"In order to influence a child, one must be careful not to be that child's parent or grandparent."
You want to be his or her peer. Right? Read this article on "branding" Toronto from yesterday's Toronto Star (emphasis mine):
Toronto's "story" is that of a major city with unlimited potential, offering unlimited fun, unlimited culture and unlimited variety.
In short: Toronto unlimited.
Developing and launching that two-word tag line cost $4 million. But this investment could return many millions more if, as hoped, it sparks a tourism and development boom in Canada's largest city.
Despite having a great deal to offer, Toronto has had difficulty attracting its share of tourists. SARS devastated the community's reputation for a time, but erosion in the number of visitors coming to this city was evident even before that.
Experts concluded that a big part of Toronto's problem was that it lacked a compelling "brand" or "story." The city was without a special sense of place that could be captured simply with a memorable slogan and logo.
Officials from the city, province, private sector and federal government pooled their efforts, and their money, in a 13-month quest to find Toronto's brand. They held international focus groups, surveyed thousands of people, and consulted the industry experts.
Finally, they revealed their creation this week, along with a high profile advertising campaign bombarding residents of Chicago, New York and Washington with the "Toronto unlimited" message.
Now ask yourself: What would influence you to visit Toronto? One of those high profile ads, or these four lines from a recent Tom Peters blog post?
Toronto!
In the 60s I dated a woman getting a degree at the University of Toronto. The school was great, but the city was the pits. Today, Toronto is a glorious, "with it" global metropolis. Bloor Street, where I am, is as good as the Mag Mile in Chicago.
In my mind, Toronto could have saved most of that $4 million by hiring Ben and Jackie at Church of the Customer. Right? And that's what a $17.99 investment in my new book - A Clear Eye for Branding - would have saved them. As Robert Morris wrote in a recent email to me:
I am grateful to you and to A Clear Eye for Branding for encouraging me to challenge my core assumptions, premises, and (yes) biases about marketing, branding, and everything else that goes bump in the night.
Please challenge yours.
Posted June 26, 2005
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Tom is timely, thought provoking and all about the new brand vision packaged as a Seinfeld stand up. I went to school on his ideas.
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com and CEO, Eons.
When Tom Asacker writes, I read. Opportunity Screams is the right message for the right time.
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Or perhaps my hometown could have spent the money on getting rid of the dandelions. I still can't wait to get back, however. 10 days and counting.
http://www.kinnon.tv/2005/06/torontos_new_fl.html
Posted by: Bill Kinnon | June 26, 2005 at 10:50 PM
Tom, As a one time resident of this city, I think the best slogan may be the one penned by Ustinov some years ago: Toronto: New York City as if run by the Swiss. Or as he might say today, if he were still alive, Toronto: limited. Grant
Posted by: Grant | June 27, 2005 at 04:13 PM
Tom,
Being a resident of toronto, I see no issues with spending 4M bucks to advertise the city. We never asked for SaRs or the west nile virus neither the blackout. It just happened.
After travelling over 5 continents FEA, Asia, middle east, eu and the north americas, I can atest that toronto is kinda unique, its flavours of cultures is many, however the is always a limit to anything. The challenge the city council has is more of orgnaztion of itself. Too much politics is being played out, rahter then serving the citizens or the tourist industry.
Posted by: /pd | July 04, 2005 at 07:54 AM