St. Paul Parks Campaign
Advertising
This was a concept-driven, print advertisement campaign promoting Saint Paul parks. The target demographic was college-educated, young professionals in their early thirties. Dating, marriage, and family tend to be the next steps in people's lives. I wanted to pull at peoples’ emotional heartstrings by focusing on making memories and creating history with a significant other or child. I worked with the idea that family is in the future: “Look at where you could be in a couple of years” or “imagine having this moment here.” By allowing the imagery to really capture these special moments, I needed strong copy to add to that universal understanding of core memories. I used Interstate as the typeface, directly inspired by those historical marker signs on the highway, as an extra nod to the idea of history.
Pulling at the Heartstrings
During my research, I read an article called "Secrets of Copywriting" by Peter Sandeen. It was the first time I actually connected the dots on what makes a memorable ad. I have, of course, experienced it before and knew about it but didn't really label it. Sandeen says, "get to the core" and "the product or service itself is almost insignificant in this process." He describes how to do so by finding the strongest concepts that are likely to influence the readers, removing everything but the core ideas, amplifying them, then connecting them to your product.
Capturing a Moment
I chose the core ideas of notable experiences and memories. The parks in a city you call home have their own history to them but they also become a part of its visitor's history - of peoples’ lives and stories. I wanted to work with experiences of young love and family. Phrases like "and the rest was history" kept coming to mind.
A child riding their bike without training wheels for the first time while one of the parents holds the back of the seat, a sledding wipeout with your Mom, and getting proposed to are all examples of things that could happen/would be happening for this demographic within the next couple years. My ads are a call to action to make those sorts of moments happen at St. Paul Parks. The photos are warm, with soft contrast. Each image captures an action and is focused in on it because it isn't about the park. It's about what happens there.
