Connecticut's new quality-of-life marketing campaign plans to reach young viewers where they are: on the move, online and on their phones.
It's called "Make It Here."
An initial 60-second commercial released Tuesday shows hands "creating" many products made in Connecticut, including submarines, helicopters and New Haven pizza-- even a basketball, representing UConn's national championships.
"We can put a flag in the ground and say that this is who Connecticut is, this is what we offer and this is what we are proud of," says the state's chief marketing officer, Anthony Anthony. "You can make your life here, you can make your career here, you can make your business here, your family here."
"Make It Here" also comes with a round new marketing logo: a "C" with a sideways "T" inside of it.
To Gov. Ned Lamont (D), the campaign should reach young adults in expressing the opportunities offered by Connecticut: "If you're a young person trying to figure out where you want to start a career, we've got a job for you. It's an amazing job. It's a chance for you to start up your own small business. A chance for you to be doing something state of the art, and a chance for you to make a big difference."
The campaign replaces the retired slogan, "Still Revolutionary," which was considered outdated. It also changes the state's approach to distribution: Anthony says the way people access content has changed dramatically in the decade since the prior slogan was introduced, so in addition to traditional media, this campaign will reach viewers digitally, including on social media.
"It will run throughout the state," says Anthony. "It will also run in out-of-home, so you have billboards, Metro-North and at Bradley Airport." There will also be a $1 million out-of-state ad buy.
The Cronin marketing firm of Glastonbury produced the creative content and artwork for the campaign.
Cronin's strategy and research director, Katie Lukas, says her team took Anthony's campaign concept and ran with it: "We loved that idea. Most of us are born and raised in Connecticut... It spoke so perfectly to my experience of Connecticut, my family's experience in Connecticut... So we worked tirelessly... to come up with this concept of highlighting everything that you could make here-- from a family, to a career, to a business, to an invention-- and really bringing it to life in a really interesting and artistic way."