

• Business organisations can extend their services to a wireless platform to reach and connect with their clients.

• ICT industry players can make use of this new wireless platform to develop and provide more Wi-Fi applications, products and supporting services to their clients, and open up more new business opportunities."63 Future Plans Hong Kong will continue to work towards the vision articulated in the Digital 21 strategy, and will update it as new challenges and opportunities are identified. Mr Godfrey explains

62

http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/facts/doc/Fact_Sheet-OGCIO-EN.pdf

63

http://www.gov.hk/en/theme/wifi/program/index.htm

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that achieving the city’s aim around ICT is a continual process of improvement, rather than an end-goal:64 “Although we have articulated our vision, I don’t think we will ever be able to say we’ve done it. Because even when you get there, ICT changes so fast that you are going to have to keep running to achieve the vision.”

He also identifies that shifting to cloud-based ICT operations in the city will be a core upcoming challenge: “We see the biggest change in the next few years being how we make use of cloud computing in government, which will affect both the applications and the infrastructure.”

6.7. Barcelona’s position This findings with all information shows us the huge role of smart strategy in the fast changing world. All these examples, especially the chapters with future plans can help Barcelona to be prepared for the future ten, twenty years.

Otherwise, Barcelona took very strong position in the world rankings, so it is necessary to mention the main reasons, why we can today call Barcelona the Smart city.

(The sources: Sources Barcelona Activa: Barcelona Smart City Tour65; El Economista: Barcelona, la apuesta de una ciudad ‘smart city’66; El Periodico: Barcelona Smart City ;Sourceable: The World’s Smartest Cities67; Sustainable Cities Collective: Case Study

64

http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/strategies/initiatives/info_pilot_scheme/

65

www.slideshare.net/barcelonactiva/barcelona-smart-city-tour-15080538

66

www.eleconomista.es/smartcity-barcelona/noticias/5346323/11/13/-Barcelona-la-apuesta-deuna-ciudad-smart-city-II-.html 67

sourceable.net/worlds-smartest-cities/

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22@ Barcelona District68; Fast Company: Barcelona: A Smart Model City for the Planet69; A Geek’s Tour of Barcelona70).

1) Its stellar bus transit system.

One of the cleanest surface public transport fleets in Europe, it also has smart bus shelters using solar panels and screens provides waiting times.

2) Its bicycle sharing system, Bicing. With 6,000 bicycles circulating, Bicing71 is a sustainable and economical form of transport, designed for citizens to travel short distances without consuming any energy.

68

sustainablecitiescollective.com/ecpa-urban-planning/27601/case-study-22-barcelona-innovationdistrict 69

www.fastcoexist.com/welcome.html?destination=http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679017/barcelonaa-smart-city-model-for-the-planet 70

paulwallbank.com/2013/11/01/touring-barcelona-smart-city-internet-of-things/

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https://www.bicing.cat/

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

3) Its installation of smart parking spaces. - Using light and metal detectors, sensors detect if a parking spot or loading area is occupied. These street sensors help motorists find parking, but they also provide data about parking patterns, helping officials improve management of urban mobility.

4) Its pneumatic waste management system. -Many barris don’t have to see (and smell) overflowing and oversized trash bins. These compact drop-off containers have a subterranean vacuum network through the pipes, sucking up trash below the ground.

5) Its installation of smart lighting.

-More efficient lighting using LED technology is being installed in Barcelona to reduce cost and pollution.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

6) Its use of renewable and more effective energy systems.

7) It’s the Mobile World Capital. -In 2011, Barcelona beat out 29 other cities72 as the Mobile World Capital from 2012 until 2018. Barcelona was an attractive candidate because of its conference and exhibition facilities, tourism and transportation infrastructure, and its commitment to extending the reach of mobility locally and nationally.

72

www.fiercewireless.com/story/gsma-picks-barcelona-host-mobile-world-congressthrough-2018/2011-07-22

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

8) Its urban mobility through apps. The Ajuntament de Barcelona recently rolled out some interesting and helpful new urban mobility projects, connecting its citizens using some attractive and snazzy apps.

9) 22@ (vint-i-dos arroba), Barcelona’s Innovation District - Last but not least, 22@, the districte de la innovació (innovation district) was approved in 2001, and it’s a daring and experimental project of urban planning and entrepreneurialism.

Barcelona’s not a perfect city. But with Spain’s overall aging population and an economic recession, local government has found ways to create jobs and improve the quality of daily life for its residents and visitors.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

7. The main ideas and recommendations This final chapter will be focusing on the future of Barcelona like the city of a better living, for a new talented generation.

As we know, and as many professionals says, Europe is one of the most urbanized continents in the world. Today, more than two thirds of the European population lives in urban areas and this share continues to grow. The development of our cities will determine the future economic, social and territorial development of the European Union.

Cities play a crucial role as engines of the economy, as places of connectivity, creativity and innovation, and as centers of services for their surrounding areas.

Barcelona has a huge potential to become the center of the world’s knowledge exchange in different levels. Barcelona has a lot of benefits, and it is a smart city, as we can see, according to the previous research. But I am sure, that it is much more necessary to focus on society development, because the citizens reflect the city.

When we put smart mobility and implement high-tech technologies into the city, we help citizens and guests better understand it, make it more useful and easy going, but, in general, it is not actuate the citizens to create something new, or to change something in theirs environment or in theirs lives; it is more passive implementation. Only active citizens can produce new decisions for better living and for better creation of the city itself.

For example, nowadays we are facing with the lack of qualitative education - in USA, for instance, it is very expansive and it is not focusing on the educational process itself; it is a 78

The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

competition between many universities to attract more students, suggesting them extreme and fun social life and better campuses, instead of amplify educational process. In different social areas we can find such kind of the challenges.

The city of future should create new way of living. It should produce better atmosphere, where most of the citizens and guests could get better knowledges, and would be taught how to make the right decisions, how to think critically, what instruments they could use to gain their goals and ets. This kind of places should move people to a new lever in there self-improvement.

That is why if someone could create such place it should contain different kind of activities.

When I analyzed different creative and smart clusters in different cities all over the world, I found out, that most of them focus on something specific only.

Theoretically, such kind of places should include:

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

1. Multiplicity - different creative labs, for different perspectives.

2. New technologies - interactive technologies, which invite visitor to learn about something knew, and use it in everyday life.

3. Creative people - the most essential part: the best minds of our age should have possibility to come to these places and share knowledges with different people.

4. Eventness / newsworthness - every person has its own perspectives and interests, so it is necessary to satisfy most of the expectations of the visitors.

Creative spaces nowadays are not just a region’s economic growth engine, but are a social development engine in general and indicate the level of a city’s technological advance.

On the basis of this thesis topic an assumption was made that creative & smart spaces are one of the key city centers which influence the perception of the city by both its residents and visitors. This assumption was proved to be true. Furthermore, the analysis of various creative clusters and smart city strategies worldwide showed stable correlation between the city’s identity and its cultural component which is represented at one or another smart creative space.

Creative and smart clusters are places that manifest the synthesis of culture, traditions, history, creative industries, scientific achievements, high technologies, education, etc.

They allow the city residents and visitors to feel the uniqueness and distinctness of each component.

These kind of places can be open for investigative generation all the year round. It could be a physical place, where something interesting happens all the time: expositions, creative lectures, workshops, smart labs, ets. It also can unite all active groups of people who are interested in creation of new smart global society, The center of this community could be based in Barcelona.

There are some more general recommendations, which could help to turn the threats into positive challenges.

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- Creating a resilient and inclusive economy – the present economic development model, in which economic growth does not equate to more jobs, raises challenges: to ensure a decent life for those left outside the labour market and to engage them in society.

- The potential of socio-economic, cultural, generational and ethnic diversity must be further exploited as a source of innovation. Cities of tomorrow have to be both elderlyfriendly and family-friendly, as well as places of tolerance and respect.

- Combating spatial exclusion and energy poverty with better housing is key to not only making a city and its agglomeration more attractive and liveable, but also making it more eco-friendly and competitive.

- Thriving and dynamic small and medium-sized squares, like 22@, can play an important role in the well-being not only of their own inhabitants but also of the surrounding rural populations. They are essential for avoiding rural depopulation and urban drift and for promoting balanced territorial development.

A sustainable city must have attractive open public spaces and promote sustainable, inclusive and healthy mobility. Non-car mobility has to become more attractive and multimodal public transport systems favoured.

These all can provide better living in the city, and create a new step for the new talented generation.

The survey's results show Barcelona's excellent international position, ahead of capitals such as Berlin, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Paris. And this also means that the business, cultural and creative sector is climbing higher and higher in the rankings.

During the last ten years the need for understanding and exploring the possibilities and prospects of smart & creative strategic policy development and projects to support smart industries in Barcelona has increased unprecedentedly. This is mainly connected with the obvious weaknesses of the Barcelona resource-based economy model and the perception of the necessity to create new innovative model of creative, smart and sustainable economy. Consequently there appeared a number of practical studies and projects in this field.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

Although the Barcelona experience, as well as Europe, of smart strategy development is substantial but not always successful, there are still noticeable achievements. But we can see the strong position, which Barcelona achieved during last two years.

In the future smart & creative clusters may become the main city communication centers where everyone can get acquainted with the new forms of art, become familiar with scientific knowledge, high-tech technologies, thinking and creative ability development by meeting a large number of interesting, clever and purposeful people.

An important element of such interaction will be the process of communication. Communication technologies also need to be developed and improved to allow instant and more efficient informing of the public, building stable relations between the main communication parties and creating favorable conditions for their development.

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

8. Bibliography ANHOLT, S. , 2000. The Nation Brand Hexagon.

ANHOLT, S. & GFK, 2005. Nation Brands Index.: www.simonanholt.com AON & PFNYC, 2013. New York City as a Destination of Choice for Talent.

BECKER, R. (2009). Measuring Communication, Defining Outcomes.

BINDER, J. (2007). Global Project Management. Gower BUHMANN, A. & INGENHOFF, D., 2013. Advancing the country image construct from a public relations perspective. University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

BUNCHBALL INC. (2010). Gamification 101 BURDETT, R., 2013. Conclusions from a meeting with Barcelona Global BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LUCERNE, 2011. Lucerne - The Perfect place for your HQ BUSINESS DICTIONARY. Webpage: www.businessdictionary.com BUSINESS SOURCE PREMIER. Database; see page 35 for more information.

CHARLS LANDRY Future cities.

EMILSSON, P., 2013. "La marca es más importante para ciudades que para países".

Interview with La Vanguardia - Dinero on sunday 6th of October 2013.

EDELMAN, 2013. The Diamond of influence.

EDELMAN, 2013. Trust Barometer.

ESADE Brand Institute, 2011. Barcelona als ulls del món FERPI, Italian Federation of PR. Webpage: www.ferpi.it GRAYLING Pulse. Webpage: www.graylingpulse.co.uk GUDJONSSON, H., 2005. Place Branding. Henry Stewart Publications 1774-0696 HERNANDEZ, M., 2009. El ABC de la competitividad urbana. www.infonomia.com JASPERSE, A., 2010. A brand like no other: Nation Branding. Slideshare Presentation. www.slideshare.com KEALEY, C., 2013. Measuring what matters. Communication World, January-February.

KEAT DINNY City branding KOTLER, P., 1997. The Marketing of Nations: A strategic Approach to Building National

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Health. Free Press.

KPMG. Global Cities Investment Monitor 2013 LONDON FIRST, 2013. 2013-2020 Objectives LONDON FIRST, 2013. Chief Executive's Report.

MAGLIONE, L. 2013. Barcelona Global International Talent Monitor. Barcelona Global.

MARKESSINIS, A. Nation Branding webpage: www.nation-branding.info MERCADER, C., 2010. "La marca Barcelona engancha". La Vanguardia.

MUZI FALCONI, T., 2005. Governare le Relazioni. FERPI NATION STORYTELLING NETWORK. Webpage: www.storynet.org NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS USA (ProQuest). Database; see page 35 for more information.

ORDEIX, E. & DUARTE, J. 2009. From Public Diplomacy to Corporate Diplomacy: Increasing Corporation's Legitimacy and influence. American Behavioral Scientist PARTNERSHIP FOR NEW YORK CITY, 2013. NYC Jobs Blueprint.

PIMEC. Petites i mitjanes empreses de Catalunya. Webpage: www.pimec.org POND, M., 2013. Meeting in NYC on 16th April 2013.

PORTER, M. E., 1998. The competitive Advantage of Nations.

PWC & PFNYC, 2012. Cities of Opportunity.

RASMUSSEN, 2013. Nation Branding Indices: Useful Planning Tools or Marketing Stunts?. Paper presented in EUPRERA Congress 2013.

SALIM, I., 2013. Barcelona Challenge 2020. Meeting with opinion leaders.

SHARKNESS J., & DEANGELO, L., 2010. Measuring Student involvement. University of California, Los Angeles.

THE ECONOMIST, 2013. Country Report Spain, November 2014.

UN HABITAT. State of the world's cities 2013/2014.

U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. Webpage: www.sba.gov

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The Brand Barcelona: Smart City for Smart People MA - Strategic Management in Global Communications Veronika Bigulova ______________________________________________________________________________________

9. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this review: The special thank goes to my helpful tutor, professor Toni Muzi Falconi for providing me with advice and for sharing with me part of their valuable knowledge in Public Relations & Communication and City Branding & Territory Development.

My grateful thanks also goes to all professors, experts, professionals and friends that helped me with their expertise providing me all necessary help and time; Mrs. Julia Lopez Ventura, Mrs. Laura Lahoz Gonzalea, Mrs. Meritxell Alavedra Brossa, Mr.Albert Llorens Albareda, and especially, Professor Enric Ordeix, Dr. Gregory Payne and Mrs. Angels Rotllan.

And last but not least, I would like to thank my mother Zalina and uncle Alan, my brother Serjio, and all my family, for their support, encouragement and love.

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