This research group gathers European researchers and practitioners working on marketing- and communication-related issues in the public sector. It focuses on the analysis of marketing and communication strategies, policies, as well as the tools adopted by public organizations for designing policies and delivering services.

More specifically, sessions dedicated to marketing revolve around two main themes:

1) Public-sector marketing. This session focuses mostly on social marketing (e.g., pro-environmental behaviors, healthy behaviors, nudges, performance of social advertising campaigns) and marketing in/for public services (users/targets’ expectations and needs, service delivery process, measurement of satisfaction). 

2) Place branding and marketing. This session focuses on place promotion, place branding and place marketing for the attractiveness and management of investments, destination and MICE management, and residential attractiveness (place marketing diagnostic, image, reputation, identity), as well as governance analysis.

Sessions dedicated to communication welcome contributions that relate to two main themes:

3) Digital communication. This session gathers contributions on digital communication channels, especially social media. It relates to the choice of media used, content analysis, and user engagement (interaction with community members and effectiveness of the communication channels used).

4) Transparency policies. This session gathers contributions revolving around government transparency, focusing on state- citizen relationships, managerial aspects, the effects on trust and corruption, evaluation of transparency from a communication perspective, and issues related to the implementation of Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.

Relevant contributions addressing other communication-related issues, such as management of communication strategies, communication planning and campaigns, creation of public value through government communication, branding of public entities, crisis communication, etc. will be given full consideration and presented during additional sessions of the study group.