Council now fully behind new city tagline

Unclear when city branding will roll out with new Outside the Ordinary tagline

The new city tagline Outside the Ordinary, as well as a new logo, was officially adopted by city council on Monday with no debate from councillors.

There was one citizen there to object: Marie Bongard, who attends council meetings regularly and speaks up often, said she thought Peterborough ought to brand itself as Lift Lock City.

“Peterborough has been put on the map due to the Lift Lock — it’s world renowned,” she said. “It will give us more mileage.”

But council didn’t agree: it endorsed Outside the Ordinary at a general committee meeting on March 26 and voted a final time to adopt it Monday.

Yet the same tagline was rejected by council in November.

Council changed its mind after Paul Hickey, president of the local marketing firm BrandHealth, gave a presentation March 26 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.

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

Bongard said Monday she likes that logo, but she thought it would work better if Peterborough branded itself Lift Lock City.

That idea was never considered, however: BrandHealth wrote in a report to council that they wanted to be forward-thinking and offer a brand that doesn’t tether the city to its history.

The city hired the local marketing firm 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 and a guidebook explaining how to use the new branding in promotional material.

It wasn’t clear Monday when the new branding of the city will roll out.

NOTE: See more city council coverage on Page A2.