The payoff

So what was the point of these University Avenue ads? To show that we had fun and were very successful with a cartoon character as "spokesman" for the project. We measured success in a couple of ways: the project came in ahead of schedule, under budget and expanded an additional four blocks; only one business went under during construction (and they were on their way out before we even began) -- in fact, most businesses saw an upturn in sales during construction.

With that success in hand, we were faced with a similar project on Ogden's Washington Boulevard. We showed them samples of what we'd done in Provo with the University Avenue project.

Their reaction?

"We're not like Provo! We don't want a stupid cartoon character!"

With that feedback from the field, we went back to Salt Lake and drew up a communications plan with a different approach. We presented it to the same focus group a little while later, and they loved it. Here's a sample poster from that particular project:

Recognize it at all? You might. It's based on a World War II propaganda poster. From the other side.

And the folks in Ogden loved it!