By Robert Govers for www.Placebrandz.com

The Dutch city of Den Haag (The Hague) has branded itself as the “international city of peace and justice”. Being host to the International Criminal Court, Peace Palace and many international public, private and non-governmental organizations, the city has built itself a global reputation in this respect. Symbolic actions such as the organization of the 2009 conference on the future of Afghanistan have strengthened this reputation. However, the internal branding was never as strong as the down-to-earth Hagenaren (people from The Hague) generally questioned what was in it for them.

Therefore the city of The Hague came up with a new initiative. The Hague War Child City 2010 was a large scale project that intended to engage and enthuse the city’s stakeholders and residents to work towards an on-brand common cause to collect money for War Child and enlarge peoples’ involvement in the positioning of the core values of the city as 'International City of Peace and Justice ". The objectives were met by collecting close to €600,000.- Euros in donations as well as significant local free publicity. Coordinated by the municipality the project was supported by the 'Stad voor Stap naar vrede (Step/City by Step to Peace)' campaign including a fully interactive website www.warchildcity.nl and six celebrity residents of The Hague being active as War Child City Ambassadors for a year, also allowing the enhancement of the city’s event calendar.

The Dutch Network for Citymarketing felt that the city of The Hague needed to be rewarded for their conceptual innovation linking a relevant international charity involved in the fight for peace and justice with the city brand, its activities and event calendar. In so doing it facilitated an accessible, pragmatic, yet socially responsible and resident friendly brand implementation. The Jury also noted that the city makes clever use of co-branding with a strong, positive and relevant brand. It created a platform for the people of the city of The Hague to live the brand.One element of concern for the jury though was the accountability and measurement of results that is often absent among the various nominations for the citymarketing award, including The Hague War Child City initiative.

Jury

The jury for the City Marketing Innovation Award consists of:

• Loek Hermans (chairman), Chaiman MKB Nederland (SME association)
• Adjiedj Bakas, Trendwatcher
• Erik van Zwam, Chief Editor Binnenlands Bestuur (professional magazine for the public sector)
• Marcel Schonenberg, Director Beurs van Berlage (conference and event centre Amsterdam)
• Erik Braun, Senior researcher on place marketing and branding for Euricur / Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Robert Govers, Author 'Place Branding', Consortium University Leuven and Placebrandz.com

Also see our chapter (with Bengt-Arne Hulleman) on The Hague in Keith Dinnie’s book City Branding.