Ranking the Best City Brands

Chris Michael presents the ranking of cities with the best brands around the world. Two American cities—Los Angeles and New York City—finish at the top.

A separate post explains the methodology of the rankings, including an explanation for some surprisingly poor showings by some Asian cities.

As for the methodology: "The report measures two aspects of a city's brand: its 'assets' – attractions, climate, infrastructure (particularly transport), safety and economic prosperity – and its 'buzz', a combination of social media (Facebook likes and Twitter sentiment analysis) and media mentions. Assets and buzz were each graded out of 10; the numbers were added to produce a total score."

Sharon Zukin also writes a post about why brand matters to cities, and where the common branding slogans and campaigns of today's cities had their genesis.