Anholt-GMI City Brands Index: New York and Los Angeles Rank in Top Ten; Globally, Citizens Admire America's Largest Cities.

SEATTLE -- In the first-ever brand ranking of major international cities, the Anholt-GMI City Brands Index (CBI) found that New York and Los Angeles rank in the top ten, gaining high marks among global citizens. Developed by branding expert Simon Anholt and global market research solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), the CBI measured the brand of 30 cities around the world, including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Sydney, Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. 17,502 respondents worldwide were asked their opinions on the 30 cities in six areas: Presence (contribution to culture/science), Place (physical aspects), Potential (job/education opportunities), Pulse (urban lifestyle), People (welcome/diversity), and Prerequisites (basic qualities).

Overall, New York ranked seventh, while Los Angeles ranked eighth. San Francisco and Washington, D.C. came in 11th and 14th, respectively. The high ranking of Los Angeles shows that the proliferation of Hollywood entertainment has had a positive impact on how people view the city. When asked about what they most associated with certain cities, a third of Aussies, 42% of Italians and more than 50% of Poles selected "Hollywood" as the top choice for LA. New York's overall position was boosted by its high marks as a place for higher education (ranked second) and for the diversity and variety of languages it offers (also ranked second). On the flip side, the "Big Apple" was also seen as both "dirty" (ranked 26th out of 30) and unwelcoming or cold toward visitors (28th). Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa, both ranked better in terms of cleanliness, San Francisco was the highest ranked U.S. city in terms of being welcoming, ranking 14th.

"It is important that both political and business leaders of cities understand how potential visitors, investors, customers and future citizens view their city so they can take proactive measures to improve or leverage opportunities," said Simon Anholt, co-author of the City Brands Index. "The brand awareness of a city, either positive or negative, is important because it can have direct financial consequences for the city."

As cities compete for talent, capital, business, respect, tourism dollars and consumers, the overall high ranking of American cities is good news. Tourism alone has a substantially large and positive impact on a city. For example, in San Francisco, visitors spent more than $6.7 billion dollars on local businesses (San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2004). The popularity of San Francisco as a tourist destination correlates with the CBI findings. San Francisco is the only U.S. city in the CBI that ranked in the top ten in both the People and the Place categories, coming in sixth and ninth, respectively. The city's appeal may also be attributed to the fact that 75 percent of respondents are aware of the Golden Gate Bridge -- one of San Francisco's most-known landmarks.

Despite Safety Concerns, Respondents Throw Caution to the Wind

American cities fared the worst when panels were asked, "How safe would you feel in this city?" San Francisco ranked the highest at 18th; Washington, D.C. followed closely behind at 19th, and Los Angeles came in at 22nd. This fact, coupled with the perceived unwelcoming aspect of U.S. cities, has not dampened the global desire to visit the U.S. When asked where they would want to spend a week of free time, respondents ranked New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the top ten. The popularity may be due to the fact that New York won third place for offering exciting and fun things to do, while Los Angeles ranked fifth place, and San Francisco seventh.

Familiarity Breeds Popularity

There is a strong connection between how much respondents know about a city and how they perceive that city: the more they know, the higher they regard the place. Worldwide, respondents felt they know a lot about Los Angeles and New York and, as such, rank the cities considerably high in how much the city has contributed to culture, science and how cities are governed. New York came in first place for this question, which isn't surprising considering its major contribution to theater, culture, and the fact that renowned universities such as Columbia and New York University reside there. Los Angeles, which is known mainly for Hollywood, ranked higher than other cities that have a considerably higher "culture" factor, such as Amsterdam and Barcelona; accordingly, these cities also score low in "how much you know about the city."

In addition to having a good reputation for its cultural contributions, New York is America's city of opportunity, coming in second place in the Potential category after London. All of the U.S. cities -- Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., came in the top ten of this area, which bolsters GMI's recent Nation Brands Index report (www.nationbrandsindex), which found that the U.S. is considered to be the best place for jobs and business.

About The Anholt-GMI City Brands Index

The Anholt-GMI City Brands Index, an annual ranking of cities around the globe, was compiled from the results of a survey conducted online among 17,502 men and women aged 18-64 in 18 countries. The 30 cities whose brand was measured include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Edinburgh, Geneva, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, and Washington.

The six components of the City Brand Hexagon include Presence (the city's international status and standing); Place (people's perceptions about the physical aspect of each city); Potential (the economic and educational opportunities that each city is believed to offer visitors, businesses and immigrants); Pulse (the appeal of a vibrant urban lifestyle); People (respondents' impressions of the inhabitants, community, and safety); and Prerequisites (people's perceptions of the basic qualities of the city.)

For further information about the Anholt-GMI City Brands Index, please go to http://www.citybrandsindex.com or contact GMI directly at [e-mail].

About Simon Anholt

Anholt developed the concept of the Nation Brands Index in 2005 and the first Index was published in April 2005. He is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the branding of countries, regions and cities. Anholt advises a number of national governments and UN agencies on brand strategy, public diplomacy, cultural relations, investment and export promotion, tourism and economic development. He is the editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, and the author of Brand New Justice, Brand America and several other books.

About GMI

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only company that provides comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2000 companies. Solutions include Net-MR, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, desktop analysis tools, 24/7 service bureau capabilities, and one of the world's largest, highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels, spanning across 200 countries. In addition, GMI offers high-value, real-time enterprise feedback solutions for customer, partner and employee programs. Founded in 1999 with world headquarters in Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents. More information is available at www.gmi-mr.com.