The topic of the April issue of M&MP is place marketing.
You'll find in it, among other things, our article about the role of OOH in building brand and promoting places. I'll return to this topic often, not only because I simply like it.
Also because the possibilities of outdoor advertising in showing places in an unconventional way are huge, but underutilized.
Today, however, a reflection after visiting the Congress of Public Relations Professionals in Rzeszów.

A few years ago, when I was working on organizing an international congress in Warsaw, I was returning from a business meeting by taxi. The taxi driver, working for a chain of renowned hotels, shared with me his opinion on what, in his view, is worth seeing in Warsaw when you come there as a foreigner. Can you guess what?

Well, nothing.
According to the taxi driver, working for a five-star hotel, a place that lives off tourists and business guests like no other, there was not the slightest reason why anyone would want to come to Warsaw. Nothing interesting, nothing beautiful, nothing worth attention.
To this day, it bothers me whether the taxi driver still shares this conclusion with people he drives around Warsaw. Unfortunately, the taxi driver knew English, so he could share it with foreigners as well.

That conversation from probably seven years ago came back to me last Friday when I was taking a taxi from downtown Rzeszów to Jasionka airport to return to Warsaw. We were chatting with the driver about Rzeszów, where I was for the first time and which I really liked. The taxi driver told me that he was born in Kraków, that he moved to Rzeszów after getting married, his wife is from there, and there wasn't a day he regretted that decision. Because he lives great in Rzeszów, it's peaceful, and when family from Kraków comes to visit, they all envy him such a beautiful area.
When I admitted that I had never been to Rzeszów before, the taxi driver told me what I absolutely should see - including the Underground Route, Chestnut Avenue, Łany vineyard. That it's close to Łańcut, that the Bieszczady Mountains are just a step away...

If I hadn't been convinced before that Rzeszów is cool, now I would have no doubts.
Except that I already knew I would return to Rzeszów – the decision made itself somehow, somewhere between involuntarily cheering for volleyball players from Rzeszów (I went for dinner to a restaurant in the Market Square and there Mariusz Wlazły from Skra Bełchatów was giving the Resovia team a hard time, and that's how I learned that Perłowski – a volleyball player from Rzeszów – apparently isn't that good after all. Resovia was losing and there was a sporting spirit in the restaurant), and buying a ticket to the Wanda Siemaszkowa Theater for Thursday evening. A nice lady at the theater box office matter-of-factly recommended one of the two shows playing that day, then while printing the ticket said with a smile that I got the best seat.

There are no better ambassadors and brand builders for a place, city, or region than satisfied residents who treat a guest as if they came specifically to visit them.
Because really, that's exactly how it is.