Kingston won’t be getting a new community brand – at least not for a while.
City councillors voted to defer a staff recommendation to hire a Toronto-based firm for nearly $90,000 to develop a new slogan.
Mayor Bryan Paterson supported the initiative to craft a new brand or catchphrase to explain what Kingston is all about.
“I think there’s great value attached to this.”
The previous council supported the cost and concept of the re-branding initiative based on staff advice that Kingston suffers from too many slogans, or multiple-brand identity.
But the new council got cold feet over awarding the actual contract when it came up for debate Jan. 22.
“You can fill a lot of potholes for $90,000,” remarked Coun. Jim Neill, echoing the feeling of many of his constituents.
Acting chief administrator Lanie Hurdle explained the re-branding is more than just coming up with a new slogan to sell the merits of Kingston.
WATCH: Should we rebrand Kingston?
“The intent here is to try to position the overall city, not the corporation itself, to be able to attract people and businesses,” she told councillors.
Hurdle says the consultant-led campaign would include a lot of community engagement to come up with a new vision and slogan and a graphic imaging campaign.
“We do not have the capacity to do this in house without hiring additional staff,” Hurdle continued.
The mayor says the reason the issue came up on the council agenda is because staff did not select the lowest bidder among 10 firms that sought the contract. Council needed to sign off on the higher bid.
Scott Thornley and Company was the recommended firm to oversee the re-branding strategy at a price of $87,615, while eSolutions Group’s bid was much lower at $69,420. However, staff preferred Scott Thornley based on its 28 years of experience in brand development and positioning.
The current municipal slogan — Where History and Innovation Thrive — was developed about 20 years ago following amalgamation. But many other agencies, such as Tourism Kingston, have since developed their own brands such as ‘fresh made daily,’ ‘Canada’s First Capital,’ and ‘freshwater sailing capital of the world.’
The aim of the re-branding campaign is to draft a single, unified slogan in which to market the city.
Mayor Paterson says Tourism Kingston’s marketing campaign has proven very successful.
“As a result Kingston has had two or three of the biggest years for tourism this city has ever seen. Let’s take the tourism brand success and use it to fill workforce gaps and attract new businesses.”
Coun. Jeff McLaren says marketing the city should be left to tourism officials.
“I think we’ve already done this and to add more brands, I think, is going to confuse the matter.”
While many councillors voiced support over the need to bring more jobs and people to Kingston, there were many questions about the contract, such as whether a Toronto company would understand Kingston’s identity, the timing of the campaign so soon after the election and the need to redirect tax dollars to tackle other priorities such as poor roads.
Coun. Peter Stroud, who supported the initiative when it was first presented to the last council in April 2018, says his constituents have told him they’re unimpressed after reading more about what the process will involve.
“Now that we see more of what it’ll look like constituents are telling me they’re unimpressed. Little bit of a ‘meh’.”
Councillors voted 12-1 to defer a decision on the contract until after they’ve first met to draft a list of strategic priorities for the next four years. It’s expected the issue will return to council sometime in May.