Marketing Committee
Minutes
June 28, 2016
Attending: Kay MacIntosh, Michael O’Connor, Sam Shoge, Bernadette Bowman.
- Transition to Main Street Promotions Committee. With the upcoming revitalization of the Main Street program in Chestertown, we discussed the process of folding the A&E Advisory Committee into the Main Street structure. There have traditionally been four committees for Main Street: Organization, Promotion, Economic Vitality, and Design. The committee agreed that it made sense for this Marketing Committee to continue to serve the needs of both the A&E District and the larger Main Street program.
2. Banners:
Members discussed the Overall Concept of banners, including the options of combining banners with hanging baskets, having single banners and having double-hung banners. In the latter scenario, one side would feature the Hebe logo and the other would offer a version of the tagline:
Revel in Art
Revel in Theater
Revel in Poetry
Revel in Literature
Revel in Nature
Revel in Music
Designer? Mike suggested asking Dainius in the Washington College communications office to design the banners as a freelancer. Kay would also look into designers at the companies who produce the banners. And will ask Robbi Behr, who created the Hebe logo, if she is interested in taking on the design.
It was suggested that Kay walk the town to get an estimate of how many banners we would need to create — based on the number of existing poles.
3. PR for July 4th, and other Special Weekends — rack cards or fliers? Web page? After a discussion of how best to publicize local events over the July 4 weekend, it was decided that it was too late to produce any printed materials for 2016 and that it would be good to create a page for the Fourth that includes the major events in town.
4. Photography:
Kay reported that professional photographer Chris Gardner was scheduled to come for July First Friday and that she had been in contact with Baltimore photographer Kevin Moore to discuss his coming to shoot upcoming events, as well.
5. Town Branding
Kay updated the committee on a session on branding that Arnett-Muldrow Associates principal Ben Muldrow led at the national Main Street conference in June. She has reached out to Muldrow for information on services and fees.
6. Town Wayfinding Signage. We are researching work by recommended companies that specialize at least in part in planning, designing and manufacturing signage to guide visitors. Of the three firms below, Bizzell and Arnett-Muldrow were at the Main Street Conference and have done work with small towns on the East Coast and beyond:
Bizzell Design (North Carolina)
Corbin Design (Michigan)
Arnett-Muldrow (S.C. and Delaware)
7. Website landing page language
More wordsmithing was discussed for the Web Site: “History, Nature and Lively Arts on the Chester River,” resonated with the committee members present.