McHenry County rebranding features new logo
McHENRY COUNTY – What began as a casual conversation between colleagues turned into the new rebranding of McHenry County. The discussion in question took place in 2014 between President and CEO Jaki Berggren, President of the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation (at the time) Pam Cumpata, and Tammy Townsend-Denny, the former marketing manager. The women thought it was time to update the outdated brand and the idea stayed with them for years, but it didn’t become official until recently.
It was a long and thorough process to take this rebranding from concept to reality, according to Jaki Berggren. She and her team spearheaded the project, along with the MCEDC, and they collaborated with the county to get full support. All three organizations involved wanted to make the rebranding more modern, especially since destination marketing has risen in popularity in recent years.
The next addition to the project was a professional branding marketing company, who collected data by emailing out surveys, hosting focus groups, and speaking to potential stakeholders. This research was then used to come up with creative ideas and a new brand promise.
The goal was to make McHenry County more appealing, not just to visitors and travelers, but to its residents, too. This was the reason for the change from Visit McHenry County to Naturally McHenry County, as well as the new tagline: Wonderful places, wide open spaces. The word “visit” implied that only out-of-towners would be interested in the local events and the team wanted to steer away from that.
“You don’t need to leave your home or your county to visit an apple orchard in Wisconsin. We have those here,” said Berggren. “You have such amazing things to do here and that helps the economy where you live.”
Many counties like to use explore, experience, and discover to entice both visitors and residents alike to attend events in the area. While these are all good verbs, McHenry County wanted to rebrand as something more organic and unique.
After narrowing down all the ideas into ten different taglines, McHenry County Naturally came in second and it was decided to use “naturally” in the title, instead. The word implies that our county is the natural choice for fun and wholesome activities.
The brand launching event for the official rebranding takes place on January 27th for invited stakeholders. The McHenry County website has been updated to match the new brand, but residents can expect an entirely new website to launch in July of this year.
