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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8.2 St Pats CelebrationG~~~ OF DU~~G 197 ~ ~~' ,82 ~~~~~i ~ C~ l O~LIFOR~~ STAFF REPORT DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL CITY CLERK File # ^®®®-~]® DATE: November 17, 2009 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers FROM: ~ Joni Pattillo, City Manager SUBJE Branding and Promotions Plan for Annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration Prepared By: Paul McCreary, Assistant Director of Parks and Community Services EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City Council will consider the proposed branding and promotions plan for the Annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Funds are available in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009-2010 budget to implement the proposed plan. RECOMMENDATION: Receive report, select preferred event tagline, event logo and approve the proposed poster themes for the next four years or provide alternate direction. ~1~dw~5l- Submitted by: Parks and Community Services Director Reviewed by: Assistant City Manager Page 1 of 5 ITEM NO. ~-- J~/ DESCRIPTION: The City of Dublin's 27t" Annual St. Patrick's Day Festival will be held March 13-14, 2010, at the Dublin Civic Center. This event has become one of the premier St. Patrick's Day events in northern California. With its location at the 580/680 interchange and close proximity to BART, this event draws visitors from throughout northern California. Staff has developed a new branding and promotions plan for consideration by the City Council to ensure the event continues to have a unique identity and be a regional draw. This includes development of a "brand", which is the visual and verbal identity of the event. The brand includes the consistent use of colors, graphics, logos and taglines on all promotional materials such as the website, media advertisements, e-newsletters, postcards, posters, and flyers. The brand will also permeate event materials such as signs, decorations, cups, nametags, staff shirts, and programs. This report provides an overview of the proposed branding and promotions plan. EVENT BRANDING PLAN Event Name A good name is a valuable asset. The name should be memorable and convey the idea of the event. The current event name is "City of Dublin St. Patrick's Day Festival". Staff proposes changing the name to the "Dublin California St. Patrick's Day Celebration". Changing the name to a "celebration" sounds more festive and fun, and better conveys that it includes many events, not just a festival. Adding Dublin, California clearly defines the unique nature of the location and conveys that it is a citywide celebration, not just an event sponsored by the City. Event Tagline Taglines are memory magnets. A key part of a brand's verbal identity is the brand's tagline. It needs to be an expression of the idea of the event that sticks in the mind and connects emotionally with the audience. Think of Nike's "Just do it" or McDonald's "I'm loving it." Short taglines are best. Staff proposes two alternatives for the tagline. Alternative 1 is "We've Got an Irish Attitude!" Alternative 2 is "Where else but Dublin?" Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day. These are catchy taglines that focus on what differentiates this St. Patrick's Day event from others, and will peak people's interest in attending. The preferred tagline will be incorporated into the design of the event logo. It will also be mentioned in television and radio advertising. Staff is requesting the City Council select the preferred tagline or provide alternate direction. Event Trademark Successful events have a niche or trademark component. It is a signature element of the event that will be talked about and become its trademark. These are the branded elements of the event that differentiate it from other events and brand it in the mind of the audience. Page 2 of 5 Staff has found that the Celtic music and Irish dancing are two of the most popular reasons why people attend the event. Therefore Staff plans to enhance these areas of the celebration. For example, Staff is pursuing the possibility of holding an Irish dancing competition as part of the festival. Additionally, Staff will continue to secure professional musicians and a variety of Celtic music, and explore opportunities for sponsorship of an additional music venue at the event in the future. Event Logo A logo may seem like a small thing, but it is a very big thing in the impact it has to a brand. Logos like the Nike "swoosh" or the Olympics' "interlocking rings" are as familiar as the names of the products or the event. The logo needs a visual "mark"; a graphic to convey an important idea about the event. Staff has prepared two alternatives for the event logo. Attachment 1 is Alternative 1 which features a large musical note as the visual mark. Attachment 2 is Alternative 2 which features an Irish dancer as the visual mark. The visual marks in both alternatives convey that the festival focuses on music. Both logos incorporate the event name and tagline. The orange and green, and other themed graphics, help convey that this is a St. Patrick's Day event. The preferred logo alternative will become the unique identity of the celebration and will remain a constant in promotional materials from year to year. Although the advertisements and posters will change each year, the logo will remain the same. This logo will be on all promotional materials such as the website, cable television ads, newspaper and magazine ads, e-newsletters, press releases, flyers and the poster. It will also be on event signs, decorations, nametags, staff shirts, etc. Staff will also encourage the groups that are sponsoring events during the weekend (Green and White Gala, Parade, Pancake Breakfast, Fun Run) to include the event logo on those promotional materials as well. Staff is requesting the City Council select the preferred event logo or provide alternate direction. Event Poster As indicated the poster theme would change each year. Although the theme would change, each poster would have a contemporary look and feature the bold use of Irish colors. This would make the posters similar enough in style to make them easily identifiable as Dublin California's St. Patrick's Day Celebration. As the poster is only a small portion of the event promotions, each year the other promotional materials would be updated to match the poster design to ensure a consistent look. Attachments 3 through 6 feature the poster concepts that Staff proposes for the next four years. Following is a summary of the poster themes: ~ Attachment 3 -Green and Orange Ribbon with Shamrocks + Attachment 4 -Rainbow ~• Attachment 5 -Gold ~. Attachment 6 -Falling Shamrocks with Orange Background Page 3 of 5 As shown in Attachments 3 through 6, the Event Logo is prominently displayed on each of the poster concepts. So, while the poster concept may change each year, the logo would remain the same and would be the identifying feature of the poster. For the purposes of providing a consistent example of how the logo would be used from year to year, Staff has shown only one of the logo alternatives on the poster. Staff is requesting the City Council approve the proposed poster themes or provide alternate direction. EVENT PROMOTIONS PLAN Target Audience Over the past two years an electronic survey has been conducted at the event to learn more about those in attendance and their satisfaction with the event. Although not statistically valid the survey data represents responses from over 1,500 attendees. Of those responding to the survey, 60% resided in the greater Tri-Valley Area. The next largest area of concentration was the Central Valley, followed by the East Bay and San Francisco. The largest age group represented in the survey was those 40 to 64 years of age at 32%; and the second largest group at 26% was ages 30 to 39 years. The survey asked how respondents heard about the event. There were 65% who heard about the event via word of mouth from a friend or family member. Approximately 10% heard about the event through an Internet website, while an additional 10% heard about it through radio and television. Only 4% of respondents had seen the poster. There could be a variety of reasons why word of mouth is the most common method people heard about the event, which is typical of most events. One reason could be that the target audience is not tuned into the media resources that the City has been using in the past. Therefore, Staff will be fine tuning the promotions plan using the survey results to try and increase exposure to the target audience. Following. is an overview of the promotions plan this year Television Advertising. Television advertising for 2010 will be through Comcast and will provide 45 commercials, which is three times as many 30-second ads than last year. Ads will air in specific zip codes on a variety of cable channels that are most popular with the target audience for the event. Radio Advertising. Radio advertising will be primarily on KKIQ in the Tri-Valley. Staff is exploring opportunities to expand radio advertising to the Tracy/Manteca/Stockton area. Print Media. Ads will be placed in the Irish Herald, northern California's largest Irish publication. Press releases will be widely distributed to publish human interest stories and calendar listings in newspapers, magazines and other specialized publications such as Via, Diablo, Sunset and Bay Area Parent Magazines. Staff is exploring opportunities to expand print media into the Central Valley. Page 4 of 5 Electronic Promotions. People are relying more on the Internet to search for events. Therefore expanded use of electronic promotions will happen for 2010. In addition to updating the official event website (www.DublinStPats.com) with the new event branding and logo, electronic promotions will focus on online event calendars, websites for major media outlets and event bloggers in northern California. St. Patrick's Day e-Newsletters. Two event e-newsletters will be distributed featuring human interest stories and event highlights. Distribution will target groups and organizations that will likely share the newsletter with their members, such as business and tourism organizations, neighborhood groups and homeowner associations, educational institutions and organizations, non-profit organizations. The newsletters will also be emailed to over 12,000 households registered on the DublinRecGuide.com website. Other Promotional Resources, Staff will use all of the traditional promotional resources available such as the website, electronic reader boards, displays and flyers at City facilities, street light pole banners, and mailings to businesses and residents. Promotional materials will also be distributed to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. Public Transportation Promotions. BART and the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) help promote the event to riders as accessible from public transportation. BART includes an article in its monthly newsletter, and allows placement of banners at the Dublin/Pleasanton and Castro Valley BART stations. Additionally the electronic reader boards in the BART stations promote the event and indicate to riders which train to take to celebration. LAVTA will place the event posters in buses and coordinate a shuttle from BART to the festival. NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH: A copy of this Staff Report was distributed to the Parks and Community Services Commission and will be presented to the Commission for input on November 16, 2009. Staff will verbally report the Commission recommendation at the City Council meeting. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Event Logo (Alternative 1) 2. Event Logo (Alternative 2) 3. Poster Concept 1 4. Poster Concept 2 5. Poster Concept 3 6. Poster Concept 4 Page 5 of 5 Hof 1 o®e O ~_ ~~ • ~~~ U H W W V ~i //~~ ~_uV r ~~ '~'w Vr N^ i~ O `/ ~. 1~~~ ~~~ ATTACHMENT 1 a ~- ~o L O ca C .a Q ~~ y v ~L .r- cc P- ~. .~ ..Z 1...~ ^~ y L 4~ s 3 ATTACHMENT 2 I - ~J Arn~va~ R~~ Arts & [~- ( n M us ic ~ D a nc d go & B ev er a~ ~ P ET S P ~ E~ i~ ~1 FESTNAL ~ ~',~ w I ,~ , ~~ ~'~ 4: F The City of Dui~lin proudly ~~esents the EST? 1159 GUI~~ESS comcast. B A R T C~l~l~r~tio~ \~ rJe c~c\1j. V 1 `~~~~~li ~adtis~h HOTEL DUBLIN ~-1'T~'`F C in Cc~op~ration with the follo~cving partners -X- DUBLIN ~/ ~ ~ SISTER CITY G a- ASSOCIATION ti~n~`'- i r ~\~H ~~vc~ `roll `Brothers ®~~F=,`, M rn.a.s Luann lt~me NuilArvr' ~~senro~nen..nn m+m ATTACHMENT 4 ~auBhn, cah~o~n~a r: ~ _ _ ~ ~a ~` ~ ~ ~ ~ FESTIVAL Saturday & Sunday March 13 & 14, 2010 loam-5pm Dublin Ci~~c Center NO PETS PLEASE GREEN & WHITE GALA it:. ~.~ ~ 13, 7:C~ Shannon Community Center PARAEiE ~a~:ur~.~.y 1~1arc~h 14, 9:30am Dublin Blvd. PANCAKE BREAKFAST 5~.~~.~ ~ ~~~ ~.4, 7:00-10:0~f . Fire Station #16 SHAMROCK 5K FUN RUN & WALK ATTA(''NMFNT ~ ~u~-h n cah o~n ~a ~ ~~ w~~~ . ~~ . ,~.:, • wE've cot an iaish at~~tubE~ G •~ F a. ,.~ ~~ L Dublin Civic Center The City of Dublin proudly presents the Celebration in cooperation with the following partners ESTo 1759 j~) i~ ~ I~~ J~`~' ~~ ~~~ ~ ~U~~~~SS i~~~ ~~ ~~ ~ ly~~Ns;` DUBLIN p / i , ~' :'.t®~ ~ SISTER CITY ~~ ~~ ~..~~~~'®t~l~'1'S ®~1heels ~tC ~~~,~. n, ~.t~~ .~..,z ra ~, r :r~~~ ~e~' omcast ~~ ~ ~~~. ASSOCIATION a a a t Palo Alto Medical ~/~ Foundntion V~-~v~~ ..~ , -~ ~ n s~ma~ Heeun nmrare HEALTH /tea d fnS b tl ~,rOSS111 S SYsT~• `/\ Dublin Center ~"O"O"aO~'^'w"'~~M" HOTEL DUBLtIN ATTACHMENT 9 FESTIVA