The “farm fresh” ad for Merritt displayed at city hall was not done up by the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) or its lead contractor on the destination branding project, Terra Firma Digital Arts.
The ad, which pictures a young man and woman standing face to face in a field with a picnic blanket covering their heads, was designed by a separate ad agency for economic development manager Jerry Sucharyna.
The ad had to go forward to meet deadlines for an economic development magazine and the Gold Country visitors guide. The rest of the campaign will have to wait until TOTA gives the city its branding implementation guidelines, TOTA’s Simone Carlysle-Smith said.
“He [Sucharyna] needed to get some ads out for a couple of publications by a particular deadline, so those ads were done by an ad agency that he works with. The logo and the tagline were in production at the time, and those were released to him in order to make those ad deadlines. Those are not our work,” Carlysle-Smith said.
Sucharyna said he went ahead with implementing an official advertisement because that was the direction council approved at the Feb. 11 meeting when the new branding was adopted.
He said Merritt needed to have an ad in those magazines for marketing purposes.
“Merritt’s always participated in those magazines and to just drop out of them, that’s too big of a piece to miss,” Sucharyna said.
“We took a step so that we could meet their deadlines.”
Carlysle-Smith said TOTA and Terra Firma Digital Arts weren’t able to accommodate that requirement, so the ad was done by another organization.
“We weren’t ready to do creative because we want to set the foundation for the future rather than try to deal with short-term ads in the middle of a process,” Carlysle-Smith said.
Sucharyna said there will be no other implementation of the new branding until after the open house, which takes place March 12.
“We are working as closely with TOTA and Terra Firma as we can. We’re working through this process and we’re happy to do so,” Sucharyna said.
Carlysle-Smith said the open house will provide an update on some of the projects currently underway as part of Merritt’s recently adopted tourism plan, particularly the brand project.
“We’re just not getting our day in court, if you will. We just need to get there on the twelfth,” Carlysle-Smith said, noting TOTA hasn’t had a chance to present the destination branding yet.
The open house will take place at the Civic Centre between 6 and 8 p.m. and everything presented will be available on the website totabc.ca for those who can’t make it.
Carlysle-Smith said it will feature visual samples, writing samples, the rationale for changing the branding and a profile of the target markets for the branding.
The new tagline and brand logo will be discussed at the open house, she said.
“We want to make sure that there’s community engagement,” Carlysle-Smith said.
In addition to an update on the new branding, the open house will also provide an update on the progress of the tourism plan implementation.
“Essentially, it is an update to the tourism plan that we’ve been working on with the City of Merritt for the last almost two years,” Carlysle-Smith said. “We approached the City of Merritt in November 2012 to be a part of a case study pilot project to roll out our regional strategy.”
The tourism plan was approved by city council last November.
“There’s a much bigger picture at work here than just the destination branding, but that is the main focus of the open house in terms of reporting on how far we’re at in terms of the tourism plan implementation,” Carlysle-Smith said.
TOTA and Terra Firma Digital Arts are producing samples of how to incorporate the new brand and a book of branding guidelines that summarize the rationale and creative direction of the new brand for the City of Merritt to consult.
She said she expects that book to be finished by the end of March. The branding book and samples is where TOTA’s job will end and then the city will take the new branding forward with implementation.
“Part of our deliverables is a brand book. That actually contains all of the designs, the rationale, the look and feel of how creative should be done for the destination. And within that, we have a website homepage design coming, the new visitor guide with the newspaper and also signage,” Carlysle-Smith said.
“We do want a sample of what the visitor guide could look like, what a sign could look like, what your website homepage should look like. We definitely have those in as samples, but we’re not actually doing any. We’re just showing you samples,” Carlysle-Smith said.
With the new branding tagline and logo completed, the next step is to focus on the style of copywriting, which the advisory committee is reviewing.
She characterized the writing style as descriptive and evocative.
She said the logo and tagline are not the finished product of the branding, which is being rolled out in stages. Carlysle-Smith said TOTA steers the brand based on feedback it’s received at every step in the process, which included an online survey, workshop, and task force.
“You have to learn from each stage that you go through before you progress to the next stage, and I think that’s what people don’t realize. They don’t realize we’re still working on this right now, they think it’s all done,” she said.
Carlysle-Smith said the two main markets the new destination branding “Country with attitude” is geared toward are international travellers and residents of the Lower Mainland.
She said they want to attract people from international destinations who fly into Vancouver and travel to Alberta and back.
“What we’re trying to do is get them to stop in and see what’s unique about each of our communities in the area,” Carlysle-Smith said.
“We approached the City of Merritt in November 2012 to be a part of a case study pilot project to roll out our regional strategy.”
The tourism plan was approved by city council last November.
