City Identity - Brno
English version
MUNISS, team no. 9
Nela Armutidisová (UČO 333343) Lukáš Búry (UČO 358385) Dagmar Sára Norková (UČO 170023) Lenka Ondrůjová (UČO 370014) Kamil Pavlíček (UČO 366291) Vladimír Rak (UČO 273054) Martina Sklenářová (UČO 268966) Martin Šolc (UČ0261931) Tomáš Zdvořilý (UČO 251578)
Teacher: Mgr. Ing. Jan Žák Date: 8. 5. 2012
Masaryk University, 2011/12
City Identity
In our project, based on the City Identity concept and numerous other studies, we chose to focus on communicating city identity to the public. Our goal for this project is to provide the answer to the question how to best use the opportunities that we found to communicate city identity to our target groups. Our key words for these opportunities are connection, simplification and experience.
We followed the well-done conception of City Identity Brno and strived to develop it in more depth. As our main concerns, while creating specific proposals, we identified cost and organizational complexity versus potential effect on visitors and city residents. Putting Brno on map thanks to exciting projects should contribute to higher tourist interest, their overall satisfaction with their visit and extend their stay. Nonetheless, we also worked with foreign students and local residents as our mail target groups.
Our project can be divided into two parts. The first one is analysis. For analysis of current situation we used available literature, our own surveys and interviews. In this part, we also define our target groups and specific opportunities to develop communication with public. In the second part we describe our main proposals in detail, explain the mechanism of particular activities and demonstrate cooperation with third parties.
Target groups and media
In our project we selected three target groups as key. The first one are tourists since we want them to revisit Brno and also because it is a natural way how to spread Brno identity abroad. Next are foreign students who spend more time in Brno than average tourists and become more identified with our city. For that reason they are more ready to communicate their immediate experience to others. They also have more of experiences and their positive feedback is crucial. And the last group are residents who seem to be the most difficult target group for their number and diversity. We tried to omit this by looking at the key features we want to communicate in particular their self-awareness as Brno residents. To be able to communicate the idea of city identity, we propose events, activities and public inquiries centred on this topic. Our main goal is to increase the number of articles in local, state-wide and foreign press and global social media and to do so we identified what kind of social media and other outlets are available and suitable for this campaign and why. Also, we analysed current state of social media communication Brno is involved in, especially the most commonly used where we found many defects that can potentially cause setbacks in communication. We continued on to analysing Brno's web sites official and unofficial and their advantages and disadvantages. In the end, we recommended to develop a few potentially attractive profiles on different platforms.
Promotion proposals
According to our surveys Brno's logo is well-used and visible in the city. The majority of correspondents in our surveys were satisfied with its utilization. On the other hand, Brno's motto is completely absent and almost none of the residents we interviewed were aware of its existence. That is why we focused on its innovation, modernization and created strategy for its higher visibility in the city.
Our immediate target areas outside our region would be big cities in the Czech Republic and Brno's sister cities, then countries that are our neighbours. We proposed the obvious promotion such as using public relations but also the less obvious tangible advertisement as billboards. Still we see no better promotion than recommendation of somebody who has been in Brno and had a great experience. Thus we continued in this direction and came up with the idea of Ambassadors. This project is based on the idea that many student from Brno leave for hosting university where they would be able to promote Brno as a city for students, tourists or other groups of people. These students will be trained by city and also given a few souvenirs that would correlate with the target groups such student would have chosen. The promotion will consist of Brno presentation and follow-up program.
From all these aspects about Brno identity that we had gathered we thought of these suggestions: to focus on communicating on social media platforms, especially Facebook, expanding advertisement about Brno and carrying out project Ambassadors.
Proposed concepts
In our proposal part of the project the biggest section is devoted to Brno's 7 Wonders. Centre of our attention was its feasibility. Our main approach to the mechanisms was to gain as much media interest as possible and keep it. We also wanted excitement and maybe some controversy that would stir up public discussion. The proposal is connected with our other central concept called Brno Labels.
Brno Labels aims at easy orientation for different target groups according to their interests. Brno Labels are colour coded, easily visible, designed signs that mark facilities and guarantee high level of quality for people who visit Brno. It is meant to be guidance for visitors who are new and have distinct vision of what they want to experience. Brno Labels and their explanation will be included in all Brno's 7 Wonders brochures.
Another central idea is Story Factory. We count on students to be extremely creative and participate in this concept. The main thought revolves around inventing stories that are related to Brno. These stories can take any form. For this idea we would like to create a subject at Masaryk University that would function as a workshop for students. As a result Brno would have supply of stories that can use in many areas of their promotion from social media to their souvenirs and students would have chance to carry out their projects under Brno's patronage.
To elevate tourists and residents experience we propose using video mapping. We have been fascinated with the technology of video mapping and we would like to see it to be put in use on one of Brno's buildings. This lights show stirs high emotions, its story telling is dynamic and dramatic and could potentially be employed during many different events from concerts to city anniversaries.
Multi-tickets are another realistic concept how to encourage tourists to stay longer. Next to the typical one ticket for two sights we would like to combine this model with hotel discounts as it is in our opinion the most viable way how to achieve this goal.
Brno's 7 Wonders
Brno's 7 Wonders attempt to bring people who live in Brno more together by reinforce their awareness of the city identity. We chose six wonders the seventh will be based on public voting. By this, we also want to present the sights to public in a new way and carry out more activities connected to them. Each wonder will have its own special brochure but all will be interconnected. Moreover, we integrated Brno labels and our Ambassadors into this plan as well. For the whole concept of Brno's 7 Wonders we created many activities such as photo contest, games with code, and public transport tickets as souvenirs.
Saliny (public trams) are our first wonder that we selected. They are very specific for Brno not only for their name, which is connected only to Brno as it is a word from a local dialect, but also there are historic trams that still drive through the city. We are aware of the difficulty in conveying this message about dialects to foreigner but we see it as an opportunity for creativity. The activities connected to this wonder take into account the fact that Brno has space that can be used for its own promotion or notices. Next wonder is Petrov and churches. It is symbol of our city. Our vision for this church is a competition related to myths in Brno. The third wonder is villa Tugendhat as the most controversial and talked about sight in Brno at the moment. Events associated with this wonder will be concerning on architecture. Next there is Brno's Fair Trade Estate (BVV). It is one of wonders because they are visited by around one million people every year and the buildings are architectonical masterpieces. Here we would love to involve students and residents since these two groups do not often visit fair trade and thus don't get to see the history and architecture of this place. We proposed two days in a year when the location will be open for guided tours that are not fair trade related. As possible, we see longer stay incentive where fair trade visitors get discounts in hotels from BVV and Brno could follow up by extending these offers and giving these visitors a free ticket to one of the wonders. We
made sure this concept, if carried out, is profitable. The fifth wonder Prygl is a dam. It is location of annual fireworks and is busy most of the year. Our recommendation would be to organize a sporting event such as marathon and make a good use of the beautiful scenery in the promotion. Our last but not least wonder is Spilberg. As a castle it allures to most of visitors who come to Brno and thus is fairly busy with events. Our suggestion would be to connect the guided tours with casemates to appeal to more adventurous tourists.
The seventh wonder will be chosen by the public. The election will serve as spark for public debate and deepen interest in Brno identity, history and future. Our goal for this debate is to make it clearer what values are typical for Brno. The voters will be able to choose anything they want as the seventh wonder, there will be no restrictions. As platforms to communicate we recommend social media for younger voters, press and volunteers in the streets for older. We came to the conclusion that there is no need to invent something completely new when we can interconnect the most wondrous.
To further promote the election of the seventh wonder we designed a T-shirt with "I am the 7th wonder" line and other variations. There will, of course, be traditional sets such as stamps, postcards and miniature buildings but as the most attractive we see set of beermats. It brings home the beer culture that catches the attention of many foreign students and tourists and is very inexpensive promotion as well.
The last of our promotions is the possibility to send individualized postcard. This will be offered by Tourist Informational Centre where tourists can take a picture of themselves and then choose background such as Petrov. This creates more personal connection to the city and promotes Brno abroad.
Our overall goal in this project was to increase communicating Brno identity to the residents and tourists in Brno. Expand the promotion of Brno abroad and motivate Czech and foreign tourists to come more often and stay longer. The identity and uniqueness of Brno are elevated by its symbols. In each of the concepts we looked for synergy to gain the most for all involved parties. For communication we suggested using the most modern marketing strategies and technologies available but most importantly the power of a well-told story. The principal concept of our project is the Brno's 7 Wonders, its follow up activities and the public debate we anticipate which should together enable the target groups to really live and experience Brno.