King’s Day costs: why municipalities invest millions in city marketing

Expect a lot this Monday grutskFrisian pride. Frisian horses bring in the royal family of Dokkum, there is bounce, fierljept and reference to the Elfstedentocht – the city is the turning point on the skating route. The Frisian band De Kast will perform, among others. The mayor of Noardeast-Fryslân hopes that all this – to be seen live on television – “will put our region in the national spotlight.”

That promotion costs millions. Dokkum spends 1.5 million euros on King’s Day, the province of Fryslân doubles that amount to 3 million. The previous host cities of King’s Day, Doetinchem (2025) and Emmen (2024), spent 2.8 million and 2.3 million euros respectively on a budget of more than 357 million and 580 million euros.

Doetinchem’s goal was to introduce the Netherlands to “naobership, innovation and solidarity” and to “the most beautiful things in the Achterhoek”. The Emmen city council wanted to show that the city was “unjustly dangling at the bottom of all kinds of bad lists” and called King’s Day “fantastic promotion” and a “calling card”.

That could be King’s Day, says Peter Kentie. For years he was responsible for the city marketing of Eindhoven, he won prizes and wrote the book Share the Vibe about how city promotion is mainly a long-term process. “In many cities the thought quickly arises: ‘Let’s buy a TV program’, because that’s what you actually do on King’s Day. But you have to be able to link the event to your identity,” he says.

‘Amsterdam scenes’

According to Kentie, good city marketing has three principles: “What makes you different, which elements are included and what is your objective?” Eindhoven, he says, wants to present itself as a city of technology and design, attract talent and receive tourists without “Amsterdam scenes”. According to him, the annual Dutch Design Week fits in with this: it attracts “the good visitors and great entrepreneurs”.

King Willem-Alexander’s birthday is celebrated every year, but always somewhere different. “As a result, the event does not remain tied to a specific city,” says Kentie. That is not necessarily a problem, he believes: “For a small municipality, organizing may create pride or connection. If that is the goal, such an event can have an effect.”

It’s what Emmen says two years later. King’s Day was said to be successful and the municipality wanted to “guarantee and roll out the momentum,” says city marketer Wendy van der Veen. Emmen measures that success purely by the viewing figures of the live broadcast of the NOS, with an average of 2.3 million viewers, and “the people of Emmen themselves are proud of it.”

Van der Veen: “At the front, residents said ‘is that necessary?’. When it was over, everyone was proud.” Colleague Janwillem Naaldenberg, creative strategist: “If residents can then act as proud ambassadors, you get a different dynamic in how people view a region.”

According to him, Emmen showed himself “as a spectacular version of himself” on the day itself. But, Van der Veen and Naaldenberg also say, “after that you have to keep working on your image.” The municipality has allocated another half a million euros for this for two years, which has already resulted in the campaign ‘Discover Emmen’.

Naaldenberg: “You have to keep repeating what you have to offer. Emmen puts itself in the shop window with peace, space and energy.” He says: “Projects like King’s Day are fantastic, it puts you on the map. I would recommend it to other municipalities.”

Compelling visual culture of television

Peter Kentie is more cautious. “You can be visible on television, but you have to know what with.” He says: “Councillors are always keen to secure a big event.” But not every event is the same, he warns.

Also with live programs such as The Passion and the Sinterklaas arrival or with the Glass House of 3FMs Serious Request, municipalities want to put themselves ‘on the map’. They have “an even more compelling visual culture than King’s Day,” says Kentie. “Den Bosch had a fantastic Glass House, the city was really taken along. But if you are not careful, it is a random square on which that house is located.”

Although the contours of King’s Day have varied little in recent years – arrival of the royal family, dancing and singing, sports and games, a quiz and a final performance by a well-known band from the region – the accents were local.

Where Emmen welcomed the family with cyclists and had the Drenthe singer Daniël Lohues sing ‘Here I come away’, Doetinchem did so with mopeds and Suzan & Freek. Emmen wanted to show that there is a lot of space in the municipality, including through images of the wooded area, while Doetinchem showed naivety at long dining tables. In Emmen, Princess Amalia played shuffleboard with the world shuffleboard champion, and in Doetinchem, football coach Guus Hiddink participated in the program. And in Eindhoven – which organized the digital corona version of King’s Day in 2021 – everything was all about technology.

That local accent is important, says Peter Kentie. “Cities are starting to realize that they have to be distinctive.” After all, the ultimate goal of city marketing is ‘market getting’, he says, and thus economic growth.

Tilburg conducted research

Does King’s Day also deliver that? In evaluations afterwards, reference is often made to the high viewing figures of the NOS broadcast, as Emmen also does. Or to the catering expenses on the day itself.

The Court of Audit Tilburg conducted further research and concluded in 2019 that the presence of the royal family had “contributed positively to the image of the city and the pride of the Tilburg people”. The Court of Audit also wrote: “This observation is not substantiated by (independent) research, but concerns the feelings of various interviewees.”

Correction (April 23): An earlier version stated that Emmen is allocating another two million euros for city marketing, which is half a million for the next two years.

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