In May, Glasgow City Council’s head of marketing communications Tom Rice said the city’s crowdsourcing project had yielded thousands of interesting, moving and creative results. “Through any research that we undertake, it comes out that the people are Glasgow’s strongest assets,” he says. “It’s only right that the people who will ultimately be the guardians of the brand have some input in the city.”

And input they had as the campaign to share ‘What makes Glasgow great’ resulted in 1,500 responses from 42 countries, a worldwide conversation and an engaging and personal new brand for the city.

Glasgow’s new identity was heralded in today beneath the slogan of ‘People Make Glasgow,’ replacing the dated 'Glasgow: Scotland with style' branding of years past.

Gordon Matheson, leader of the City Council, says “PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW reflects the Glaswegian character. It’s bold, friendly, confident, and it evokes a real sense of pride. The people of Glasgow are at the heart of this brand; we have created something which presents a truly distinctive identity for the city.”

The identity appears plain on its own, but when the bold statement is superimposed above strong photographs of Glaswegians going about their daily lives and a description is tagged on to the end of the slogan, the branding’s charm emerges. Matheson adds, “This is a brand for everyone, which the people of Glasgow have helped to shape and will continue to do so. Throughout the lifespan of the brand the people of Glasgow will be encouraged to add to it and enhance it with their own stories and images, helping to paint a genuine picture of the city and all it has to offer.”

The new brand is part of a five-year strategy to boost tourism, investment and interest in Scotland’s largest city. Next year’s Commonwealth Games act as a centrepiece of the programme and Scottish Enterprise’s Creative Clyde endeavour seeks to promote the Strathclyde economy.

To read more about Glasgow, read Comms Correspondent in our June issue, available here.