Cloverdale billboard not a hit with everyone
Over the past week, a Reader’s Poll on the Cloverdale TOWNS site has invited comments about the new Cloverdale billboard on the highway south of town. (http://lb.vg/T5vwk)
A surprising 55 percent said they didn’t like it. While complimenting the colorful vineyard photograph across the top, the majority didn’t like the wording “Gateway to the Mendocino Coast,” believing this was short-changing Cloverdale and giving free advertising to another county.
Others felt the ads were too big and distracting, while others wanted to know why neither of Cloverdale’s two most prominently touted slogans – “Genuinely Cloverdale” and “Where the vineyards meet the redwoods” – were used.
Last year, the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, administrators of the billboard, were turned down when they asked for the City’s financial support to create a themed billboard. They were on the verge of letting the billboard go because they couldn’t afford the $1,600 per month lease payment. It was only able to remain in the Chamber’s control for the next three years because of the five paying advertisers who stepped up to the plate at the last minute.
Chamber board member Ken Knight said the president of the Chamber queried many local businesses of their desire to keep the billboard, noting “She found few who wished to provide financial backing—but plenty of opinions. To her credit, she marshaled the various ingredients of the design and signed the tenants to supply the needed funds.”
Neena Hanchett, another board member, called the billboard a “work in progress,” saying the hope is to have more of a themed message next year with little or no advertising.
“But that will depend on the business and residential community’s financial support,” she said. “Efforts will be underway shortly to plan for the 2013 billboard. If you are interested in being part of the solution, let the chamber know.”
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Cloverdale is better than the billboard. It’s bad. Better to have no billboard than cheap advertisement.
WOW! VERY well-written, Mary Jo! That pretty much says it all! Now people will have to put their money where their mouths are!
Why not start a headline like, “Residents Divided About Billboard Appeal,” instead of a negative like “not a hit.” Almost half of the voters voted “I Like It A Lot.”
The new design is a vast improvement over previous years, except for the error in contrast that so easily could have been prevented. Whether you like it or not, no need to worry about the alluring tag line–drivers can’t read it with white letters on top of a yellow background anyway.
The former president of the Chamber finalized the choices in preparing the layout and wording, and completed the design with the help of our stellar local photographer, and she received the approval of the billboard design from the private parties who paid for it. No one complained then. It is the private parties’ perogative to say what they find alluring to pull people off the highway and toward their businesses. If you have an opinion, that’s fine, but it’s not your money on the line–it’s their money–so if you’d like to lay down $20,000 to have your say, go for it. No? I didn’t think so. It’s expensive. Think about it. For a statement of our community’s “image,” enhanacements will be made over the next two years, but pulling people off the highway is why the Chamber decided years ago that the billboard was a crucial lifeline for our commercial interests.
What you need for a billboard is something “for” the driver to grasp immediately, “buy it” in their mind, and pull them through town. A passage to Hwy 128–where most of them are going–is a pathway they can “take and use,” thus encouraging transactions for food, gas, and lodging along their journey.
Attempting the impossible task of reaching each individual’s idea for what is appropriate for a Cloverdale billboard, I am determined to focus on good hope for next year’s improvement that is planned for broadening a community statement that should satisfy more people and still do its job to bring impulsive highway drivers off the highway. Mentioning highway directional help should still be a part of the 2013 plan, but it doesn’t have to be what defines Cloverdale’s personality and that wasn’t the plan this time, either.
Start thinking of your favorite tag line for Cloverdale, in 6 words or less (no more) and we will spend the next 10 months working through all the possibilities. Most marketing and creative work is weaker when “built by committee,” but when the Chamber gets closer next year to utilizing the billboard for use in a larger commercial scope of expression, your input can be helpful and will be heard. Also, if you want to join the fun, join the Chamber’s effort. It’s not a closed process.
Send your 6-word taglines to me, if you wish, and I will collect them and list them for next year’s design. Enter many ideas over the next several months. Now is your chance to help. Share the opportunity with your friends. It’s always easy to complain–especially if you are encouraged to do so, and it’s harder to roll your sleeves up and solve a problem–but I know it can be solved with a positive attitude and good organizing skills.
Let’s place our energies toward this constant “work in progress” called Cloverdale, not against each others’ good efforts. It’s not a pure science, and like any “work of art,” there will be opinions, but kindness in expressing our opinions would go a long way toward encouraging new people and businesses to the community.
“Where the Redwoods Meet the Vineyards” worked beautifully for many years. Please do not use the tag line, Genuinely Cloverdale. In my humble opinion, it’s boring as heck.
I think you did a great job Mary Jo, maybe next year they can put something about Cloverdale in the sign maybe a little bit of its History when the town was founded and then where the Vineyards meet the Redwoods.
Kim
I’d like to clarify a comment I made earlier in response to the specific question “What’s my opinion of the new billboard on HWY 101″. While I don’t think the tagline “Gateway to the Mendocino Coast” is the best branding idea for Cloverdale, I certainly do appreciate the often thankless hard work of the Chamber and everyone involved in the rescue mission to keep the billboard a Cloverdale billboard. Thank you!
Thank you Mary Jo for publishing the facts about the billboard and how it came to be what it is. Thank you Ken for reminding us to join forces and efforts in a positive way. It’s so easy to complain, especially when you don’t have all the facts. As was published, the billboard is a work in progress…we’ve come a long way since the pink sign.
For the record, I have never used the word “harebrained” in my life.
Thank you Mary Jo for the article and clarification. Your original article regarding the billboard asked for people’s opinion. My personal opinion is that it is off message and hard to read.
I am very thankful to Ken, Carla and the Chamber for scrambling to put this together to save the billboard. I completely understand that it is a “work in progress”. I am also aware of the fact that all involved had limited resources and time.
My personal frustration is not with the billboard or its creators, it is with the CITY OF CLOVERDALE and it’s fiscal spending. There should be money in a marketing fund available for things like this. It should not be put on the shoulders of business owners (all of who are paying their fair share in taxes) or the Chamber of Commerce alone to make this possible.
For people that say, “put your money where your mouth is” or “go get involved” and “get all the facts”, I have.
I write thousands of dollars worth of checks every year to The City of Cloverdale, in the form of TOT (Transient Occupancy Taxes) for our Domenichelli Farmhouse property.
This billboard could have been funded, all $20,000/year, by just the TOT from the 3 legal vacation rentals in town. I would have gladly seen ALL of our TOT go to the preservation of this billboard.
I hold two business licenses with the City of Cloverdale and have paid my business license fee to the City of Cloverdale for the past six years.
Over my past 15 years in Cloverdale, I have personally spent countless hours in meetings, round table discussions and the like. I was involved in the ill-fated “Genuinely Cloverdale” campaign, which with proper funding and support could have achieved success.
I hope that this discussion sheds some light on the City of Cloverdale and the use or misuse of TRANSIENT OCCUPANCY TAXES collected. I have been told that those collected taxes go into the city’s GENERAL FUND. It is my understanding that in other cities, TOT, or a significant portion of them, go into a marketing/tourism type fund to help pay for things like a billboard or ads in travel magazines, etc. I seriously hope that the city officials and powers that be will take another look at where those funds go and consider creating a “marketing fund”.
Again, I am not attacking the messenger or the people that scrambled to save this billboard, I am simply exercising my opinion (as was asked for) and voicing my frustrations with the City of Cloverdale.
Good job Ken and Stephanie. I agree that the City needs to use the TOT tax to promote Cloverdale as other cities use it for. 2013 is a great year to think about attracting some of those nice people coming to the Bay Area to see the Americas Cup races. They actually start some demo races this August. Let’s see what we can attract with a few marketing dollars, instead of low income housing!
The billboard has been the subject of contention for some time. This billboard, and the few past ones as well, are the direct result of foregoing a professional designer or design team (generally due to budget or availability), and going instead with a typical “design by committee” process.
It is easy for those not ever involved in the process of scrambling for paying advertisers and begging for funding from the City to criticize the end result, and belittle the few people that do their best, with limited resources.
It is just as easy, for those who are involved in the process, to become defensive when their collaborative design efforts fall flat.
While I did not agree that a marketing and branding campaign obtained from an out-of-state branding firm was the best investment for the City to make (or the best quality campaign they could have spent their money on), they did make it. Shelving it with very little prior usage, and going with something that has zero consistency, both visually and in content, to the purchased campaign shows a lack of understanding of community branding, and a high level of ignorance by the powers that be. They proved simply that the marketing campaign they paid for was just what many residents said it was: a complete waste of money, which could have been more wisely spent.
If everyone stopped pointing fingers, and looked collaboratively at the problem, it would be much clearer as to what solution would fit best. My humble opinion: the sign needs to go to the drawing board. It needs to be thought of as one cohesive marketing/branding visual piece that promotes the community in a realistic and positive light, not chopped up into small pieces for advertisers to vie for. And the people at the helm of said drawing board can’t be a hob knob mix of well-intentioned people. It has to be a design team, one that understands specifically how billboard advertising works, one with a clear and concise branding message in mind, and one with professional design and large format marketing experience.
I agree with an earlier post: it’s better to have NO billboard, than one that is detrimental. The new billboard is a detriment to our community. It is visually ineffective. It lacks a clear branding message. It is very difficult to read while driving by it. It somewhat misleads those who do have the luck to read it at 65mph that they are entering the gateway to Mendocino County, when we are in fact, the northernmost town of Sonoma County (despite popular belief). It is a disservice to the advertisers who paid a considerable amount for professional representation; while their ads on an individual basis are fine, the space which they share is too small for that many individual design elements. The billboard should be thought of as a community branding/promotion piece, but I don’t see the businesses collectively paying hundreds of dollars and more a year to promote a general design… the City needs to foot the bill, and Stephanie is correct – collected TOT would be an ideal source of income for marketing the community.
Now before someone jumps all over my case about talking big but not participating: I’ve been on both sides. I’ve taken part in this project, and also have elected not to take part in the process. My reason for choosing not to participate: I believe the design-by-committee process, no matter how well-intentioned, is a mistake. I can shout it from the rooftops, but until the City realizes they need to step up and own budgeting for the billboard, no amount of I-told-you-so’s or good intentions will fix it. Unless there is a clear and consistent marketing message, a thorough understanding of the branding process, and a technical grasp on the effectiveness of a design piece of this scope, you can put as many heads around a table as you want, but the result will fall flat every time.
There needs to be a reason to come to Cloverdale. What is it? The once a year Fair? The restaurants in Healdsburg get Micheline awards! What do we have???