Who are we?
Bloom
Place
Academy
The Academy is a “Business School” for place branders run by experienced practitioners and academic educators in the field. We each have 20+ years of experience in place brand strategies, skills development and investment in people programmes.
Our mission
Is very clear!
To empower place brand development and implementation teams in nation, region and city branding and marketing teams in the hospitality, tourism, and travel sectors, with the skills they need to help bring their place brand vision to life.
Our Sister Company
Since 2003, Bloom Consulting has been developing Nation Branding and Place Branding strategies for various local and national governments around the world, collaborating with prime ministers, presidents, mayors, heads of tourism boards, and directors of investment agencies.
INVESTMENT, TOURISM, TALENT, PRIDE, DIPLOMACY, EXPORTS
Our courses are built with the perfect blend of theory and practice in mind
At the core of our offerings is a customized training experience, meticulously designed to meet the unique needs of place branders. Through a range of workshops, masterclasses, and online courses, we provide a tailored educational journey that resonates with the specific challenges and objectives of each brand.
Our commitment to professional excellence is underscored by our certification programs. As participants engage with our curriculum, they earn CPD-certified qualifications that not only validate their expertise but also enhance their professional trajectory in the field of place branding.
The Place Branding Journey
Our curriculum is structured to support the journey of a place brander at every stage:
Brand Custodians delve into the essence of place brand initiation, engage in tailored leadership training, and participate in knowledge exchange forums.
Brand Builders are equipped with the tools for place brand set-up, and they deepen their expertise through CPD-certified masterclasses.
Brand Operators focus on executing the place brand strategy, leveraging self-directed and video masterclass learning to refine their operational skills.
The Bloom Place Academy
Main Team
Malcolm Allan
Principal
Malcolm is the Principal of the Bloom Place Academy.
Malcolm Allan is president of Bloom Consulting since 2018, having worked with the company as an associate consultant since 2015. He has practised as a place brand strategist since 2002 when he set up Placebrands Ltd, one of the first brand agencies focused on place.
He has a Master's degree in Development Economics and has previously practised as a town planner and economic development specialist in both the public and private sectors. He has also worked on a variety of tourism destination brand strategies, most notably the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland and in Saudi Arabia with Colliers International on the branding aspects of real estate place projects in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
Penny Bagnall–Smith
Managing Director
Penny Bagnall-Smith has over 30 years of experience in Brand Communications.
She gained a BSc from Bristol University, after which she worked with world leading advertising groups; Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, GGT and TBWA. During that time she developed training programmes for various agencies and worked with both the IPA and WACL on training initiatives.
Penny and her then business partner at TBWA, Peter Jones, pioneered an integrated way of working across large clients with complex business needs and numerous target audiences which they then applied in the field of Place Branding.
Penny is the Managing Director of the Bloom Place Academy.
Dr. Giannina Warren
Academic Director
Dr. Giannina Warren is an award-winning Senior Lecturer and the Programme Leader for the MA Place Branding at Middlesex University, London UK. Prior to embarking on her MA and PhD in the UK, her career spanned 17 years in Toronto, Canada as a specialist in visual identity, branding, advertising and public relations in high-impact sectors such as finance, energy, legal, tourism, festivals and economic development. She spent six years at Toronto City Hall, managing city branding strategies, international promotional campaigns for public cultural events, resident engagement programmes and tourism initiatives.
She is an expert in the ‘professionalisation’ of the place branding practice and has developed a new framework for understanding the occupational resources and responsibilities that place marketers perform in their work. She has published in a series of 4* peer-reviewed academic journals, including Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Place Management and Development, and International Journal of Tourism Cities.
Giannina is the Academic Director of the Bloom Place Academy.
