How Newcastle, Liverpool and Bradford use place branding for regeneration

What to take away

What place branding is and how UK cities use it

Place branding is the practice of shaping how a city, region or nation is perceived by residents, investors, visitors and businesses. It is not a logo or a slogan on its own. It is a coordinated set of messages, experiences and policies that together create a recognisable identity.

The Place branding - Wikipedia entry gives a useful overview of the field, including the distinction between place promotion and place branding.

In the UK, place branding often sits inside regeneration teams rather than marketing departments, because regeneration funding comes with its own rules, reporting duties and political timetables.

A brand strategy agency pitching for this work needs to understand how local authority procurement works, how combined authorities commission projects, and how success will be judged by councillors and funders.

English cities outside London have used place branding to counter negative perceptions, attract inward investment and support tourism. Some cities focus on heritage, others on culture, others on sector strengths such as life sciences or advanced manufacturing.

Newcastle upon Tyne, Liverpool and Bradford all sit outside London and all face the same problem: how to be heard above the capital when pitching to investors and visitors. Each has a different political map, so no single template fits.

The brand strategy agency role here is to turn economic strategy into a narrative that residents and investors can both recognise.

Newcastle: programme, funding and local politics

Newcastle upon Tyne has a long history of using its built heritage and cultural assets as the basis for regeneration branding. The Grainger Town Project, which ran from the late 1990s into the 2000s, is the clearest early example.

It combined heritage-led regeneration of a Georgian commercial district with a new narrative about the city centre as a place to live, work and visit.

Funding came from a mix of public sources, including the then English Partnerships and the local authority, alongside private investment. Public money paid for much of the street and square improvements, while private owners restored many of the buildings.

Two named bodies run much of the current marketing: the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, which promotes the NewcastleGateshead destination brand, and NE1 Ltd, the city centre business improvement district company. Neither body publishes a separate figure for spending on brand work.

More recently, the Pilgrim's Quarter development around Newcastle Central Station has been positioned as a tech and innovation district. The branding around it leans on the city's universities, its data and life science strengths, and its lower cost base compared with London.

Newcastle City Council and the North East Combined Authority have both been involved in promoting the area to investors. The North East has a relatively strong public sector presence, and that shapes how place branding is commissioned: often through frameworks, with social value requirements attached.

Local politics is a genuine factor. Newcastle has a Labour-led council, and regeneration priorities are set through the council's cabinet and its corporate plan. Political change can slow or redirect a place branding programme.

The North East Combined Authority, which includes Newcastle, has its own investment strategy, and that adds another layer of approval. Agencies working here need to map both bodies before pitching.

Funding for Newcastle's place branding has come from several sources over time: local authority capital budgets, the Local Growth Fund, the Future High Streets Fund, and private developers. Each source has its own reporting requirements. A brand strategy agency working on a publicly funded project should expect to provide evidence of consultation, equality impact assessments and measurable outcomes.

The market in England for this kind of work is competitive but not enormous, and local knowledge counts.

Liverpool: identity work tied to regeneration funding

Liverpool's place branding is closely tied to its cultural and visitor economy. The city's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008 is the reference point for much of what followed. That programme was funded through a combination of public money, sponsorship and lottery funding, and it left behind a stronger events calendar and a more confident external narrative.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority now coordinates much of the strategic promotion, including inward investment and tourism marketing.

Delivery sits with named bodies. Marketing Liverpool runs destination marketing for the city, and Culture Liverpool runs major cultural events such as the Giants street theatre shows. Liverpool Vision, the city's former economic development company, handled earlier city centre promotion. No published figure separates brand spending from the wider tourism and events budget.

A named programme worth noting is the Liverpool City Region's Local Industrial Strategy and its successor economic strategies, which set out sector priorities including advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, and the visitor economy.

These strategies are not branding documents, but they provide the evidence base that branding work draws on. The city region also runs marketing under the Liverpool City Region brand, aimed at investors and visitors.

Regeneration funding has been central. Liverpool has received money from the Local Growth Fund, the city region transport settlement agreed with central government, and various heritage and culture funds. The waterfront and the Knowledge Quarter have been priorities. Branding around these areas tends to emphasise collaboration between the university, the hospital trust and private developers.

Local politics matters here too: the city region has a metro mayor, and the mayor's office has a direct interest in how the place is marketed. Liverpool City Council remains the planning authority, so the two bodies have to agree on what the city is selling.

Measurement in Liverpool has focused on visitor numbers, hotel occupancy, and investment enquiries. The city region publishes economic data through the combined authority and through national sources.

The Regional accounts - Office for National Statistics give a way to compare gross value added across city regions, which is useful context for any branding pitch.

Bradford: city of culture legacy and measurement

Bradford's UK City of Culture 2025 programme is the most significant current place branding effort in the city. The title was awarded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the programme is delivered by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, a company set up for the purpose.

Funding comes from a mix of central government, Bradford Council, Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and private sponsors. The programme has not published a single consolidated total for what it spends on marketing and branding.

The programme includes events, capital projects and a marketing campaign aimed at changing perceptions of the city.

Bradford has a young, diverse population and a strong cultural sector, but it has also faced negative press and economic challenges. The City of Culture programme is designed to address both. The branding work around it emphasises Bradford's distinctiveness: its South Asian heritage, its literary connections, its architecture and its position in West Yorkshire.

Marketing runs through Bradford 2025's own channels, plus the Visit Bradford destination site that promotes the district to visitors.

The programme also ties into the wider West Yorkshire Combined Authority investment plans, which cover transport, skills and business support across the district.

Local politics is a factor. Bradford Council is Labour-led, and the City of Culture programme has cross-party support, but scrutiny remains. Councillors want to see evidence that money is being spent well and that benefits reach all parts of the district, not just the city centre.

That pressure shapes how the branding is communicated and measured.

Measurement for Bradford 2025 includes visitor numbers, participation rates, media coverage and perception tracking. The programme has published evaluation plans, and the final assessment will take years to complete.

For agencies, Bradford is a live example of how a city uses a cultural mega-event to drive a broader identity shift.

Funding sources behind UK place branding programmes

The table below summarises the main funding sources for the three cities, with what each source typically supports.

Each source comes with conditions. Heritage and arts funding usually requires match funding and public benefit evidence. Combined authority money is tied to strategic priorities such as net zero or skills. Private sponsors want visibility and association with success.

A brand strategy agency needs to know which pot is paying before proposing a campaign, because the funder's objectives will shape the brief.

There is no single published figure for what the three cities spend on place branding, because the work sits inside wider regeneration, culture and tourism budgets.

For local economic context, the Business, industry and trade - Office for National Statistics data can help agencies understand the business base of a city before pitching. It is not branding data, but it supports credible arguments about investment and growth.

How success is measured, and where measurement fails

Success in place branding is usually measured through a mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Common measures include:

These measures have limits. Attribution is the biggest problem. If visitor numbers rise after a branding campaign, it may be because of better weather, a new transport link or a national trend.

Perception surveys are expensive and often inconsistent over time. Media coverage can be negative as well as positive. Political cycles mean that programmes are often evaluated before their long-term effects are visible.

A further limit is that place branding often has multiple goals: economic development, social cohesion, tourism and civic pride. A single metric cannot capture all of them. Newcastle upon Tyne, Liverpool and Bradford all publish some of this data, but none of the three can prove that a change in the numbers came from branding alone.

Agencies should propose a measurement framework that separates outputs, such as campaign reach, from outcomes, such as investment or resident satisfaction, and states clearly what cannot be attributed. A template for that framework:

State which measures the agency controls and which it does not.

Track the demand signals that follow a named trigger, such as the election of the first North East mayor in May 2024 or the English devolution white paper of December 2024. A trigger is a reason to pitch, not evidence of impact.

Lessons for other UK cities

Several lessons emerge from the three cities.

For agencies, the opportunity is in cities with active regeneration funding and a clear political commitment to place. The branding agency outlook for this work depends on public spending cycles, so agencies should track funding announcements and combined authority strategies.

Smaller cities may not have the budget for a full place branding programme, but they may commission discrete projects such as a visitor economy campaign or an inward investment prospectus.

A worked example can help. Suppose a city in the Midlands wins a levelling up fund allocation for a new cultural quarter. The council wants a brand strategy agency to create an identity for the quarter.

The agency should start by reading the funding agreement to understand the outputs required. It should then map stakeholders, including the combined authority, the university and local businesses. The brand should be tested with residents before launch.

Measurement should include footfall, tenant mix and perception of the area. If the funding runs out after three years, the brand needs a plan for survival.

Checklist for agencies pitching for place branding work:

Common questions