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MASCOLA ADVERTISING
Here's a Campaign: Just Do It
Let's launch New Haven as a new brand of city
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Business New Haven
9/6/1999
By: Chuck Mascola
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I'm not much of an art guy. Frankly, some of the stuff at the Yale Center for British Art strikes me as just plain weird. But something in a recent piece of art criticism in the New York Times Connecticut weekly section really hit me.
Reviewing a photo exhibit at the New Haven Colony Historical Society, the author said, "Other cities with natural monuments like East Rock and West Rock would put them on T-shirts and key chains. But these New Haven land forms, near mirror images of each other, are so little publicized that they seem like mirages to someone who doesn't live in the city."
Okay, so we don't want to be known as the City of the Rocks. But the author raises a powerful point. In an age of media overexposure, we in the Elm City are keeping our treasures hidden from view. And if we're going to establish an identity for New Haven as a hot place to be, we have to start by talking about ourselves. A lot.
Look at what we've got: great parks, from the lighthouse to West Rock; Yale University, with arguably the smartest losing football team in the country; great theater, dance, jazz and museums. Top-notch hospitals. A growing biotech industry. World-class tennis. Pockets of living history in Wooster Square and downtown. History in the making at the Yale School of Medicine. Great art at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. (A first-rate marketing firm that shall remain nameless.) The list goes on and on.
We are eccentric, eclectic, unique and extraordinary. So why aren't we better loved? It's sort of like a beautiful girl sitting home alone on prom night because no one asked her for a date. There's something wrong with this picture, and the way to make it right is to start telling New Haven's story, in as many ways and as many forums as possible.
And let's get one thing straight right out of the gate: We must market the city, because it defines the region. The city is what makes this area unique.
Look at the progress the city has made. In the last five years, crime has been cut dramatically. People in the suburbs think we're a violent city, but the murder rate is at a 15-year low. Test scores are up, and we're building state-of-the-art schools throughout the city.
We're a tremendous business opportunity. High-speed rail is coming this fall. We've got lots of well-trained human capital to draw on, with six institutions of higher education within shouting distance. The new New Haven Galleria at Long Wharf is a great addition (full disclosure: New England Development is a client), but it's only one part of the transformation this city is undergoing.
Office space is filling up. Did you notice a new office building is almost finished on the Arena block? That's the first time that's had a building on it in 25 years. That's progress.
What New Haven needs to do is launch itself as a new brand of city. A place where ideas are taking shape. A place where culture is thriving, where the arts are alive and where science is making progress. The best thing about an image campaign of this sort is that it would be dead-on accurate. (Always nice; not always true.)
Finally, as you would expect me to say, we must hire creative professionals to develop campaigns to sell the city and put those campaigns on the air. Everywhere.
We need a multifaceted advertising and marketing campaign to promote New Haven for everything it is: a 24-hour destination for tourists inside and outside the region, a great place to live and work and a cultural center for the region of which people should be proud. Back it up with a strong dose of public relations. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's that simple. It will take money, effort and time.
Will it work? Of course. People are willing to recognize the changes we've made, but they have to be led to them. It's an education process. And it won't happen overnight. But changing New Haven's perception in a positive way will improve the quality of life for everyone here. If more people feel safe in New Haven, more people will come to New Haven. And the more people visit the shops downtown, and in our neighborhoods, the more people will come back to try something else here. New Haven will come to be known as what it is: a great place to be.
Of all the cities in Connecticut, we've made the most progress, and we've got the most to show for our efforts. So, let's talk it up. Get loud about it. For God's sake, let's stop talking about whether we should do this thing. Or how. Let's not have another single blessed meeting to debate who the audience is.
You can't market by committee. Someone has to pick a campaign and run with it.
In other words, Just do it.
Chuck Mascola is president of Mascola Advertising of New Haven.
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