Cities’ creative ambiance as a catalyst for city marketing procedures

Georgia Lalou, Alex Deffner

Keywords: place identity, creative city, city marketing, creative ambiance

Cities have a strong, well-acknowledged urban ambiance that derives from distinctive characteristics, forming an assemblage of sensory qualities, difficult to describe yet easy to perceive. In this context, certain cities can be characterised by a creative ambiance, which is, more or less, the generator and the result of a so-called ‘creative milieu’. The creative ambiance of a place can become an indisputable asset for the strategic planning of its image and this can be materialised through city marketing and city branding procedures. These practices were recently developed in many cities, trying to adopt the ‘creative city’ image. The article attempts to analyse issues such as the relationship between the aforementioned fields, the role of the creative ambiance of the city and the effect on relevant territories.