The Brand That Puts on a Show
Client / City of Mississauga
Industry Sector / Culture Arts and Entertainment
Services / Brand Strategy, Positioning and Messaging
Mississauga’s Culture Division is a multi-stakeholder community services department of the City of Mississauga. In 2023, Culture Marketing hired Retool Lab to help develop a unified and consistent brand strategy and expression of the City’s live entertainment and cultural scene.
MARKET CONTEXT
The saugaLIVE brand was born out of a strategic recommendation from the 2021 Culture Division’s
Social Media Strategy to centralize social media communications for live cultural events. The saugaLIVE brand marketing identity was internally developed in 2021, as a first initiative to support multi-stakeholder communication needs, prior to an official public launch.
STRATEGIC BRANDING REQUIREMENTS
Clarify and define the saugaLIVE brand forward, through the development of appropriate and compelling market positioning and brand messaging.
Identify what the saugaLIVE brand can represent for the City of Mississauga, especially as a revenue driver and an important element of its economic plan from a tourism perspective.
COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES
As the City’s chosen brand communications consultants, Retool Lab was tasked with clarifying the saugaLIVE brand messaging as part of a planned public launch.
Infuse the saugaLIVE brand with a renewed and empowering strategic direction
Collaboratively build a common strategy and vision, shared purpose and value proposition to benefit all stakeholders equally in order to make it possible for the City to maximize its investment in the promotion of its arts and culture communications.
Elevate the overall live entertainment brand of the City.
PROCESS/METHODOLOGY
INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
Included: Select City of Mississauga departments, services and lines of business (LOBs) and their leadership teams.
While this brand would ultimately filter out to a general public audience, the focus of this particular engagement was principally on ensuring participation from the Culture Division internal stakeholder groups.
Actions
i) We conducted a series of individual and team interviews with over 30 senior stakeholders/ managers in various departmental functions.
Priorities
Recognize the diversity of representation to include various lines of business and service areas that all have a different but significant role to play in the success of the brand.
Engage stakeholders in the creation of a new and compelling collective brand strategy, and shared vision and purpose that benefit all.
ii) We conducted a half-day workshop with over 35 participants
Priorities
Provide a compelling engagement mechanism and centered around a number of individual and team activities
Allow participants to contribute preliminary branding ideas and proposed
initial brand narrative directions to support a public relaunch of the saugaLIVE
marketing brand
2. EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
Included: Mississauga residents, visitors, event-goers, and the public at large.
Actions
Together with the Culture Division’s marketing team, we developed and conducted a general population survey from which we collected and analyzed data and responses to a wide range of questions, from over 1,600 participants, to help us better:
understand consumption habits as relates to cultural and live events
assess levels of engagement with various Mississauga marketing channels
assess existing levels of knowledge of the saugaLIVE brand platform
Priorities
Promote new and compelling means to connect to Mississauga’s live events and the arts and culture scene
Develop strategies to introduce audiences to the saugaLIVE brand with compelling and relevant value propositions that appeal to their interests
Develop a more optimal user experience
PARTIAL LIST OF DELIVERABLES
1) An Actionable saugaLIVE Brand Marketing Framework, composed of:
Shared Vision and Purpose Statement
Shared/Common Values, Character and Brand Personality
Expanded set of eligibility criteria for events and venues
Unique Selling Proposition, Unified Brand Narrative/Story, and Key Supporting Messages
2) A Draft Brand Implementation Guidelines, containing:
Core messages (messaging matrix/tools and templates) tailored to audience personae and to specific venues and events
Principles in promoting the saugaLIVE Brand
Responsibilities, Approvals and Oversight for marketing
Proper brand usage (format and context)
Brand Promotional Hierarchy Structure including Events, Sponsors and Venues
Co-branding and consortium branding policy
3) A Report of Strategic Recommendations
A final report detailing the outcome of the research and engagement process, and delivering strategic brand recommendations and a messaging platform moving forward, toward the launch of the saugaLIVE live event brand marketing platform and channel to the general public
ACHIEVED AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The outcome of the brand strategy engagement will allow the City of Mississauga to:
Establish and sustain a strong and cohesive brand positioning in the live event and cultural space in Mississauga, the GTA and the South-central Ontario region.
Clarify the value it provides to sponsors, performers and organizers locally and abroad
Improve the means to promote Mississauga as an entertainment and tourism destination
Enable a centralized point of purchase for ticketed events
Strengthen alternative live event and programming marketing channels
Promote and help guide a seamless customer journey and experience from search to purchase
Maximize event exposure regionally and abroad
NEXT STEPS
The re-introduction of the saugaLIVE brand to external market audiences, along with a creative campaign, and new experiential on-site activation initiatives, are scheduled for Q1 and Q2 of 2024.
Furthermore, the adoption of a centralized ticketing platform, as well as various digital updates will greatly support Mississauga’s Culture Division’s unified branding efforts.