Atlanta is a great city. Lots to do, relatively low cost of living. A semi-vibrant tech community. I am sure that there are many places in the world that are better to live, but I have been pretty happy here for 14 years.

Last year the city decided that it needed to brand itself. To do so they formed Brand Atlanta. A little bit of a warning went off in my head when they did this. Branding by committee is never good.

However when they came up with the Three O’s I thought they had a chance.

At the heart of this effort is the essence of Atlanta summed up in three simple words: Opportunity, Optimism and Openness. Our city’s boundless optimism and spirit of universal openness create a place of opportunity for everyone.

The stated goal of the group was to brand the city in the same way that Las Vegas did. It’s worth mentioning that LV approached this by going to a single agency.

Brand Atlanta came up with the tag “Every day is an opening day in the ATL”. While it does not exactly roll off the tongue, the Braves were thrilled. Stakeholders talked it up.

Reaction on the street was quite different. The only viral elements were ridicule. With people more closely associated with the city and the campaign, only silence.

I am going to speak up. The tag is bad. It needs to go away. The world is never going to think of ATL as the every day is an opening day city. It says nothing.

Brand Atlanta is starting to extend its campaign beyond the borders of Georgia. Hopefully they will be making some adjustments before they waste a bunch of time and money.

Update: Just found this:

ATLANTA GETS IT WRONG WITH NEW BRAND PITCH
City Joins a Long List of Meaningless and Unmemorable Ad Slogans

By Al Ries

Not bad company.

Months ago, Tara Hunt, whom I adore from afar (but not nearly as much as my wife), wrote a extremely interesting and thought provoking four square model on the Marketing Continuum.

I agree a good deal with what Tara is talking about, but the rogue one can also be a bit rebellious. The only thing I take exception with is that even when you are in the upper right hand corner of the quadrant as a marketer you still want to guide the message in some manner (though customers will most likely tell you the way to guide it).

When it comes to consumer technology marketing, I don’t really see marketing as a continuum. I see it going through three stages as a company scales; viral, partnership, and mass. I have been involved with quite a few start-ups and see it nearly every time.

When a company is young, viral marketing is the most vital, and sometimes the only available, way to market your product. I use the word “viral” loosely. It encompasses, Cluetrain, Guerilla, Hughtrain, Pinko and WOM activities. Unless a company is well funded these are the only options open to building the brand and gain some scale. Using search engines to slide in a little direct marketing can work here if a company is smart. Throw in event marketing for good measure. The product has got to rock to make viral work. If it does not go back and make it rock or you are just wasting your time and money.

As a company grows and starts to gain a little traction in the marketplace a wealth of partnership marketing opportunities can be pursued. This would be a little to the upper left of Promotions in Tara’s quad. These are business development channel type deals that can get a small but growing company much broader distribution and market credibility by associating with larger brand names if the right partners are chosen.

Finally there comes a point when you have to mass marketing to continue to grow your business. Can you believe that Starbucks is doing directional highway billboard advertising these days?

Advertising. Mass advertising can be done well. There is nothing evil about it, it just is. You just have to get it out in a way that people find it acceptable. Open and honest is a good start.

The trick is effectively doing stage three while keeping the soul of stage one.

It can be done.