The new community brand has been unveiled for the Battlefords.
“Everything under the sun” is the brand announced for the Battlefords, which will be used to identify the community in efforts to promote and market the area to the outside world.
Along with the slogan comes a new logo featuring a gold-coloured sun, blue lettering and blue waves underneath the words The Battlefords.
The brand is to be administered by the Battlefords Tourism and Convention Association which from now on will have a new name — Destination Battlefords.
Destination Battlefords will be used in correspondence and official efforts involving the organization. But “the Battlefords — everything under the sun” will be used in all the promotional efforts on billboards and in the new community guide. The Battlefords Tourism website has also been relaunched as battlefords.ca, and a major upgrade to the tourism app is coming as well.
The brand was developed in concert with a multi-agency committee struck last April, comprised of representatives from City of North Battleford, Town of Battleford, Battlefords Hotels Association, Battlefords Chamber of Commerce and the Battlefords Tourism & Convention Association.
Consulting on the project from the start was the marketing firm MGM Communications out of Saskatoon. Their representatives touted the new slogan as providing a bold statement to people about the community.
“Can any one person or any one place really offer everything under the sun?” asked Greg Fehr, managing partner of MGM Communications.
“Possibly. But the boldness of this statement will attract attention. It will be memorable. It will motivate people and organizations to find out about what the Battlefords is all about.”
There is also an “aspirational” aspect to the slogan as well, Fehr noted, one in which the Battlefords aspires to deliver on its promise.
The intention is for the new slogan to be incorporated into a series of campaigns promoting what the “everything” is. Also unveiled at the brand launch were a number of tourist stands that will be placed at various locations across the Battlefords and area.
Those feature slogans such as “golfing under the sun,” “riding under the sun” or “entertainment under the sun,” highlighting attractions and activities throughout the community.
It has been a long road to the unveiling of the brand, which included formation of the Greater Battlefords Marketing Alliance model, which was incorporated into Battlefords Tourism and Convention Association two years ago.
The rationale behind the effort, Executive Director Ryan Bater told the audience at Chapel Gallery, was to have a consistent messaging for the whole Battlefords community.
“Your tourism branding, your tourism messaging needs to align with your community branding,” Bater said. “When somebody’s here visiting we want them to think about doing business here, we want them to think about relocating (their) family here.”
The objective was to align all of the messaging so that “no matter what organization was involved, we were all singing from the same song sheet.”
Mayor Ian Hamilton of North Battleford and Mayor Derek Mahon were on hand to officially unveil the brand. Mahon called the finished brand a “really good product. We’re extremely happy with it.”
Hamilton called the new messaging “very forward looking. It will impact this community and our communities very significantly well into the future. We are portraying the Battlefords not as a place to drive through and on to other places, we are a destination and we will continue to strive to ensure that people understand that North Battleford is a place to come, to come and enjoy the amenities that we do have, and experience the things we have to offer the province, to Western Canada, to Canada, internationally.”
