Atlanta unveils new marketing campaign

[vicupstate]

Atlanta unveils "The ATL' marketing campaign

I'm posting this for two reasons.

One, there was a lot of discussion on Jacksonville's recent marketing effort "Jacksonville. Where Florida Begins" when it was launched awhile back. The city paid for the plan but put very little money into executing it (buying airtime, ad space, etc). I posted this to illustrate that even a much larger, better known, even international city recognizes the need to market itself. Additionally, even Atlanta does not have the level of awareness that it feels it should have. "the ATL" is putting 4.5mm into this latest effort, pretty significant I would say.

Second, do you think it would be a good idea for Jacksonville to start putting more emphasis on it's nickname "JAX" as opposed to it's full name, Jacksonville. Obviously Atlanta found merit in doing so in this new campaign. JAX would at least be a little more unique. In the Carolinas, it is sometimes necessary to differentiate Jacksonville FL from Jacksonville NC, known as the home of Marine's Camp LeJuene (sp?). Obviously JAX is shorter and takes up less space. If there are any advertising/marketing/artsy/creative - type folks in the forum, your input would be especially welcome.

[ironchapman]

Just want to see if I can give a little help here

For more information, here is the UP thread discussing the campaign from the Atlanta forum.

[TheUrbanCore]

Atlanta unveils "The ATL' marketing campaign

Second, do you think it would be a good idea for Jacksonville to start putting more emphasis on it's nickname "JAX" as opposed to it's full name, Jacksonville. Obviously Atlanta found merit in doing so in this new campaign. JAX would at least be a little more unique. In the Carolinas, it is sometimes necessary to differentiate Jacksonville FL from Jacksonville NC, known as the home of Marine's Camp LeJuene (sp?). Obviously JAX is shorter and takes up less space. If there are any advertising/marketing/artsy/creative - type folks in the forum, your input would be especially welcome.

I think I remember advocating for JAX a long time ago. It is easily the most commonly seen representation of the city that we have. Its used for things like air travel, weather reports, anything where the city is abreviated, BUT its also used for NFL scoreboards which I think is the largest number of impressions that we get to the public. And JAX is never confused with another Jacksonville (I hope). I think you would have had to return the money if you chose JAX though, its too easy and makes too much sense.

[asonj23]

I agree Vic. There wasn't too much marketing done outside of the superbowl and we certainly didn't get our money's worth.

I would love to see some fancy landmark signs at the three main entry points to JAX (I-95 North & South and I-10). Something with some descent landscaping and our city slogan.

"Welcome to Jacksonville, Where Florida Begins"

or a more hip version..

"Welcome to The JAX"

[Urban_Legend]

I didn't mind the whole "Where FL Begins" campaign, but I feel they could have put it to better use. I haven't seen that slogan or logo anywhere! Were it not for UrbanPlanet, I probably wouldn't have known it existed! Let's get the slogan we paid for out there.

[Florida]

I'm not quite sure my input is welcome on this one, but I'd add a few pennies anyhow.

As someone noted before, "Jax" is already recieving free marketing by the NFL among other things. There's no publicity better than free publicity, especailly when its on everyweek for 3-4 hours. I say don't waste your resources on the nickname Jax, that's already out and everyone knows its THE Jacksonville... Florida's Jacksonville.

I think instead why not go further with that "Where Florida begins" motto. While we use the same here in Tallahassee at the Georgia line, I think Jacksonville could run with it seeing as how far more people enter the state via Jax than Tallahassee AND there's the whole Atlantic Ocean thing.

Jax sounds fun and exciting!! Let the NFL continue to boost that, meanwhile, Jacksonville & Tallahassee should probably partner up to figure out a way to market North Florida as a more progressive area of the state.

BTW... I was in Jacksonville not long ago, and I must say it gets better every visit. I love what Jacksonville is turning into. Keep up the good work. Tallahassee is looking to follow your example.

[chelleyfl]

Speaking of Atlanta marketing campaign - try checking out the latest issue of DELTA's SKY magazine. Sorry I don't have the link on hand but I know they have an online version of the magazine. The last time I flew DELTA (which I do every week) they had a HUGE section about Atlanta: it's history, where it's going in the future, reasons to live there, its economy, schools, arts, etc. After reading it even I was thinking of moving to Atlanta. The article started out explaining that the city has a 90-person volunteer team headed by prominent area politicians and businesspeople whose goal is to brand the city of Atlanta and recruit business and residents. Very cool and effective I think.

Well I went to check out the online edition of SKY magazine and unfortunately it's an abbreviated version of the magazine. I suppose if you want to see the whole Atlanta section you'll have to get the hard copy. In any case, I don't know how many people fly DELTA in a month but I bet it's a whole lot. And in November they'll all get the opportunity to see well-written, thoroughly researched, and very compelling reasons to visit the city of Altanta and possibly re-locate there. Can Jax benefit from that example? Any city that wants to promote itself could do the same thing. As a matter of fact I've read about lots of interesting cities in SKY magazine, but never Jacksonville. As Florida goes I've read articles about Orlando, Tampa, and Miami in recent months and it does increase people's awareness. I'm not sure how much PR the city of Jax invests in but I rarely see anything personally.