Meet Downtown
CLIENT: DOWNTOWN HOUSTON/DOWNTOWN DISTRICT
After an extensive discovery phase, it became clear to me that Downtown Houston wasn’t playing to its strengths. Long the underdog of America’s top cities, we had an outdated reputation for oil and gas and concrete and not much else. Downtown District’s marketing had been playing catch-up, making sure the city’s population remembered that we did, in fact, have great restaurants, green spaces, opera, ballet, theatre, symphony and all the other things major cities have.
But, in doing so, we’d neglected to capitalize on our biggest strength: As the nation’s most diverse city (YEP), Downtown is a microcosm of the planet. It offers opportunity, grit, hustle and — most of all — personality. Houston isn’t weird in the curated fashion of an arts mecca or the distinct boroughs of NYC. It’s a mash-up that comes with the blending of dreams and identities that are simply doing their own thing in a city that supports them. It’s a reflection of the people who live here, and the people who live here LOVE it. We just had to stop looking like everyone else.
It was important to me that Downtown capitalize on its very Houston personality, bridging the gap between “Come Downtown, you’ll like it,” and jumping straight to “We’re likable,” even in something as small as a beverage coaster or a tweet. We personified the city with its own first-person voice and hand-lettered and illustrated designs, much of it (credited) user-generated content sourced through social media from people who actually live here. We built an affinity for the heart of the city through a campaign that looked and acted completely different from every other city, and all of Houston was invited to “Meet Downtown.”
My role:
Strategic direction, collaborative concept, creative direction, copywriting, community engagement components
Additional credits:
Copywriting by Kathlee Akers and Rachel Atterstrom
Design, illustration and lettering by Bill Ferenc
Video production by Film Lab
Produced while employed by The Black Sheep Agency
The primary audience for our campaign was Houstonians who hadn't been to Downtown in a while and didn't know the exciting place it had grown into, so we had to meet them in other places — namely, freeways.
An entire Downtown offers a lot of places to put content, such as this building vinyl that shares quotes sourced from social media and doubles as a photo backdrop.
We got to wrap a couple of the metro trains! Each quote has its social media handle cited, AND, very importantly, Downtown responds to the things people say about it.
It was fun to talk up public transit using real user-generated statements in a city that doesn't tend to think too much about it.
A large part of the campaign was a built on a "way-finding" concept, using crazy speech bubbles to house the quotes from locals and point others to the things they love. This field guide and the coasters (which recommended bar hopping) supported this part of the concept.
Always trying to be more bike-friendly, Downtown suggested we wrap their newest round of bike racks, so we used quotes specifically about biking or transportation.
Ryde, a free shuttle service Downtown, allowed us to wrap some of their vehicles. The speech bubbles appear to be coming from the riders, out the window, and onto the car.
The Downtown District publishes a quarterly magazine, and they reserved a spread for the Meet Downtown campaign. Bill (designer/illustrator/letterer of Meet Downtown) got to draw Martin, his own boyfriend, for the feature.
From tunnels to skywalks, this vibrant campaign was ultra visible. It encourages people to use the hashtag and say what THEY love about Houston, giving us an ever-increasing bank of content.
The oft-mythologized tunnels running beneath Downtown are more of an air-conditioned means of moving between buildings and housing underground restaurants. That doesn't mean we can't bring some personality to them in the form of a mural.
While the color palette is extensive, the distinct illustrations and hand lettering still make it all feel cohesive, even in something as small as a social media post.
Downtown worked with hotels located in their district to bring the campaign to visitors and staycationers, as seen in this Houston postcard and the crazy speech bubble coming from outside the elevator.
This campaign lived in all the places Houstonians do, many of them digital and sharable, calling attention to Downtown itself in addition to specific businesses or locations Houstonians love.
Downtown provides welcome kits to people who move to Downtown, and the tote bags they come in are particularly popular.
Pandemic Videos
In order to support community and Downtown businesses during the pandemic, Downtown had to walk a fine line of safety versus small business promotion. I wrote these scripts to align with the campaign.