Who is Who
Jeremie Feinblatt
Jeremie Feinblatt is a global expert in place branding and destination strategy with 20 years of experience in brand strategy, management consulting, and leadership roles in New York and Europe. Currently leading strategy for Resonance Consultancy, he is instrumental in shaping the future of places worldwide.
Jeremie has a rich background that includes co-founding and growing a creative agency specializing in tourism and destination marketing, as well as founding a reputable event and entertainment company in Paris.
In addition to his work at Resonance, Jeremie spearheads WRLDCTY, a global forum for urban innovation that brings together city builders from around the world. He is also a member of the Foreign French Trade Advisors (CCE) and serves as the New York Ambassador to the Marseille Region.
Jeremie's dual French-American citizenship and extensive travel experience, including authoring a dozen guidebooks, add to his diverse perspective. Based in New York, he continues to drive innovation and excellence in place branding and destination strategy.
Q&A with Jeremie
Jeremie Feinblatt, with his deep expertise in brand strategy and entrepreneurial leadership, has shaped Resonance Consultancy's strategic approach in unique ways. Drawing from his experience advising C-Suite executives and working with global destinations, Jeremie has brought valuable insights into place branding, integrating research, economic development, destination development, and creative services.
In this Q&A, Jeremie shares his thoughts on the complexities of place branding, highlights innovative projects, and discusses the challenges and future trends in destination marketing. His approach emphasizes a holistic understanding of places, their dynamics, and the importance of aligning performance, perception, and stakeholder aspirations to create successful and authentic place brands.
Jeremie, with your deep expertise in brand strategy and entrepreneurial leadership, could you share how your experiences have shaped your current strategic approach at Resonance Consultancy?
Place branding is a complex discipline that requires not only a thorough understanding of place (i.e. destinations, their dynamics, governance and policies) but also experience in brand strategy and experience strategy. My previous experience advising C-Suite on brand strategy and working with destinations across the globe has brought a new set of expertise to our team at Resonance, that complements our capabilities in research, economic development, destination development and creative services.
At Resonance, you lead strategy and innovation. Could you describe a recent project where you've successfully implemented innovative placemaking or branding strategies?
I actually believe we provide innovative thinking on a daily basis, by adjusting our methodologies, ideating within an ever-changing environment, and adapting to different cultures and workflows from around the world.
But overall, our innovative thinking is applied through our proprietary framework and methodology. Through our Place Power™ Score, Resonance has been collecting and monitoring data (including user-generated content) for destinations throughout the world for many years. This allows us to gather an in-depth understanding of not only the competitive environment today but provides a unique perspective on our clients’ evolution against a set of competing cities. With these insights, we provide the most comprehensive benchmarking for cities and regions around the world.
But the performance is only one side of the story. With our partnership with global market research firm Ipsos, we deep-dive into perception indicators expressed by coveted young, skilled residents, travelers, and investors, and our methodology identifies gaps and alignment between a place’s performance, perception, and stakeholder aspiration.
One of our most innovative place-branding projects has been with the Brussels Region, who we’ve been partnering with since 2021. Through in-depth research, we’ve identified a business challenge to solve: improving the positive image perception ranking of Brussels compared to a set of European cities, and moving them up from #8 to #5.
This tangible objective and KPI have helped us bring together a diverse set of regional partners and stakeholders in Brussels, representing business attraction, visitor attraction, urban development, etc. We’ve developed a single unifying platform that strongly distinguishes itself from the functional messaging platforms from other European cities. “In Brussels, we dare you to be yourself.” Brussels comes with a different point of view. And in an age of independence and fluidity, where #NOFILTER wins over picture-perfect, Brussels offers an authentic, approachable attitude to life. Brussels attracts independent thinkers and non-conformists. We always have. Ours is a history of artists, originals, and innovators who choose their own path and stick to their vision.
Brusselers cultivate a soil rich in people, diversity, and perspective to grow their ideas and shape what’s next. They’re optimists who embrace chaos. They and their city are proudly, perfectly imperfect Brusselers, Bruxellois, Brusselaars together. They dare to be themselves.
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced in destination marketing recently, and how have you navigated these at Resonance?
Destination Marketing is a rather new and constantly evolving discipline. Most destination marketing organizations (ie. tourism boards) are focused on performance or very targeted marketing, whereas Investment Promotion Agencies are focused on lead generation. These two organizations have different KPIs and marketing metrics. Yet, they are asked to work together when it comes to place branding. Navigating these different cultures and influencing leadership in both on the role of a holistic brand is a challenging but exciting part of our job.
Navigating different cultures and influencing leadership in destination marketing and investment promotion for a holistic brand is a challenging but exciting part of our job.
How do you measure the impact of your placemaking efforts, and can you share a success story that illustrates these outcomes?
Good placemaking is both about improving quality of life but also increasing equity (and value) of place. And these are two ways we look at the impact of placemaking efforts. First, how does a new development or district impact our Place Power™ Score metric. Secondly, we examine the level of investment, development pipeline etc. in place.
Our work in Houston is a great example. After having developed a unified place brand for the region, we then developed a placemaking-based “Strategy for the Downtown Theater District” and ensured the themes and principles aligned with the overarching story. This has helped the downtown improvement district gain a relevant framework to drive growth and investment.
Looking ahead, what trends do you see shaping the future of place branding and destination strategy, and how is Resonance preparing to meet these future demands?
As I mentioned before, place branding is a rather new and ever-evolving discipline. Paradigm changes (like the impact of COVID on remote working for example) have a lasting impact on what a place brand is about and what success looks like.
Looking ahead, I believe there will be an increasingly important alignment between quality of life, visitor, business and talent attraction. Our research already shows growing correlations between factors that make a destination attractive for visitors, talent and businesses. Which is why we have collective capabilities at Resonance in place: branding, tourism development and economic development together makes us uniquely positioned to address evolving trends in destination strategy.
I also believe place branding will increasingly act as a recognized asset for soft power and drive economic diplomacy for destinations.
Anything else you'd like to mention?
The combination of livability, lovabiity and prosperity for places is an opportunity for stewards of places around the world to learn from each other. Resonance is here to answer any questions about how place branding, destination development, talent attraction and economic development all need to work together for a holistic, empowered place brand that does right by its community.
About Resonance Consultancy
Resonance is a leading global advisor on tourism, real estate and economic development for the world’s best destinations, cities, districts, and developers.
Its perspective is informed by its proprietary World’s Best Cities rankings and by its WRLDCTY Global Forum for Urban Innovation, which brings the planet’s most creative minds together to help shape the future of city development.
Based in New York City and Vancouver
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Connect with Jeremie
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