From what I can tell, these are actually from 2005, but talk about a place embracing its true nature, shortcomings and all, and then selling the hell out of it as a differentiator:
- Found via Brand Arcade
Posts Tagged ‘economic development marketing’
Tourism ads from Wales turn shortcomings into selling features
Monday, June 21st, 2010on3 announces expansion to Atlantic Canada
Friday, April 23rd, 2010We are thrilled to announce our expansion to Atlantic Canada! This summer, we will be opening our doors in our new home of Summerside, Prince Edward Island:
SUMMERSIDE, April 19, 2010 – On Three Communication Design Inc. recently announced the expansion of its operations to Summerside, Prince Edward Island. The marketing company, headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, is currently exploring office space options in the city, and hopes to open its doors in June 2010.
“The growth and opportunity in Atlantic Canada is what motivated our decision to come to Summerside,” explains Jim McGimpsey, partner at On Three. “We have enjoyed our work on the Island immensely, and it’s time to hang out our shingle and continue to grow our business here.”
Although its Summerside location is new, On Three is no stranger to the Island. “We have been working on marketing initiatives in Summerside for years,” says On Three’s Heather Ciere. “We’ve come to love it here, so opening a Summerside location feels a little bit overdue actually. Once the decision was made we knew it was the right one.”
Ciere and McGimpsey are the minds behind projects like the Summerside commercials that aired during the Canada Games, the “Brick” Health IT business investment campaign, and the Summerside branding initiative that won national acclaim from the Economic Developers Association of Canada. On Three hopes to build on this portfolio with a larger group of clients as a result of their Atlantic Canada expansion.
Click here to view our Media Release and announcement of a Youth Business Contest.
10 Place Branding Logos: Hits and Misses
Friday, April 16th, 2010Over the years, we have reviewed many approaches to branding places – from tourism to economic development logos, from small cities to entire nations. Some got it right, and some got it horribly, horribly wrong. We’ve captured our most popular reviews in this post for your enjoyment and inspiration. Read on to see what we thought about these place branding winners and losers:
THE WINNERS
First up: Kirkland, WA.
Here’s an example of a community that really gets destination branding. Kirkland, WA is a town on the shores of Lake Washington that has embraced and nurtured a strong artistic community. This is evidenced by its many galleries, events and a thriving public arts program. It has also embraced its proximity to the water, designing the town around walking trails that facilitate shopping and dining by the lake. So when it came time to launch its new look, Kirkland identified and married these two elements of their community in a well-executed identity… Read the whole review.
Our next example of place branding done right: Copenhagen.
A very nice new visual identity out of Copenhagen that was posted over at Brand New. It’s logo design done right under the constraint of having to serve many masters: attract tourism, attract business, create civic pride, promote sporting events… a challenge certainly not unfamiliar to economic development professionals… Read the whole review.
One of my personal favorites: The U.S. Virgin Islands
The figure is a “Mocko Jumbie” – a traditional stiltwalker that represents the culture of the USVI. The three stars represent each Island. It is striking as a shape when it is in one colour and the individual applications for each island balance a unified look and feel with some individuality. It feels tropical, culture-rich and laid-back. Very well done. Read the whole review.
Belfast:
Belfast has unveiled a new logo and set of taglines to brand itself as a safe, welcoming and enterprising place to be. Although the heart has been done before (think I love New York), it also works as the letter “B”, and a variety of taglines and colours gives different groups flexibility when using the new brand, similar to the approach taken by the City of Summerside, PEI. You can read more about it over at Brand New.
And finally, Alberta:
Alberta has unveiled a strong new identity to the world. The branding initiative will cost $25 million over three years, and it is a bold undertaking indeed… Read the whole review.
THE LOSERS
Philadelphia failed to ring our bell:
Creating an identity for an entire city or region is a tough undertaking. You are trying to please many different stakeholders. You’re trying to communicate many different messages, but with limited real estate to do so. And you are creating something that is sure to be scrutinized very closely by many, because they have a stake in their city’s brand, and often some concern about how much public money is being spent on marketing activities. With all these challenges, it is very tempting to do something safe and easy, which is exactly the trap that Philadelphia fell into. In fact, this new logo serves up a lot of place branding “don’ts” in a single creative execution… Read the whole review.
Brisbane has a good concept, but poor execution:
I don’t love this tagline, but I do think it was smart to put “Australia” right in the tag, as it shows an awareness of the need to market globally and not everyone knows which Brisbane is being referred to here without it. Read the whole review.
Alberta gets caught in a major blunder:
Although it made our winners list, Alberta deserves a mention here as well for getting caught in an embarrassing situation involving one of its promotional videos. From our blog post:
After coming our swinging with a $25 million campaign slated to roll out over the next three years, Alberta finds itself dealing with some unfortunate negative publicity. Today’s Globe and Mail ran a story about Alberta being caught red-handed using stock photography in a promotional video. Read the full review here.
YOU BE THE JUDGE
Melbourne, Australia:
Melbourne gets mixed reviews, with a thumbs-up on the colourful approach and a thumbs-down on the PR surrounding the launch and the single-colour verison of the logo. Read the whole review.
Raleigh seems confused…
What do you think? Does the logo trip over its own attempt to be all things to all people? Read the review here.
Egypt gets it right… and wrong:
Beautiful logo, but tough to read. Points for the tagline though: In Egypt’s case, this generic tagline is actually quite meaningful. See the review here.
So there you have it: Our place branding hits and misses. We’d love to hear yours. Post your thoughts in the comments.
Great idea to encourage visitors to your downtown!
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Tambour, a paint retailer in Israel, sponsored free parking in Eilat, the number one tourist city in the country. The campaign was part of “colour month”, and involved transforming curbside parking spots into free parking using rainbow-coloured paints. This is great visibility for the paint company, and a huge incentive to encourage downtown traffic and boost tourism dollars for local businesses. A real win-win, and very creative and eye-catching as well.
Found via I believe in advertising.
Louisiana EDO gets it right with targeted banner ads
Friday, February 19th, 2010It’s pretty rare that you notice a banner ad online these days. But what if the banner ad was in a “language” that really spoke to you… as a digital media professional?
Louisiana Economic Development has embraced niche marketing in a really unique way, using programming language to catch the eye of digital media professionals who code with these languages everyday.
It works because it is so targeted. It works because it communicates its message in a really unique way. It works because it’s not a generic banner ad – it takes a risk and goes after one very specific group.
Most importantly, it works because it tells that demographic “We get you.”
Well done Louisiana. You can visit the corresponding website here.
on3′s top 10 posts of 2009
Monday, December 21st, 2009on3 is a marketing and communications agency that specializes in promoting places, not products. This blog has become a place for us to take the best stuff from marketing and advertising and make it relevant to Canadian economic developers.
And 2009 has been QUITE the year for economic developers.
We’ve done our best to chronicle some of the challenges, showcase best practices and to examine what a tough economic climate means for marketing and communication design. Based on traffic, these are our most popular blog posts from 2009. Enjoy!
- How the Toronto Star lost my business for good… and what economic development marketers can learn from it.
- $75,000 for THAT?
- “Quality of life” becoming more important for relocation… but what does the term really mean?
- The role of ambassador programs in economic development marketing
- Tell the truth in city marketing
- Oh General Motors, you didn’t. Wait. You did.
- White Paper: Has branding become a dirty word?
- Eleven myths of economic development.
- Alberta rebrands itself
- Alberta branding campaign gets caught in a major blunder.
This blog will keep trying making sense of marketing and communication for economic developers in 2010. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it.
Place branding: 5 ways to get it right
Monday, December 14th, 20091. Be different from your competitors
Many economic development organizations fail to think about the competition when thinking about branding their communities. This is a tenet of traditional product branding that place marketers would be wise to observe. You must recognize that site selectors, businesses and workers are not looking at your city in isolation. It is one choice in a sea of options, and the only way to stand out is to think not just about what your city has to offer, but to think about what your city offers that is different.
As the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) points out:
“Technically, your community may have the same strengths and assets as a number of others. The key is finding a differentiator in the mind of the client, and understanding site selection criteria so you can turn features such as transportation or education into distinct advantages.”
Don’t be afraid to take a stand and commit to what makes you different. Many people shy away from this approach for fear of losing some of their potential audience, but the result of trying to be all things to all people is usually a “bland brand” that resonates with no one. Build your brand message around your competitive advantage.
2. Tell the truth
The Saffron Group – a British consultancy – recently released a study that compared the brand strength of European cities. The study looked at both the assets the city had to offer (e.g. culture, amenities etc.) as well as the current image of the city. In many cases, cities had assets that they were not leveraging, resulting in an image that was weaker than what the city had to offer in reality.
But in some cases, the opposite was true.
Cities did a great job of selling an image that embellished (or worse) what the city offered in reality. This resulted in a city whose image was stronger than its actual assets. In short, these cities fail to live up to their own hype.
A sustainable economic development communications strategy requires the reality lives up to the perception. Identify your current assets, match them to an audience that values those assets and fill the gaps you need to attract sectors targeted in your economic development strategy. If you build it they will come. If you already have it, they will come for that too. But if you are dishonest about it, they will come, see for themselves… and then they will promptly leave.
3. Get stakeholders excited about what really matters
Too often we see stakeholders being poorly utilized in the branding process. It’s not uncommon to find a group of community leaders huddled around a conference table debating the merits of a red versus blue logo, rather than engaging with an overall strategy and vision. Get your stakeholders excited about what is really driving the branding exercise in the first place. This will garner lasting engagement that can be counted on well after the launch of the brand.
Australia’s Brisbane logo grows up?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009The logo on the left was designed in 2003, and was not so affectionately referred to as “the blob”. Fast forward to 2009, and it looks like Brisbane is taking a less controversial approach, with a new look and tagline:
Christian Palino sums it up best in his review over at Brand New:
If the marketing blob was as outspoken and playful as youth, the new identity is soft-spoken and more grown up. Grown up much in the way the modifier “it’s happening” has buttoned up into the tagline “Australia’s new world city”. This is a maturity from an adolescent marketing identity into destination adulthood, and while this brand can now sit quietly in a room with other similar, adult brands without saying too much, the conversation might be kind of dull.
I don’t love this tagline either, but I do think it was smart to put “Australia” right in the tag, as it shows an awareness of the need to market globally and not everyone knows which Brisbane is being referred to here without it. I quite like the write-up behind the tagline, found in their brand tools:
Brisbane. Positive and forward thinking, generous and optimistic.
We lead the world in infrastructure, health, biotechnology and education and our subtropical climate and sunny disposition is ideal for nurturing and inspiring creativity.
Brisbane is clean, green, friendly, tolerant and multicultural, creative, collaborative and liveable. It’s this openminded and globally responsible attitude that enables us to maintain a balance between progress and sustainability.
Welcome to Brisbane, Australia’s new world city.
It just falls short on the execution, as “new world” is too nebulous a term to be meaningful. You can read the full story over at Brand New here.