Seattle Goes Metronatural?

I really don’t know what to say… The tagline for Seattle’s new brand platform is “Metronatural”.  As in, “I live in Seattle because it’s metronatural.”  I’ve been known to (occasionally) mock some of Tacoma’s marketing efforts.  This one…  I’ll let you make up your own mind.

Update: ... and there’s a website

Rec’d via email:

(SEATTLE) Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) today unveiled a new Seattle destination brand position designed to increase tourism to the city. “Metronatural,” the new trademarked tagline, is the centerpiece of a powerful new brand platform that will define and promote the unique Seattle visitor experience and drive the city’s tourism marketing programs.

The metronatural brand concept was designed to highlight Seattle’s rare and uniquely-marketable combination of urban and outdoor experiences.

Beginning today, metronatural will be visible in Seattle and around the world. SCVB has launched a new convention trade media advertising campaign featuring metronatural-themed photography and messaging. A worldwide publicity campaign announces and promotes the new Seattle brand to travel, features, lifestyle, trade and business media. Many of SCVB’s more than one thousand member businesses are expected to incorporate the new brand into their marketing programs, including advertising, web sites, brochures and promotional collateral, graphics and public relations.

SCVB led Seattle’s brand development initiative over the course of more than year, drawing critical input and support from a broad-based steering committee comprised of representatives from the City of Seattle, Port of Seattle, local hotels, airlines, attractions, restaurants, cultural organizations, SCVB members and many other travel industry stakeholders. Seattle-based branding and advertising firm EXCLAIM served as the creative partner and introduced the metronatural logo and brand concept.

The brand development process involved extensive research and testing that included stakeholder interviews, as well as surveys and focus groups involving key tourism industry clients such as meeting planners, group tour operators and others. A survey yielded impressions from more than 2,500 leisure and business travelers.

Feedback from all audiences drew a common conclusion: Seattle boasts an impressive array of both urban and outdoor experiences that are easily accessible to visitors.

“Seattle offers the best of both worlds,” said Don Welsh, SCVB President & CEO.  “We have a vibrant urban center surrounded by pristine wilderness and outdoor recreation. For many of the same reasons that Seattle is a great place to live, Seattle is also great place to visit.”

However, Seattle’s embarrassment of riches presented the brand development team with a communications challenge: How to convey Seattle’s wealth of attributes in a single, marketable tagline that would resonate with travelers.

“We explored many concepts and crafted many prospective taglines,” said Ken Grant, Partner and Brand Stategist at EXCLAIM. “Ultimately, we realized that no single word in the dictionary could adequately convey Seattle’s impressive combination of attributes. Branding a city like Seattle required a brand new word – so we created one.”

Once metronatural was embraced by key members of Seattle’s tourism and business communities, as well as a sampling of leisure, business and convention visitors, SCVB quickly trademarked the word and a new destination logo was born.

“Seattle is known worldwide as a center of innovation,” said Welsh. “Seattle re-defines lifestyle, popular culture and business. Seattle is an original, so it deserves an original brand/”

The new brand debuts at a critical time in the city’s tourism development. A record 9.1 million visitors were recorded in the city last year. Seattle continues to cultivate the lucrative meeting and convention market, its cruise port is burgeoning, its position on the editorial calendars of travel and features media is growing and exploration of a joint summer Olympics bid with Vancouver, B.C. has begun. However, notes Welsh,  “Tourism cannot be assumed. Success comes from aggressive and sustained marketing initiatives such as destination branding. Metronatural will help build a competitive advantage for Seattle in the highly-competitive tourism industry. Our message to prospective visitors is that Seattle offers everything you’d expect to find in a great city – and more.”

Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau is a non-profit economic development agency responsible for competitively marketing Seattle as a destination for meeting and convention groups and leisure travelers. Visitors spend $4.3 billion in Seattle and King County annually, contributing $342 million in state and local tax revenues. Direct visitor spending benefits hotels, retailers, restaurants, attractions, transportation services and other businesses, and supports jobs for nearly 60,000 people in the Seattle region.

EXCLAIM is a performance-driven full-service agency that provides brand strategy, design and advertising to a diverse array of clientele. Based in Seattle, Washington, EXCLAIM has worked with companies large and small to realize their full potential. Whether it is brand repositioning, advertising and graphic design and web design, collateral development or media services, EXCLAIM brings senior-level strategy to each project. Clients include: American Heart Association, UW Medicine, Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, Space Needle Corporation, Clipper Vacations, Seattle Financial Group, Spacelabs Medical, Independent Colleges of Washington, Molbak’s, Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar and SPORT Restaurant & Bar.