Who is Who
Steve Duncan
Steve Duncan is the Managing Director of C Studios, a marketing communications agency specializing in place promotion. With over 20 years of experience, Steve has worked with cities, regions, countries, and real estate developments globally to attract executives and skilled talent.
A digital place promotion advocate, Steve has authored studies on investment promotion, talent attraction, and digital marketing, including "What Talent Wants" and "Winning Strategies in Investment Promotion Marketing." He has spoken at City Nation Place Global, IEDC Conferences, and MIPIM.
At C Studios, Steve leads a team focused on global place branding, talent attraction, and investment promotion. Previously, he spent nearly 20 years with Development Counsellors International (DCI). His strategic insights have made him a trusted advisor to organizations like Costa Rica's CINDE, Austrian Business Agency, and EDB Singapore.
A journalism graduate from Pennsylvania State University, Steve's career in place marketing covers lead generation, PR, and advertising, all aimed at enhancing a destination's online presence.
Outside of work, Steve is an avid cyclist, wine enthusiast, and sunrise photographer.
Q&A with Steve
Steve Duncan, Managing Director of C Studios, reflects on a career spent in place branding and the insights that have stood out the most during that time. His team focuses mostly on investment attraction, talent attraction and trade promotion, and Steve shares recent research on some of those focus areas. He also provides perspective on how the American and European approaches differ, what’s next in place marketing and how to think about one of the top challenges in the profession -- measurement.
Steve, you have worked in place marketing for your entire career. What is the biggest change you have seen in the industry?
Without a doubt, it has been the digital transformation. If we think measurement is hard today, it was really hard with print media and traditional advertising. Now, so much can be tracked and automated, allowing organizations that typically lack funding to be more nimble and efficient.
But more importantly than how place marketing agencies are able to operate is how digital channels have reshaped how people discover cities, regions, and countries. If your place’s story is not findable online, it almost doesn’t exist in the minds of executives, talent, and visitors.
You spent most of your career based in the U.S., but are now in Europe. What are the biggest differences you have noticed in how place marketing is done in different regions?
I’ll focus my answer more on economic development and investment promotion agencies, and less on destination marketing organizations. There are so many differences between the two, but a lot of it stems from how the agencies are funded. The U.S. has predominantly moved to a privatized or public-private model, which provides larger marketing budgets, faster decision-making, and more openness to metrics that show influence (rather than just outcomes).
In Europe, its public sector model has resulted in more sophisticated marketing operations out of a necessity to be more efficient. This has allowed them to track better data, which is needed to show the direct outcomes they’re often measured by. Both approaches have their advantages and drawbacks – I’m just privileged to get to work with both sides.
C Studios surveyed European businesses about how they make FDI decisions. What was the biggest insight from the research?
The number one take-away from our report, Winning Strategies in Investment Promotion Marketing, was that companies are waiting until late in the process to work with investment promotion agencies. About three-quarters of companies wait until at least the short-list, and some even later, to initiate contact with IPAs. This means they’re doing their own research and making big decisions at a number of inflection points without the input of the cities and regions they’re considering.
This insight alone shows the impact of having a strong brand perception, a robust digital presence that is findable, and a proactive marketing strategy aimed at influencing those decisions earlier in the process.
A strong brand perception and a robust digital presence can influence key decisions long before companies even reach out to you."
Your team also surveyed European talent about why they relocate. What was the biggest learning from that research?
We specialise in digital marketing and know the power of having a strong digital strategy, but our team was still surprised that talent consistently lists “internet research” ahead of “first-hand experience” as a top influencer of their perception of places.
The experience of visiting a city is incredibly important, no doubt. But there is a strong connection that people foster with places based on how they show up digitally, and I can’t help but think how many place organisations don’t take their website or digital reputation as seriously as they should. It is one of several data points showing how much talent relocation is a digital-first journey.
From your experience, what is the biggest challenge in place marketing?
This one is easy – measurement. Especially with FDI marketing, but certainly for talent and overall place marketing, there are strong pressures on organisations to provide direct cause-and-effect metrics over a short-term timeframe. Place marketing is long-term and, as much as we all try to curate and nurture the right sentiments toward the communities we serve, we are not in full control like a company is of their own product or service.
Unfortunately, there is not one answer, but we do coach clients to include an “image enhancement” KPI as a part of their organisational goals. This is not always the case for economic development organisations, but we can all agree that reputation, perception and visibility influence location decisions.
What is your prediction on the future of place marketing as we all try to attract investment, talent and visitors?
The trendline over the years has been that more of the location research process has shifted online. Especially in B2B, organizations like EDOs and IPAs have become facilitators more than influencers because executives or talent are doing all the hard work on their end. So what does this mean? Looking forward, places must find a way to generate more opportunities for “discovery” of their destination well before the decision-making process begins.
So much money and effort right now is on the end of the process—generating investment leads or collecting CVs from talent. But the chance to exert influence is on the opposite side of the journey. This is where place branding organizations can get their destination on the radar with positive sentiments before people are even in a decision cycle.
Agency Profile
C Studios is the marketing communications agency for places, with expertise in investment promotion, talent attraction, and trade promotion. We enable destinations to thrive on the global stage by developing strategies and campaigns that attract investment, draw top talent, and boost trade. In doing so, our mission goes well beyond marketing – we're committed to fostering sustainable economic growth and cross-border understanding throughout our work.
Based in the Netherlands and partnering with locations around the world, we help cities, regions, countries, real estate developments, science parks, economic zones, and trade hubs become more findable, credible, and loveable in the eyes of decision-makers.
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