Toronto Unlimited: The birth of a new brand
As Canada's largest city, the Ontario metropolis is watched by the world but the project's fiercest critics are close to home. Toronto mayor, David Miller, has called for a complete rethink of the branding process. We'd like to know what readers of DMO World think. If you have any comments, please get in touch. Meanwhile, we're delighted to invite Bruce MacMillan, the president and CEO of Tourism Toronto, to share his thoughts on destination branding. What prompted the decision to create a new brand for Toronto? MacMillan: Well, I think the number one thing is that the marketplace and the community had both changed. We were using a position and a promise that were probably developed more on an ad-hoc basis sometime in the mid-nineties, and right now in a marketplace crowded with different messages you have to go about a very thoughtful process on how to develop your brand in order for it to succeed. We felt we had to do this the right way. Given that our community had changed so much, and the market with it, we needed to do a better job of marrying the brand promise to the marketplace. And the new brand, Toronto unlimited, is not geared solely for tourism but for economic development and investment in the city of Toronto as well. The process that the city undertook in developing the brand was innovative, to say the least. Could you explain this in more detail?
Further to the administration side of things, how were the decisions made? MacMillan: We had a number of partners - including the province, the city, and the private sector - as well as a working group and a community advisory group all of whom weighed into this. Predictably there is a lot of passion around it; you have to balance out the emotional side with the pragmatic side. What we ended up with, and what everyone agreed on, is that passion remains on both sides of it... and that's good. The worst thing a brand can be is irrelevant. We have to remember that a brand is developed to appeal to people who don't live in the community, and this is an important distinction to make for any brand - whether it's for Canada, or Montréal, or anybody. So, then, you are not necessarily selling the things that appeal just to you. You need to have the flexibility to sell to those markets you are trying to attract? MacMillan: Right. We look at ourselves differently than others look at us. It's hard to extract yourself from the place that you live and put yourself in the perspective of those in other markets. Industry buy-in is vital to the process. What considerations were taken to ensure the Toronto brand works with the new national brand and with the branding of your partners in the industry?
In the past it had been difficult to find a place for Toronto in a brand that was based around the outdoors and the magnificence of our country. That's not Toronto, that's not who we are, so we had to make sure that within that vast Canada Brand-scape, Toronto could have a place. At the same time we wanted to reflect those key things, which are Canadian, in our brand. How was all this accepted by the industry? MacMillan: I think the industry here has accepted it fairly well. They're still learning about it, and we encourage them to explore this a little more. You have to see beyond the logo and the tagline, to really understand. If you go to www.torontounlimited.ca and run the brand launch video you can see it, and you'll go, 'I get it; now I understand it.'. So where do you go from here? How do you implement Toronto Unlimited?
What our brands offers - our promise - was measured against who would best relate to it and get value from the promise, and it turned out to be these major urban centres. We're going in there aggressively and will probably be doing some promotional events, certainly in New York City. Coincidentally, those markets are where many of our meeting planners are, and they want to see the city working to draw attention to itself so they can better sell Toronto as a destination for their meetings and special events. The campaign creative is starting to appear in print. What other plans do you have for bringing the brand into the marketplace? MacMillan: It is not our intention to do television at this point. Research is telling us that print is the more effective way to go. The primary call-to-action is of course, to the website. Article courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission, TOURISM Online (August 2005) www.canadatourism.com Toronto's branding development has been well documented on torontounlimited.ca. The steps that Tourism Toronto followed are explained in detail, and make interesting reading for any tourism destination or business considering a branding exercise. The website contains supporting video and visuals, including the five 'signatures' for cuisine, music, fine arts, cinema and festivals. |
Having struggled though the perilous seasons of 2002 and 2003, Toronto has taken the initiative. In a classic response to such a situation, the city has re-introduced itself to the world through a new brand identity. 
A creative approach through industry involvement has allowed Tourism Toronto (in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, the City of Toronto, and the Toronto City Summit Alliance) to mastermind Canada's newest destination brand - Toronto Unlimited. 
MacMillan: We had a very comprehensive process involving stakeholders from the tourism industry but we also involved people in the community in general. We launched a campaign called WeAreToronto.ca, and to raise the profile of the campaign we prepared seven questions that were asked in the community. We got back 4500 responses! People wrote in; we also had street teams asking people to give their responses. We got real grassroots input from people in the community, who told us what they thought made Toronto remarkable.
MacMillan: Well, actually we had extensive ongoing dialogue. We shared research with the Canada Brand team, and had input from a member of its development team. We were always in conversation to understand where each party was coming from; that was an important part of the process.
MacMillan: Bringing the brand to life is the stage we are in right now. We're advertising aggressively in New York, Washington and Chicago because that is who we've intended the brand for. We did a lot of research to see the synthesis, and to see how our brand sinks in with the consumers.