Towns and cities are increasingly being marketed less like local authorities and more like consumer brands.
That critical shift sat beneath much of the conversation during Prolific North and Cast Can’s regeneration and placemaking roundtable at UKREiiF in Leeds, where councils, developers and regeneration leaders repeatedly returned to the growing role branding, storytelling and perception now play in shaping economic growth.
For decades, inward investment marketing largely followed a familiar formula that included polished brochures, infrastructure statistics, connectivity maps, CGI-led masterplans and vast promises of opportunity and growth.
And while much of that still matters, in the third part of our Focus Week looking at brand, placemaking and investment in UK towns and cities we look at why many regeneration leaders increasingly believe those approaches no longer cut through in the same way they once did.
As towns and cities compete harder for investment, the conversation is becoming much more emotional, cultural and identity-driven. The challenge now is as much about creating places people feel connected to, believe in and want to be part of as it is about attracting investors.
That means borrowing techniques long associated with consumer marketing, from storytelling and audience segmentation through to social content, emotional messaging and hyper-local identity.
“We’ve got to rip up the rulebook in terms of what we expect the inward investment brand to do,” said Cast Can managing director James Hamer during the discussion.
The roundtable formed part of The Great Housing Development Summit, a three-day programme hosted by The Housing & Development Network (H&DN), The National Sales Group (NSG) and Cast Can, and brought together local authorities, housing organisations, planners, developers and marketers from across the UK
Throughout the discussion, participants repeatedly returned to the idea that places now compete in a much more fragmented attention economy.
Investors, businesses and future residents no longer encounter towns and cities solely through council websites or investment brochures. They encounter them through creators, culture, reputation, social media and lived experience.
That shift is increasingly changing how councils and developers think about place itself.
Bradford discussed how its UK City of Culture year has become part of a much broader attempt to reshape perceptions of the city while building long-term civic confidence internally.
“I think because we all had that mindset, we all had that belief in the future, that’s what kind of has taken us into the next decade,” said Andrea Mills-Taylor, head of place marketing and investment at Bradford Council.
“We’ve really rooted our identity now in the place itself and in the people and in the stories of our people.”
That emphasis on authenticity surfaced repeatedly throughout the discussion.
Several participants argued that generic inward investment messaging increasingly struggles to resonate with audiences who expect places to feel culturally distinctive and grounded in genuine local identity.
Josh Whiteley, commercial director at Bruntwood SciTech, described how developments increasingly lean into hyper-local storytelling and neighbourhood identity rather than simply marketing commercial space.
“We’ll go hyper-focused on local elements,” he said.
That can mean retaining historic names, embedding local heritage into design or building wider narratives around the identity of a district itself.
He pointed to Bruntwood’s approach in Manchester districts such as Greenheys, where local identity and social responsibility increasingly shape development strategy alongside commercial objectives.
Slough Borough Council described a similar approach through its wider placemaking strategy, which increasingly draws on overlooked aspects of the town’s identity and history.
Daniel Ray, director of planning services and chief planning officer at Slough Borough Council, described how many of Slough’s strengths simply remain poorly understood externally despite the town’s strategic importance within the UK economy.
“Every financial transaction works its way through Slough,” he said. “But people just don’t know it.”
He outlined how Slough’s regeneration narrative is now lending into those hidden stories, from the town’s role within global data infrastructure through to historical links with astronomy, fingerprinting and even the invention of the zebra crossing.
“The place speaks for itself,” he said. “It’s just people haven’t talked about it.”
For Lee Grasby, creative director at Cast Can, which has worked on Slough’s regeneration reinvention, that matters because audiences increasingly reject branding that feels artificial or disconnected from reality.
“The message has got to be believable,” he said. “It has to be honest.”
Several participants acknowledged that residents increasingly scrutinise regeneration messaging through the lens of lived experience, particularly in places where trust in councils or large-scale development has become fragile.
Slough Borough Council acknowledged the challenges of rebuilding public confidence following its financial crisis, while Bradford discussed the importance of consistency and credibility amid political change.
Kate Bull, director of economy and skills at Liverpool City Council, also highlighted the importance of recognising the difference between external branding and internal civic belief.
Liverpool may carry huge global recognition, she argued, but successful place branding still depends on connecting that wider identity back to residents and surrounding boroughs.
That growing focus on authenticity is also changing the role agencies and marketers play within regeneration itself.
Traditionally, branding and communications often arrived towards the end of development projects, once planning and delivery were already underway.
Increasingly though, councils and developers are involving marketers, placemaking specialists and strategists much earlier in the process.
The aim is no longer simply promoting a finished development, it is shaping how a place is understood from the beginning.
Participants also explored how younger audiences increasingly consume places differently from previous generations.
James Hamer pointed to the growing influence of TikTok, creators and community-led storytelling in shaping how younger people perceive towns and cities.
“Why can’t the next generation tell the story?” he said during the discussion, arguing that councils and developers should increasingly think about commissioning creators and local communities to shape place narratives themselves.
He pointed to work exploring how creators and independent storytellers could help uncover the kinds of local stories traditional regeneration campaigns often miss.
“Actually, it’s not for us guys to live there,” he said.
That broader shift is blurring the line between regeneration, culture, media and brand strategy because while towns and cities still compete on infrastructure and investment, they are increasingly competing on perception too.
And according to leaders across the table, the places cutting through are often the ones telling stories people genuinely believe.
Tomorrow, Prolific North and Cast Can examine what makes people actually want to live somewhere – and why liveability, identity and emotional connection are becoming increasingly central to regeneration conversations across the UK.
