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Editor's View: It's time for action on Flin Flon's new brand

We’ve been waiting for seven months, and now it’s finally here – Flin Flon’s new brand.
flin flon logo

We’ve been waiting for seven months, and now it’s finally here – Flin Flon’s new brand.

It was really cool to be on the stage at the Flin Flon Campground with Travel Manitoba, McKim Communications Group and about 50 local stakeholders as the brand was unveiled. The reactions were audible, and the group was impressed, and more so, excited.

Whatever your thoughts are on the area’s new brand, one thing is undeniable – a lot of care went into the making of it. It’s designed to work.

Beyond the stakeholder engagement session back in February – one which saw the R.H. Channing Auditorium filled with locals full of ideas on the area’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – significant research, great thought and impeccable storytelling went into boiling down the diversity of Flin Flon and the surrounding area into a simple, catchy, inspiring tagline: the water and the wild.

It was interesting to learn more about the goal McKim had for the brand, the audience they were targeting, the tone they wanted to achieve, and the subtle nuances found in the word mark and tagline (you can read more about these things in our page 1 story in this issue).

It was interesting to learn how these two representatives from outside our community perceived Flin Flon and the surrounding area. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees, and their outside perspective was surely valuable in the process. 

Now that the brand has been delivered, stakeholders have work to do, and what that work will be or accomplish remains to be seen. 

Colin Ferguson, president of Travel Manitoba, pointed out that content is key in selling the product that is Flin Flon, and that some communities have hired people to work on the projects and others are using volunteers, which has come with its own set of challenges. 

Regardless of how stakeholders go about it, those at the unveiling have seen the beautiful print ads with compelling art and inspiring copy, the web ads that make you want to head out for a paddle and a campfire immediately, and the billboard that will instantly make the “Got Fish?” sign a distant memory.

That content is impressive, but it’s just a jumping off point for us. We need to put in the work to create more, on brand.

We need content, we need art, and we need those catchy words. We need campaigns and people to organize them. There are people in town who have the skills and talent to do make this happen, and that means success is within reach.

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