Resonance Communications

What Resonance Communications does

Resonance Communications, operating as Resonance Co, is a boutique place strategy consultancy founded in 2000 that serves cities, destinations, and real estate developers across North America and Europe. The firm operates through three offices (New York, Vancouver, and Brussels) and delivers consulting engagements across destination development (tourism master planning, destination branding), economic development (competitive positioning, investment narrative), and urban development (place planning, district branding, mixed-use positioning). Notable clients include the City of Brussels, Destination Canada, the Greater Baltimore Committee, Los Angeles, Houston, Costa Palmas, and East Village, the last of which generated $3 billion in private investment for a derelict city center.

The firm's core technology is the proprietary Place Power™ benchmarking methodology, which evaluates over 1,000 cities globally across 40+ measures organized around Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity. This methodology powers the Best Cities platform, a world-renowned city-ranking platform cited by Bloomberg as the most comprehensive city ranking on the planet. The firm is also a Certified B Corporation.

Revenue is generated through professional services delivered via direct consulting engagements with senior leadership at government agencies, DMOs, cities, and major developers. The business model is enterprise field sales with project-based, quote-and-negotiated pricing. The firm claims 20+ years of experience, 200+ projects, and a presence in 70+ countries. Headcount is listed at 5 employees, suggesting a lean partner-led model with potential project-based subcontracting. The firm does not publicly disclose financial metrics and operates as a privately held consultancy with no disclosed funding rounds or institutional investors.

Name

Resonance Communications

Legal name

Resonance Co

Website

https://resonancecommunications.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Resonance Communications is a boutique place strategy consultancy serving cities, destinations, and real estate developers with proprietary city benchmarking and branding services across 70+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Strategic Consulting Services: Revenue generated from long-term consulting engagements with cities, destinations, real estate developers, DMOs, and government agencies. Projects include tourism master planning, destination branding, economic development strategy, urban planning, and competitive positioning.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Resonance is a place strategy consultancy that helps cities, destinations, and real estate developers attract investment, talent, and visitors through integrated advisory services spanning destination development (tourism master planning, destination branding, communications), economic development (competitive positioning, investment narrative), and urban development (place planning, district branding, mixed-use development positioning). These services are anchored by the proprietary Place Power™ benchmarking methodology and the Best Cities ranking platform, which provide data-driven competitive intelligence across 1,000+ cities and 40+ measures of Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity.

Product overview

Resonance is a place strategy consultancy offering a unified portfolio of advisory services and proprietary intelligence products. The firm operates across three core service verticals — Destination Development, Economic Development, and Urban Development — delivering tourism master planning, competitive positioning, and place branding to governments, DMOs, and developers. Underpinning the consulting work is the firm's proprietary intelligence platform: Place Power™, a benchmarking methodology that evaluates 1,000+ global cities across 40+ Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity measures, which powers the Best Cities ranking platform. Together, the advisory services and intelligence products form an integrated value proposition combining strategy, creativity, and data-driven analytics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Place Power™: Proprietary approach to benchmarking 1000+ cities globally across 40+ measures of Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity
• Best Cities

Products and services

• Destination Development

Quantifiable outcome

• $3 billion in private investment generated for East Village derelict city center

Named customers9 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Interbrand: Omnicom-owned global brand consultancy with a dedicated place branding practice. Comparable to Resonance as a full-service brand partner for cities, regions, and destinations seeking strategy and creative work.
• Destination Think: Destination marketing and management consultancy serving DMOs and tourism boards with strategy, research, and creative services. Closely comparable to Resonance's Destination Development vertical and DMO customer segment.
• Brand Finance: Brand valuation consultancy that publishes the Brand Finance City and Nation rankings alongside consulting engagements. Comparable as a data-led player combining benchmarking with advisory work in the place-strategy space.
• Landor: Global brand consulting firm within WPP with deep experience in place, destination, and country branding. Comparable as a creative-driven place-strategy firm serving governments and developers across global markets.
• Bloom Consulting: Specialist brand and strategy consultancy that publishes the Bloom Consulting Country & City Brand Ranking and advises governments and destinations on positioning. Directly comparable as a boutique place-strategy firm with proprietary benchmarking IP and a similar target customer base.
• FutureBrand: Interpublic-owned brand consultancy with a dedicated place branding and destination practice. Comparable as a creative-led place-strategy firm targeting cities, DMOs, and developers globally with similar strategy-plus-creative positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Cushman & Wakefield: Global real estate services firm publishing city rankings and advisory work for occupiers, developers, and governments. Comparable as a real-estate-adjacent place-strategy peer, though at significantly larger scale and with a broader portfolio.
• JLL: Global real estate services firm with a Cities Research Center and consulting offerings for places and developers. Comparable in serving real estate developers and city positioning work, but embedded inside a much broader commercial real estate platform.
• McKinsey (Cities Special Initiative): McKinsey's Cities Special Initiative serves mayors and city leaders on economic growth and urban competitiveness. Comparable in targeting city governments and economic-development engagements, though as part of a much broader general consulting portfolio.
• ESI ThoughtLab: Research-driven consultancy producing benchmarking studies like 'Smart City 4.0' used by city leaders and global enterprises. Comparable in targeting economic development and city competitiveness work, though at a larger scale and analytics-first orientation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/resonanceco
• Facebookfacebook.com/ResonanceCo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/resonance-communications
• Instagraminstagram.com/resonanceco

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Resonance Communications