Tourists' consumption and interpretation of sport event imagery

In an era when popular and mass cultures are positioned further up the symbolic hierarchy, sport events are deemed by cities to be a valuable image or branding tools. Event strategies are often justified by their envisaged image effects and the celebrities, iconic structures and media exposure associated with sport events means that they are viewed as being particularly effective for this purpose. This paper evaluates the image effects of strategies deployed by three English cities; Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield. Each of these cities has used a combination of regular sport fixtures, ‘mega’ sport events and event bids to further their reputations as tourist destinations. Semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of potential tourists were used to provide evidence of the impacts of these initiatives. Despite some participants making connections with traffic chaos and violence, in general sport events appear to have encouraged positive connotations amongst potential tourists, including modernity, progress and vitality. Events seem to be regarded favourably at a cultural level, generating widespread positive meanings even when individual preferences vary. This has positive implications for cities deploying sport events as re-imaging or branding tools

What's in store: lessons from implementing CCS

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has been identified as a key technology for mitigating carbon emissions. However, CCS is still very much at a developmental stage and the full-scale projects required to test the technology have proven difficult to implement, with lack of societal acceptance considered a key contributing factor to this delay. This paper reports on a study that explored practices for effective communication, engagement strategies and activities in the context of five detailed CCS project case studies. The cases studied included Barendrecht, The Netherlands; Carson, USA; FutureGen, USA; ZeroGen, Australia; and the CO2CRC Otway project, Australia. Comparative analysis of these cases identified a series of factors including: the extent to which key government and project team members are aligned; deployment of communications experts as part of the project team from the outset; consideration of the social context; the degree of flexibility in the project; and competition involving community self-selection. The research team designated these " critical success factors" that, when present, seemed to enhance the effectiveness of best practices in engagement and contribute to successful project deployment in some cases. The paper proposes that project developers need to consider ways to maximise these critical factors as part of their project planning and implementation process. It also discusses best practices in stakeholder communication and engagement activities applicable to CCS projects

Urban atmospheres as brandscapes and lived experiences

In recent years the concept of urban atmosphere seems to appear everywhere – discussed as a marketing strategy, part of an eventscape, a crucial element in place-marketing or a key feature in the production of brandscapes. An attractive city should contain settings with attractive atmosphere or ambiance. This paper discusses what we can learn from this rapid expansion. What happens when the elusive phenomenon of atmospheres becomes part of planning and performance in new and old cities? Atmospheres are difficult to pre-fabricate, to sustain or control. Drawing on an ongoing research project on the making and un-making of urban atmospheres I will discuss different approaches to the study of such sensory landscape. I track the travels of the concept of atmosphere both in academic research and among practitioners in city planning and branding. Two cases of intensive branding in Denmark and Sweden are followed as they are transformed over a decade of city development

Futurising the physical store in the omnichannel retail environment

This chapter aims to gain a better understanding of the role that the physical store plays in the current multichannel offering and the expected omnichannel evolution of the format in the near future, from an industry perspective. This chapter has two main objectives: firstly, to explore the current situation of the physical store format in terms of experience, integration with other channels, the role of technology, and consumer’ expectations; secondly, to establish relevant guidelines regarding the future evolution of the format. Interviews with industry experts enabled rich data on the topic to be collected, analysed, and presented. The work confirms that the role of the physical store so far seems to be evolving from places for transaction to places for interaction in which the different channels of the retailer come together via the technology. This challenges the traditional notions of retail format, retail place, and retail design