Mary Harris

• Place brand positioning, strategy and marketing for places, attractions, hotels, transport etc
• Tourism, talent attraction and economic development strategy and communications.
• AI-era place branding and marketing, including AI visibility, AI perception analysis and AI brand alignment.
• Stakeholder engagement, workshop design and facilitation with councils, DMOs, LVEPs, investment agencies and regional partnerships.
• Campaign strategy, messaging frameworks, narrative development, creative development, value proposition, brand audits, campaign development and practical activation planning.
• Training and capacity building across branding and marketing with a specialism in place
• Helping places move from fragmented communications to a shared story, shared behaviours and clearer market relevance.
• Experienced at leading within complex stakeholder and multi-agency environments
• Deep experience across the full portfolio of branding and marketing – B2B, B2C, G2B and B2C with a specialist niche in place
• Strategic and creative consultancy

• MTMI
• Former senior leader of M&C Saatchi’s specialist destination and export unit.
• Board member and Head of Communications, Tourism Management Institute (TMI).
• Speaker and contributor on AI, place branding, tourism and economic development marketing.

Selected case studies:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbjkZwjU6_kUD-qUw1ZPuFL2qcU725RL/view?usp=sharing

Testimonials:
– Mary’s work for us has been revelatory and firmly put us on the path to achieve our ambitions. Her approach is friendly and personable, incisive, forensic and insightful. Crucially, her process has successfully brought together varied stakeholders to work together in a positive and collegiate way.
Pete Waters, MBE, Executive Director, Visit East of England LVEP
– We managed to achieve big things in such little time for our Half Time for Oman campaign. With so many moving parts, several agencies, multiple markets and extensive creative and content, the team was instrumental in steering and managing a seamless and unified workflow.
Lyutha Al Habsy, Brand & Marketing Advisor, OMRAN
– Thank you for the innovative, thoughtful, out of the box approach you brought to all your projects and the tremendous effort and support that you provided to the EDB and Tourism Authority teams.
Vivian Jamal, Head of Marketing, Bahrain Economic Development Board
– Working with you was a complete privilege. Your creativity, passion, enthusiasm and belief in our potential in Limerick pushed us to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
Laura Ryan, Head of Marketing, Limerick City and County Council
– Their breadth of experience has brought greater clarity and strategic depth to our independent review. Their collaborative, flexible approach and insightful analysis has already helped us shape a stronger, more confident direction for our place marketing work. We would not hesitate in recommending the team
Louisa Shaw, We Are Staffordshire
– The value of technical consulting is epitomized by the work completed by Mary Harris. The dividends were realized long before our project was even completed with data that created a proliferation of “a ha” moments throughout our network of stakeholders. This process allowed us to identify the reality of where we need to focus our efforts in how we build capacity and manage the evolution and changing landscape of AI.
Rich Werner, President & CEO, Upstate Colorado, NoCo REDI
– Always well informed; always well prepared. With the happy knack of pursuing rigour with vigour. Getting to a positioning and a definition of intent that really withstands scrutiny.
Michael Baulk, Management Consultant, Formerly Group Chairman and CEO of AMV/BBDO, Advisor to Bahrain EDB and Cambridge Nutraceuticals

– Founder of the AI Brand and pioneering AI Brand Strategy working with NoCo REDI which has been featured in City Nation Place Global and City Nation Place Vancouver
– Co-Founder and Co-Leader of City Nation Place Accelerator course, training global place marketers
– Developed research and thinking around Place OS
– On the Board of UK Tourism Management Institute as Head of Communications
– Guest Lectured at De Montfort University on Place branding and marketing

• Local government communications and complex stakeholder environments.
• Tourism, visitor economy and destination marketing.
• Inward investment, FDI, sector positioning and economic development communications.
• Place governance
• Talent attraction, quality of life messaging and regional competitiveness.
• LVEPs, DMOs, councils, regional development bodies and investment promotion agencies.
• AI search, answer engines and the impact of AI-generated perceptions on place reputation and discoverability.
• Regenerative tourism

o Place positioning & branding
o Place marketing & communications
o Place governance
o AI and discoverability
o Stakeholder engagement
o Messaging development workshops
o Brand development workshops
o Other topics and bespoke training and workshops as requested

Experience supporting local and regional government-related organisations on tourism, economic development, place positioning and campaign strategy. Particularly strong where a council or partnership needs to bring multiple audiences and stakeholders around one clearer story and translate that into practical communications, campaigns and partner use.

Available for short-term assignments, strategic advisory projects, workshops, campaign planning, stakeholder engagement and retained long-term, part-time, consultancy

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbjkZwjU6_kUD-qUw1ZPuFL2qcU725RL/view?usp=sharing