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Baltic Metropolises Accelerating Branding and Iden.. (ONE BSR)
Baltic Metropolises Accelerating Branding and Identity Building of the Baltic Sea Region
(ONE BSR)
Start date: Jun 12, 2012,
End date: Sep 11, 2014
PROJECT
FINISHED
The main aim of the ONE BSR Project is to increase the competitiveness of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by marketing it as one unity. ONE BSR functions as an umbrella project and calls together actors, who market themselves as part of the Baltic Sea Region. In the absence of a strong common brand, the project aims to search for common commercial and cultural characteristics with a concrete hands-on approach, pointing out these characteristics as the elements of the Baltic Sea Region brand.The project brings up the best that the region has to offer for international investors, talents, tourists and locals alike. Thus, the project will work on the marketing of the Baltic Sea region both outside and inside the region. The objectives of the project are to market the whole region and its different parts by developing joint promotional services and to test them in practice; to make positive publicity of the BSR lifestyles and to encourage the we-feeling of the Baltic Sea Region.ONE BSR project is implemented by 17 partners from around the entire BSR. ONE BSR partnership is built on expert organizations, which cover the BSR comprehensively. The partners of the project have cutting-edge expertise and/or represent the BSR widely. The partnership consists of metropolises, national and regional development agencies, universities and BSR networks. ONE BSR accelerates BSR promotion by building on the existing structures and networks and enhancing multilevel (national, regional, local) as well as triple-helix cooperation. Achievements: From the beginning, One BSR has contributed to the joint promotion to the Baltic Sea Region, strengthening existing cooperation, establishing new partnerships, and looking for new ways to do collaboration between the public sector, academia, and private sector. Investment promotion agencies of the region have discussed the possibility of future cooperation in several thematic meetings organized by the project. They have been exchanging experiences and best practices, and looking for areas and methods in which cooperation in a highly competitive business would still be beneficial for all cities and countries. The existence of such cooperation is a completely novel, even revolutionary, thing in the history of investment promotion. The expected results are in fact more and better investments to the region, which might through value chains benefit also neighboring cities, regions and countries.Through joining forces and sharing resources, partner cities have been able to promote their cities for the long-haul tourism markets in the U.S. and Japan. One BSR co-operation has given an opportunity to explore new kind of thinking and partnerships, as well as new themes to be used in marketing. Round trips for tour operators and media are one of the best ways to do tourism marketing, and U funding for BSR cooperation has provided additional resources to do that. Also the new data, based on research which enabled by the resources provided by the project, will help the tourism businesses and partner cities to plan, market, and tailor tourism project to better suit the demand of the current customers. Wider visibility was achieved e.g. by fair participation, seminars organized by the project, local product development workshops, press releases and articles both in USA and Japan.In talent attraction, establishment of the advisory board paved the way for the formulation a timely situation analysis and recommendations on future action in the field. The board was has been able to share experiences and best practices, as well as to assist in forming a complete picture on the multiple challenges the region is facing, both internally and externally. In all of the thematic fields of investment, talent retention, tourism and regional identity, the project enhanced the "we-feeling" of the partner and stakeholders, channeling identity dialogue via a new regional media (NewsWave) and creative mix of bloggers, social media, films and policy round tables. The variety of organizations and levels of governance at the One BSR final conference clearly showed that the project succeeded in forming a platform for finding common interests and practical ways of collaboration, even if a forced formation of a "joint identity" was not seen as the preferred future priority.