After 12 years, Peter Kentie will resign as of June 1 as director of Eindhoven365, the city marketing organisation that puts colour to his cheeks. In the run-up to his farewell, Kentie is busy working on a book in which his experiences as a city marketer form the common thread.
“It was a miraculous project.”
Before he started working at Eindhoven365 in 2011, Peter Kentie worked at PSV
as a marketing manager. Former Mayor Rob van Gijzel persuaded him
to bring new impulses to the city of Eindhoven. “The fact that Eindhoven is now known worldwide as an innovative city is a win, but that is certainly also the case; the city’s image has greatly improved, which is a merit. Not just me, of course. I have been able to play a role in it, and I am quite proud of that. But I’m not gone yet.” says Kentie in his office located at the Begijnenhof in the centre of the city.
Revisiting the past
“We have all forgotten it a bit, but in 2010, Eindhoven was not doing well at all. We had just emerged from the credit crisis, and the tech city of Eindhoven was recovering. Van Gijzel was concerned, especially about the image of the city. If that is not positive, why would entrepreneurs come to Eindhoven? Back then, people associated Eindhoven with “Oh poor, though that was not the reality.” says Kentie.
Becoming proud of the city again was the motto. Kentie: “Not with shoulders down,
but chin up. The question was: how do you turn a negative image into something positive?”
A group of Eindhoven residents, including Kentie, looked into this at the local authority’s request. “Technology, Design and Knowledge, TDK for short, are the three pillars at which Eindhoven excels. That’s where we put our cards. The problem then was that our city developed a lot of identities. Eindhoven Car City, Eindhoven Football City, Eindhoven Solar boiler city, so much that you can wonder: who or what are we? In addition, Eindhoven as a brand did not exist. Well, we had the slogan Eindhoven, leading in technology, but that sounded off technocratic.”
“It had to be unique.”
We needed a new logo to be shared by the municipality and for marketing purposes. So a club of people were deployed -fashion designers, colour experts, architects and designers who put their brains together. Kentie still remembers the meeting well. “Not the most beautiful city in the Netherlands, but the most exciting city, that’s how we envisioned it. You don’t have to go here for the old classic houses, but if you don’t pay attention for a week, there will be a new skyscraper. The huge urge for progress, an energetic city that is always in motion, how do you translate that into one image?”
Vibes
That idea became the Vibes, the three zigzag stripes. Since its introduction in 2013, the logo has been embraced en masse. On the captain’s armband of PSV player Luuk de Jong, in stained glass windows, as tattoos on arms and legs, and on T-shirts, the vibes are found in many places, even in newspapers.
“You’d be crazy not to use it,” Kentie jokes. It is possible, and it is allowed.
The Vibes are a so-called ‘open source’. “Eindhoven is the only city in the world that allows this, making it unique! The municipality gave the green light, indicating the progressive nature of the city. Much of the credit for this decision goes to Henri van Roosmalen, head of communications at the municipality.”
‘Two big shoes to fill’
Eric Boselie played a vital role in marketing Eindhoven247.
He mainly focused on major events such as Glow and the Dutch Design Week. Boselie will also resign from his position on June 1. Not entirely coincidental, he reminisces, “We have worked together from the start.” The intention is to find one successor for Kentie and Boselie. “Those are two big shoes to fill. I won’t interfere with it; I’m formally not allowed to do that. It is a tough job, you know. Eindhoven residents have become more proud of the city, which is a beautiful development. Economically, Eindhoven has the wind in its sails again. Last year, 1.1 million hotel nights in Eindhoven, which is 200,000 more than in a city like Utrecht. Then, we must be doing something right. The challenge for the future is to find a good balance between growth and quality of life and to ensure that everyone feels at home here.
Adapted from an article by Rob Weekers for Groot Eindhoven
For Eindhoven News: Beena Arunraj
