Client: City of Linz
Project Period: 2025–2026
The project in brief
The city of Linz in Upper Austria has been continuously developing its city brand for several years. The strategic framework established in 2019/20 was followed by a new corporate design in 2022. With the 2025/26 strategy update, the brand is now taking the next step.
Together with the City of Linz’s Department of Communication and Marketing (KOMM), we are refining the brand profile, unifying the various sub-brands under the “Linz” city brand as an umbrella brand, and establishing governance structures for consistent brand management—with clear roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes.
The challenge
Linz combines industry, innovation, and technology with culture and a high quality of life. This diversity shapes the city—and places high demands on a unified brand management approach.
A strong foundation was already in place thanks to the city branding strategy developed since 2019: . At the same time, the place brand strategy had become too complex. Sub-brands for tourism and the city as a business location, managed in parallel, along with different points of contact, made consistent coordination difficult.
The central question was therefore: How can the existing place brand strategy be streamlined—and who will jointly maintain, steer, and further develop the Linz brand in the future?
Our Perspective
- What should the Linz brand convey?
- Which brands and stakeholders contribute to it?
- And what roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes are needed to ensure the brand can be applied and further developed in everyday practice?
Our Solutions
Sharpening—what Linz stands for
Building on the existing place brand strategy and the brand identity that has already been defined, we refine the core messages and develop them further. This results in an updated version of the value proposition. This translates the city’s existing strengths into an overarching narrative.
The updated value proposition for the City of Linz brand (Source: City of Linz place brand strategy brochure)
Defining the “Stadtmarke Linz” as an umbrella brand
At the same time , we are developing an umbrella brand architecture in which various themes and sub-brands are organized under the shared Linz brand. This allows, for example, the business sector or tourism to develop their own distinct identities while simultaneously contributing to the city’s overall image.
Organizing Characters and Roles
To structure the collaboration behind the brand, we organize relevant stakeholders using a model of concentric circles. This model highlights who steers the brand, who shapes and helps define it, and which stakeholders play which roles within the brand ecosystem.
Concentric Circles Model: The closer an organization is to the center, the more significant its role in brand management (Source: City of Linz Place Brand Strategy Brochure)
Embed Brand Management in the Organization
Building on this model, we are developing the governance structure for the Linz brand: with defined roles, responsibilities, committees, and decision-making processes for brand management, strategic direction, and coordinated brand communication.
Involve stakeholders, ensure decisions are sound
Qualitative one-on-one interviews, internal and external workshops, and accompanying brand coaching incorporate the relevant perspectives and ensure that the results are applicable.
Award-winning corporate design: In the Linz logo, the “I” rotated 90 degrees symbolically opens up space for creativity, innovation, quality of life, and more; Photo credit: City of Linz, Dworschak
The result
The strategy update lays the foundation for the next phase of development for the Linz brand: The key messages have been refined, the umbrella brand logic has been defined, and the value proposition encapsulates the brand promise.
Concentric circles and governance clarify the roles, responsibilities, and interactions of the relevant stakeholders. This creates a unifying brand umbrella for the city, the region, and tourism.
