Case Study for County of Bath Tourism:
Projects: Brand Identity, Collateral Development, Logo Design, Website Redesign and Programming
When we inherited the County of Bath’s brand in 2010 it was essentially unknown and undifferentiated since 1766. The Homestead Resort has had a long and distinguished history and is a very recognizable brand, but awareness of the County where the resort resides had fallen off the radar for travelers since the 1920s and 30s. With the advent of the County’s hotel occupancy tax in 2009, we were able to direct marketing dollars to many of the County’s other lodging and tourism assets; hotels, B&Bs, Garth Newel Music Center, Warm Springs baths, golf courses, and other natural resources.
Madison+Main redesigned their logo, tagline, and former website in addition to various other projects including strategy development, search engine optimization set-up & maintenance, social media marketing consultation, and design of printed collateral.
Taking a bold approach, and making a personal appeal from the residents directly, the County stated, “Our Trees are Better than Yours.” This unique approach proved to be humorous, memorable, and delivered on its promise.
The County of Bath’s new brand, including logo and tagline:
The County of Bath’s website is mobile optimized:
The County of Bath’s printed collateral samples and targeted direct mail campaign (The “Our Trees Are Better Than Yours” campaign won several design awards.)
Case Study for Chesterfield County Economic Development:
Projects: Brand Identity, Collateral, Website Design & Ongoing Marketing Services
Starting in 2007, Madison+Main worked with Chesterfield County Economic Development Department and rebranded them as Chesterfield Economic Development. In addition to that work, which included logo development, brand messaging, and a redesign of their online and offline materials, Madison+Main developed a comprehensive marketing campaign designed to attract businesses to the county. Other services provided included design of printed collateral, print ads, radio ads, website design and web marketing services. We worked closely with members of the Economic Development team to help them with a wide variety of external and internal marketing initiatives. The brand messaging sought to differentiate Chesterfield as a business-friendly environment. Relying on the county’s rich history and its ties to the first business in the New World – John Rolfe’s plantation – Madison+Main positioned Chesterfield County as the “birthplace of business” with its core brand messaging: Business Starts Here.
Chesterfield Economic Development’s new brand:
After the brand and messaging components were developed, we introduced Chesterfield Economic Development to local audiences first, and then to targeted areas of the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Midwest. A key component to this campaign was a radio commercial targeting business owners, which featured hometown historian Dan Roberts from the University of Richmond, who has a substantial national following on National Public Radio.
Radio commercial for Chesterfield Economic Development.
Other components of the campaign included local and regional business publications, where we placed targeted print ads:
One highly effective piece of the campaign was placement of a north-facing billboard on southbound I-95. The billboard, which sits exactly on the Chesterfield County/Richmond City line, painted a stark difference between the city and the county and reminded business owners that “the grass is greener” in Chesterfield County. Two days after the billboard was in place, a picture of it appeared on the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Case Study for Richard Bland College:
Madison+Main developed a comprehensive brand and marketing strategy for Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary in March 2013 on a consulting basis to assist with their brand development and messaging. In May 2013, Madison+Main entered into an Agency of Record relationship with Richard Bland and now acts as their agency for all advertising, marketing, and public relations needs.
We began work with the college with our discovery, market research, and marketing strategy process to rebrand Richard Bland in order to impact enrollment for the summer and fall admissions and beyond.
Here are some examples of our branding work:
Brand pillars: Innovative, Caring and Engaged.
Brand identity statement: Richard Bland College of William & Mary is Virginia’s Junior College. A 2-year residential college, Richard Bland provides a traditional liberal arts and sciences education for students looking to transfer into the nation’s top universities.
Tagline: “Create your Journey”
Logo:
Athletic logo:
We used a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) strategy with Richard Bland:
We developed a “Create Your Journey” awareness campaign for Richard Bland College that included targeted television spots, search engine marketing, advertising on Facebook, Pandora Internet radio and more than 100 movie theater screens in Northern Virginia, admissions and recruiting collateral, public relations projects, social media strategies, and local broadcast sponsorships based around their new tagline.
Madison+Main works with Richard Bland College on several public relations initiatives, but our most notable piece revolves around their athletic department. The article “Intercollegiate Athletic Returns to Richard Bland College” brought press to the college surrounding their re-admittance into the NJCAA. In conjunction to the press release, we invited members of the media to an NJCAA conference by personally delivering Richard Bland branded soccer balls as their 3D invitation.
Below are the press releases we have created and disseminated for Richard Bland College:
- Teacher’s Institute at Richard Bland College
- Release: http://www.pr.com/press-release/492870
- Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce: http://www.grcc.com/App_Content/media/user_images/Communications/GRCC_News/Images/Images_2013/05.29.13/RichardBlandCollege.pdf
- Release: http://www.pr.com/press-release/492870
- Global Learning Programs at Richard Bland College
- Richard Bland College’s Five-year Plan
- New Board of Directors at Richard Bland College
- 2013 Richard Bland College Commencement Speaker
- Intercollegiate Athletics Return at Richard Bland College
- Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/intercollegiate-athletics-returns-to-richard-bland-college-203448581.html
- WTVR: http://wtvr.com/2013/04/17/richard-bland-college-launches-athletics-program/
- Progress-Index: http://progress-index.com/sports/intercollegiate-sports-coming-to-richard-bland-1.1474759
- CW Richmond: http://www.cwrichmond.tv/story/22004736/intercollegiate-athletics-returns-to-richard-bland-college
- Hopewell News: http://www.hopewellnews.com/article_5466.shtml
- Richard Bland and Southside Regional Medical Center
Please see below for examples of our creative work for Richard Bland:
“Create Your Journey” television advertisement:
The full spot can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/madisonmain
Banner ads:
Postcard: