March 29, 2016
The Century Town Council and various stakeholders held a workshop meeting Monday night to discuss the status of their marketing plan, including a new logo and website. The meeting ended with perhaps more questions than answers.
In 2013, the town was awarded a technical assistance grant from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to develop an economic development strategic plan. After hearing proposals from four contenders, the town contracted with the Haas Center (the research and consulting arm of the University of West Florida) to develop the plan at no cost to the town.
The Haas Center's detailed plan and recommendations included a new website for the town.
In October, the council decided to pay their consultant to create a request for proposals in order to receive bids to implement the marketing plan, including website maintenance, newsletter production, a recreational guide and formation of a young professional's group. The town was set to pay for the services using economic development funds.
Advertisements were published in late December seeking a company to implement the plan. Only one proposal was received. That proposal was from the individual that UWF hired using grant funds to develop the logo and website — Johnathan "Jet" Tisdale of White Paper Marketing. The town has yet to evaluate and accept or deny the proposal.
But the logo and website contracted by UWF are not yet complete, Tisdale said, despite his best efforts. He said several meetings with the town's "design committee" had resulting in dozens and dozens of logo revisions and "50 to 100 hours" of extra, unpaid work in attempt to tweak a logo to satisfy the committee. Without the logo and design element choices, Tisdale said, the website design can't be completed.
He said numerous emails from his firm to design committee members have gone unanswered and meetings have been canceled. "There has been zero progress (on the logo or website) since December," Tisdale said Monday night, due to lack of response from the town.
"Is this suppose to be a secret," council member Ann Brooks asked about the logo design. "Can you show us anything tonight?"
Tisdale said he came unprepared to share the logo with the entire council; instead he wanted to meeting individually with design committee members for logo input so that their ideas would not be influenced by other committee members. A computer was located, and Tisdale presented the logo designs to date, asking the council to avoid public discussion instead asking again for individual meetings outside the council workshop.
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"I ask that we keep ideas and opinions about what we see tonight to ourselves," the marketer said, adding that the design committee will return a favorite logo candidate back to the council for a vote.
"You mean we just get to vote yes or no on one?" Brooks said. "We are we here?"
Tisdale said he attended the meeting because he thought the council was prepared to announce their decision on the proposals that were solicited back in December, not to attend a meeting about logo design.
Town Clerk Leslie Gonzalez said Tisdale had been told that the design committee did not like any of the logo designs and perhaps he should start over with a fresh design.
Century Mayor Freddie McCall, who attended only a short portion of the meeting by telephone, said, "The "logos don't make sense to me. I'll just go with whatever the council likes."
"So much has been going trying to help our citizens; so many got slammed," council President Ben Boutwell said, referring to the EF-3 tornado that hit Century hard on February 15. That recovery, Boutwell said, will likely take precedence over the marketing plan and the acceptance or denial of the December request for proposals.
The council took no formal action during their Monday night workshop, agreeing that Tisdale will hold individual logo design meetings with design committee members. Since grant money has already paid for the completion of the logo and website, those items are expected to return to the council for a vote and formal completion. It is not yet known what action, if any, the council will take on accepting or rejecting Tisdale's lone proposal for website maintenance and any further marketing work.
Pictured top: Jet Tisdale of White Paper Marketing presents logo ideas at a Century Council workshop Monday night. Pictured middle and below: Additional logo ideas. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Written by William · Filed Under TOP STORIES
Source: Century Logo, Website Still Under Development; Marketing Plan Future Unsure After Tornado
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