Chapter 3
Brisbane now: Positioning a place brandCase study
Matt granfield, Brisbane marketing, and
claudia gonzalez, the University of Queensland
Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland, with around 2.2 million inhabitants,1 and is
the third most populous city in Australia. Although the city incorporates the largest local
government region in the country, it has struggled to position itself with a strong brand.
Brisbane as a city presents several advantages for residents, businesses and visitors, with
mild, sunny winters allowing for a year-round outdoor lifestyle. Brisbane is in the top 30% of
the world’s fastest growing cities, but the median house price is half of Sydney’s, giving it an
ideal balance of opportunity and affordability. Crime rates are low. Commutes are short.
While the CBD isn’t situated on a glamorous beach or harbour, outlying Moreton Bay is home
to picturesque beaches, snorkelling spots and unique wildlife. Brisbane is also one of the only
places in the world where tourists can pat a wild dolphin or cuddle a koala.2
Competitive cities
As an economic hub, Brisbane has few major global corporate headquarters, no stock
exchange and a small financial district. Job growth is moderate and strongly linked to mining
cycles, as the city plays a support role to Queensland’s broader mining industry. At
5.08%,3 unemployment is low by global standards and in line with other major Australian
cities. Healthcare, professional services, retail, construction and education are the biggest
employers.4 As the 172nd biggest city in the world,5 Brisbane is a player, but compared to
London, New York, Paris and Tokyo, it has not yet reached global city status.6
Positioning challenge
Wanting to foster growth and ensure Brisbane’s place on the world stage, but also recognising
the city’s mid-tier place in a global hierarchy, the city’s economic development board adopted
the slogan ‘Brisbane: Australia’s New World City’ as the official brand positioning in 2009.
Urbanist Professor Greg Clark summed up the ‘New World City’ positioning in this way:
‘Brisbane is seeking to redefine what a “world city” is … there is a fresh path to going global,
which involves not so much being a corporate hub, but being a centre for trade, talent and
technology. It is not financial services, law and HQ functions, but ports, logistics, universities,
energy, food and health. And much fun of course.’7
The ‘New World City’ positioning is used by the city of Brisbane as a slogan and core vision for
economic development, major events and marketing campaigns aimed at drawing
businesses, visitors and investors to the city from interstate (predominantly Sydney and
Melbourne) and international markets. Its prominent usage has seen the statement become
the default tag line for the city in general, and while ‘New World City’ doesn’t appear on
leisure collateral, the line is now intrinsically linked to Brisbane’s place brand. As a tagline, it
aptly explains Brisbane’s complex attributes as a business and leisure destination—a city of
global opportunity without the headaches that come with being a global city. The main
challenge is to renew and revitalise Brisbane’s positioning, so as to shape and create
perceptions of the city by focusing on key segments: residents (place to live), businesses
(place to do businesses) and visitors (leisure destination).
Investigating brand perceptions
Research into brand perceptions of Australian cities is conducted regularly by both Brisbane
City Council and its economic development board, Brisbane Marketing. A 2016 annual survey
of perceptions of Brisbane involving 2500 people from around Australia showed that
residents of Sydney and Melbourne perceive the Brisbane brand favourably as friendly,
subtropical, inexpensive and safe—all associations that strengthen the position of Brisbane
as a good place to live. However, among Sydney and Melbourne residents, Brisbane underindexed in attributes associated with being a good place to do business, such as being globally
connected, world-class, entrepreneurial, tech-savvy and innovative. By contrast, residents of
Sydney and Melbourne characterised their own cities as more cosmopolitan, better places to
do business, but with the downside of being expensive and busy.8
Follow-up research conducted in 2017 by Brisbane Marketing with focus groups held in
Sydney and Melbourne identified a clear perception that Brisbane had changed in recent
years and was perceived as sophisticated and modern, while still remaining friendly and easy
to get around. As a place to live and do business, the city was perceived as sunny, warm and
friendly, unpretentious, more dynamic than people expected, but still laid back, with excellent
airport infrastructure and less red tape than other councils around the country. As a leisure
destination, perceptions of Brisbane were that it had much better restaurants, cafés and bars
than in the past, that the weather was warm, and that it was an easy city to navigate as a
tourist.
Key branding challenges that emerged from the research included the perception of Brisbane
as an event-focused city that only came alive at certain times of the year and that it didn’t
attract bigger businesses or provide the types of opportunities to attract the right type of
talent.9 Additionally, participants from the business sector indicated that in order to make a
decision to do business in Brisbane, they needed to see evidence that the city supported
growth, was easy to do business with and had the right infrastructure. Leisure-focused
participants cited art galleries, bars, wildlife experiences and islands as key drivers of choice.
These leisure drivers align with data from Tourism Research Australia showing that the most
important factors when selecting a holiday destination include good food and wine, worldclass nature, and aquatic and coastal experiences.10
Repositioning brand Brisbane
With the ‘New World City’ positioning strategy firmly in place as a core vision, a key
challenge for the city’s economic development board was to develop an annual marketing
program focused on attracting businesses and tourists to the city from Australia’s two
largest cities: Sydney and Melbourne. Three key campaigns were scheduled to drive
economic value for Brisbane throughout the year:
 A lifestyle and investment campaign promoting Brisbane as a great place to live and do
business, in conjunction with official visits by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane to the cities of
Sydney and Melbourne.

 A PR campaign designed to activate locals as advocates for the city.
Rather than use the ‘New World City’ slogan, the line was
removed from advertising (other than in the city logo in certain
executions) and two new concepts based on the ‘New World
City’ theme were tested with focus groups: ‘Brisbane Now’ and
‘Flourish in Brisbane’. The former was designed to take
advantage of the perception that the city had changed and the
latter was designed to communicate the vibrancy of the city in
the 21st century. The underlying message of both was still
centred on the attributes that made Brisbane a new world city,
but each chose to address perceptions in a different way.
The ‘Flourish’ concept presented attributes and
communicated brand meaning in a sophisticated way using
vibrant colours overlaid on dark, chic, contemporary
backgrounds. Focus group testing found that while the
concepts certainly reinforced the message that Brisbane was
no longer a backwater, they also failed to communicate some
of the most appealing attributes of the city: its sunshine,
warmth and laid-back atmosphere.
The ‘Brisbane Now’ concept sought to redress the
shortcomings of the ‘Flourish’ executions by communicating
the attributes of the city that aligned with the strongest drivers
of choice, but presenting them with bright colours and relaxed
fonts that highlighted the attributes people associated most
favourably with Brisbane: sunshine and a laid-back attitude.
The example shown here in particular plays on people’s
perception of Brisbane as subtropical and inexpensive—which
are conversely the two attributes research showed residents
least liked about living in Sydney, where house prices are
double those of Brisbane, and Melbourne, where residents
were most irritated by the weather.
The campaigns ran in a mix of outdoor, print and social media,
targeting business and leisure decision makers in Sydney and
Melbourne, as well as local residents of Brisbane. Total
audience reach was more than five million people.
Results
The campaign was a success, resulting in a 100% uplift in visitors to Brisbane Marketing
websites and more than 14 000 people expressing interest in moving to or holidaying in
Brisbane. The average time spent on the Brisbane Marketing websites for unique visits also
increased by 50% for the duration of the campaign. Half a million dollars was generated in
free media publicity (e.g. news), as measured by advertising space rate equivalency.
Significant improvements were also seen in all perception metrics.
Questions
1. Think about the perceptions of Brisbane as a brand for the two key segments of
residents versus external visitors. Are people from Brisbane likely to perceive the city
in a different way than outsiders?
2. What would be the challenges of positioning Brisbane among local and international
students? Think about the associations that need to be emphasised among each
group. How would you communicate these associations (consider the core positioning
of the brand as a ‘New World City’)?
3. What are the key differences between the ‘Brisbane Now’ and ‘Flourish in Brisbane’
campaigns? Use perceptual theory to elaborate your response. Consider the colours
and fonts included in each campaign and the description provided in the case study.
In planning positioning strategies, marketers often prepare perceptual maps (i.e.
positioning maps) that show consumer perceptions of their brand versus competing
brands along important brand dimensions. Draw a perceptual map to explain the
selected brand dimensions communicated in these two campaigns and provide
justification of your selection. Consider the target market of each campaign.
4. Should Brisbane create a new slogan for holiday makers? Provide some options for a
new slogan and think about the elements that could be included in a campaign
targeting holiday makers. Use the information included in this chapter (marketing
applications of colour) to justify how the proposed colours of the campaign could draw
out emotions and influence perceptions.
Notes
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016 Census QuickStats: Greater Brisbane, 2016
<www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat
/3GBRI?opendocument> accessed 11 October 2017.
2. ‘Eat, Drink, Shop, Play and Stay: Visit Brisbane’, 2017
<www.visitbrisbane.com.au/?sc_lang5en-au> accessed 26 September 2017.
3. World Council on City Data, 2017 <http://open.dataforcities.org> accessed 26
September 2017.
4. Brisbane City Council, ‘Brisbane’s key economic facts’, 2017
<www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/governance-strategy/businessbrisbane/growing-brisbanes-economy/brisbanes-key-economic-facts#industries>
accessed 26 September 2017.
5. ‘Brisbane moves to become major hub for Asia-Pacific’, The Australian, 2015
<www.theaustralian.com.au/news/brisbane-moves-to-become-major-hub-forasiapacific/news-story/cc7c921d7239604063cdf500018ba4c2> accessed 25 October
2017
6. ‘Where the living is easier’, The Economist, 2017
<www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/03/daily-chart-8> accessed 11
October 2017.
7. ‘Brisbane grabs role as new world city’, The Courier Mail, 2017
<www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-brisbane-carves-out-role-asnew-world-city/news-story/49794bf13469b674d0a89d503de8e3d9> accessed 26
September 2017.
8. Community Attitudes 2016 research conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Brisbane City
Council.
9. Destination Brisbane Creative Development Research conducted by Fiftyfive5 for
Clemenger on behalf of Brisbane Marketing.
10. Tourism Research Australia International Visitor Survey, December 2015.