Newtown Case Study Challenge Newtown, CT struggled to define their town story and market their community without a dedicated town center. The town leadership wanted to build a positive brand perception in the minds of their 28,000 community members and visitors in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Our team won a public proposal process to conduct a multi-faceted rebranding for Newtown in January 2020. Given the global pandemic that accelerated shortly afterward, we pivoted our normal community branding process to meet the needs of stay-at-home orders and pandemic controls to provide a new brand identity for Newtown. Services
- Marketing Strategy
- Communications Plan
- Brand Identity Development
Solution We jumped into action and modified our proven process, the Maven Method® used to create community brand platforms. Typically, the Maven Method® would include onsite visits and surveys, but due to the stay-at-home orders, the process was modified to use video conferencing, robust online surveys and one on one community interviews. The 8-month collaboration with the Newtown Economic Development team included internal and external surveys, interviews, and a competitive market audit to determine Newtown’s unique attributes and brand position. Once the discovery work was completed, the brand messaging and logo design was created. Supporting marketing campaign themes were also designed to reinforce the messaging and visual identity. The rooster was identified in community-wide surveys as symbolic to Newtown’s history. Because of this, we kept the icon, but redesigned it to emphasize the natural beauty of the bird. The background represents the shape of the town of Newtown. The rooster reads from left to right and looks upwards, which implies forward movement, hope, and confidence. Using the mid-century design aesthetic, The Aileron font will be used in body copy and Hocus will be featured in the headlines of communications as needed. "I feel really good that we picked HAVEN. I think they knocked it out of the park. They clearly spent the time listening and learning. I believe they captured our essence." Barbara Snyder Council Member, Newtown, CT Results We delivered a comprehensive report and brand book which provided the fundamental elements to strategically position the Town of Newtown as a great place for families and small businesses to thrive. “Unique by nature” became the town’s tagline with supporting brand pillars of historic, eco-conscious and inclusive by nature. The newly established logo, brand pillars, and implementation roadmap provided the Economic Development team with a guide for successful implementation. Community leaders were thrilled with the unveiling in the Fall of 2020. The rebranding for the town won a National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) Award in the Brand Identity category.
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