Campbell River Economic Development
Shedding a "mill town" image to attract modern tech investment and young professionals
The Work
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Before developing the new identities, I conducted a comprehensive audit of the City's existing marketing materials, microsites, and traditional advertising. By pairing this with rigorous market research and a SWOT analysis, I was able to identify the core messaging gaps that were reinforcing the "mill town" stereotype, providing a data-driven foundation for a modern, diversified economic development strategy.
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I led the naming process for a new, three-tiered brand architecture designed to completely modernize the city's image. By developing naturally, Campbell River as the overarching economic brand, TECHatchery for tech attraction, and NexStream for their flagship competition, I ensured each initiative had a distinct strategic identity that still cohesively rolled up into the city's broader economic goals.
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To support the new brand architecture, I developed the foundational messaging matrix, taglines, and campaign language across all three initiatives. This required pivoting the civic tone of voice to directly appeal to a new, highly targeted demographic of millennials, tech entrepreneurs, and young working professionals—translating municipal objectives into compelling, investment-driven marketing copy.
At a Glance
Client: City of Campbell River, BC
My Role: Lead Copywriter
Design: Chris Young
Deliverables: Brand Audit, Market Research, Naming Architecture & Campaign Messaging Strategy.
Project completed while working at KIMBO Design Inc.
The Brief
The City of Campbell River needed to overcome its historical perception as a traditional "mill town" to diversify its local economy. The objective was to audit their existing economic development initiatives and build a cohesive, modern brand architecture that would resonate with millennials, tech entrepreneurs, and young families, ultimately driving new investment into the region.
The Strategy
Following a comprehensive audit of the City's existing marketing copy and rigorous market research, I collaborated with the design team to build a three-tiered naming and messaging strategy that reorganized the City's economic development efforts:
naturally, Campbell River: The overarching economic development brand. The name acts as a literal declaration of the City as the natural choice for business, leveraging the region's environment as a competitive advantage.
TECHatchery: An umbrella tech-attraction brand that cleverly honors the city's deep historical ties to salmon hatcheries.
NexStream: The city's flagship tech innovation competition. The compound name (Next + Stream) signals forward-thinking momentum while rooting it in the Campbell River geography.
The Impact
The new brand architecture successfully shifted the narrative away from legacy industries and positioned Campbell River as an emerging hub for innovation. Both the NexStream and naturally, Campbell River brands won the EDAC Marketing Canada Awards (2020), capturing national media attention and directly contributing to new tech investment in the region within their first year of launch.