Overview

Main Course was engaged by the NSW Government’s creative industries agency Create NSW to create a brand identity to promote the state’s locations to the global film production market with a particular focus on Hollywood Studio films and series.

The resulting plan was extremely successful and was built around a tagline created by Ben Allan: “A PLACE FOR EVERY STORY” .

It contributed to a major increase in inbound Hollywood productions and hundreds of millions of dollars of additional economic benefit to the state’s GDP as well as substantial positive media coverage for the state government.

The tagline was so successful that it was also adopted as a slogan by the agency and applied to all of their communications and branding, far beyond the original purpose.

The Challenge

NSW has a long and successful history of securing international productions such asThe Matrix Trilogy, Star Wars Ep’s II and III, Alien-Covenant and Peter Rabbit. But as states, cities and countries around the world began to see the potential benefits from international film productions, the market for “incentive-chasing” had become increasingly competitive.

While Sydney has one of the world’s most modern and best positioned large film studio complexes, the Disney Studios, only 10 minutes from the CBD, Create NSW executives realised that the state’s diverse locations were also a major drawcard, which could reduce the reliance on purely using incentive dollars to lure high-end productions.

Main Course was tasked with designing a brand identity which could succinctly communicate these facts in a way that was both memorable and easy to understand.

Process & Report

NSW has a unique combination of landscapes and environments, including snow mountains, massive deserts, a wide variety of agricultural landscapes, world class beaches and tropical rainforests. This natural advantage meant that the state could compete, not just for studio bound productions or productions needing one particular type of landscape, but for shows with a wide variety of stories.

Ben Allan took responsibility for coming up with a tagline which would achieve the required goals and reasoned that because virtually any story could be filmed in the state, it was a place which was appropriate for every story.

It was only a small step to then fashion that thought into a classic five-word tagline… A PLACE FOR EVERY STORY.

The next step was to do an extensive research search to check that the line had not been used for anything competing or inappropriate for a government agency to be confused with. This search revealed that the words had previously had minimal usage together and were not associated with anything problematic.

Clara Chong then developed the tagline into a brand identity pitch document and strategy proposal, which was eagerly embraced by the Create NSW executive team.

Outcomes

The success of this project is a perfect example of how the right slogan, which is both meaningful and evocative can form the cornerstone of a brand identity strategy which has the power to deliver tangible results for the client and all of their stakeholders.