The Star has Risen...What Now?

Today The MetroHartford Alliance, along with Hartford Business Improvement District the City of Hartford and a ton of other people did something great. As we near the end of the Rising Star campaign that has been Hartford's motto for the past ten years, the City looks for a new image that just screams us. But not only should it flamboyantly shout "We're Hartford, we're fabulous, get used it it!" but it should say it to people who live close by, kinda think we're fabulous, but not fabulous enough to want to live here. You know, the people who like us as a friend and don't want to ruin it by taking it too far. Ooh! I got it! We're the friend with benefits of the suburbs! That's it. Shut it down. The search for a slogan is over. HARTFORD: Your Friend. With Benefits!

For the past few months the powers that be, along with the marketing company Cundari, have been putting a lot of work into a new campaign. And today they decided to do something really cool and share what they've been working on with the public. On one hand, it sounds like a royal pain in the ass on their part, listening to a ton of opinions when you could really just tell people to shove it and do what I want. But it's also really awesome because we all get to have a say in this process and people are actually eager to hear what we have to say!

There were two sessions for this event. The first was at the Convention Center this morning. The second, which I attended, was at the downtown branch of the Hartford Public Library. It was very well attended and I think most people were eager to see what they had in place. Read the actual presentation and then I'll tell you what I think about each concept:

Now before I start, I want to point out some things about this campaign that you should know before going in.
1. Like I mentioned, this campaign is to gain "regional interest in the city" as the city's Chief Operating Officer David Panagore stated.
2. Cundari conducted a poll of those outside the city and found that 33% of those surveyed would like to come to Hartford and 56% of THOSE people already work here. There needs to be something to make them stick around and they overwhelmingly wanted to see live events.
3. They also are aiming to attract a certain type of person. This isn't aiming for couch potatoes who don't have much of a nightlife. This is for people who want to go out and spend money, but rather than watch them go to Boston, New Haven or New York, convincing them to stay closer to home for just as good a time.

Concept #1
Logo: The logo is cute. Though I'm not the biggest fan of the star in the middle, I think my favorite view of it is the all-white on the posters showing musical nightlife. It's versatile and can be toned down or pepped up.
Campaign: I thought that the tagline "Make your own history" was very nice and commented that I loved how it was acknowledging that Hartford has a rich historical past, but also a future that we shouldn't stifle. It's mixing old with new and I think that design scheme in combination with the vibrant logo makes a happy marriage.

Concept #2
Logo: I went into this presentation not liking this logo. As someone else pointed out, when the H's are all together, it just looks like a big ole mess. And the colors are not ideal. But seeing it in person and how the mosaic tiles can be used to showcase pictures, I really began to see the concept of Hartford being a mosaic of different people, cultures and things to do. I was hooked.
Campaign: This interactive campaign was also lost on me when just reading it online. It's not that I didn't get it, it just kind of got an eyeroll from me. The trendy idea of checking in places on foursquare, the endless tweeting we all do. It was like pandering to our generation of short attention spans and oversharing. But once again, seeing the concept in person hooked me. The fact is that we ARE oversharers. We love telling people what we think when no one asked. So why not get visitors excited about oversharing in the capital city?

Concept #3
Logo: Not bad, not great. A friend of mine said that the arrows (meant to convey things happening in all directions in Hartford) seemed to direct people away from Hartford. I didn't really read that much into it, it just didn't appeal to me. It was a bit too tame for my taste.
Campaign: This was my favorite concept going in. I still think it's fun and creative, and I sort of hope they find some way to incorporate it if they go with something else. Maybe not make it the entire focus, but one TV commercial or something.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about this campaign as time goes on. Make sure you check out the presentation and also take the survey on Hartford.com's page, which will be up for a few weeks! Make your opinion heard and keep the constructive criticisms going! What do you like, what don't you like and most importantly, what do you think would improve what you don't like? Get cracking!