An international thought leader in Place Branding, Giannina has spearheaded, developed and launched the world’s first MA in Place Branding, and a series of validated training tools, short courses and Masterclasses with The Place Brand Academy.

She is the former Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for BA Advertising, PR, and Branding at Middlesex University London, where she managed course delivery for 600+ students across four international campuses (London, Dubai, Mauritius, and Hanoi).

Her research examines the intersection of promotion and policy, identifying ways marketing, branding, and PR can help guide public policy and urban planning for competitive places in the 21st century. She is an expert in the ‘professionalisation’ of place branding practice and has developed a new framework for understanding the occupational resources and responsibilities that place marketers hold in key areas in a city’s policy value chain.

Her work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals, including Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, the International Journal of Tourism Cities, Marketing Theory, and The Journal of Place Management and Development.

Her latest research projects examine the role of sustainability discourses and climate action mitigation practices in city branding; identifying the policy platitudes, political paralysis and PR problems that occur at both the global and hyper-local levels of municipal governments in UK and Canada.

Before embarking on her postgraduate studies in the UK, her career spanned 17 years in Toronto, Canada, as a visual identity, branding, advertising and public relations specialist in high-impact sectors such as finance, energy, legal, tourism, festivals and economic development. She spent six years at Toronto City Hall, managing city branding strategies, international promotional campaigns for public cultural events, resident engagement programmes and tourism initiatives.