The New Trend in Branded Cities - Love It or Hate It?

February 6, 2009

times square new york city The New Trend in Branded Cities Love It or Hate It? Branded cities are the new ad rage – outdoor destinations built for the purpose of delivering ambient marketing messages.

The newest entrant to the branded city trend is El Portal in Los Angeles, California. This branded city was built from the ground up with advertising in mind under the guise of providing outdoor entertainment and community events. El Portal is 4,500 square feet and includes shopping, entertainment and town hall areas with a large number of digital displays to communicate more advertising messages than anyone could possibly remember.

El Portal holds 4,000 people and is not the first branded city, but it is one of the first built from the ground up. For example, areas in Dallas ,Texas and Glendale, Arizona near sports arenas have been turned into branded cities. El Portal, however, also represents the first branded city targeted to a specific demographic — the large Hispanic population that lives in the South Gate area of Los Angeles.

Branded cities are also being considered for large U.S. cities like Boston, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Minneapolis.

I think the concept of branded cities has some merit. It reminds me of Times Square without the traffic. If the city delivers value to the target audience through entertainment, cultural events, and so on, the advertising seems harmless enough. It’s certainly a great way for advertisers and brands to connect with a targeted demographic.

The challenge for advertisers will be to create ads and messages that consumers actually notice in the midst of the clutter and remember. I can imagine brands doing “man on the street” podcasts, live blogging, vlogs, and so on, and then creating a social media campaign to tie in with the branded city ambient media initiative. There are many opportunities to bring the branded city concept into other media, particularly in the area of viral marketing.

What do you think about branded cities? Love them or hate them?

Image: Flickr

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Susan Gunelius

President & CEO at KeySplash Creative, Inc.

Susan Gunelius is the author of multiple marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and blogging books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, a leading blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com, a featured writer for Forbes.com, and the Guide to Blogging for About.com. Additionally, her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, WashingtonPost.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, TodayShow.com, BusinessWeek.com, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Small Business, and more. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Susan also appears at in-person and virtual events where she speaks about marketing, branding, social media, and more (visit www.SusanGunelius.com for more information). You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.