Oregon State Fair: Rebranding

Too big to miss!

Oregon State Fair had the habit of creating theme-based campaigns every year to promote the Fair, resulting in a lack of brand consistency and lower-than-needed attendance. We saw an opportunity to establish a strong new brand for the Fair. A brand they could leverage for years.

The Fair was the second largest event in Oregon and simply not on the radar of many summer fun seekers. We found that a little odd, and set out to fix it. The tagline "Too big to miss." was a simple and memorable way to establish the Fair in the hearts and minds of Oregonians and it gave the client something to be known for.

The strategy was two-fold. We would recruit new fair-goers, and coax current visitors to visit for more than one day. We developed a "can't miss list" for the new website which made it easy to add events to your list, similar to adding items to a "cart". As visitors explored the site and discovered all that's happening during Fair week, they soon realized they should attend more than one day.

The entire campaign was done on a shoestring budget, including broadcast tv and radio. Art for the print materials was built from parts from many sources, including low-tech photography and penny stock. The Fair got a lot of "Big" for the buck in their spanking new brand and fully integrated marketing campaign which ran for about 3 years.