Behind the brand
Where the Oslo brand comes from, why it was made the way it was — and why it only works if we use it together.
In 2025, the City of Oslo (Oslo Kommune) — as the owner of the Oslo brand — commissioned Oslo&Co to update and activate the city’s international positioning. Not to invent a new logo or a new slogan. Oslo has had an international brand strategy since 2015, and its foundations still hold. But the context has changed significantly.
Since 2015, the National Museum and MUNCH have opened. The waterfront at Fjordbyen has been returned to the public. The share of electric vehicles has gone from 17% to 96.7%. Around one in three Oslo residents now has an international background. The city has changed — and the story needed to catch up.
The work was developed with Nourish Global, a consultancy specialising in finding positions brands and places can genuinely own over time. It draws on 44 sources, more than 20 in-depth interviews — with voices in Oslo, London, Calgary, Singapore and Venice — and data from Resonance and the World’s Best Cities Rankings. This is not gut feeling. It is method. And it leads to a conclusion: Oslo is a refreshingly different capital.
The gap we are closing
Oslo ranks in the global top 10 for labour market quality, investment climate and access to talent. We are number 11 in Europe in the Best Cities index. Strong rankings only work if people know about them — and if we communicate them consistently and visibly enough to reach the people who matter. That is the gap. Not what Oslo is. How clearly and persistently we tell the world.
The reality is stronger than the story we tell. That is what we are changing.
Why this is your business too
Bloom Consulting has put a number on what city reputation is actually worth. Around 25% of a city’s foreign investment, tourism revenue and talent attraction can be linked directly to how the city is perceived internationally — not to the actual facts, but to the story people have heard. That is a significant share of real business won or lost on the basis of reputation alone.
When you recruit internationally, candidates research the country before the company. When you pitch for partnerships, the city you operate in is part of the evaluation. When AI answers the question “should I go to Oslo?”, it assembles a picture from everything that has been said about the city. If we all say the same thing, Oslo shows up clearly. If we say different things, we disappear.
The stronger Oslo’s story, the easier your job — whether you are filling a position, landing a co-investor, getting decision-makers outside Norway to choose Oslo for their conference or congress, or selling a product that comes from here.
What you get
- Fact cards with verified data, sources and a clear argument for how to use them — across sectors, not just in yours
- A brand film and shorter versions for digital use
- Key messages in Norwegian and English
- Images showing Oslo as a place people work, build and live in
- Presentation templates in Norwegian and English
- Positioning language you can put directly into your next pitch, presentation or partnership proposal
Everything in the toolkit can be downloaded and used freely — as long as it is used to promote Oslo. The material is not for marketing your own organisation independently of Oslo. You do not have to build any of this from scratch. It is done.
Why it only works if we do it together
Oslo&Co cannot build Oslo’s international reputation alone. No city brand organisation can — and no city that has tried to do this from the centre alone has succeeded. The cities that win are the ones where hundreds of organisations tell a coherent story, each from their own angle.
This is also why we are called &Co. We are genuinely dependent on collaboration — not as a workaround, but as a conviction. A story told by many voices is more credible than one told by one.
the City of Oslo (Oslo Kommune) has commissioned this toolkit and owns the brand it represents. Oslo&Co manages and facilitates it. But it belongs to everyone who represents Oslo internationally. The more of us who use it, the stronger it becomes — for all of us.
One ask: next time you tell someone outside Norway about Oslo, use these words, these images, these facts. Deliberately. And then do it again.
How we measure whether this is working
Building a city’s international reputation takes years. That means we need to measure progress over time, not just activity.
Our primary measure is Oslo’s position in the Europe’s Best Cities ranking, produced annually by Resonance Consultancy. It measures cities across three dimensions: lovability (how cities are talked about and experienced), livability (quality of life, infrastructure and environment) and prosperity (economic strength, innovation and talent). Oslo is currently ranked number 11 in Europe. Moving up in this ranking, consistently over time, is the clearest external signal that the work is having an effect.
Beyond the ranking, Oslo&Co is measured on value creation in the city across four strategic areas, reported annually. These KPIs form the basis for how we evaluate whether the brand work is translating into real economic and reputational outcomes for Oslo.
We also track how the toolkit itself is being used: how many organisations download material, and how the narrative spreads across sectors and geographies. This tells us whether the platform is actually reaching the people it is built for.