Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project

A curriculum design in progress for MA Cultural Communication and Marketing Course- MA Program in Cultural Management, Panteion University, Department of Communication, Media and Culture

COURSE CONCEPT

The MA course in “Cultural Marketing and Communication” has been on the curriculum since 2002. On 2010 we have taken a more focused approach on City Branding and the teaching curriculum, research orientation, experiential (hands-on) and reflective learning approach has been re-organized and annually updated accordingly.

As a starting point, we consider cities as the leading global actors (in relation to nation states) that are providing the space and the platform (empowered by social technologies, IoT, mobile and cloud tech) for addressing interdependent global and local challenges, that are taking front stage in public sphere: economic, societal, environmental, science, health, creative and governance, education, migration issues and crises asking for new creative, inclusive and humanistic and sustainable responses and solutions.

Cities, are also the locus for the vibrant and networked, urban creative classes now populated by artists, scientists, startup entrepreneurs, social innovators and entrepreneurs, designers and developers, educators and more, all coming from diverse fields and mindsets, still ready to collaborate, co-create and introduce social impact-oriented cross-sector partnerships, based on trust and shared values.

The course is inviting the MA students to be part of a vibrant Co-Creation Lab that through personal study, discussions and debates, case studies, teamwork, the use of cross media content creation, and real-life challenges, are asked to become “the cultural change” the want to see. In this course, the role model of the “Cultural Manager” is giving gradually its place to the Cultural Innovator and Cultural Entrepreneur that is becoming knowledgeable, reflective and acquires the skills and the open mind to think and act creatively, responsibly and with 21C citizen mindset.

COURSE FOCUS: WHY CITIES?

Cities are becoming the new leaders and new champions in our networked societies

Under the super-brand concepts of sustainability, smartness, creativity and social innovation, we are experimenting with new open urban models of public governance, trusting citizens’ engagement and collective intelligence and creativity, introducing new collaborative business models for all types of economic and social actors.

In this emerging sharing economy and collaborative consumption (of services, ideas, products) era, arts-based interventions in urban public spaces are becoming critical into our awareness, reappraisal of our priorities and decisions with regards to sustainability challenges ranging from green and livable cities, to smart- networked and startup cities, promoting shareable lifestyles and a vibrant startup and social entrepreneurship.

In this new economic, cultural and entrepreneurial paradigm, the “ makers movement” is taking a prominent place as a solutions-oriented approach to the greening of all aspects of city (architecture, consumption energy, transportation, fashion), to experimenting with new smart technologies (IoT, mobile and cloud technologies) implemented in cities, as well as an open mindset to the emerging new opportunities and challenges to be sustainably and collaboratively addressed by both policy makers, citizens and disruptive innovative entrepreneurs.

According to CSR Europe “Sustainable Living Cities Campaign” for 2014, “ by 2030 the European urban population will be living in sustainable cities that will provide them with economic opportunities, reliable infrastructure and high standard of living.In each city relevant city actors work together in the development and implementation of long-term sustainability strategies”

http://www.csreurope.org/sustainable-living-cities-campaign#.VNOXl8bwOt8

All these new agendas are intensifying the need to keep paths for open public dialogue and activation.

Contemporary Public Art Interventions take up the path of seeking to enable citizens’s city life and city governance engagement, taking multi-stakeholder perspectives into consideration.

Moderation, collaboration, co-creation and personal responsibility along with sustainable public and corporate policies in the cities and urban projects are becoming a key challenge to sustain the 21c democracies in the context of “polis”

LEARNING, RESEARCHING, IMPLEMENTING

Understand cities as platforms for all kind of complex and interconnected sustainability challenges asking for collaborative culture, mindsets, skills and methodologies, building on constructive dialogue, win-win negotiations economists, public governance, citizens and market actors

Get the skills and methodologies to address urban sustainability challenges from business, citizens and public governance perspectives

Interact with actors in urban interventions and interact with international stakeholders from around the world that face similar challenges and “exchange” standing points” — exchange public spaces- as an approach to acquire a first hand experience based as well as knowledge based understanding that will inform action and effective sustainable solutions design and implementation

Address real-life challenges- Have a sustainable and positive impact on society

Test different city/ urban sustainable solutions that will take the form of public art and the art of storytelling in cross media platforms

Identify key success factors and provide understanding of failing otherwise promising and innovative initiatives and urban experiments

Methodologies

For this reflective and experiential course we work with the following methodologies :

Co-Creation methodolgy, Design Thinking, Lean, Business and Citizen Model Canvas, Agile and Growth Hacking, Social Listening and Engagement methods, challenge-based team-work.

Learning design: Co-Creation/ Design Thinking Lab format

- Student-centric and Contextual knowledge

- Co-creation experiential (“hands-on”) approach

-Brief lectures

- Vibrant discussions or debates

-Team projects and mini-workshops

- On stage and digital presentations

- Challenges-based real life project: Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project

- Visiting lectures on site or via Skype/ Zoom platform connections

-Social media and cross media content creation (blogs, videos, photo-essays)

-Research-based course

-Hands-on orientation and experimentation

THEMATICS AND TOPICS

Cities as Platforms for Co-Creation and Experience Based Innovation

The new social-badges for cities to collaborate and compete:

-Creative Cities-Smart Cities- Sustainable Cities- Networked cities- Living Cities- Shareable Cities- Startup Cities

-How can we conceive, think and act on urban “public spaces” both in open air as well as on digital / mobile/ cloud space

-City Actors that are co-shaping the story, the fabric and the fortunes of the City (both top down stakeholders and bottom-up initiatives/ actors)

-Living, Mobility, Technology, Economy

-European Network of Living Labs: http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/

Marketing and Communication disrupted: Adaptations and Innovative approaches in the Digital, Mobile, Sharing and Collaborative Economy. What does it mean for the Cultural and Creative Sectors?

- What’s in the Story of a City? CityTales: The art of Storytelling at the core of communication and branding

- What if Cities Ruled the World? (A World Economic Forum approach)

- Researching and benchmarking Athens in relation to competing

- City Branding- City Reputation Management approaches around the world

-From “Kotler” Marketing concepts, models and mindset to Design Thinking and Lean/ Citizen Model Canvas methodology applied in rethinking and co-design the Story and the branding of Athens

- Social Media platform (and platform thinking), inbound marketing and growth hacking implemented in Cities

- City apps and city games: game culture and gamifying the new models for 21C cities

Leading Cities in Global Indexes: Aiming to get ranked as the “Most… City Index”

Analysis of diverse city indexes, criteria, strategies and gains: a new public space for cities

Mobile Culture, Sharing and Collaborative economy and consumption:

Cultural and economic paradigm shift for cities and citizens engagement

The gig economy, the makers economy, the collaborative and sharing mindset for making impact and change.

Athens City Branding: Vision, strategic choices, Value proposition, Partnerships, Storytelling

Athens finding the unique path among co-existing and Co-opetitive Cities’ Global Visions and Strategies: Smart Cities, Sustainable Cities, Networked Cities, Livable Cities, Creative Cities, Startup Cities, Resilient Cities, Shareable Cities

Athens Stakeholders Challenges

1. Impact Hub Athens:

a. The Growth of Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Athens as a Startup city Hub

b. Agora Kypselis (Δημοτική Αγορά Κυψελης): in collaboration with Municipality of Athens: Athens Neighborhood Revival through citizens engagement, micro-entrepreneurship and innovations

2. Serafio Sports Culture and Innovation Center: Municipality of Athens challenge to brand Athens as a Startup Innovative City with a focus on culture, sports and citizens’ engagement

The course on social media and digital platforms

Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project as a Medium Publication: https://medium.com/athens-co-creation-city-branding-project

We also curate and develop a vibrant community of our Facebook group “Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/344955005611178/

Bibliography

Bhalla, G. 2010. Collaboration and Co-Creation: New Platforms for Marketing and Innovation. Springer

Botsman, R. and Rogers, R. 2010. What’s Mine its Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. The Harper Business.

Cohan, P. 2018. Startup Cities: Why only a few Cities dominate the Global Startup Scene and what the rest should do about it. Apress.

Ellis, S. and Brown, M. 2017. Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success. Crown Business.

Florida, R. 2012. The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited. Basic Books.

French, Y. and Runyard, S. 2011. Marketing and Public Relations for Museums, Galleries, Cultural and Heritage Attractions. Routledge

Gansky, L. 2012. The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing. Portfolio Trade.

Grant, A. 2017. The Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. Penguin Books.

Hammond, K. L. 2017. Branding: Brand Identity, Brand Strategy, and Brand Development. CreateSpace. Independent Publishing Platform

Holiday, R. 2014. Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising. Protfolio.

Holt, D. & Cameron, D. 2012. Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands. Oxford University Press

Kabani, S. and Bogan, C. 2012. The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Ben Bell Books.

Kotler, P. 2010. Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit. Wiley

LeMerle, M., and Davis Alison. 2017. Corporate Innovation in the Fifth Era: Lessons form Alphabet/ Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. Cartwright Publishing.

Lewrick, M. 2018. The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful Digital Transformation of Teams, Products, Services, Business and Ecosystems

Lockwood,T. 2017. Innovation by Design. How can any Organization leverage Design Thinking to Produce Change, Drive New Ideas, and Deliver Meaningful Solutions. Career Press.

Losseau, J. and Stevens, Q. Q 2014. The Uses of Art in Public Spaces. Routledge

McGonical, J. 2011. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How they Can Change the World. Penguin

McLaren, C. and Agyeman, J. 2017. Sharing Cities: A Case Study for truly for Smart and Sustainable Cities. The MIT Press.

Morgan, N., Pritchard, A., Pride, R. 2011. Destination Brands. Managing Place Destination. Butterworth-Heinemann; 3rd Edition

Priluck, R. 2016. Social Media and Mobile Marketing Strategy. Oxford University Press.

Ramaswamy. V. and Ozcan, K. 2014. The Co-Creation Paradigm. Stanford Business Books.

Stephen Goldsmith, S. and Crawford, S 2014. The Responsive City. Engaging Communities through Data-Smart Governance. Jossey- Bass

Shirky. C. 2011. Cognitive Surplus. How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. Penguin Books.

Stellman, A. and Green, J. 2013. Learning Agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean and Canban. O’ Reilly Media

Smith, M. 2017. The Native Advertising Advantage: Build Authentic Content that Revolutionizes Digital Marketing and Drives Revenue Growth. McGraw-Hill

Tresca, S. 2017. Future Cities: 42 Insights and Interviews with Influencers, Startups, Investors. Seashorse Press.

Τσακαρέστου, Μπ. 2016. Συνδημιουργία στη Διαφήμιση. Εταιρικές Δομές και συνεργασία στις διαφημιστικές αποφάσεις με τους δφηφημιζόμενους πελάτες. Εκδόσεις Πεδίο

Tsakarestou, B. and Karl-Heinz Pogner. 2014. Cities as Platforms for Co-Creating Experience- Based Business and Social Innovations. An Experimental Approach. Paper presented at 7th Art of Management Organization Conference Proceedings ISBN: 978–0–901931–16–0. Copenhagen Business School, 28–31 August, 2014