Taking the truJAX campaign to the community will begin in earnest in January.
Business and community leaders and representatives from the city Office of Economic Development, Visit Jacksonville, Jacksonville Community Council Inc. and the JAX Chamber will comprise the “Endorser-Drivers Cabinet.”
That group will work to expand truJAX with the assistance of advocacy groups, cultural and arts organizations, neighborhood associations, the nonprofit sector, faith-based groups and environmental and conservation interests.
Those steps were announced after the community image program was formally introduced Wednesday at the chamber.
“We challenge this community and ask people to embrace and use these concepts as they market Jacksonville,” said Will Ketchum, president of Burdette Ketchum creative agency and truJAX coordinator and volunteer chair.
He presented the program to the media and many of the people who helped develop the program.
Ketchum introduced the “DNA statement,” the distillation of how Jacksonville should represent itself to the global market: “The power and beauty of our natural environment inspires an unstoppable, wide-open exchange of products, ideas and opinions that drives an attitude of possibility and opportunity,” he said.
The high points from Ketchum’s nearly one-hour presentation are available at truJAX.com, which went live Wednesday.
John Delaney, chamber chair and president of the University of North Florida, said developing the program for Jacksonville was inspired in part by the chamber’s leadership trips to Nashville and Indianapolis.
He said the truJAX process aligns with what other cities have done to improve their self-image and marketing efforts.
At this point, he said, it’s about creating a new attitude.
“We’re not looking for a slogan or a tagline. We’re looking for the theme,” Delaney said.
Visit Jacksonville President Paul Astleford said while the immediate focus isn’t on creating a new slogan for the city, that will be a later part of the campaign.
He said the current marketing slogan, “Florida’s First Coast,” doesn’t relate strongly enough to Jacksonville.
“A tagline is key,” he said. “We will build brand essence from the vision.”
Ketchum presented “truths we must abide by.” Those include making the culture of open opportunity and free expression real and celebrated; extraordinary care and stewardship of the natural environment; and using vision and leadership to prioritize steps.
Also listed is the need to take a long-term view and hold it with patience and discipline — but urgency and the need to invest, defined on the list as “spend money.”
Ketchum said truJAX should be viewed as a 5- to 10-year program. He presented a vision for the Northbank Riverwalk Downtown that includes a new riverfront convention center, a re-imagined Jacksonville Landing planned around open space and exchange of ideas rather than commercial use, and the development of the Shipyards property.
Also included in the truJAX vision for Downtown is the “Aquasphere,” a concept for an aquarium at Metropolitan Park that also would serve as a “global center for thought leadership to lead the global conversation about water management,” Ketchum said.
While the community is learning about truJAX, the concepts behind the program will first be implemented by the chamber and Visit Jacksonville in their 2016 business and tourism development campaigns.
“This is the foundation of who we are. Let’s create marketing concepts off of this,” said Daniel Davis, JAX Chamber president.
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