Business and community leaders in Northwest Arkansas launched a marketing campaign aimed at attracting new businesses and professionals to the region.
A new logo and a new campaign slogan – Great for Business. Great for Life. – were unveiled during a Tuesday afternoon news conference organized by the Northwest Arkansas Council, a non-profit group formed to promote the area.
Courtesy
“We are confident this regional branding effort will be important in helping convince others that Northwest Arkansas is a place that is great for business, great for life,” said John Tyson, co-chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Council. “Our region has benefitted tremendously from excellent schools, great amenities, and the entrepreneurial spirit and growth of the University of Arkansas, Walmart Stores, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Tyson Foods and others. It is important that we begin identifying and attracting other great companies and working professionals so they can choose Northwest Arkansas.”
The new brand will be included in marketing brochures and other advertising materials designed to promote the region. Additionally, the new logo and slogan will be used by regional economic developers, including the five major chambers of commerce and the Northwest Arkansas Council, according to a news release.
“The new logo and tagline will position Northwest Arkansas as a destination for expanding companies and working professionals that value living and working in a growing region rich in urban amenities and natural outdoor beauty,” the news release stated.
Who’s behind the creative?
From the release: “It was developed with assistance from branding experts with Procter & Gamble, Mitchell Communications Group, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, Saatchi & Saatchi X and Rockfish Interactive.”
CJRW is helping us with the bulk of the creative.
Paper-thin babbitry.
No amount of “creative” can mask that.
Sounds and looks like too many cooks in the kitchen.
I think its a nice little video for recruiting more corporate jerbs.
Generic. Meh. How does this say “us”?
Funny that this group’s office is located in Springdale. There is nothing about Springdale that lends itself to a great quality of life.
My thoughts on how to attract talent: Nobody ever goes on vacation and brags about how they had to drive everywhere. So why do we accept that fate for our hometowns? Build a complete pedestrian system and you’ll go a long way to improving the quality of life for the cities of NW Arkansas. This includes sidewalks that are something other than pretty street borders (make them wider, with shade and benches), a trail system that is something other than a narrow street, and an increased number of protected crosswalks.
Can someone tell me why it makes sense that the stairs in front of the new Fayetteville high school are twice as wide as the sidewalk leading up to them?
I guess I am no one. I like taking drives when I go on vacation to different parts of the country or world. I like to see the countryside and other parts of the area than just the center of the city that I am staying. I drove all around Pennsylvania the last time I was there and it was awesome. It is beautiful there and I found some cool little towns to stop and shop and eat.
The article is about an urban area, not a road trip. When you were in Pennsylvania did you brag about driving all over Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia?
The article was about drawing people and businesses to NWA not a single urban area. Hope you have fun walking or riding your bike to Beaver Lake, Buffalo River, or the town of Siloam Springs which were all promoted in this video. Part of our draw is the awesome outdoor areas that are within driving distance. If all we had was urban and the only things we could enjoy are what we could walk or bike to than I don’t think a lot of us would live here, work here, and open businesses here. BTW there are some cool areas near Philadelphia that you would totally miss if you did not drive. Some awesome countryside with horse farms, covered bridges, and national parks not far from downtown. I went on vacation there and I told lots of people about some cool drives we went on.
My lovely wife were in southwestern Pennsylvania a few years ago and thought it was lovely. Indeed, in many details of climate and terrain, it is very similar to Northwest Arkansas.
Clarification: My lovely wife and I were in southwestern Pennsylvania….
It reminds me of that video played just before Edward G. Robinson’s character is euthanized in the movie Soylent Green. But seriously, although the Council’s latest promotional film might be useful for attracting new associates, truck drivers and poultry-line workers to the area, I think the “best and brightest” will still stay away.
Clearly it is aimed at people who have never been to NWA. It serves its purpose well, by highlighting the region’s landscape and cultural amenities about as good as a couple of minutes of video can do.
Some people would bitch if they were hung with a gold rope.
I think I’d be upset if I were hanged with anything.
Though most wouldn’t complain if they were hung.
How /do/ you hang a horse?
Fayetteville needs a new logo. It should be a gigantic apartment complex soaring out-of-sight into the sky. Of course, it would have the words “ecco” somewhere on the complex’s name.
That would be funny if it weren’t so true.
What no Love for Lindsey or the Awesome Legacy building? We’re so rich culturally I’m surprised they didn’t have to include a link to the Detention Roster iOS app too.
Corporate jerks buy goods and services, which pays the wages of non-corporate jerks, and ultimately this economic “ecosystem” is what allows cities to pay for bike trails, sidewalks, libraries, etc….which improves everyone’s lives. Don’t kid yourself and think we don’t need corporate jerks to be a vibrant, thriving community. I think the video serves its purpose although I think the logo is weak.
Yeah, lets not recruit white-collar jobs. We’re too cool for that.
While we’re at it, lets force those evul developers to create groovy, eco-friendly, low-income housing, because we’re all too cool to work for The Man.
We don’t need corporate jerks to be a vibrant community. There are plenty of corporations that are good stewards of their communities. Let’s leave the jerks to someone else’s community.
Gosh I am amazed at how commenters on this site gripe about everything. This is a nice promotional piece for our area. It is certainly better than nothing. If one person’s decision to relocate to NWA is influenced by any of this that is wonderful.
I don’t know…depends who it is.
It took 1 minute and 9 seconds in the video for the word Arkansas to make an appearance and 2 minutes and 9 seconds for the words Northwest Arkansas to show. The attention span of most people watching these types of advertisements are going to be limited. I am not sure why it wasn’t splashed in the video to start with.
I like the video overall, but think the intro can be a bit better.
As for the logo, there could have been some improvements with a bigger call out for Northwest Arkansas. Do the upward arrows really signify this area? I would have liked to have seen some tie in with the growth and the preservation of our beauty in the area.
I took the arrows to represent mountains and/or trees. If that is the case, I think the logo would be more successful if they were arrayed asymmetrically. Also, given the fact that the logo appears against a dark background as well as a white one, more consideration should be given to the colors of the arrows. How about two sets of colors– one for fall/winter (as implied by these colors) and another set for spring/summer? A good logo can be used with multiple color schemes.
Yeah, to your point the colors are not that inviting. It actually is a bit dark for my taste. I am not sure why they just didn’t solicit the flyer readers to produce this… haha.
I moved here from a large metropolitan area and while I think my hometown is infinitely better, I have come to love Northwest Arkansas as a wonderful corner of the US and a great place to live. If this video is seeking to attract young, white-collar folks to town, it does a nice job of showing both the small-town Americana as well as the more corporate side.
Northwest Arkansas is a nice place to bring up a family, has a great cost of living, the nature-y stuff is pretty incredible, the air smells good and fall is lovely. There are cool things brewing here and it’s nice to be reminded of that.
Having said that… Could we not find a local musician to provide something not from Creative Commons? Does the MitchComm CEO need to push her biker agenda so hard? These are some of my trivial complaints.
I like the video. I am glad to see that we are promoting NW Arkansas. I have been all over the country and NW Arkansas has alot to offer. When people around the country ask me where I’m from, I am proud to tell them about our area. When you say “Arkansas” most people have a certain stereotype in mind. Northwest Arkansas does not conform to that stereotype. I say well done!