Lessons from Agueda, Portugal: Does Your Downtown/Town Have a Strong, Memorable Brand Like Agueda?

Over the course of 13 years, this simple idea expanded into a broader theme of public art, color, and music that created a desirable and memorable brand that has transformed this town into an international destination and has influenced thousands of other “copycat” cities. As downtowns and main streets in cities of all sizes across the country struggle to be viable, there are many lessons that can be learned about how this idea started, evolved, and reinforced a strong brand. Every town’s economic development strategy should concentrate around brand building to keep and attract residents, attract and support businesses, and to produce a thriving economy, and to differentiate your community from the competition. And with the growing demand for walkable urban living, it can position your town for a strong economic future. 

1. Make it Unique: What sets your downtown apart from nearby towns, creates a buzz and makes it a desirable destination? We would have never visited a place like Agueda on our trip to Portugal unless it had come up in our internet and social media searches when we were looking for day trips from Porto and immediately it looked different, unique, and interesting. Nowhere else had we seen featured this strong combination of rainbow-colored covered streets and public art at all scales spread throughout the city. Rather than try to compete with all the other nearby quaint Portuguese historic towns with architecture, food and shopping, Agueda chose this different path and brand, and it immediately made them different and made them a desirable destination. 

2. Make it Memorable, Postcard Worthy or Instagrammable: There were people young and old throughout the city that wanted to get their photo taken with this colorful world as their backdrop. Around every corner there was a new surprise or experience that reinforced their rainbow-color theme. What they did: After the success of the first umbrella-covered street, they expanded the theme to the broader downtown by covering additional streets with different elements like streamers and rainbow-colored butterfly cutouts. But they did not stop there: Building upon the momentum, they sponsored the creation of a comprehensive network of public art that now has its own app to guide you on a tour, encouraging all property and business owners to take part. One plaza had a giant umbrella, several sets of stairs had murals painted on the risers that could only be seen at the right angle, and large-scale public art showed up regularly as we wandered through the streets.

3. Enable It to Spread Broadly at Low Cost: The first big move may take some budget to get started, but it is important that the brand can spread broadly across the downtown without prohibitive costs. In Agueda, this included paint on stairs, painted rail ties at the train station, stacked old tires painted in bright colors with plants in them, and rainbow umbrellas showing up in random places on buildings. Even boarded up windows in derelict buildings were painted rainbow colors.

4. Encourage Everyone to Take Part: To be successful, you want the entire community to get excited about the idea, to support it and take part in supporting the overall brand. In Agueda, businesses use the umbrella theme to decorate their shopfronts and as a theme for their window displays, residents have small colorful umbrellas on the doors of their homes, the city started using tree planters shaped as umbrellas, and small businesses were incubated in kiosks that sell items related the theme. Locals are so proud of their city now: While we were visiting, an older gentleman who spoke no English walked several blocks out of his way to direct us to a plaza that featured his favorite piece of art after seeing us using our phones. He was immensely proud of his city.

5. Reinforce the Brand with Event Programming: This effort reinforced and brought international visibility to the AgitÁgueda-Art Festival, held every summer in July that includes urban art, artistic and sports activities, concerts, street entertainment and lots of color to make this a unique and authentic event. Every year the festival hosts around 3,000 participants! The first AgitÁgueda festival started in 2006 to celebrate the FIGA World Cup, but it became world-renowned after the implementation of the Umbrella Sky Project. Imagine the impact this has on their local economy and supporting the local businesses! Like Agueda, your city should capitalize on the defined brand to program events all year long, bring in visitors to support local businesses, and to make it an attractive place to live and to work.

6. Have fun with it! One thing that can be learned from Agueda’s success is that it is hard to go too far with a theme, so do not worry about this. Have fun and make sure your entire community can get involved. These efforts can be transformational to the downtown and community!

Whether you are trying to make your downtown a destination, or differentiate your town from other nearby towns, creating a strong, unique, and memorable brand is critical to the success of your place. These lessons from Agueda can help you get you started. Do not be afraid to take a small first step, test ideas and let the ones that get a positive response grow and evolve. Good luck!