“All In” – that’s the main concept for a new brand campaignFreeport recently launched.
The idea is to create a story unique to the Freeport and Stephenson County community – with the help of residents – and use that story to spread that brand inside and outside of the city and county.
Freeport residents originally approached the Northern Illinois Development Alliance and asked the organization to invest in and help raise funds for the new branding effort. That’s according to NIDA executive director Dave Young.
“One of the things that came across was that there was an overall negative theme in perception about Freeport as a community, and Freeport’s economic future going forward,” Young said.
Young says NIDA invested in the branding effort and helped raise funds for “All In,” as requested by residents.
“It was really a bunch of passionate Freeporters that said, ‘Hey, we think there are a number of things – there are a lot of assets this community has that we really don’t celebrate or promote, and why don’t we try to find some way to basically do that?’” Young said.
So far, Young says $250,000 have been raised from both public and private donors. He says the campaign still needs more than half of that.
Young says there was a similar campaign in Woodstock using the branding and digital firm a5. He says it also was part of the inspiration for the new Freeport branding campaign, along with a similar campaign in Rochelle.
Young says metrics predicting what kind of return the new brand will bring for the community are still being developed.