Newport, Oregon Gets Branding Makeover

The fishing port of Newport, Oregon has hired a Portland firm to launch a new image.

Photos provided by PR Monster

(NEWPORT, Ore.) - The central Oregon coast resort town of Newport has a new image – at least in the marketing sense.

Portland advertising firm Grady Britton has taken the helm on the city’s revamp in branding and tourism promotion, both around the state and eventually beyond that. Utilizing a realism kind of approach to the town, the firm is helping it to tout itself by simply being itself.

First, they had to sit down and look at how to build Newport’s brand as an experience and destination for a family vacation.

"We looked at its positioning as a destination in the state," Magnuson said. "We went for the authenticity of Newport, the realness of the town. It’s a working town with the bayfront. This is a place with a rich maritime history. There’s the science aspect, with the Hatfield and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. There’s Nye Beach. There’s two lighthouses. So we looked at these angles and how to make this compelling."

The answer lay in developing a brand based on that authentic experience. The beginning of the new brand was to divide the town into four districts: the "Deco" district (referring to downtown and the Yaquina Bay Bridge), Nye Beach, the Bayfront and the South Beach area.

The first change was the city’s website, portraying those four districts with four distinct logos, as well as a primary logo for Newport that features a crab – because of its trademarking the phrase "Dungeness Crab Capital of the World."

The catch phrases then being used include "100 percent Newport" and "The Coast You Remember."

On the site, Magnuson said they’ve been going to great lengths to dig up details about the city that are overlooked.

"We wanted to find all the things that might be buried," Magnuson said.

"We want them to have the knowledge that here they can go to a working bayfront, and see a forklift and see crabbing boats. You might see people pulling fish out of the water. There’s the message that this isn’t a Disney set. It’s an organic, real community."

Then comes the broadcasting of this new image and these ideas to media all over the state, at least for this year. .

This will continue through around June 30th, until the next budget year starts and then markets outside of the state may start getting the message.

For this re-branding, they had to look closely at their target audience - mothers.

"How could we better speak to our audience, which is moms with kids," Magnuson said.

"She is often in the upper income brackets, educated and they are really the ones who are the main planners for weekend getaways. They want their families to have fun, enriching experiences - activities that they all can enjoy together. Newport is rich in those experiences."

Magnuson wanted to utilize a word-of-mouth approach as well by appealing to this group. Studies show they often spend about an hour online each day, and they will often discuss their finds with their peers – other moms.

The website also features a place where visitors can sign up for newsletters.

Another key is to not whitewash the Oregon coast experience – to keep it completely real, no matter how stormy things can get. In fact, those storms are something you want to promote.

Magnuson said she grew up in Oregon, and another colleague grew up on the coast, so they knew what Oregonians did when planning trips, whatever the weather.

"If you planned to go to the beach, you just went,” Magnuson said. "You didn’t cancel a trip because of the weather."

Grady Britton has been working with the Destination Newport Committee on all this, and their efforts have been funded by the transient room tax in Newport.