An identity and campaign for the Groene Hart

The city’s back garden The Groene Hart puts itself on the map with a unifying brand concept.

Vandejong Amsterdam

Client

Programmabureau het Groene Hart

Assignment

Develop an identity and a campaign for the Groene Hart that puts the area firmly on the map

Solution

Unite the partners of the Groene Hart under a single brand

Brand concept

The Groene Hart as a back garden

The Groene Hart has always been an innovative place

An experimental garden for new ideas

‘Experi gard Groene

imental den’ e Hart

Experimental Garden: experience the Groene Hart with all your senses

the Groene Hart Starts here

The Groene Hart is one of the Netherlands’ largest national parks. Its varied landscape features polders, ponds, rivers, peat bogs, windmills, dykes, agriculture and horticulture, industry, towns and villages. It’s an interesting and diverse area, but until recently it was hardly recognisable for visitors.

The concept of the Groene Hart was known in the Netherlands, but what was the area’s relevance for the cities in the western part of the country and the Dutch tourist market? Few people could say. Even the area’s providers of goods and services had a hard time explaining its significance. The people of the Groene Hart

were fragmented. The various local providers of goods and services were promoting the area in their own individual ways, each with a different message and in his or her own style. There was no one Groene Hart.

The provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Utrecht therefore sought to profile the Groene Hart as a recognisable whole for residents, businesses and visitors. They asked Vandejong to develop a brand concept, identity and campaign that would glue the Groene Hart back together.

Uniting providers under a single brand

We developed a communications strategy that could link the businesses with each other – a framework with a unified identity within which they could make their own content.

We created a distinctive brand concept that brought together all the elements of the Groene Hart: its businesses, activities and products, its history and its future.

The concept makes it clear at a glance what the Groene Hart is and aims to be.

The Groene Hart as an experimental garden

The Groene Hart can’t set itself apart from other naturally rich parts of the Netherlands through its greenness alone. So we looked for the area’s unique aspects. An analysis of the Groene Hart’s activities, entrepreneur-

ship, history and vision of the future quickly showed that the area had been an experimental garden from the start. It was a place built through human innovation: windmills, dykes, draining of land, peat-cutting, and so on.

And it remains such an experimental garden today.

The people of the Groene Hart continue to innovate enthusiastically, in areas including sustainable energy, agriculture, sustainable building, nature conservation and recreation. Innovation is encoded in the DNA of the Groene Hart’s residents and entrepreneurs. For instance, many farmers, in the face of setbacks in the agricultural sector, have looked for innovative ways to expand their businesses. Some have become entrepreneurs on the side, running their own B&Bs and opening shops selling regional products where shoppers can taste the wares.

But an experimental garden is also about experience and sensory enjoyment: taste, smell, feel. The brand concept is clear. The Groene Hart is an experimental garden. It’s the urbanite’s back yard – a place for pleasure.

An online tourism platform

We’ve created an open brand and style that’s free for anyone to use. Every interested party can be a part of this open brand and use it according to his or her own wishes. We’ve launched the first online, user-generated

tourism platform at www.groenehart.nl. The providers themselves upload information about their broad range of activities, products and projects and keep it up to date. Visitors can post reviews of activities and create their own personal recreational calendars. The site thus promotes interaction between the Groene Hart’s providers and visitors. Supply and demand come together.

A special editorial team coaches the businesses on communication. They encourage the businesses to keep their product information up to date and present special offers within specific themes. Particularly noteworthy activities appear in the ‘display window’ on the home page. The platform thus promotes the development of new products and services and higher-quality recreational opportunities in the Groene Hart.

A campaign for city-dwellers

Many city-dwellers in the Netherlands think of the Groene Hart as too far away. But the Groene Hart begins practically at the edge of the Randstad cities.

It’s the Randstad’s back yard. That’s why we created a concept for an image campaign with the slogan ‘The Groene Hart starts here!’

The campaign brings cities like Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht to the Groene Hart and vice versa. You see the slogan in places where you encounter the Groene Hart. That isn’t just at the

city limits or in the Groene Hart itself but, for example, in regional products in the supermarket. You’ll find versions of the slogan that vary by medium and moment, such as ‘Taste the Groene Hart’ and ‘Proud of the Groene Hart’.

Working together successfully

The Groene Hart open brand has been active since March 2009. The Groene Hart programme office reports improved collaboration between the numerous parties in the Groene Hart. At the beginning of the project, many goods and services providers viewed joint communication with skepticism. The introduction of the open brand and the employment of it on the website removed their reservations. Today, the providers see how joint communication with a single clear identity can generate opportunities for developing activities and attracting visitors.

So far, more than 1,000 providers have come together at www.groenehart.nl and are promoting their activities there. Visitor numbers for the online platform have been high and continue to grow. In 2009, in the year after launch, more than 275,000 people visited the website. The open online tourism platform is a good example of innovation in the experimental garden of the Groene Hart.

Vandejong and city and country promotion

Cities and countries were not designed to sell themselves. After all, a place is essentially nothing more than a few square kilometres or a few tons of brick. A special place comes about through a special way of life.

The people determine the atmosphere. Therefore, in positioning a city, country, neighbourhood, street or building, Vandejong always asks: What are the future users’ needs? What is needed to keep the place lively?

How can we get the residents and businesses who will ultimately ‘make’ the place involved in the process?

A logo and a slogan alone won’t do it. A place needs a substantive programme that binds people together and a communications strategy that supports it. Taking this as a starting point, Vandejong develops varied brands and campaigns that put places on the map.

The Groene Hart starts at the breakfast table

The website connects the public with the providers

The providers add content to the website

The Groene Hart visits the city

The most innovative entrepreneurs get rewarded with an innovation prize

About Vandejong

The Groene Hart

Vandejong is a creative branding agency. We build optimistic brands that connect people.

We combine strategy and creativity to speed up change and innovation. We like to work with people who dare to forge new paths and believe in mutual inspiration. Vandejong stands for honest, sincere communication with a distinctive style. Our strategists and creatives work closely together on brands and campaigns. We bring in additional experts when necessary. We therefore contribute in a broad way, from brand concepts and creative strategies to concrete campaigns, materials, and even new services and products.

Strategy, concept and production Vandejong Amsterdam, www.vandejong.nl Technical production Peers Photography brand book Suzanne Karstens Photography Location photography De Boerinn, Kamerik, www.deboerinn.nl Copy editor Paul Witte

More information Ilse Huijg Agency manager ilse@vandejong.nl Contact us t: +31 20 462 2062 e: info@vandejong.nl www.vandejong.com blog.vandejong.com