Branding: Nothing ordinary about the creative process

While it took a full year to get there, Peterborough now has a catchier new tagline that will anchor the “branding” process that is considered crucial these days.

After rejecting a first offering from local marketing firm BrandHealth, city council initially also gave the boot to the firm’s second effort: Live Outside the Ordinary.

But on Monday night councillors unanimously endorsed Outside the Ordinary, a modified version, following a pitch from BrandHealth president Paul Hickey.

It could be argued the turnaround represents council being dragged, reluctantly, into the 21st Century.

Back in November there was a strong sense council would end up sticking with tried and true Peterborough, It’s a Natural, adopted three decades ago.

That would have been the comfortable option. But comfortable was not the plan when BrandHealth won a $77,000 contract to come up with a more modern tagline and develop a new colour scheme, graphics and a guidebook showing how all three would be incorporated into the city’s advertising and public messaging.

Regurgitating It’s a Natural with some tweaks wouldn’t have represented a step into the future. More like a city with its rubber boots stuck in the mud.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. And now, taking a look back, the process actually worked pretty well.

The original contract set a requirement for meaningful public consultation. That happened after BrandHealth presented its first crack at a tagline: Where Roads and Rivers Meet.

Reaction was negative to mixed. The worst of the negative appeared immediately on social media, as would be expected. Most of it was not worth paying attention to.

However, the 900 or so responses to a post on the city’s website included many thoughtful comments that suggested a more dynamic approach was needed.

BrandHealth went back to work and came up with Live Outside the Ordinary.

The majority of council remained unimpressed. Between the social media trolls and chatter from others who rallied behind It’s a Natural, it seemed BrandHealth’s expertise would be discounted.

But to council’s credit it gave the company a chance. Going back to the first city staff report that proposed a rebranding effort, the most important internal message was that a tagline would be part of a package and the package had to be seen as a whole to be appreciated

That’s what happened on Monday night. Hickey didn’t bring the entire package, but he showed how and why the proposed tagline would work in a video and print ads.

A great marketing or advertising campaign typically depends on a bit of stardust, something not everyone can see until it is pointed out.

Council got to see it. Everything the city is doing to promote itself could work inside the Not Ordinary frame. Ordinary is crowded GTA suburbia and a threehour drive to the cottage; Peterborough is Outside the Ordinary.

The list went on: Not Your Ordinary Airport, Not Your Ordinary Market.

Councillors were impressed. And they likely would have been impressed had they given BrandHealth a chance to put Where Roads and Rivers Meet in the context of an entire campaign.

But Roads and Rivers was not as good a tagline. Council’s reluctance to accept it led BrandHealth to step up and produce something better.

And council, to its credit, embraced the better option – once it opened its collective eyes to the stardust.