Create a New Memphis Advertising Campaign

[crossroad]

Every city has it issues as well as its aspirations. What does Memphis want to be and where to go? We had discussions on how our city image has been negatively affected by high crime statistics. How do we address this?

Internally it's trying to make it safer, by bringing more policy force, qualified teachers, as well as improving the school system.

However, externally we have a task of improving/managing perception by potential visitors and even our own residents. What is our current slogan of Memphis? Is it effective? How should we step up marketing the city to potential out of town developers? How do we market ourselves to the world?

Every idea has its merit and YOU will help build a greater city out of Memphis. Give us and share your idea of a slogan, advertising campaign or even simply a thought.

[crossroad]

Some interesting Taglines from:

http://www.taglineguru.com/citymottosmonikers.html

The Top 50 U.S. City Slogans

1.

What Happens Here, Stays Here. Las Vegas, NV

2.

So Very Virginia. Charlottesville, VA

3.

Always Turned On. Atlantic City, NJ

4.

Cleveland Rocks! Cleveland, OH

5.

The Sweetest Place on Earth. Hershey, PA

6.

Rare. Well Done. Omaha, NE

7.

The City Different. Santa Fe, NM

8.

Where Yee-Ha Meets Ol

[northernbizzkit1]

ewwww...some of those are pretty lame...lameoooooooooooooooooooo

[tnse]

Those interested in improving the perception of Memphis and promoting the community and all it has to offer should check out the organization MPACT Memphis (www.mpactmemphis.org). I wrote a little about it in the forum topic that covers Moving to Memphis. They have a whole group dedicated to doing just that. Maybe you could even help give them ideas to help them get that message out. I know they would welcome opinions.

[gatesofmemphis]

A very interesting subject.

I think cities brand themselves by the visions and efforts of their citizens, not by marketeers. A marketing campaign can tempt people to sample, but they can't be hyped-up, or artificial or dishonest. People will see through marketing drivel because there are always other sources of information. So we should entice honestly, but the city still has to sell itself. Unless the city wows when people arrive, the best campaign won't do anything.

Short story long, I'm against any kind of "Up with Jesus!" exhortations/slogans. Especially any that are a play on words. And we should just remember it's just an advertising pitch, not our identity.

Nicknames are more organic and outlast and outwit marketing campaigns so they're less noxious.

Obviously the Bluff City is a nickname, but it doesn't mean much to people outside of Memphis. Nothing wrong with it, just too local.

Soulsville, USA I think is very evocative and it's honest and represents the best of Memphis. If we wanted to push the envelope, we could also name "Green Onions" as the official city anthem of Memphis. "Green Onions" would have to be played before every official city event. Now that's a cool city.

[memphian]

My personal opinion is that it has to start internally. Back in the 1980's while I was growing up in Nashville, one of the tv stations did a series of "feel good about our city" commercials that, although corny, were catchy and reinforced a positive vibe for the city. I have been told that Memphis had a similar campaign. Why not update this type of internal mass-marketing to at least remind the people of Memphis that there's plenty to be proud of. It would certainly be a welcomed break to all of the bad things we see on the nightly news. We need as a city to see some sort of happiness on a daily basis (NO POLITICIANS, PLEASE - just normal everyday citizens). JMO

here is a link:

1986 - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1986hellonashville.rm

1985 - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1985_sayhello.rm

another - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1991_standup.rm

[Clobber]

My personal opinion is that it has to start internally. Back in the 1980's while I was growing up in Nashville, one of the tv stations did a series of "feel good about our city" commercials that, although corny, were catchy and reinforced a positive vibe for the city. I have been told that Memphis had a similar campaign. Why not update this type of internal mass-marketing to at least remind the people of Memphis that there's plenty to be proud of. It would certainly be a welcomed break to all of the bad things we see on the nightly news. We need as a city to see some sort of happiness on a daily basis (NO POLITICIANS, PLEASE - just normal everyday citizens). JMO

here is a link:

1986 - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1986hellonashville.rm

1985 - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1985_sayhello.rm

another - http://www.nashvilletv.org/music/wsmv1991_standup.rm

[crossroad]

Thanks for the Link, Clobber. I added it to My Favorite.

[crossroad]

How about this:

Memphis -- One of Its Own Kind.

or

Memphis, a city of REAL.

Does it appeal to you?

Did you see the commercial on TV of Visit California with Arnold S. in it? I thought it was good. There are some great commercials on TV about destinations.

What's your idea for Memphis? How can we present the best of Memphis to people we want to attract to our great city??

[Clobber]

How about this:

Memphis -- One of Its Own Kind.

or

Memphis, a city of REAL.

Does it appeal to you?

Did you see the commercial on TV of Visit California with Arnold S. in it? I thought it was good. There are some great commercials on TV about destinations.

What's your idea for Memphis? How can we present the best of Memphis to people we want to attract to our great city??

[tennreb]

Birthplace of Rock'n'Roll

Home of the Blues

A City with Soul

The theme of the advertising campaign would be the "Soul of Memphis" featuring what Clobber suggested.

[crossroad]

Edit: at the same time, you have to go two prongs at it, direct one toward Memphians, and one toward everyone else.

[crossroad]

I may be missing something since I don't live in Memphis (yet!) but imho memphis has a task to work on its image.

Let's compare with nashville since they are very comparable. Some people i know would describe our neighbor as white collar feel, rapid growth, and Music City tourism draw, all seem to give the city a better reputation, whereas Memphis is more blue-collar feel. Come on! We have so much music, art and film activities going on. Talking about "rapid growth", who landed 2 major F500 relocations in one year? Memphis may have more crimes but nashville is definitely not far behind. Then how come Nashville can engrave that favorite image on people/outsiders' mind, whilest Memphis could not?

BTW,,, I think Memphis Zoo can be a great selling point regionally.