City branding is currently widely used as a tourism marketing strategy. In Indonesia, city branding is still only in the form of jargon from the government. City branding is not a jargon, but city branding is how to explore the potential of the area to form a positioning that will be easily remembered by tourists. To further strengthen this positioning, it requires the active role of various parties in carrying out branding strategies in the region. The purpose of this research was to explain a city branding concept using a triple helix approach between the government, SMEs and the community in which there are many academics. The results in this study explain that in building city branding it is important to build relationships between the three pillars of government, SMEs and communities. This is because in building city branding, it is not just giving a tagline or jargon to an area. But it needs physical evidence that appears, can be seen and felt by tourists. The active role of UKM players who are assisted by the creative community in producing creative products, is an important role in providing physical evidence of a city branding. The government’s role is certainly the main one, as the owner of regulations that support the role of SMEs and communities.
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