GLASGOW has swept the board at a prestigious European awards for its brand People Make Glasgow.

One year on from the launch of what was the world's first crowd-sourced city branding campaign, the marketing scheme scooped four titles.

The city won an unprecedented gold and three silvers at the European Transform Awards, which reward rebranding and brand development.

And marketing bosses said the score was a "resounding vote of confidence" for Glasgow.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, chairman of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), said: "The Transform Awards are recognised as the European branding industry's Oscars, so to have come away with four awards against such strong competition demonstrates a resounding vote of confidence in People Make Glasgow.

"This year will be one of the most exciting, and high profile, in Glasgow's history as we prepare to welcome the Commonwealth Games, BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and the MTV European Music Awards to our already packed calendar of great annual events and festivals.

"It's no coincidence that the people of Glasgow are at the heart of our brand as it is the people of Glasgow who will ensure hundreds of thousands of visitors over the summer, and beyond, enjoy an unforgettable experience."

The European Transform Awards are judged by some of the some of the world's leading experts from firms including FIFA, Barclaycard, Aviva, Hilton Hotels, Legal and General and BAE Systems.

They were presented at a gala dinner at The Brewery in London hosted by former Labour PR chief Alastair Campbell, and attended by 500 industry leaders from across the UK and Europe.

Glasgow collected gold for best external stakeholder relations and three silver awards for best brand architecture solution; best implementation of a rebrand and best visual identity from the public sector.

The city fought off global competition from some of the world's biggest blue chip companies.

These included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank; Lloyds Bank; WorldPay Zinc; ITV (ITN); Tata Power - India's largest integrated power company - and Canadian security and risk management company GardaWorld as well as Evelina London Children's Hospital and the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick.

Other big winners on the night included Interbrand, Tesco and The Commercial Bank of Qatar.

Broadcaster ITV collected the top prize, the Grand Prix for excellence in rebranding, and narrowly piped GCMB to gold in two categories.

People Make Glasgow is used to market the city to national and international markets as a world-class visitor destination and business and investment location.

GCMB asked people from Glasgow and ex-pats to come up with ideas for a new brand for the city- and People Make Glasgow was the result.

Mr Matheson added: "Winning gold for our stakeholder relations activity is particularly pleasing and reflects the success of the work undertaken by GCMB in engaging residents, business leaders and fans of the city, all across the world, in the brand's development - it truly was on a global scale.

"GCMB celebrated its ninth birthday this week and winning these awards have provided the perfect springboard from which to ensure the next nine years are equally successful."

Andrew Thomas, editor of Communicate magazine and founder of the Transform Awards, said: "The judges felt that Glasgow City Marketing Bureau was a deserved winner of the best external stakeholder relations category, and their three silver awards."

catriona.stewart @eveningtimes.co.uk