First Edition Anholt State Brands Index:
Canadians torn between State mega-brands and wilderness brands

-- Canadians win the international knowledge game on American States --

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – September 19th, 2006 – Simon Anholt’s inaugural global State Brands Index (SBI 2006) powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) reveals that Canadians have a great appreciation and knowledge for both the culture and wilderness states, whilst also having a far greater knowledge about U.S. state brands when compared with the other 15 countries polled.

Simon Anholt, government advisor and author of the first Anholt State Brands Index report commented, “The results show that Canadian citizens have a deep respect and knowledge for its neighboring country, where conversely all 14 other foreign and border countries to the USA surveyed made frequent mistakes, such as confuse Washington D.C. with Washington State or New York City with New York State.”

All countries surveyed voted California and Florida as ‘mega-brands’ in six of the State Brands Index’s unique categories, which include Presence, Place, Prerequisites, People, Pulse and Potential. Hawaii and New York are positioned in the second league of brand power, with a sizeable gap between them and the remaining 46 states. 44 of these are clustered relatively closely in terms of their brand strength. The states with the lowest opinion globally were Alabama (49th) and New Jersey (50th).

Canadian respondents provided the following findings:

1. The Presence: Canadian respondents were asked whether they had actually visited the states or not, and whether each state had made an important contribution to America and to the world during the last 30 years in culture, science, or the way places are governed.

   Results in order of ranking are:

   1. New York
   2. Florida
   3. California
   4. Michigan
   5. Maine
   6. Vermont
   7. Washington
   8. New Jersey
   9. Pennsylvania
   10. Massachusetts

2. The Place: Canadian respondents were asked to explore their perceptions about the physical aspect of each state, from traveling around the cities and the countryside of each state to evaluating the beauty and climate of the state.

   Results in order of ranking were:

   1. Hawaii
   2. Vermont
   3. Alaska
   4. Colorado
   5. Maine
   6. Montana
   7. Florida
   8. Oregon
   9. Wyoming
   10. Virginia

3. The Prerequisites: Canadian respondents were asked how they perceive the basic qualities of the state: what they think it would be like to live there, how easy it would be to find satisfactory accommodation and what they believe the general public amenities to be.

   Ranking of favorable states was:

   1. Minnesota
   2. Oregon
   3. Utah
   4. Wisconsin
   5. New Hampshire
   6. Ohio
   7. Maine
   8. Vermont
   9. North Carolina
   10. Colorado

4. The People: Canadian respondents were asked to share whether the inhabitants of the states would be warm and friendly, or cold and prejudiced against outsiders. Panelists were also asked how safe they would feel there.

   Those states ranked highly were:

   1. Florida
   2. Maine
   3. California
   4. New Hampshire
   5. Vermont
   6. Louisiana
   7. Ohio
   8. Colorado
   9. Minnesota
   10. Virginia

5. The Pulse: Canadian respondents were asked how exciting each state was, and how easy it would be to find interesting things to do, as a short-term visitor and as a long-term resident.

   The states that came out on top were:

   1. Hawaii
   2. California
   3. Florida
   4. New York
   5. Nevada
   6. Louisiana
   7. Colorado
   8. Tennessee
   9. Vermont
   10. South Carolina

6. The Potential: Canadian respondents were asked to look at the economic and educational opportunity that is believed to offer visitors, businesses and immigrants.

   Results of ranked states were:

   1. California
   2. New York
   3. Florida
   4. Massachusetts
   5. Washington
   6. Connecticut
   7. Texas
   8. Ohio
   9. Colorado
   10. North Carolina

Simon Anholt commented, “The Canadian results throughout indicate that Canada has high expectations of the mega-brand states, and will typically visit these states to absorb the culture and enjoy the American dream. On the flip side, they also show that Canadians take great joy in visiting the wilderness states, which offer remoteness and natural beauty when compared with all other respondents from 15 countries, including the Americans that were polled.”

For further information:

Clare Hamilton-Eddy & Caroline Stokes, Chocolate
Communications - 1.604.739.9580

About the Anholt State Brands Index

The Anholt State Brands Index was conducted between May 25 and June 12, 2006 on the GMIPoll platform (www.gmipoll.com), which provides integrated solutions for global market intelligence. A representative sample based on age, gender, and where applicable, geographic region, race, and ethnicity, was collected in the United States (9,000 completes) and the top 15 inbound tourism markets (12,410 completes) for a total of 21,410 completes. For further information about the Anholt State Brands Index methodology, please contact GMI at http://www.gmi-mr.com/contact/ or visit www.statebrandsindex.com to download the SBI executive summary.

About Simon Anholt

Anholt originally developed and launched the concept of the Nation Brands Index in April 2005. Recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the branding of countries, regions and cities, Anholt advises a number of national governments and United Nations agencies on brand strategy, public diplomacy, cultural relations, tourism and economic development.

About GMI

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only company that provides comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2000 companies. Powered by GMI Vancouver and sales offices in Toronto, this includes Net-MRTM, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, 24/7 service bureau capabilities and highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels. GMI offers one of the world’s largest panels, spanning across 200 countries, more than any other supplier. Founded in 1999 with world headquarters in Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents. More information is available at www.gmi-mr.com or contact us at http://www.gmi-mr.com/contact/.