New city tagline up for final approval Monday

The new city tagline Outside the Ordinary, as well as a new logo, may be officially adopted by council on Monday.

City councillors had rejected the proposed tagline in November, but then changed their minds at a meeting March 26.

Paul Hickey, president of the local marketing firm BrandHealth, gave a presentation at that meeting to show councillors how the tagline would work as part of the city’s promotional materials.

He showed a series of photos showing Peterborough landmarks such as the small, busy Peterborough Airport with Not Your Ordinary Airport written across it, or photos of the Saturday farmers’ market bearing the words Not Your Ordinary Market.

Hickey also unveiled a proposed new logo featuring “peterborough” in lower case and a wave above the word.

Councillors liked what they saw and endorsed the tagline and logo on March 26. Now it needs a final endorsement from city council; the vote is scheduled for Monday.

The city hired BrandHealth last year to develop a new brand for Peterborough to attract people to invest in the city and to move here.

For a fee of $77,000, the firm was to come up with a tagline, logo, colours and a guidebook explaining how to use the new branding in material related to the city.

But BrandHealth’s first tagline — Where Roads and Rivers Meet — was rejected by council in July.

The next tagline, Live Outside the Ordinary, was presented to council by BrandHealth in early November, and it was rejected too.

But Hickey hadn’t presented it to councillors, and there was no logo or examples of how the tagline would apply to promotional materials.

On March 26 Hickey explained the concept in detail to councillors, saying it’s OK to state that we have a better way of working and living than other places – in other words, places that may be “ordinary.”

The council meeting begins Monday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.