A critic review over the city branding campaign ONLYLYON, which was launched to promote the Lyon, as an international city.

1. LYON
ONLYLYON campaign

2. Why LYON?
Smart city
Top quality Universities
Artistic city
Business friendly
Festival de la lumiere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=0SJ0J0DAUoc
1,3million inhabitants

3. Launched in 2007
Top-down approach
“Addicted to Lyon” campaign, since 2013 and still on
the campaign

4. the campaign || initiative & partners
Main objective: to build Lyon’s international reputation
Make Lyon better known
Generate appreciation for Lyon
Bring people to Lyon
→ with 28 private and public partners

6. the campaign || Where does Lyon stand?
Rankings
38th on the Mercer 2016 ranking
Global Liveability Ranking (EUI): 30th place
Based on Reputation Institute: Lyon is a
little-known city with a strong reputation
→ so it needs to communicate its brand to
a wider audience
Between Milan and Singapore | Lyon is
33rd

7. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
1. Innovation, part of Lyon’s DNA
Lyon as the first smart city in France https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjo_TSOOTsM

8. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
2. Dynamic Business and Economics
video for promoting the creative industries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2ck_lY29CQ
A dynamic and innovative economy - ranked 17th in the IBM 2014 rankings for the world most
attractive cities in terms of investment. (main sectors: Life Sciences & Chemistry/environment).
Ranked 1st most business-friendly city in France - L’expansion L’express 2014
in 2014, the Festival of Lights was “exported” to Dubai in order to attract international interest +
ongoing collaboration with Emirates for advertising Lyon at all their flights

9. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
3. Lyon, an ideal quality of life
An urban heritage (classified a Unesco World Heritage site and the second most important
Renaissance site after Venice)
Smartness

10. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
4. Culture & Events
20% of the city’s budget is dedicated to cultural projects
Vivid cultural life throughout the city/multiple events/festivals
Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights)
→ This 4-day festival attracts more than 4 million visitors each year | a flagship event for the city’s
brand (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp9bYDmj0YQ)

11. the campaign || Main sectors of interest
5. Excellence in Education
10% international students
46th Best Student City, according to QS
6. Sports & Leisure

12. the campaign || How they did it?
Communication tools
“Addicted to Lyon” Campaign (since 2013) →
storytelling approach
Ambassadors
http://www.onlylyon.com/en/

13. the campaign || How they did it?
Communication tools
Social media innovative approach - the 1st city to implement large-scale social media campaigns
in order to promote its city branding (in 2009). On 2016 they plan to implement:
10 international digital campaigns on FB, youtube and twitter
2-month targeted international business campaign on LinkedIn (to reach 900,000 decision
makers)
Strong INSTAGRAM presence, where Lyon fans upload photos of the city
“ONLYLYON buzz”: collaboration with Lyon’s higher education institutions specializing in
communication, acting as creative incubators to produce videos and photos inspired by the City
and create a buzz → going “viral” approach
Press - multiple events for international journalists

14. the campaign
Results
Achieved target of 100 million views
across Facebook activity in 2015
Achieved 50,000 Twitter followers,
against a target of 35,000
ONLYLYON social media activity and
branding program contributed to
Invest in Lyon, attracting 80
international companies to set up
business in Lyon over the past two
year.

15. the campaign
Results

16. the campaign
Results
Politically: Since January 2015, the wider
area of Lyon, its suburbs and other 58
small cities, have all been paired to
Métropole de Lyon → greater
political power of Lyon, to the wider area |
strategic plan on making the wider area
SMARTER:
http://www.grandlyon.com/fileadmin/user_uploa
d/media/images/institution/20141218_gl_compe
tencesmetropole_1200.jpg

17. Thoughts & Critiques

18. About the campaign...
The Lyonnais are participating in the campaign either as ambassadors or as social media users - it
doesn’t seem as if its citizens are fully engaged and integrated to the marketing campaign.
→ having the opportunity to participate but not to co-create
Although the campaign was launched based on an innovative approach, investing in social media (in
2009), nowadays it seems like this innovative spirit has reached a plateau.
→ bringing new investments in, but not start-ups and creative industries
LOGO similar to other campaigns (beBerlin, Madrid,I Amsterdam etc)
→ more of a reproduction rather than a creative idea, reflecting a local character
GRAND LYON’s main goal was to make LYON the #1 European city for start-up companies
→ lack of creativity in design, communication strategies.

19. About the city of Lyon...
Lyon is a vibrant city with a unique vibe, ideal for young creative individuals and with a strong cultural
presence
→ its unique vibe is not communicated to the world, but if you visit it, it’s there
Lyon needs to build a unique city identity and build on it, in a GLOCAL way.
→ challenge for contemporary cities:
As Michael Speaks (2002) points out, cities are faced with the paradoxical problem of constructing identities based on
differences that disappear at a rate proportional of the growth of global sameness.
Mid-size cities like Lyon face a difficulty in defining their competition.
→ it doesn’t have the capacity to welcome and satisfy everyone (as large metropolis like Paris,
Tokyo etc can), its city branding should be more narrow, but not in a restrictive way.

20. Conclusions
● Contemporary cities sometimes fail to create a unique identity, because they focus on the global
competition and instead of starting with their best, original raw material, they try to find “external”
ideas to promote their city.
→ Benchmarking is very helpful, but it requires a deep knowledge of one’s identity, nature, social
nexus, history and tendencies.

21. links
https://www.imercer.com/content/mobility/rankings/index.html?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRovuKvJce/hmjTEU5z16ustXqezhpx41El3f
uXBP2XqjvpVQcRlNLDORw8FHZNpywVWM8TIKdIRt9F4PQznCWg%3D
http://www.onlylyon.com/en/
http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/papillon-local/uploads/14/33/social%20media%20onlylyon.pdf
http://blog.bolden.fr/french-tech-definition-objectifs-enjeux/
http://www.grandlyon.com/
http://www.lyon.fr/page/accueil.html