The City Expert Support Facility (CESF), through NetZeroCities / Climate-KIC, are seeking bids for the development of an external communication and city branding strategy for the city of Lisbon, with the aim of communicating the ambitious climate related targets to a wider audience.
Lisbon has been awarded the Mission Label for its ambitious commitments and actions to achieve climate neutrality as defined in the Climate City Contract.
As part of the overall objective to communicate the city’s journey, goals, targets and challenges, the city is seeking the support of a consultant or consultancy firm to prepare a comprehensive external communication strategy and overall branding of the city as a Mission Label city.
The main objective of this assignment is to prepare the external communication strategy and branding of the City of Lisbon as a Mission Label City, in close cooperation and coordination with the relevant City representatives/departments.
About the request
The overall role of the consultant is to provide expert guidance, foster collaboration and ensure that the City’s communications and Mission-brand identity/efforts are strategically focused, well-coordinated and resilient to challenges. The scope of work includes one main task with several sub-tasks as follows:
External Communication Strategy and Branding of the City
The Consultant will be expected to develop a comprehensive external communication strategy (the Strategy) that will enhance the visibility and understanding of the City of Lisbon’s commitments, goals and targets to achieve climate neutrality, as well as the related branding of the city.
The Strategy should be aligned with ongoing implementation of Lisboa 2030 Climate City Contract and should include but be not limited to the following key activities:
- Review and analysis of strategic framework, stakeholder analysis and mapping of department and resources: With the city, review and analyse the stakeholder identification (internal/external), engagement, and mapping of departments/resources to date, and the strategic framework (objectives, outcomes, initiatives) in which the Communications strategy and branding action plan is to bet.
- Align communication practices: Evaluate existing internal and external communication strategies to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, in view of mainstreaming climate ambition across different areas of the communication.
- Develop a communications matrix: Design a structured communications matrix to outline objectives, define messages and tailor content for different audiences.
- Create the communications action plan and align with exiting policy: Create a comprehensive action plan for Lisbon as a Mission City, including detailed budget per action, to guide implementation.
- Set up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms: In consultation with the municipality, develop a plan with key performance indicators, targets and assigned responsibilities to track progress and impact.
- Define communication channels: Identify and define, together with the municipality, the most appropriate communication channels for different audiences.
- Create city branding: Based on the Lisbon’s visual identity related to the EU Mission Climate Neutral and Smart Cities (including recently developed logo), develop at least three video visualisations, two audio podcasts and at least twenty infographics with adaptable templates for future use. All material for the branding should be easily adaptable in order for the city to use them in their future communication activities. Materials should be prepared in Portuguese in order to be approved by the municipality. After the approval, the city branding should also be prepared in English version.
- Facilitate initial implementation: Support the city’s initial communication activities and conduct one online workshop/training session on implementation strategies with the city team.
The consultant’s work should ensure a structured, effective and impactful approach to external communications, in line with the city’s overall objectives and its identity.
All tasks are defined to be performed in time period of 6 months.
For clarity, the following services are specifically “Out of Scope”
- Delivery of the communications action plan.
The selected bidder is expected to engage with experts from the NetZeroCities consortium, as well as engaging with the city and its key stakeholders. NetZeroCities experts (who are resourced already and do not have to be represented in a financial offer) are to be engaged (together with the city) on baseline briefings, the overarching strategic approach within which this assignment takes place, as well as for sharing good practices/learning from other cities, where relevant.
Please find all further relevant information including foreseen timeline, full detailed scope, out of scope, milestones, and all related information below.
Timeline and additional information
Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals by 23 May 2025 (23:59 CET) to Luisa Carretti [CESF@netzerocities.eu]. Proposals should include and address all specific requirements related to the request which can be found below.
