London Stays Top in Ranking of European Cities With Highest Online Visability

ING Media launched its latest annual report that ranks European cities for their digital visibility at MIPIM, Osoul Misr received a copy the report.

London narrowly ranks above Paris and Madrid in Europe’s Top Three London held on to its top position in the latest annual report that ranks European cities for their digital visibility in 2021.

Paris was narrowly second, with Madrid, Rome and Barcelona rounding up the top five.

Europe’s Most Talked about Cities provides a unique insight into which European cities are garnering the most attention and profile, as measured by social media and online news mentions.

The report is the fourth in a series that is designed to help city policy and place makers understand how online presence impacts a city’s brand. This year, TikTok and Twitch data were added alongside other social media platforms to capture the surge in short-form video and live streaming services.

Key findings include from the report includes:

London and Paris dominate European conversations. They shared more than a quarter of the online conversation for the entire Top 60 cities.

London led mentions in news, Facebook, blogs, Reddit, comments and reviews.

Paris led on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, Rome on forums and Twitch, Barcelona on YouTube and Istanbul on TikTok.

2021 saw a relative increase of trending topics around sports and viral news - which were hyperlocal and trending on social media.

Madrid, Marseille and Barcelona have the highest percentage of mentions for social media relative to news coverage.

On the opposite end of the scale, Sofia, Bucharest and Ljubljana were more reliant on news stories than social media feeds.

The UK (20%) had the most cities in the top 60, closely followed by Spain (18%), France (15%), Italy (11%), Turkey (8%) and Germany (7%).

These six countries were collectively responsible for over three-quarters of all mentions in the Top 60.

Powered by COP26, Glasgow was a big winner in 2021

The two biggest risers in this year’s ranking were Valencia and Glasgow, who saw their position in the ranking drastically rise, with a high number of online conversations around the COP26 climate change conference powering Glasgow’s rise. Unsurprisingly, no other city had as a high share of mentions around sustainability as Glasgow compared to the overall total.

COP26 also helped sustainability take over from business and technology’s lead in 2020 to become the most talked about topic across all 60 cities, showing the growing relevance and urgency for cities to tackle climate change.

Leanne Tritton, managing director at ING, said: “Our research over the last 4 years has shown how important Digital visibility is in influencing investment, talent attraction and tourism. This year, there is a new dimension as there is a clear link in how it impacts cities in their recovery from the major upheaval and transformation of the past two years.

COP26 in Glasgow showed not only how cities have a crucial role in driving global events, but also how the online conversation was as important in raising awareness of the key issues around climate change and sustainability as the discussions inside the conference centre.

The challenge for European cities is to extend their reach and exposure by developing quality content to reach new audiences outside Europe as they continue their efforts to attract more people to live, work, study and invest in their cities.”

ING is the leading communications agency for the built environment, which has worked with cities such as Helsinki, West Midlands Combined Authority, Glasgow, City of London and the Key Cities and Scottish Cities Alliance networks.

ING also works with major developers, architects and other place makers to effectively communicate their stories by linking digital visibility into a wider communications strategy.