Bottom up citymarketing

I advised the Dutch city of Venlo on their economic profile. They are struggling with their image as a city for drug tourists. And they're the city of Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing populist politician who leads the polls at present. But, there's a lot of creative energy in Venlo as well. One of Venlo's most creative entrepreneurs is Marcel Tabbers, active in the creative Q4 inner city neighborhood. Usually it's the authorities that start a positive promotion campaign to put their city in a favourable light. Usually this doesn't work. People see it - in the end - as propaganda. Marcel and his colleague Miel Theeuwen started a bottom up citymarketing campaign called 5x5x5. With 3 other people they had 5 to start with. Each one approached 5 other Venlo-citizens who in their turn approached 5 'Venlonaren' each. Everyone makes a webcam statement about something they personally like about Venlo. Tabbers and Theeuwen thought that it must be possible to find at least 100 people in Venlo who are positive about their city. The promo movies will be put on YouTube and on a special site www.5x5x5.nl. The 5x5x5 initiative has been nominated for the Dutch Citymarketing Innovation Award