14 groups partnering to create brand for Putnam County

Friday, August 5, 2016

The Indiana Office of Tourism Development granted $23,000 to a consortium of 14 Putnam County organizations seeking to define and promote the county through a comprehensive brand and website.

The Putnam County Convention and Visitor Bureau (CVB) led the countywide partnership by writing the grant application and soliciting matching contributions totaling an additional $11,500.

Joining the CVB in the effort are the City of Greencastle, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, DePauw University, First National Bank, Greencastle Chamber of Commerce, Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Center, The Inn at DePauw, Main Street Greencastle, North Salem State Bank, Putnam County Community Foundation, Putnam County Museum, Roachdale Revitalization Cooperative Alliance and Tri-County Bank.

"Ultimately, this is a 'quality of place' initiative, a project that answers the need to link Putnam County destinations and business resources for the economic benefit of all county communities," CVB Executive Director Nancy Mark said.

The project will develop and deliver an online portal for the county, with a robust tourism emphasis that includes video blogs and YouTube-ready video, social media components, plus the ability to capture visitor feedback and measure success.

"Tourism is economic development," Mark said, "and the grant application made clear that the group envisions a more vibrant, tourism-focused county that stimulates and promotes its economy and quality of life through partnerships and 'product packaging' with local organizations that already deliver excellent tourism-related services."

After reviewing responses to its Request for Proposals, the group selected Indianapolis-based Matchbook Creative to guide the process.

The company intends to complete the branding before the website goes live in early January 2017. To launch the process, Donna Gray, CEO of Matchbook Creative, led an afternoon session of county stakeholders who met in Greencastle's downtown Community Room in July for the company's "Brand World" exercise.

Each individual created a list of single words that describe the county, developing a combined list of nearly 75 words. Some described county assets, such as music, horsemanship and entrepreneurial, and others connoted feelings, such as relaxing, honest and neighborly.

Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory emphasized location, saying the county is in the middle of several university communities. Gail Smith, owner of Almost Home restaurant, described the county as a crossroads.

Music, the equestrian arts, a renewed level of entrepreneurialism fueled by Internet broadband connectivity unique to the county, and Putnam County's agricultural heritage and culture were themes the group repeatedly returned to.

The group debated the value of one theme that could serve as a "book" that would contain a number of smaller themes as "chapters," versus four or five themes that could be used to speak to the county's different audiences.

In another exercise, the group cut pages/images/graphics from magazines to represent Putnam County's "visual aesthetic," what the Matchbook Creative CEO described as "what the brand should look and feel like."

The group winnowed down nearly 200 graphics to four small stacks with related colors, images and text, which Matchbook Creative will use to help define the group's visual views of the county.

To end the session, each person was asked to write a haiku, a three-line poem of five, seven and five syllables, to describe, as Gray put it, "what we want someone to feel when they come to Putnam County." Each person read his or her haiku, and Gray collected them as a way to gather the group's word-specific views of the county.

The next steps include interviews with a wide variety of stakeholders. Begun at the Putnam County 4-H Fair, this part of the process will continue throughout August.

By October, the "brand discovery" phase will conclude with the brand's look and feel, and the content, or personality, behind it. Website architecture is being developed now, and design and content creation will begin in October, once the brand is approved.

"Each of the partners has an individual goal for this project," Mark said, "but our combined goal is for Putnam County to have a face and a personality that accurately reflects who we are, where we are and the many assets we have here, in a way that encourages people to visit. The logo will be our face, and our unique stories, history and culture will reflect our personality in the web content.

"Residents everywhere, even right outside places like DisneyWorld and Yellowstone, and certainly here in Putnam County, lose sight of the wonderful and unique things that define a community," she continued. "Putnam County absolutely is unique among Indiana counties, and I'm eager to see how Matchbook Creative captures that. I am even more eager to work with this great partnership in encouraging people to visit and to experience all we have here."

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  • There are definitely more places that are more friendly, and I believe Terre haute is known as the crossroads of America. How about instead of playing with cutouts we promote our county now by way of promoting hotels with taxpayers monies. Honesty? Are you kidding me, from this group. Remember it can be used for economic development for ALL towns in Putnam County.

    -- Posted by canttakeitanymore on Fri, Aug 5, 2016, at 9:34 PM
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