LITTLE ROCK — The Jacksonville Advertising and Promotion Commission approved a logo and slogan for the city at a special meeting Aug. 25 as the first step toward establishing an image that can be used to market Jacksonville to the rest of the state and country.
"Jacksonville: Soaring Higher" is the slogan, and the logo features a soaring eagle and "Jacksonville" written in a hand-script font. The commission hired The Sells Agency of Little Rock in May to handle advertising, public relations and marketing for the city. The agency designed and presented the logo and slogan to the commission, which voted to approve them.
The Sells Agency CEO Mike Sells said his company will develop a complete marketing and communications plan for the city.
"From a creative standpoint, establishing the logo and the approach of the tagline was one of the first things before we could work on the specific messaging elements," Sells said.
Commission Chairman and Alderman Marshall Smith said the commission is just getting its feet wet with the logo and slogan. They will be distributed to the various departments of the city, where he said he hopes they will be embraced and put to widespread use on anything city related.
The Sells Agency has already designed a brochure for the historic Reed's Bridge Civil War Battlefield and handled press releases for a re-enactment at the site earlier in the week. Beyond that, Smith said, the long-term extent of the branding campaign could include anything from TV and radio ads to a visitor center stocked with brochures and information, but the full vision and extent of it have yet to be determined.
"We're going to develop more things as time goes on," Smith said. "We'll be working to really advertise and promote Jacksonville. The whole idea is to have people come here, shop here, eat here, stay here - all of those things. The logo and the slogan are the first real step we've been able to take in that direction."
Sells wasn't on the design team that developed the logo and slogan, but referred to their notes to describe the thinking behind the design. He said he and the team were given a tour of Jacksonville, visiting many of its key sites and getting a crash course in the town's history. One of the other designs they presented to the board that was not chosen focused on Jacksonville history.
In the design that was selected, the design team used a friendly, approachable hand-script font for the slogan to reflect the town's personable appeal and chose red because its boldness and confidence, he said.
"The idea behind the tagline is an action-oriented depiction of Jacksonville as a city that's moving forward, reaching new heights, with a mild reference to the air base, which you also kind of get - not in a direct, but indirect way - referenced to with the eagle," Sells said.
The commission was formed March 31, 2003. It was initially funded by a 2-cent hotel tax, and a 2-cent prepared-food tax was approved by voters in fall 2007. Smith said they were getting about $90,000 a year fromthe hotel tax and have budgeted with a $550,000-a-year estimate for the food tax, although he believes it will generate even more than that.
The commission splits the funds generated from both taxes evenly with the Parks and Recreation Department and also allocates some of their funds to city attractions like Reed's Bridge Battlefield and the Museum of Military History.
Smith said the commission had been limited in the funds it could commit to the branding campaign while they waited for the tax dollars to start coming in. But the hiring of The Sells Agency and the adoption of the logo and slogan will really get the project started.
The commission also allocated about $69,000 recently for the purchase of a portable stage to be used at the Wing Ding festival and later be made available for other events and rentals to businesses or individuals. The stage cost close to $80,000 all together, and the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce donated $10,000 toward the purchase.
The commission is made up of seven members: two representing the food industry, two representing the hotel industry, Mayor Tommy Swaim, Smith and another alderman. They meet at 6:30 p.m. the third Monday of each month at City Hall. Sellssaid the agency will present some advertising elements at the next meeting. More information about The Sells Agency is available at www.sellsagency.com.
- awidner@ arkansasonline.com
Three Rivers, Pages 50, 51 on 09/04/2008