PICK
ORANGE
county
Brand Development
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Situation
Orange County is perfectly positioned as a short drive from Manhattan in New York’s Hudson Valley, an area that is rich in history, stunning natural scenery, and agricultural heritage supporting farm-to-table restaurants and wineries. Lacking a distinctive logo that captured the destination’s essence, Orange County’s team wanted a new, clear identity showcased by fresh branding that would encompass what the area offers. With so many unique experiences in close proximity to the country’s most populated city, Orange County wanted a logo that would be easily recognizable while giving a glimpse into what you could expect to find there. In addition, they wanted their new brand to include a mascot to emphasize the family-friendly aspect of the destination.
Approach
To kickoff the project, Madden began with an in-destination immersion trip. Members of our team spent several days in Orange County visiting attractions, restaurants, and breweries and holding listening sessions with staff and other stakeholders.
RESEARCH
In addition, we hosted four focus groups with community members from across the county. During these focus groups, participants shared their thoughts and experiences about living and working in Orange County, as well as perceptions of the destination that they heard from visitors, family, and friends. To conclude our research, we distributed perception surveys to past Legoland ticket buyers (Legoland being one of the county’s largest attractions) and Orange County’s existing leisure traveler database. Our team also dug into the data conducting audits of website traffic and social media. We included a thorough comp set analysis to discover how their current destination brand stood out from others in a highly competitive region. We compiled a summary of all of the information collected during our immersion, focus groups, surveys, and data analysis. We shared our findings with the Orange County team, giving them an understanding of what was now guiding our creative process.
UNCOVERING A FRESH IDENTITY
Words like “fresh,” “scenic,” “country,” “farmland,” and “orchards” continued to come up in our conversations, focus groups, and surveys, leading us toward a central theme for their new brand. We developed brand pillars that focused on four main areas: wide open spaces, history in motion, farm fresh/freshly crafted, and hand-stitched community.
“Pick Orange County” was chosen as the brand name to emphasize the rich, diverse selection of experiences available across the region. The word “Pick,” while being unique in the world of destination marketing, serves a dual purpose—inviting potential visitors to select Orange County as their next vacation destination and gives a nod to the county’s agricultural heritage, specifically its beautiful orchards and farms.
Our design team got to work crafting several options for logos centering around the brand pillars. These options were originally presented to the Orange County team in black and white, in order to focus on design before bringing in color palette options. The logo’s apple icon calls back to the area’s ecotourism and farming heritage as well as referencing a subtle connection to the “Big Apple” just a short drive south. The hand-drawn OCNY in the center gives the county a unified nickname uniquely theirs to separate from OC in California.
To their branding we added the tagline, “The Fresh State of Mind.” This tagline serves as an invitation to experience the simplicity and purity of nature found across Orange County and calls to mind the fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and even crisp winter mornings found there. For the color palette, we chose rich colors that reflect the natural scenery— from the apple orchards, to the mountains and river.
MAKING A MASCOT
A key request from the Orange County team was for a mascot to underscore the destination as family friendly. With the brand guidelines in place, we created a lovable hound, Hudson, along with a whole personality and storyline to accompany him. Hudson can be used to speak to families, while demonstrating how to best enjoy everything Orange County has to offer.
BRAND LAUNCH
We assisted Orange County in bringing the new brand to life across campaign collateral, the destionan website, social media, and advertising. This ensured that the new branding was not only in place, but was utilized following brand guidelines for a cohesive look across all channels. Following the official brand launch, the time and effort invested into getting to know and understand Orange County through in-person conversations, focus groups, surveys, and data was reflected in the positive reception of the brand by the community and stakeholders.
