urban storytelling continues elsewhere

I have decided to continue my blog activities on a new Wordpress blog. As from now, all new blogposts will be posted on http://royvandalm.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you there,

Roy

Citybrands: the Power of the suppressed archetype

In hard times, look for the archetype that is suppressed. It fulfills needs people crave for, but that are not being addressed by other brands. When a brand is able to address these needs, it will unleash an incredible power. The same holds good for cities and their citybranding. In these complex times of crisis and uncertainty it is the archetype of the Innocent that is having a really hard time. The Dutch neighboring cities of Deventer and Zwolle have a strong case for the Innocent. Here's why.

Last month, the mayors of the picturesque former Hanseatic towns of Deventer and Zwolle, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, signed a covenant to cooperate on the theme of Modern Devotion. In the late Middle Ages, Modern Devotion was a reformist religious movement that started in The Netherlands in these two towns.

The cooperation speaks of lectures, exhibitions and reviving the movement. But the complete scope of its possibilities could be far greater. Zwolle has many resident artists that have a devotional streak in their work. Deventer boasts a highly successful nostalgic Dickens  Festival (http://www.dickensfestijn.nl/) each year in december. It drew 100,000 vistors last year and 120,000 in 2011.

The Innocent city
Goodness, morality, mysticism, nostalgia, faith and optimism are qualities attributed to the archetype of the Innocent. The Innocent as a brandarchetype is visible in Christmas, Disney or movies like E.T. or Forrest Gump. But could it be visible in cities? Why not?

Both Deventer and Zwolle have a strong case to brand their city as the Innocent city. The authenticity of the experience people have, goes deeper than modern devotion. It touches upon a level of the soul that goes beyond the nostalgic morality of A Christmas Carol. It is about the yearning for paradise. It is about the promise that paradise can be here and now. It is also about the promise that if you fall from grace, you can be redeemed.

When mayors realize what potential they have in the urban story that lies below the stories they tell, they will strike gold. And the world as it is now, needs an innocent city.

(the picture of the Dickens Festijn is used by courtesy of vvvdeventer.nl, the Deventer Tourist Board)

Chrysler's Eminem Superbowl commercial uses archetypal power

Chrysler's Superbowl commercial 'Imported From Detroit' featuring Eminem is much talked about. Rightly so. It's also as much about branding Detroit as it is about the new Chrysler 200. What makes the commercial powerful and spinechilling is the use of archetypes. It's the story of the Hero standing up after countless blows and persevering, despite a sea of troubles.

Some compare the Imported from Detroit commercial to Batman - the black avenger driving in to save Gotham City. Others say it reminds them of Rocky. All acknowledge its power. A voice over recounts the many blows that Detroit has had to suffer and the pride the city has in its mastery of carmaking. Then, Eminem drives the new Chrysler into the city centre and ends up with a gospel choir in a theatre, expressing pride, faith and hope for the future.

Observe the use of the colour red (the Hero colour) in the commercial, which is originally called Born of Fire. Listen tot the staccato beats (Hero music). The commercial also uses the 4 levels of the Hero story.

The Call: a challenge beckons. Detroit needs you to help defend the city.

Level One: the development of competence and mastery, expressed through achievement. The voice over claims the mastery of Detroit in making great cars.

Level Two: doing your duty for your community. Eminem drives into the city, ready to fight for it.

Level Three: using your strength and courage for something that makes a difference to the world. Eminem joins powers with hope and faith, expressed in the gospel choir. He points his finger at you: "This is the motor city. And this is what we do." Make no mistake, we know what we stand for and will fight for it.

The Chrysler commercial makes use of the Hero archetype, powerfully and consciously. The Hero and also the Explorer archetypes have been used for cars for a long time, but Chrysler makes a difference in addressing all 4 levels. If they want to go on making this difference, Chrysler should stick to the archetype - which they appear to do, judging from their Imported from Detroit merchandise. If you want to order an Imported from Detroit T-shirt, the site says: Can you prove it? Do you have the guts to wear it? Very powerfukl stuff indeed

Branding cities by archetypes

How do you define the identity of a city? Is there a workable method to say something essential about something so complex as a city? Maybe there is. Over the past few months brandstrategists Brandfriend and I have been testing a method based on Jungian archetypes. This is not a novel approach in the field of brandmanagement. Check the groundbreaking work done by Margaret Mark en Carol Pearson in their book The Hero and the Outlaw. What's new is applying their archetypal branding theory to cities.

Brandfriend and I have tested the citybrand archetype approach on the Dutch twin cities of Nijmegen and Arnhem. Geographically close (a mere 10 miles) and well linked, they are also rivals in anything from soccer and festivals to attracting talent. The brandarchetype test revealed a Jester (Nijmegen) versus a Ruler archetype (Arnhem), exactly pinning the differences down to their specific character.

Archetypes play a vital role in myths and legends. They personalize our hopes, fears and our endeavours to make an imprint on this world, bring order to chaos, be part of a community or explore the unknown. Archetypes have dominated storytelling ever since man could tell stories. Many are familiar with the work Joseph Campbell did in the field of comparative mythology and the hero's journey. All truly great movies explore this journey-theme and make use of archetypes.

Brands are stories What are brands other than stories told? The world's best brands, as Mark and Pearson pointed out, know the archetypal power of their brand. Ben and Jerry's is the Jester brand - making fun and having a good time. Nike is the archetypal Hero brand, honoring the great sportsheroes in their flagshipstores which are none other than temples full of stories on heroism. Or Apple, who started out as the Revolutionary brand challenging the status quo, but who are now the Ruler themselves determining design and standards.

Citybrands are, well .. citystories If brands are about storytelling, citybranding should be about urban storytelling. The test is devised to provide input for the archetypal brand story of a city (or region for that matter). The test that we have developed lets people score on statements, questions, pictures and videoclips. Questions on the perceived character of their city, on the stylepreferences of the people, on the perceived organizational cultural values of their city and on the archetype of the city itself.

As branding is about positioning, we have people compare their city to another they know well. It makes for easier scoring when you take this approach. And it is more fun as well. We tested a live audience of 160 people from the cultural sector to have them determine the personality of Nijmegen as a creative city. Nijmegen comes out of the test as a 'loveable Jester'- a person who likes experiment and fun, caring for others as well. This was exactly the picture that came out of earlier in-depth interviews we held with nine well-known people in the Nijmegen cultural sector. Arnhem, on the contrary, was seen by Nijmegen creatives as a mainly Ruler archetype - structuring and deciding, focusing and acting. This is exactly the opposite of Nijmegen - something that was always felt.

What good is it?

Now you have your brand story, what are you going to do with it? Well, it is a compass for authentic citybranding campaigns. When you know your archetype, you know the motives of your people and brandmovies can tap into that. But it is also a guide for policymaking. The cultural values of a city - cultural in the sense of 'the way we do things around here'- determine which policy approaches would work and which won't.

Arnhem focuses on fashion and design. This is not only economically justified, but going for product leadership in specfic sectors fits the Arnhem archetype. If Nijmegen would go for a specific cultural sector, it wouldn't work. Their focus should be on the experiment and making experiments more successful, regardless of what sector the experiment is in.

Within short we will have an online version of the test as well, but right now we'd love to test more cities and position them on a wheel with the 12 archetypes. This will provide a deeper insight into the truly authentic

stories that cities can tell.

Roy's power point gastcollege branding 2011 02-25

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Roy's power point gastcollege branding 2011 02-25

View more presentations from Roy van Dalm.

Citybranding: Eminem en Chrysler in Detroit

De speciale Superbowl commercial die Chrysler voor zijn Chrysler 200 maakte is een geweldig stuk citybranding voor Detroit. Geen flashy filmpje op 5th Avenue of een glossy rit langs Sunset Boulevard, maar Detroit wordt hier opgevoerd als decor. In het meest donkere uur van de veelgeplaagde stad, rijdt Eminem binnen als de Dark Knight die trots en geloof terugbrengt naar Gotham City. Gewaagd en veel besproken, maar ook meer dan 6 miljoen keer bekeken op You Tube. Zie hoe de rit eindigt bij een gospelkoor: de ziel van Detroit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc

Studenten inzetten voor citybranding onderzoek

Studenten Branding van de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) kunnen voor uw stad of regio een merkonderzoek doen en merkpaspoort opstellen. Vanuit mijn docentschap Citybranding bij de HAN Faculteit Economie en Management is het mogelijk om een groep van 5 studenten dit als praktijkopdracht in het kader van hun opleiding te laten doen.
Het is gebleken dat een dergelijk onderzoek een uitstekend vertrekpunt vormt voor het denken over de identiteit van een stad of regio. Ook in het kader van beleid voor de creatieve stad zijn merkonderzoeken zinvol. Daarnaast kan een merkonderzoek dienen als onderlegger voor nieuwe citymarketing campagnes.
Zo heeft een groep studenten recentelijk een zeer goed ontvangen merkpaspoort voor de regio De Liemers gemaakt. Een nieuwe groep gaat binnenkort aan de slag met een onderzoek voor de gemeente Doesburg.
Voor meer informatie, bel Roy van Dalm op: 06 53 53 72 87

Creatief Zwolle, stad in transitie

De barokke bovenzaal van brasserie De Harmonie in Zwolle was meer dan vol afgelopen vrijdag. Wat heb je dan een geweldig werk als je daar voor meer dan 100 mensen mag spreken over wat jou inspireert in steden. En dat samen met wethouder van cultuur Nelleke Vedelaar - een inspirerende vernieuwer met frisse ideeën. Waarom heeft Arnhem nooit zulke wethouders?
Het creatieve cafe was georganiseerd door KIZ Zwolle, het platform voor de creatieve stad. Wie is Zwolle eigenlijk als creatieve stad? Mijn gevoel na de levendige discussie met de zaal was dat Zwolle in transitie is. Aan de ene kant heeft de stad nog steeds haar Calvinistische doe-maar-gewoon DNA. Aan de andere kant zijn er zoveel initiatieven dat het gewoon wachten is op een doorbraak.
'Zwolle wordt nooit Amsterdam', riep een man op de tweede rij. Nee, dat klopt en dat moet je ook niet willen. Zwolle wordt geen Amsterdam omdat Zwolle Zwolle is. Waardeer wat er is en vernieuw vanuit het goede dat er is.
Het beste dat Zwolle kan doen is vrije ruimte creëren: fysieke ruimtes waar je functies kan mengen, ruimte voor nieuwe ideeën, regelruimte in agenda's, beleidsruimte in beleid.
Ik moet altijd denken aan wat Charles Landry zegt: een creatieve stad is een stad waar mensen kunnen denken, plannen en handelen met verbeeldingskracht. Ik pleit voor vrije ruimte voor verbeeldingskracht in Zwolle. Overal. Van het gemeentehuis tot de inrichting van kantoren. En Zwolle heeft KIZ en Nelleke en daar geloof ik in.

People and Passion, not bricks

Earlier this week I was at the farewell party of Liesbeth Jansen, director of The Westergasfabriek (http://westergasfabriek.nl) in Amsterdam. In 18 years Liesbeth turned this 19th century, red brick former gasworks site into the cultural place to be. And this was an area of Amsterdam no one in his right mind would want to go to.

Why did this work, when so many other sites are just buildings with creatives where nothing else happens? Or where you feel you are left out, because you're not cool enough. As far as Liesbeht's concerned, it's focusing on the right people, on passion and always on the content and not on the bricks. "I prefer to work with the people who are madly in love with this place. Because it is their passion that made the Westergasfabriek a success." Temporariness is also a big thing: content moves on - it is there and then it's gone. Movement and change is everyhting. From circus shows for kids, big events for the tech savvy media crowd, low and high culture, creative industries and picnics for the people living in the neighbourhood.

Organize where the passion is and trust people. Letting go of masterplanning and developing as it goes along. Liesbeth knwos it, Jane Jacobs knew it: but who dares?

Why do cities recover so fast (or not at all?)

Business Insider ranks the world's Top 15 of losing cities because of the recession. And the World Top 15 of fast recoveries. Take Istanbul. They were #44 (in growth) before the recession. They sank to #143 during the recession. And now they are the world's #1 in recovery after the recession. Why? Local employment is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, Business Insider says. Most Chinese cities rose, fell and rose again somehwere in the World Top 10. But Istanbul shows incredible resillience. Turkey has a young population, Turks are entrepreneurial, these things would probably matter. But what makes this city work is what most interests me. Should get hold of the report.

Sshh, don't mention the population crash

I met Fred Pearce, author of Peoplequake (Volksbeving in Dutch) yesterday in Utrecht, for an interview. For those who are not familiar with Pearce: he is one of Britain's leading environmental journalists and authors.

In Peoplequake he exams all aspects of demography. I interviewed him mainly on the future of European cities. There's a population crash coming towards us and we're pioneering it in Western Europe.

The fact that the whole global population will reach a tipping point about midcentury and go into a rapid decline isn't mentioned a lot in the media. Pearce tells me why: "Demographic researchers tend to hush it up. They say it would endanger their funding." The population crash is politically incorrect and even taboo as a topic.

As for Europe, Pearce says: "we will have to redesign the whole concept of cities and make them work for a shrinking, greying population."

The main reason for the continuous drop in fertility is the feminist revolution. Pearce: "Women can now choose between a career and children. Increasingly, espcially in countries like Italy and Germany, they go for their careers. Our main goal should be to complete the feminist revolution with adequate facilities that make it possible for women to combine career and children and an attitude that makes it possible that both partners share parents' responsibilities."

Fred Pearce compares the differences between Italy and the Nordic countries. "In Scandinavia these theings have been taken care of. Fertility in the Nordic countries is down only to 1.8 child. This allows for a gradual and copable decline in population. In Italy it's 1.3 child - a catastrophe. You can imagine what this will mean for the sustainability of cities in the long run."

Photo update Dresden

I've just created a series of photos of my recent trip to eastern Germany. I made a Dresden series first, on Flickr. Use the tag Baba Reizen. There's a lot more to this city than its magnificent baroque centre. Check it out.

Stalin built this city

The city of Eisenhüttenstadt ('steel factory city') in the eastern German state of Brandenburg is a strange anachronism. Stalin had it built in the early 50's for the blast furnace workers. A perfect workers' paradise in, well, Stalinist style.

There was no economic reason to have a blast furnace there other than to make a political statement. The furnace cannot run on the brown coal from the region - the cokes had (and have) to be imported from elsewhere. This makes Eisenhüttenstadt (or Stalinstadt as it was once called) a cathedral in the desert.

Ever since the wall is gone, the area is subject to the market economy. Out of the 56.000 inhabitants, only 30.000 remain. The others have gone to get a job somewhere in the west with some future perspective.

The old Stalinist blocks of flats have been restored in a wonderful way. The outside city rings of former soviet style flats are all being demolished and the people move closer to the old centre.

The future of Eisenhüttenstadt may well be that of a shrinking open air museum city, a relic of a different time and age. The city has an interesting museum of everyday GDR life and internet companies sell Ostalgia-products online to communist retro collectors around the world.

They may have been weird times to have lived in, but they make great stories. And out of great stories you could make a new living.

136 places missing and the land is still moving

Just came back from an awesome trip to eastern Germany. The Lausitz region on the German-Polish border is full of stories. Ever since 1924 up to 136 villages and towns have been demolished to make way for brown coal quarries. It started in the Third Reich, went on in communist times and is expected to continue to at least 2030.

The only difference is: in the former GDR you got a notice on your frontdoor saying you have to be out by Monday next. Now, Vattenfall - the giant Swedish energy producer - compensates people for the loss of their homes. Like the town of Horno that fought 30 years against its obliteration from the Lausitz map. They lost. Then they could rebuild their village in the same manner some 20 miles further on, on the outskirts of the town of Forst. What arose there is Neu Horno (new Horno). It is so perfect it looks like the towns my daughter used to construct in The Sims computer game.

At the same time Vattenfall quarries the land for brown coal, creating lunar landscapes everywhere. When the mining stops, these giant craters get turned into articifical lakes for recreation. There will be 23 of them, connected thru canals.

The landscape changes all the time and towns and villages will keep disappearing. It is a difficult thing for the inhabitants: they are economically dependent on an employer who pays for their salaries and demolishes their houses at the same time.

Never doubt that a small group of committed people

Lately I've been combining my work on cities with a process of dialogue tables throughout my university in Arnhem, The Netherlands. We talk about professional culture and our passion for teaching. It was just a new way of doing things. Now, after a few months of dialogue sessions at lunchtime, it is not only the staff that is taking part, but also management, hr and even the board. What I see is that, slowly, the dialogue - introduced to think about the space we have as professionals - is becoming the space. The dialogue ís the change.

So, I thought, why not start a dialogue in your city? So often when I speak about urban creativity at conferences, the creativity seems to end once the conference is over. Mostly the conferences themselves aren't even creative. They are only about creativity. It's just cities talking to other cities. It's like looking at a powerpoint on how to swim.

I invited Peter Senge to my university a few years ago. He gave a presentation for 400 people at our city music hall and made everyone sit around tables and go into dialogue. You know what happened? Many people got angry. They just wanted to look at a managementguru to tell them what to do the next day when they got to the office.

But if you want change and you are not prepared to sit around a table with 3 or 4 others and look eachother in the face, you don't want change. If you want change, real change in your city, you let your people start dialogue tables. Just start with a few and then train the people at your table to become dialogue leaders. And so on.

I know there are cities where they did this. And it is the test. If you want real change, you better start doing things with the people, instead of for the people. 'You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all of the people all the time'. Now, if a small group can really get this thing going, who knows where it will end. Quote Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Turning malls into greenhouses

Here's a great story. In the US, they are turning partly empty shopping malls into (sub)urban greenhouses. Now this what I call innovation. Growing organic veggies in malls and selling them on the spot. Read the original story on Cleveland's Galleria Mall here: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/galleria_has_gardens_now.html.

The people who started the Gardens Under Glass project in Cleveland are thinking of bringing in urban gardeners, starting an education centre and inviting sustainable producers.

Real estate experts predict the decline of the 'single use environment', like the shopping mall. This initiative is turning malls into multi use environments. Great idea

Studiereis Berlijn voor beleidsmakers

Berlijn: identiteit als wapen in de stedenstrijd

Overal in de wereld concurreren steden met elkaar om bewoners, bedrijven, bezoekers en bollebozen. Om als stad aantrekkelijk te zijn, is je identiteit belangrijker dan ooit. Iedere stad dient te kijken naar zijn eigen, onderscheidende identiteit waarmee het kan concurreren. Maar, waar kijk je dan naar in een stad? Hoe ontdek je wat een stad uniek maakt? En, tenslotte: hoe bepaal je vervolgens wat jouw stad uniek maakt?

Berlijn is drie dagen lang onze casus, inspiratiebron, laboratorium en werkplaats. Bij thuiskomst heb je scherpere inzichten en kun je betere keuzes maken in de positionering van je eigen stad of streek.

Deze studiereis wordt georganiseerd vanuit de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met Roy van Dalm: 06 - 53 53 72 87 of mail: roy.van.dalm@inter.nl.net of roy.vandalm@han.nl

The Future of Cities

I'd like your ideas on this one. I have an idea that a picture of The Future of Cities may be slowly evolving from a cloud of books and ideas and I'd like to know your views. I've put together some books and articles I've been reading lately and cannot quite figure it out, yet.

1. Peoplequake by Fred Pearce: in this brandnew book Pearce describes an emptying Europe due to demographic changes. Sure, we'll be greying but there will also be few of us left in Europe due to a dramatic drop in fertility. A country like Italy will have only 8 mln. inhabitants at the end of the century. And Germany, Spain and Greece are going in the same direction. Pearce foresees a continent run by the elderly - tribal elders.

2. The Matthew Effect: successful cities will keep on growing, less succesful ones will be drained of more people and rural areas will be totally abandoned. 'To those who have will be given even more and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken from them.'

3. The Great Reset by Richard Florida (out April 27). The forming of the Megalopolis - great urban conurbations that will increase in size, talent and importance. If you're not close to a succesful city, you're out of the game. Green cities will have the future. Pearce also writes about this issue- about cities also being the resolution to the environmental problems they themselves have created. The large urban centres will also determine the economy, no longer countries.

4. J.H. Crawford - Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual. Attractive pictures of great liveable communities without cars. Interesting utopias.

If you consider all this, also remembering Robert Kaplan's words that the European future will be in city states, then what is the picture you get? What other sources do you have to contradict these ideas or add complementary ones?

Will we be heading for thriving European, green city states surrounded by urban wasteland and deserted countryside and run by tribal elders who have turned to slow living and preserving what we have instead of inventing new things?

The feminization of cities

I am totally amazed by Fred

Pearce's new book Peoplequake. It was published beginning of February and caught my eye because of an article in The Guardian on the population demise of former east German cities. Peoplequake describes the history of eugenetics, family planning and policies and demographic shifts.

Our planet may be crowded today, but by the end of the century many countries will have shrunk dramatically in population. Countries like Italy, Germany or Greece will be practically empty.

Pearce wonders what this demographic population crash will do for the future of European cities. An interesting insight into now is the feminization of cities. Women are taking the lead (also in numbers) in how the economy of cities is being run - from public office to service jobs.

When Richard Florida writes about the creative economy and the economic reset following this present crisis, he hardly takes into account demographics. Greying and aging nations: it all sounds familiar, until you see the naked facts of shrinking populations. I wonder how we could make a creative economy work with fewer and far older people?