CITY UNVEILS MARKETING SLOGAN

‘We’re Onta Something’

Trampline Ad Agency Seeking

To Capture Oneonta Quirkiness

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – “We’re onta something.”

Get it?

“Phonetically, we don’t say ‘we’re ‘on to’ something,’ we say we’re ‘onta’ something,” said Derek Slayton, Trampoline Advertising & Design creative director. “It’s fun, it’s informal, it creates a warm, friendly vibe.”

Trampoline, based in Glens Falls, unveiled the city’s new marketing campaign Monday, May 6, at the B-Side Ballroom, the culmination of “several months” of research, focus groups and tours of downtown.

“It communicates that Oneonta has an energy that is different from other towns and it is not afraid to say it,” said Mayor Gary Herzig.

“From the moment I saw the symbol, I liked it,” said Council member Joe Ficano, Eighth Ward. “It’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s useful. It’s slanted upwards – not downwards, not an arc – and I like that.”

Touring the city and meeting with focus groups, Trampoline built the design on personal observations, assets and obstacles, and goals for the campaign, Slayton said.

Among Oneonta’s strengths were dining options, arts,  culture and affordability, with “vacancy,” lack of momentum and “store churn” listed as obstacles.

But they kept coming back to one word that seemed to sum up Oneonta. “In every focus group we had, someone used the word ‘quirky’ to describe Oneonta,” he said. “We tried to capture that with this logo.”

The idea of the campaign, Herzig said, is not to replace the much-loved “City of the Hills” moniker (no mentioned was made of “Oneonta, Life Enjoyed”), but to market the city to anyone looking for a place to visit.

“It’s designed to capture the attention of someone outside of Oneonta and make them curious about what exactly we are onto,” he said. “It’s a way to reach people, bring them here and maybe when they’re here, they think this might be a good place to open their business.”

In addition to tourists and entrepreneurs, Trampoline also listed graduating students and boomerang families – parents whose children move back in with them after college – as a potential audience for the campaign.

In time, the campaign will be included on bus wraps, parking and wayfinding signs listing the downtown merchants, as well as gateway signs at the Lettis Highway and lower Main Street entrances.

And though vacant storefronts were a concern, Slayton had an answer. “We designed storefront wraps to put in the windows,” he said. “That way, it’s not an empty storefront, it’s a marketing opportunity.”

The logo – as well as the punny slogan – will begin making its appearance around Oneonta by the end of the month.

“We’ve designed coasters, napkins and tissue paper and we’re delivering them to merchants, free of charge,” said Slayton. “If someone from out of town goes into the bookstore, their book can be wrapped in this paper and that goes home with them. It gets the message out.”

In addition to the physical presence of the logo, Trampoline will also design a targeted media campaign aimed at drawing in outsiders to Oneonta.

Signage will have to be approved by the city and likely won’t appear until next year; however, Slayton said that the banners and bus wraps could be ready in time for the summer season.

In all, the project will cost $570,000, which includes all production and installation costs, paid for through the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative.

“Oneonta is colorful and vibrant,” said Slayton. “Why not show it?”