Harvest Sky Region before Incite
The Harvest Sky Region, formally known as the Cactus Corridor, brings together the Town of Hanna, Village of Youngstown, and Special Areas, in taking a unified approach to attracting new investors, residents, and visitors to their communities. The Harvest Sky Region brings a new regional narrative intended to raise the profile and promote the region among provincial and national investors as well as a new regional brand, that together, sets the foundation as one connected region. Its major priorities are to attract business investment, support the growth and expansion of tourism, and spark job creation.
Harvest Sky Region with Incite
Regional Destination Marketing and Brand Strategy
Incite was brought on as a strategic partner in December 2020 to assist with developing a new regional place brand as well as a comprehensive marketing strategy to help tell the story of this unique area of southeastern Alberta. With target audiences consisting of prospective businesses, residents, and visitors, the regional place brand and associated tactics and activities support the promotion of economic development opportunities available in the region.
Incite leveraged stakeholder and industry research to inform the development of both regional and corporate positioning and messaging. The objective was to create a narrative that spoke to the three key audiences of prospective investors, residents, and visitors. The result was a Destination Marketing and Brand Strategy that is helping to create effective local and national partnerships and collaborations and is focused on creating outcomes for the major priorities of attracting business investment, supporting the development of tourism and attraction of visitors, and promotion of the region as a great place to live.
Visual Identity and Tourism Strategy
With the strategy firmly in place, Incite then shifted gears to develop a visual identity for both the Harvest Sky Region as well as the Village of Youngstown that would introduce the world to the region’s new identity while drawing attention to, and building excitement with its key audiences of prospective investors, residents, and visitors. Bringing our experience and expertise, Incite also equipped the team with a Tourism Strategy as well as an executable plan including recommended next steps, expected outcomes, and suggested key performance indicators intended to assist in helping the region achieve its tourism goals.
”Telling the story of this unique part of southeastern Alberta meant gaining a real understanding of not only what the region has to offer, but also of the people that call it home. Our work with the Harvest Sky Region team and its many partners was built on the strength of the partnership and the ability to work collaboratively in redefining what it means to live, work, and play in the region. By focusing on the value that the Harvest Sky Region delivers to prospective investors, residents, and visitors, we have helped set a course for the region that is authentic to the community and its residents, while looking forward to future opportunities.
Jesse MeyerPartner & Principal, Incite
Outcomes
Through our work with the Harvest Sky Region, Incite:
- Applied existing research, market data, and stakeholder engagement reports to assess the region’s strengths, weaknesses, and strategic opportunities for growth
- Worked effectively with a wide range of stakeholder groups to establish trust and buy-in across the region, and to build credibility as a connected, community player
- Engaged the local community in a meaningful discussion about the needs of the region, long-term economic and tourism opportunities, and its value proposition
- Created foundational marketing and communications tools to serve as templates for the development of more proactive, strategic, and consistent pieces moving forward
- Enabled both a corporate and regional place brand strategy, positioning, and messaging to define the area in-region and with investors, businesses, and partners in-market
- Designed an action plan to guide regional economic development and tourism activities and initiatives over the next three years
- Provided strategic insight and direction regarding regional branding efforts to reach new audiences
- Created a visual identity that aligns with the positioning and messaging and ensures consistency in brand experience
”Incite has been instrumental in bringing the new Harvest Sky vision to reality. During the past few years, the region has been suffering due to the impact that a major loss of a primary industry has had on our communities. When we engaged with Incite, our thoughts were simple, we needed to re-think how we approached our region; whether that was looking at ourselves or how we presented our region to the world. While we envisioned some simple marketing ideas, Incite took the opportunity to come up with a larger vision which included a re-brand of the region to bring cohesiveness to our fragmented approach. Their staff put their energy and enthusiasm towards our project and have taken it to heights we didn’t think possible and they continue to engage with us in an ongoing effort to build our region as if it was their own home. We couldn’t be happier with the short term impact this exposure is generating for our region and the best part is, we’re not done yet.
Mark NikotaEconomic Development Manager, Harvest Sky Region EDC
