KJP came up with a great idea for a promotional brochure for living in Cleveland in the "Building Pesht" thread in the Projects and Construction section. This thread is for discussion and suggestions for said brochure. Maybe we can come up with interesting prizes and whatnot, and at the very least it's all in good fun.

 

Here is KJP's original proposal (sorry about the text, it distorted a little when I resized it):

Here's my version with a few adjustments:

love the looks of this...maybe photoshop grandma out (just kidding, I love our empty nesters too) . I think these would be great for ads in NYC or Chicago area (ie Village voice type publications)-or anywhere else clevelanders flock.  Now for a little commentary (not directed at anyone in particular) - as a person who has only been in Cleveland a few years, I have noticed a lot of talk about "brain drain" .  the only thing I will say about a Brain drain is that I am not sure we should worry as much about losing young talent as being focused on getting a diversity of people and their ideas to the area from other parts of the country and world, not just keeping Cleveland talent. Do places like NYC ever worry about a brain drain?! I know there was a lot of talk of the drain in the mayoral race. A drain is only bad if the faucet is trickling.  After all, no matter what area of the world, smart interesting people often leave their hometown for adventures elsewhere (hopefully Cleveland will be where some decide to land!). Maybe this could also be a great ad for suburbs of  a larger city. there could be folks imprisoned  there that would love to be able to afford a more urban life.

I agree with you 100 percent, and have expressed these same views myself. I went away for 12 years, then came back... and I believe experiencing other places made me appreciate Cleveland much more than I ever did as a kid. Now I'm really glad to be back.

The people who are most down on Cleveland are, almost without exception, the ones who never left.

I have absolutely no skills when it comes to making posters, so I will leave that up to you creative types. I like the idea of this poster/brochure, but what about making one for each of our districts? We could have one made for U.C, O.C. Tremont, WHD, Flats East/West Bank, Slavic Village,Little Italy, and all of the other wonderful areas in our city.

Not to digress, but KJP, what is the background behind the first bullet-point, about the CBD employment population.  Does that mean Cleveland has, by working population, the eighth largest downtown in the US?  That's pretty impressive...and I'm sure we look even better if we were to combine the UC stats.

I worked way too long in paint for this

 

Come Home to Cleveland

Much More than burning Rivers

City life, not just for Millionaires

Here's the graphic of mine MayDay posted earlier...with the post brought over from the "Building 'Pesht' - Cleveland megaproject" thread in Projects/Construction:

 

Using just a few of the terrific photos by UrbanOhio forumers, how about something like this to appear in suburban and out-of-town publications and other marketing material...(scroll right)

 

I'm moving this to the Urbanbar, as the Business and Economy section is really more for direct news articles - just keeping things tidy :-)

I think we need to first get a better handle on what are the messages we're trying to get across with these via images, text and design, as well as who the audience(s) we would want to reach.

 

The primary goal, in my opinion, is to lead the audience (be it out of town or suburban) toward a conclusion that they think they are being led to (some other city), and then surprise them with a new conclusion (Cleveland). Such a method of presentation tends to cause the audience to look over and read the advertisement not once, but twice, and increases the likelihood that more of the information will be retained.

 

Thus, when looking over the presentation, I think the flow of information should proceed from the upper-left to the lower-right. Of course, this depends on where the ad might appear. If it's on the left side of a newspaper or magazine page, no problem. If it's on the right-side page, then perhaps the information should flow more directly from the top to the bottom.

 

The information (graphics and text) should not tell the audience they are learning about Cleveland until the very end. Instead, the dominant themes should convey an exciting urban product they would want to buy into -- one that provides them with the satisfaction, utility and, ultimately, a price that meets their needs. However, the price is likely not going to be such a big consideration for the suburban-directed marketing. Rather, for them, proximity to family will probably be a bigger selling point.

 

Some of the key messages to present and the reasons why, are:

 

> Crowds of people but in a sociable, urban, uplifting setting (avoid cloudy or excessively gritty scenes); destroy the empty, boring, depressing city persona;

 

> Provide multiple messages in images as much as possible (ie: if you're showing the interior of an apartment then provide a window view to the city; if you're going to show a transportation resource then show how it relates and interacts with people and its surroundings). Remember that a picture can be worth a thousand words but it doesn't always. So pick your pics that won't limit the messages because you don't want to waste limited space;

 

> Convey movement, activity, interaction, speed and energy in images;

 

> use words like "growing," "expanding," "diversity," "large," "inspiring," "creative," "sociable," "youthful" and so on;

 

> Cause people to redefine their expectations;

 

> For the out-of-town audience, show all the benefits they would enjoy by living in this as-yet-unnamed area, and which are competitive with the areas they live in or near, then hit them with the low housing cost;

 

> Also for the out-of-town audience, show them amenities that Cleveland has that even many of those cities don't -- an interconnected metropolitan park system with dozens of miles of biking/hiking trails; frequent rail service into the airport; proximity to the nation's most visited national park; the nation's greatest concentration of cultural institutions in University Circle; more golf courses than most cities (somewhere I read that Greater Cleveland has the most?);

 

> For the suburban Cleveland audience (I assume to be young people?), tap into their need for independence and exploration, yet stay accessible to family (I can see an ad showing a typical suburban home in the upper left with their family waving goodbye and this huge arcing arrow or swath coming away from the house, and within that swath you fill it with images of this exciting urban setting and then hit the audience with something like (Cleveland's downtown - the out-of-town experience in-town);

 

Anyway, that's probably enough food for thought. Make the space and text count, because there's no way we're going to be able fit the entire message into the space available. And that's another selling point for our fair city!

I think we need to first get a better handle on what are the messages we're trying to get across with these via images, text and design, as well as who the audience(s) we would want to reach.

 

The primary goal, in my opinion, is to lead the audience (be it out of town or suburban) toward a conclusion that they think they are being led to (some other city), and then surprise them with a new conclusion (Cleveland). Such a method of presentation tends to cause the audience to look over and read the advertisement not once, but twice, and increases the likelihood that more of the information will be retained.

 

Thus, when looking over the presentation, I think the flow of information should proceed from the upper-left to the lower-right. Of course, this depends on where the ad might appear. If it's on the left side of a newspaper or magazine page, no problem. If it's on the right-side page, then perhaps the information should flow more directly from the top to the bottom.

 

The information (graphics and text) should not tell the audience they are learning about Cleveland until the very end. Instead, the dominant themes should convey an exciting urban product they would want to buy into -- one that provides them with the satisfaction, utility and, ultimately, a price that meets their needs. However, the price is likely not going to be such a big consideration for the suburban-directed marketing. Rather, for them, proximity to family will probably be a bigger selling point.

 

Well then I prefer May Day's version with my eyes doing a "loop" versus your version where my eyes are moving in a "N" formation. Plus the color (but that could be more symptomatic to viewing this on monitor/TV screen instead of actual print)

you didn't use any of my photos kjp, my feelings are hurt

I wish I had some photoshop skills.

I'm sold.  Screw this place; I'm going to Cleveland!

Sorry Pope. I didn't mean to leave you out.

 

Let me make it up to you....

 

well appropriately, that picture was taken while in columbus

 

 

 

ps: ha!

Best poster ever, KJP!

well appropriately, that picture was taken while in columbus

 

OK, so that can be Columbus's marketing ploy instead. :-D

hee-larious KJP!  I know quite a few kids who would be drawn to that.  Obviously, to each, his/her own.  You could make a poster out of a half-empty bottle of boones farm sitting in an alley off of euclid avenue and draw a certain type of clientele to live in Downtown Cleveland if you really wanted to...

 

I really like what we've got going here.  I'm going to do my best to come up with something of my own.  Not coincidentally, my Christmas card was a collage postcard of Cleveland pictures that I'd taken since returning home.  YSOH and I sent it out to about three dozen people, several of whom used to rock it C-town style.  My subliminal intent?  Get people thinking, "wow, Cleveland's really pretty!  Let's go visit!"  or "maybe it's time to leave NYC and go back home!"  The returns are still coming in, but I'd expect the Cleveland population to grow by about 6 in the next two years from this year's Christmas card alone.

 

As for my votes at present, I like the aesthetics of MayDay's a bit more, but I'm really sticking to my affection for KJP's "Come Home to Cleveland" catchphrase.  I also appreciate Smackem's mixed-bag of approaches, especially the "not just for millionaire's" angle!

Another thought that crossed my mind on the subject pertains to the timing of this campaign...  knowing how long some of this stuff will take to materialize and the propensity for big projects to either fail or get whittled down to miniature versions of themselves, when this launches, its products need to be visible.  That doesn't mean that the apartments need to be ready to inhabit, but that there need to be (at least) cranes in the air.

 

Those of us geeks on this site know how exciting the sight of progress in the form of cranes can be, but it's not just us.  How long has it been since we've had a significant number of construction projects going on Downtown at the same time?  We've had one here (the new Courthouse) another there (Pinnacle), but not since the mid-1990s have we seen a quantity to get excited about.  Over at the Clinic and UC, construction progress has been more plentiful and concentrated, but the outcomes haven't been nearly as great as the prospects.  We've seen one disappointing Clinic building opened after another.  CWRU's new housing and the Weatherhead School produced some interesting outcomes.  But just wait until we've got the CIM, CMA, the West Quad, and Ford & Euclid all going on at once! 

 

And then think about what we have lined up for Downtown Cleveland with the Avenue District, Flats East Bank, West 9th & Main, and the lots between St. Clair & Superior...potentially all at once!  Imagine the excitement in every Clevelander's and every visitor's hearts when we see those cranes in the air!  There will be a buzz about town...and the millions of annual visitors will go home to Toledo or Pittsburgh or Indianapolis or Toronto and remark about the amount of construction going on in Cleveland.  Minds will start to wander (maybe Cleveland's the place to be...) and people will want to come back to see what we've built! 

 

To paraphrase what one of my professors at CSU (Ned Hill) recently said, "Clevelanders have, for too long, thought of the crane as an endangered species."  How true!  Let's build and save he crane!

"I also appreciate Smackem's mixed-bag of approaches, especially the "not just for millionaire's" angle!"]

 

The thing is, Rockefeller was the world's first billionaire so that wouldn't exactly be accurate.  :lol:

right, not just for millionaires... billionaires can find a home in Cleveland too!

right, not just for millionaires... billionaires can find a home in Cleveland too!

 

That is so true.  Screw the house.  They can buy the whole city for a billion.

^QUIET FOOL!

That "John Deere" stuff belongs in Missourah...

It will be a cold day in hell before I recognize Missour-ah!

That is so true.  Screw the house.  They can buy the whole city for a billion.

 

And have 25 cents left over to buy Columbus!

It will be a cold day in hell before I recognize Missour-ah!

 

Understand that I type it that way as an insult. ;)

I like the layout and overall design of MayDay's poster, but some of the photos used in KJP's mock-up grab my attention more, and I like the diversity of what Cleveland has to offer as depicted with the photos he chose.  I like the sailing shot, also the tree-shaded cafe dining shot looks charming and inviting, and that pic of the 4 people in the loft apt./condo with the hardwood floors and windows overlooking the city strikes exactly the right note. 

 

Obviously I know you guys are working with what you have available right now.  But in any final ad, I would want to see a diversity of really striking photos of Cleveland's greatest assets.  My attention would be drawn by seeing people at outdoor cafes, maybe a photo from a festival like Parade the Circle or Ingenuity, some "beauty shots" of natural assets like the lake or the parks, the inside of the art museum or Severance Hall, E. 4th street at night with all those lights, you know, some of the real gems of Cleveland.

 

Perhaps mention should also be made of the convenient central location of Cleveland in relation to other major metropolitan areas?

That is so true.  Screw the house.  They can buy the whole city for a billion.

 

And have 25 cents left over to buy Columbus!

 

Well, seeing how all of Cleveland's money is going towards Columbus, a cent today is a house tomorrow.

I guess which is best depends on the answer to several questions:

 

> what you want to present Cleveland as?

> to whom?

> what is the medium? 

 

KJP's first layout looks like (and he mentioned that it was to be) an advertisement in a magazine or paper.  I'd like to see how it would look in a magazine or newsprint, and how it would fit on various pages.

 

MayDay's seems more like (and he mentioned it was to be) a stand alone brochure- I could see it folding out with a map or photo of Cleveland or something else on the other side.

 

I also see real value in the approach of KJP's Pope layout, or the second two layouts that Smackem did.  They are more edgy, less polished, and present Cleveland as a place with a bit of a quirky and ironic sense of humor.  I could see posters done with a similar intent and attitude in alternative mags, or in some sort of "guerilla marketing" campaign.  They could set us apart from the standard CVB style city advertisements.

It seems you must also sell urban living also, not just Cleveland itself.

I think it depends on who we are selling to.  If we are selling to suburbanites in NEO and surrounding areas, then yes.  If we are selling to urbanites in other parts of the country, than not so much- we have to sell Cleveland as another place were they can achieve urban living at a lower price or at a higher level.

^I think the latter makes more sense.  Selling urban living to those not already somewhat inclined toward it is its own monumental campaign, especially if it's geared toward suburbanites within the region.  It'd be hard to entice people who think they already know what's right and wrong with Cleveland.

 

Just my two cents, anyway.  (Speaking as an outsider.)

 

X, I like your thought of MayDay's design as a stand-alone brochure with more on the back.  That way you can get a bit more information (I know I'd want to see more if I came across it) without ruining the nice catchy design on the front.

Boy, this thread sure trailed off in activity prematurely! I see this as a potential business or similar opportunity, but am having a hard time in getting others interested in it. The way I see it, this business would use advertising to attract interested persons from other cities and our own suburbs, and refer those wanting to "Come Home to Cleveland" to a select list of preferred realtors whom the business deems to be urban savvy. If they buy a home or rent an apartment, then the business gets a referral (standard is about 15% of the realtor's commission).

 

The business would also offer urban relocation expertise and transitional assistance to help customers find an area that's right for them. This can be based on their career/educational activities, transportation accessibility, cultural amenities and provide professional collaboration resources like the 20/30 Club, RealNEO and others. The best part is, such a business venture can be done in our part time (unless we get really busy, which isn't a bad thing either!) and requires little start-up capital.

 

I think this site needs to be a place to spawn some urban-centric business ventures, and not just be a place to share news items or gossip about the goings on. If anything, this "Come Home to Cleveland" concept may be one of those untapped ventures waiting to happen. If you agree, drop me a personal message or just reply on this string.

Two OSU students have taken it upon themselves to market a "Come Home to Cleveland" campaign to fellow students -- and they weren't aware of our discussion here. I interviewed them today for an article in Sun Newspapers, and told them about UrbanOhio. Hopefully they will participate here, too. Apparently Vulpster knows these two young men. Anyway, here's their new website, though it's still a work in progress. They're off to a great start to help plug the Brain Drain...

 

http://www.comehometocleveland.com

I was just thinking about this earlier today!

 

You know that Lakewood uses this phrase for its annual home tour?  "Come home to Lakewood."

 

Cleveland is far catchier, though!

The site is nicely done and it is wonderful to see pride in Ohio cities again (instead of the negative stereotypes).

I think what I appreciate about the site most is that they don't try to make Cleveland something it's not. It seems like the coordinated, top-down marketing campaigns Cleveland typically enjoys (need I mention "but Cleveland is a Plum"?) tend to shy away from our city's blue collar heritage. I can't speak for all migrants to Cleveland, but having plenty of sophisticated stuff, coupled with the kitchiness of guns, bowling, pierogies, Amish country, etc. made Cleveland stand out to me. Let's ditch the sanitized campaigns to make Cleveland into Little Toronto or Little Chicago or Little New York and just concentrate on letting Cleveland be Big Cleveland.

KJP "snap"-ing like its no tomorrow.

 

6,600 Cleveland-area students currently enrolled at OSU.

 

Christ.

 

 

but honestly KJP i don't know why you didn't include the white trash version of the postcard in your article.

When I was doing a purge of images from my web hosting space, I inadvertently deleted the white trash ad I composed.

 

I am hereby reviving it...

 

hmm i guess that website is ok, but who takes comic sans seriously??  i mean cmon

Christ, it IS the pope.

^^ Yeah, good intentions, but they could use some graphic design intervention. Not only Comic Sans but gray text boxes. Looks straight outa old school PageMill (no offense to current designer Derik Higaki).

That doesn't look like 'comic sans' font to me.  Looks like 'chiller' font instead.

Hmmm ... No, I think Chiller is a little "drippier" and a bit more angular. I think that's Comic Sans, complete with the capital C's that hang a little to the left of the rest of the body text. Unless you're referring to KJP's post above and not the website ... I'm pretty sure that IS Chiller.

Hmmm ... No, I think Chiller is a little "drippier" and a bit more angular. I think that's Comic Sans, complete with the capital C's that hang a little to the left of the rest of the body text. Unless you're referring to KJP's post above and not the website ... I'm pretty sure that IS Chiller.

 

Nah. It's Chiller.  I just poped up MS Word and checked both fonts.  Comic Sans is "cleaner" than Chiller.  (I just can't post a comparison here.  The computer lab I'm at doesn't have Photoshop for me to use :-()

 

Needless to say, you guys are harping over KJP's work for unwarented reasons.

now that's high quality promotional material.