Recently declared a National Heritage Area by the President of the United States, the City of Poughkeepsie is the center for media, arts, education, and government in Duchess County. Seventy-five minutes from New York City, it is a beehive of academic and creative activity with one out of every four people involved with higher learning.

Bringing a city back to life
One hundred years ago, the city of Poughkeepsie was a bustling marketplace for the mid-Hudson Valley and a nexus for rail and canal travel. Poughkeepsie had national name recognition. After two world wars and the exodus of IBM, the city's identity and direction was unclear and its energy as the regional center had declined.

Level M was contracted to develop a major marketing initiative to help revitalize and re-position the city in compelling terms, both regionally and nationally. Revitalization goals are to attract key markets, shift public attitudes, build an environment conducive to the creative class and smart business, promote media and academic alliances and networks, identify revenue generating opportunities for sustainability, motivate internal constituents, and ensure high-level messaging is consistent across all communications fronts.

Our solution
We developed a brand strategy to clearly articulate Poughkeepsie's municipal and regional power. We also developed a comprehensive marketing and implementation plan to serve as a blueprint for an incremental brand rollout. This included non-traditional advertising techniques to reinforce the brand strategy. Deliverables included brand strategy report, marketing plan, implementation plan, brand identity components, city brand manual, and brand applications to signage, interpretive, and merchandising. Level M worked closely with the Mayor and city leaders throughout the brand formulation and planning stages. We also developed marketing materials and lead presentations to win the support of key constituents.

A window to our approach
Level M helps clients build a brand strategy around logical priorities. We frame strategy around the essential assets and strengths that differentiate a place. Brand strategy guides the creation and deployment of tactics. Brand marketing is often a fractured process. The PR person has one way to communicate the message, the marketing team has another, and before long there is little guiding logic at the tactical level. Without a decisive strategic framework, it is impossible to adjudicate between tactical and strategic success. In other words you can win the battle but not the war. The net effect is a costly and inefficient brand building process that could takes 3 years instead of 12 months to generate equity. The Level M approach to brand-building ensures global strategy guides tactics on a daily basis. This is how we help clients achieve their marketing goals more quickly and cost-efficiently.

CITY OF NEW YORK CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE GOVERNORS ISLAND HUDSON RIVER PARK LIBERTY WORLD CHALLENGE NATIONAL PARKS OF NEW YORK HARBOR

Finding the brand essence of a city
For the city of Poughkeepsie, our research shows that one out of every four people is in academia. This is a strong differentiator that supports government objectives. “Forward thinking” captures the city's greatest historic legacy and present day brand asset. The brand strategy outlines tactics that reinforce Poughkeepsie's intellectual capital, draws top talent, technology partners, and helps transform Poughkeepsie into a nationally-recognized academic center.

Alternate marketing solutions at work
Strategy guided the way we developed the communications platform. Instead of relying on the usual government press release to promote "Forward Thinking" topics we devised tactics to help bring the Poughkeepsie brand to life. One is called the Hamilton Forum, based on Alexander Hamilton. In the Poughkeepsie Court House in 1788, Hamilton gave a speech urging ratification of the US Constitution. It is considered to be one of the greatest speeches and pivotal to the formation of the nation.

The Hamilton Forum would help to rekindle this passion for the American political body. An alliance between city government and local schools, the Hamilton Forum would be an academic town meeting with a calendar of topics relevant to colleges, the region, and media sponsors. It would be a platform for stimulating discussion, merging a critique of history and politics with the practical realities of government today.

In this way, the Hamilton Forum becomes a sustainable vehicle for generating Forward Thinking news and serves to strengthen the marketing alliance between the schools and city government. Building on the Hamiltonian tradition, Poughkeepsie recently became the first stop of the Alexander Hamilton national tour, courtesy of the New York Historical Society.