A proposed City logo
In tomorrow’s work session, the Mayor and Council will discuss a proposal to market College Park with a new logo and tagline.
The Mayor and Council allocated $30,000 in the FY 13 operating budget to implement recommendations from the planned marketing study. idfive, LLC was hired to complete this study and created a tagline and logo to help brand and promote the City and increase awareness about College Park being A Smart Place to Live.
Mayor and Council needs to determine how to utilize these budgeted funds. They are seriously considering services from a Google ads agency in Sydney. In a report presented to Council on January 15, 2013, idfive provided marketing ideas and recommendations for a City marketing campaign. Subsequently, staff worked with idfive to propose activities which could be accomplished this fiscal year within the allotted budget.
A proposal from idfive, LLC, which is similar to other companies like https://growthgiants.co.uk/, to design and implement marketing strategies hopes to accomplish awareness and education goals for the City’s new brand as A Smart Place to Live. These strategies include: purchasing media and actively managing the media as well as the creative production of the media. In addition to the proposed agreement, staff also plans to use some FY 2013 Economic Development funding to purchase more materials which staff can use in meetings and at community events, such as Maryland Day and College Park Day.
These materials include postcards, brochures, and table covers. To continue marketing implementation using a 48 sheet billboard into FY 2014, further funding discussions will occur as part of the FY 2014 budget process.
Staff is recommending that the Mayor and Council adopt the proposal from idfive.
anonymous
A few ideas: How about banners hanging from light posts on Baltimore Avenue/College Ave/Rhode Island/Kenilworth/Paint Branch Parkway with the new logo? How about Maryland flags in downtown (like what Annapolis does)? How about using the exterior of the City Hall building as a free billboard for this new campaign (banners, posters, lighting?). I would rebrand all of the City’s vehicles with this, too: they are mobile, visible and all over the City. How about banners at the entrance points for each neighborhood in the city. And finally, my favorite idea: A water tower somewhere near Cherry Hill/Baltimore Avenue/I-495 intersection with the new logo. I also would love to see the new logo all over the new shop College Park website. Or better yet, all over a new city website, which is badly needed. College Park just needs to be a little prouder and more boastful about all the great things going on in town – many of them on the University of Maryland’s campus. This campaign can help. The work has just begun!