Fort Edmonton Park before Incite
Fort Edmonton Park (the Park) is one of Edmonton’s most visited public attractions, a leader in cultural tourism offering local, regional, and international guests a truly interactive and memorable experience. It is an expansive, multi-attraction space that provides a community gathering place for guests and is operated by the Fort Edmonton Management Company (FEMCo).
Fort Edmonton Park with Incite
Positioning and Brand Development
In 2020, as part of its new strategic vision, and with a desire to shift the public perception of its value, Fort Edmonton Park engaged Incite to identify a new direction for its brand, acknowledging that creating a strong position in the market was critical to meeting its strategic objectives and redefining itself prior to re-opening in summer 2021.
Incite leveraged stakeholder and industry research (including work previously completed in 2019 for the Fort Edmonton Foundation in support of its fund development goals) to inform the development of organizational positioning and messaging. The intent was to create a narrative that embodied both its current and future desired states and would resonate for all audiences of its varied offerings: park visits, private functions, and special events.
To achieve its goals, Fort Edmonton Park recognized the need to take the direction even further and engaged Incite to craft a captivating visual identity that aligned with the vision, honoured the past, celebrated the future, and provided various stakeholder groups the opportunity to find relevancy within it.
Re-Launch Strategy and Campaign
In early 2021, as the Park’s capital enhancement project reached completion, the Fort Edmonton Park team reconnected with Incite to develop a visual campaign concept that would introduce Edmontonians and Albertans to the Park’s new identity while drawing attention to, and building excitement for, the grand re-opening in July. Based on market knowledge and relationship-based expertise, Incite also provided recommendations for the Park’s team on strategic tactics that would create impact and generate interest throughout the course of the campaign.
”The Park team wanted to go to market with a look, feel, and messaging that aligned with recent socio-cultural shifts, challenges individual thinking about who we are as a people, celebrates the past, and highlights its strengths as a premier cultural tourism experience. Incite’s expertise developing brand strategies, along with previous work completed for the Fort Edmonton Foundation, resulted in a strong partnership that laid the groundwork for the Park to achieve its goals in the coming decade.
Dania SpillettPartner, Incite
Outcomes
Through our work with Fort Edmonton Park, Incite:
- Leveraged past stakeholder engagement results to inform the development of a positioning and brand strategy
- Identified and articulated the Park’s differentiated value
- Developed key messaging to use with local, regional, and international audiences that is compelling, cohesive, and aligns with FEMCo’s overarching vision
- Established a new visual identity and brand guidelines aligning with the overall positioning
- Created a targeted campaign concept and other design collateral to launch the new brand to employees and to the market prior to Fort Edmonton Park’s re-opening in the summer of 2021
- Provided strategic insight and direction regarding the Park’s re-opening campaign activities
- Strengthened the Park’s ability to communicate its vision through visuals and messaging
”The Incite team worked with our organization to establish a sustainable and well-positioned brand suite with foundational messaging pillars to support our long-term goals. From our in-depth discovery sessions through to the creative development process, Incite worked with us to understand the needs of our business and in the end delivered a tremendous product.
Darren DalgleishPresident and CEO, FEMCo
