India’s rise as a branding powerhouse owes much to creative thinkers who bridge storytelling with strategy. Among them is Shyam Vasudevan, Director and COO of IdeaWorks Design & Strategy. With over 20 years of experience in branding, marketing, and consumer psychology, Shyam has helped shape iconic campaigns, including Incredible India and Malaysia Truly Asia, while also advising on investment and trade promotion for government clients.
In this interview, Shyam reflects on the evolving landscape of place branding, the power of alignment across agendas, and why thinking like a psychologist often helps places find their voice.
Shyam, with over two decades of experience in brand building, what do you consider the key to creating lasting brand resonance—especially for places?
Place branding is a team sport. Stakeholder inclusiveness is fundamental to envisioning a successful place brand, whether for tourism promotion or investment attraction. The impressions formed by visitors and investors are shaped by various factors, including the quality of local services, the prevailing law and order situation, the openness of the local population, and the warmth with which they welcome and engage with outsiders.
Every city possesses a distinct cultural identity that can deeply resonate with tourists, entrepreneurs, and traders alike. A compelling place brand must authentically capture and convey this unique character. To this end, it is essential that governments create a buy-in and encourage their citizens to conduct themselves in ways that consistently reflect and reinforce the brand ethos.
Ultimately, a place brand is not the sole domain of its custodians or brand managers. A truly impactful place brand is ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’. It is not merely a visual identity or a slogan—it is a ‘lived, collective experience’.
You’ve worked on over 20 place branding projects, including some of the world’s most iconic campaigns. What makes a place brand strategy successful in today’s fast-changing media and political environment?
I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work with some of the best creative minds in the world. To me, the most critical determinant of a successful place branding strategy is a clearly articulated long-term vision. The foundational question must be: What kind of future does the place aspire to create for its people over the next 50 years? The formulation of strategy should begin with this forward-looking perspective.
The second key element is talent mapping—an honest assessment of whether the place possesses, or can develop, the human capital required to achieve this vision. If the necessary talent is not immediately available, then a comprehensive talent strategy must be developed—either by upskilling the local population or by attracting skilled professionals from abroad. A notable example is Dubai, which has successfully positioned itself as a global talent hub through strategic investments in human capital.
Once these foundational elements are established, it is essential to convene an interdisciplinary team comprising psychologists, anthropologists, and designers to validate the strategic direction. Their insights should inform the creative brief for the place branding agency.
Many initiatives falter at this stage by attempting to combine tourism, trade, investment, and talent attraction into a single, unified campaign. This is a strategic misstep. Each objective addresses distinct audiences and requires a tailored communication and branding approach.
Political leadership plays a pivotal role in the early stages of place branding. Public engagement and policy alignment are vital to success. Without committed political will and governmental support, even the most well-conceived strategy is unlikely to be effectively implemented. Place branding agencies can provide strategic and creative guidance, but it is ultimately up to policymakers to deliver on the promises.
Unfortunately, in many cases, experienced brand managers are brought in to oversee communication while execution is left to bureaucrats unfamiliar with brand strategy—resulting in a breakdown between vision and delivery.
When I began my career over twenty-five years ago, the media ecosystem was largely offline. Today, with the ubiquity of smartphones, every individual is potentially a journalist. This has increased pressure on both governments and consultants for quick, tangible results. However, even successful campaigns carry risks. Venice serves as a cautionary tale—a highly effective tourism campaign that ultimately strained the city’s infrastructure. Over-tourism led to rising rents, hyper-local inflation, the displacement of the native population, and a dilution of the city’s cultural essence. A once-thriving city risks becoming a mere curated spectacle.
How do you integrate insights from consumer psychology into your branding work—particularly when advising countries or cities?
Psychology and sociology play pivotal roles in place branding by shaping how people perceive and emotionally connect with a location. It helps decode the collective memories, associations, and aspirations that individuals and communities attach to a place. Through insights into behavior, identity, and perception, psychology informs messaging, visual identity, and experiences that resonate deeply with both locals and visitors.
Understanding psychological drivers—such as belonging, pride, and curiosity—enables brand strategists like me to craft narratives that feel authentic and compelling.
Successful place brands use psychology to move beyond logos and slogans, fostering lasting emotional bonds between people and the places they choose to live in, visit, or invest in.
As I said before, a place brand is a ‘lived experience’. It is not just a graphic, a colour palette, a pretty picture or a smart headline. It is essential to trace the contours of the collective conscience of a people before one brands their place of living!
Many of your projects intersect with tourism, trade and investment promotion. How can places align these often separate agendas to tell a more coherent story?
In my experience, this remains one of the most complex challenges in place branding. Thought leaders like Simon Anholt have proposed integrative frameworks to align these dimensions under a unified brand strategy. While elements such as trade, talent, tourism, and investment all contribute to a place’s identity, they serve very different audiences. From a communication standpoint, it’s often more effective to maintain distinct narratives tailored to each objective.
Governments frequently blur these lines, resulting in confusing messages. For instance, a honeymooning couple has little interest in a destination’s skilled workforce or export capabilities, just as scenic beaches don’t draw an investor. Precision in strategy, segmentation, and storytelling is key—each audience requires a different sales script.
We encountered this firsthand during the launch of the ‘Invest in India’ campaign for IBEF in 2006. At the time, the global perception of India had been powerfully shaped by the ‘Incredible India’ tourism campaign—rich in visuals of palaces, mountains, valleys, hermits, forts and forests. Introducing a business narrative to the same audience required a significant shift in perception, and it took time to establish credibility.
Tourism promotion, trade facilitation, and FDI attraction are distinct objectives. They should be strategically aligned at a brand level, but tactically executed through separate, focused campaigns that cater to the distinct segments of audiences.
You are a mentor with Startup India and Kerala Startup Mission. What lessons from place branding do you think startups can learn, and vice versa?
Startups are a very different story. Startup founders are not a homogenous group. A local baker is also a startup, and so is an AI venture. Startups bring immense risks too. They may fail at any time. In many cities, an informal network of shadow bankers already exists, funding small local ventures such as shops and merchants. However, they are reluctant to fund new tech ideas that have the potential to grow globally.
I have had the opportunity to work with startups in India and abroad. Startups have great potential to shore up local economies, together with SMEs. They also create new business hubs in lesser-known cities. But startups are sensitive to factors like the cost of living, the maturity of funding ecosystems like VC and local PE, availability of mentors, size of the local talent pool and university ecosystems that support innovation.
A good place brand helps attract these factors and catalyzes the growth of local enterprises. For example, a university town will also have a large number of interns whom the startups can hire at a reasonable price. The reputation of the place also helps startups get funding from international donors. Places like Singapore and San Francisco are working to attract startups that have demonstrated some amount of success in smaller cities in foreign countries.
Startups are a contrarian bet, as they often thrive during recessions. Many talented people are laid off and decide to go on their own. A recession also lowers real estate rentals and wages across the economy. Startups use these circumstances to add resilience to the local economy. Place brands and startups have a mutually beneficial relationship – they give and take from each other, creating a symbiotic relationship.
What are some of the key trends you currently observe in the field of place branding and marketing?
I have run campaigns for various brands in over 80 countries in the last twenty years. Place branding and marketing are evolving rapidly, shaped by significant shifts in technology, culture, and consumer behavior.
One major trend is the profound impact of the emerging smartphone-driven economy. Today’s consumers make decisions and engage with brands through always-on digital platforms, allowing marketers unprecedented access to their emotional landscapes. This shift has transformed audiences from passive consumers into active brand ambassadors, fundamentally altering how destinations are marketed.
Another critical trend is the rise of hyper-localization and cultural nuance in messaging. Traditionally, global campaigns focused on dominant languages and mainstream audiences, often overlooking linguistic and cultural minorities. However, with advancements in tools like social media listening and data analytics, marketers can now tailor content to reflect diverse identities and address granular local contexts.
Cultural minorities—once excluded from mainstream narratives—are beginning to shape their region’s brand stories. From Indigenous communities in the Amazon influencing ecotourism narratives to marginalized language and religious groups advocating for recognition, these voices are now integral to the development of authentic and inclusive place brands.
What do you see as the main challenges places face when trying to shape or shift their reputation—and what advice would you give to overcome them?
In the realm of product and service marketing, change is typically driven by three key forces: technological innovation, which reshapes the product; evolving lifestyles, which redefine the consumer and segmentation variables; and competition, which alters the argument and the brand narrative.
Place branding, however, is infinitely more complex. Cities and nations are in a constant state of flux—politically, economically, socially, technologically, environmentally, and legally. As Heraclitus aptly observed, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” This insight applies equally to places, which are dynamic and ever-evolving.
Historically, when economies were predominantly agrarian, global growth was often perceived as a zero-sum game. One country’s gain came at the loss of another country. Today, the rise of innovation allows for collective advancement. Nations such as the United States, China, India, Germany, and others can grow simultaneously by leveraging their unique strengths while preserving their cultural identities without taking anything away from anybody else. This evolution, while encouraging, also complicates the task of managing a place’s brand. It requires a deep understanding of context, continuous trend monitoring, and acute sensitivity to public sentiment.
One of the most significant challenges in place branding is managing political will and public memory. Attempts to reframe a nation’s or city’s image may clash with deeply held nostalgia or outdated visions.
Consider, for instance, efforts to revive traditional manufacturing in the U.S. in an era defined by digital transformation and automation. People are emotionally invested in their cities and countries, making them not just passive observers but active stakeholders in the branding process.
An example of what a place should not do is President Trump’s approach to “Making America Great Again”. He is trying to revive and resuscitate cities across the country, similar to Detroit, to boost the American economy. That has led to unnecessary tensions and the burning of bridges with trade partners. That strategy is unhinged. Instead, he should have leveraged the US’s deep talent pool and its unmatched edge in innovation.
My core advice to place branding professionals is to approach their work with humility and patience. Reputation is a long-term asset. While short-term readjustments—such as updating the visual identity or tactical messaging—may be necessary, the deeper ethos of a place should be allowed to evolve organically.
Often, the wisest course of action is to listen closely, observe cultural undercurrents, and allow the zeitgeist to settle and reveal the most appropriate path forward. Sometimes, the best course of action is ‘not to take any action’.
Are there any places you find particularly inspiring right now in terms of their placemaking or place marketing efforts?
Indeed, there are several places around the world whose development trajectories I find deeply inspiring and worthy of close observation over the next two decades. Rwanda stands out as a compelling example—emerging from the shadows of ethnic conflict, it has embraced a visionary national strategy, bearing some resemblance to Singapore’s model of disciplined, long-term economic planning and governance.
Oman is another noteworthy case. As an oil-rich nation in the Middle East, it is drawing from the experience of regional neighbours like Dubai while consciously preserving its distinct cultural identity. Its balanced approach offers the potential to influence broader transformation across the GCC region.
Vietnam also exemplifies how political will and strategic reform can catalyse meaningful national progress. Its steady evolution into a dynamic economic force speaks volumes about the power of purposeful governance.
These are just a few among many inspiring global stories that illustrate how places can redefine their futures through resilience, innovation, and strong leadership.
Thank you, Shyam.
Visit Shyam’s expert profile or connect with him on LinkedIn to learn more about his work at the intersection of branding, strategy, and consumer psychology.
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