My thanks go to Christina who pointed out a great article on what the Germans call Standortmarketing (a term the English language sadly struggles with - the nearest equivalent would be “Location marketing”. It’s about marketing The Big Apple or similar tourist attractions which are actually a place; more here).

As Spiegel will probably sue me in the land of trigger-happy lawyers for stealing anything from their website, here is a link showing an example of a German city successfully marketing itself:

http://www.spiegel.de/reise/europa/0,1518,534555,00.html

Now, take a look at that slogan for Karlsruhe: “Viel vor. Viel dahinter.”

Nice one! How many times I’ve heard German copywriters struggle with the concept of “forward-looking” or “ground-breaking” or (dare I say it) “innovative” but at the same time “traditional”. The worst one I heard was “Innovation aus Tradition”. A concept that for a Brit is mutually exclusive. Old companies aren’t innovators. Being traditional does not sound positive in many business contexts.

But why call a spade a spade, when a slogan like this one does it for you? Good on you Karlsruhe, your slogan deserves a prize.