The reason to why Nord-Vest was chosen as an urban regeneration area, is that Nord-Vest is an area with a large share of small housing, a lack of outside areas and a lot of heavy traffic. The composition of population in this neighbourhood is characterised by having a large share of people with other ethnic background than Danish, many drug-addicts, mentally ill, elderly and singles, together with a certain degree of youth crime. These different conditions meant that Nord-Vest, as a neighbourhood, did not have a very positive reputation before the campaign ”'I Love Nord-Best”'.

The purpose of the 'I Love Nord Best' campaign has been to create attention to the part of Copenhagen called Nord-Vest and to show that this part of town has a variety of qualities that we do not hear about every day. The image campaign 'I Love Nord Best' encompasses the strategic use of communication and branding with the purpose of changing the development in one of the most deprived and worn down areas of Copenhagen.

The aim of the campaign is to improve the image of this part of town, so that more resourceful people choose to move in to the neighbourhood, increasing the tax-base and the housing prices. The purpose is also to create a common identity in this part of town, which is done by affecting the view on this neighbourhood among the residents themselves. Having this image campaign means that the urban regeneration effort is not only physical and measurable, but also psycological and made into a discourse. The campaign comprised advertisements on busses and the publication of a book about the neighbourhood. It proceeded during 4 weeks in the autumn of 2004.

The campaign includes a range of efforts. It is an information strategy, which means that the communication worker must communicate positive stories about the area through mass media such as "Kvarterbladet 2400" (local newspaper). Furthermore, it is an event strategy creating events to focus on the neighbourhood. It could be by arranging a festival.

The campaign can be divided into having an external and internal aim. The area has been promoted externally all over Copenhagen by using bus advertisements. Besides that, a logo and a slogan has been made. This has been launched by selling T-shirts with the logo. At the same time a book was produced with the title "2400 NORD-BEST - A district that rocks". The book tells about all the qualities of the area. It can be characterised as being part of an internal strategy, since it will affect the opinion about the area among the residents.

Resourceful people choosing to move in to the neighbourhood.

The success criteria has been to achieve positive publicity of Nord-Vest in the media and to contribute to strenghtening the faith among the residents, to make them feel that their neighbourhood is a good place to live and stay with high quality. The secretariat for urban regeneration thinks this had been fulfilled, since the campaign went well and both the bus advertisements and the book went down well in the neighbourhood. T

he book flew off the shelves and the slogan created the expected effect, which was to create attention and raise questions of the stereotypical image of the district. Furthermore the campaign has created attention in different types of media and thereby contrituted to placing the district 2400 on the national map.

Since the campaign has had an internal while also an external aim, it has been beneficial to the neighbourhood in itself. As a result of this it has also been beneficial to the residents of the neighbourhood.

The campaign cost around 300.000 D.kr.

The campaign was carried out as a partnership between private businesses in the area and 'Kvarterløft Nord-Vest' (the urban regeneration programme) 'Kvarterløft Nord-Vest' has contributed with 50.000 D.kr., while the rest of the campaign was paid by local business owners.

Kvarterløft Nord-Vest - Area-based urban regeneration - City of Copenhagen
Denmark
Hans Peter de Place Hansen, tel. 0045 35 87 47 00

21/10/2004

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Capacity building