Bologna City Branding is a project promoted since 2012 by the Municipality of Bologna and realized by the Foundation for Urban Innovation (at the time Urban Center Bologna), with the coordination of Prof. Roberto Grandi, the collaboration of Bologna Welcome and the partnership of UniCredit.

The Bologna City Branding Project aims at increasing the effectiveness of territorial marketing policies carried out by the Municipality of Bologna both defining the positioning that the city wishes to attain in a metropolitan dimension and identifying the most suitable strategies to communicate the narration of this positioning at a local, national and international level. The desire for this action is translated into creating a specific identity for Bologna that is perceived by visitors and in which citizens recognize themselves.

The Bologna City Branding project started with ample research focused on the perception of the present international brand image of Bologna and on the traits that characterize the desired identity. The analysis of Bologna’s international image was carried out through the following: recovery of data from researches already carried out on this theme; questionnaire addressed to a sample of Italian and foreign citizens that have visited and/or sojourned in Bologna in the last few years; sentiment analysis of the presence of Bologna on the web. The aspirational Brand Identity was analysed through 7 Focus Groups and the online contest #Caroamicotiinvito. 

The results of the research provided enough information to define the positioning of the Bologna brand in the universe of the brands of the other cities: Bologna is an open and creative city, in which authentic experiences can be had. The next step was launching an international contest to find a logo and a payoff able to sum up Bologna’s positioning in the world.

The international contest for ideas for Bologna City Branding, was open from 18 July 2013 to 16 October 2013. By 16 October 2013 the reception office of the Bologna City Branding contest had received 524 projects. The first prize went to the group of Matteo Bartoli and Michele Pastore.

The winning projects and the ones given a special mention, together with all the entries sent to the Bologna City Branding contest, were then shown at an exhibition open to the public in the Sala Borsa.

The winning project 
"is Bologna" can be considered the first co-generative logo of a city: the graphic project winner of the international competition, is open and dynamic and gives people an opportunity to contribute to the construction of the visual identity of the city of Bologna. The project aims to a visual translation of the endless perceptions of the city – which constitute what is Bologna – turning them into a system of writing that replaces the graphemes of the alphabet with abstract characterising signs. Signs are freely inspired at some figurative archetypes of the Bologna and its metropolitan area: the historic city walls, the brick mosaic of the Santo Stefano Basilica, the cross in the city’s heraldic gonfalon, and the Rocchetta Mattei decorations. With these forms/letters it is thus possible “to write” any concept referable to the city, including every physical or abstract, general or personal characteristic, that one wishes to associate with Bologna. The word that one decides to write, with its specific graphic representation, is always accompanied by the payoff is Bologna, which strengthens the city identity traits.

For more information, you can read "is Bologna. City Branding project".