I own an ad agency- just like Lori Turner. It’s called The Next Wave [1]. I’ve been in the business since 1986 and running this one since 1988 (opened the doors to the building I rehabbed in 1990).
We’ve done branding work since we began: some of the work you may be most familiar with: Pacchia, Mendelsons re-positioning, Coco’s Bistro, see identity work here [2].
So, I’ve been thinking about a “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” sort of line for Dayton- and this morning, in the shower, this one came to me:
Dayton is StarterTown©.
It’s where Charles Kettering invented the electric starter, but he wasn’t the first to get us started, before him came other great inventors, James Ritty with his cash register, the Wright Brothers with the airplane. It didn’t stop there, from ice cube trays and parking meters, to the pop-top. It’s still going on today, with research and development in composites, RFID, nano-tech and the next generation of air superiority is being invented at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Dayton is also a great place to raise a family. With all kinds of choices in types of livable communities. Affordable, with easy commutes, never far from an amazing park or cultural attraction. It’s got big city arts with a small town feel.
Higher education opportunities abound, and we’ve got one of the highest concentrations of PhD’s around.
If you need water, or power, or not have to worry about natural disasters, Dayton is rock solid- as in built on a huge aquifer of limestone that has so much water we can waste it through giant fountains (when they work) if we want. Our last flood was in 1913- and we built damns so it wouldn’t happen again. One of the biggest public works projects ever when adjusted for modern dollars.
Dayton is also where the Ohio Players started to get funky, the Breeders, Guided By Voices and Hawthorne Heights got their start. We’ve got more on the way- it’s a place that values art.
We’re also a place with heart- when the war in Bosnia needed a place to negotiate- it was Dayton where they came to sign the Peace Accord.
If you’re looking for a place where your ideas can take flight, it’s the place to get your start.
Dayton is StarterTown. On your mark, get set- Start!
You can just make out the check for 10% of what Turner Effect spent on this, and you’re welcome to it JP.
Thoughts? If you like it- consider a donation to my campaign.
Much better! At least it says who we are.
“Get Midwest” is so generic, how is anyone supposed to know that it means Dayton and not Peoria or Topeka?
And the term “Midwest” doesn’t have the right connotation to attract…anyone. It conjures up images of RADAR O’Reilly. If Lori Turner thinks it has pizzazz, she needs to get out of her McMansion more often.
You START here and when you realize Dayton stinks you move…..
It is time to rethink Dayton, not dwell on the past. This has become a great Dayton past time, which includes the UD Basketball team. Fans say “we would win the NIT when it was the bigger tournament” well that was 50 years ago. Daytonians and Flyers fans look like little turds bringing up the past while other similar size cities and regions say the hell with the past and reinvent themselves. We need to do this. And don’t post some bullshit how we need to cherish history, bc that is all well and good but that does not bring jobs to town.
Simply put, we need to change. We need to be something else. We need to do something else. I am not trying to be an ass but the frickin past is the past, and we need NEW jobs and a NEW look on life. Enough with how great Dayton was, let us become Great again.
I too have been thinking about this and just off the top of my head and with a scrap piece of paper, I came up with the below. It’s just a little play on words. . . you could really put any tag line in there, but I came up with “Having fun from DAY-TO-Night. I thought you could have the DAY in warm colors. . .reds, oranges, yellows and gradually progress to blues and purples for the TON. I thought you could list all the great things Dayton has to offer during the day on one side and all the great nightlife activities under the other. I don’t claim this is perfect, but I hope some will like it better than Get Midwest.
PS…I do have an image, with a sun on one side and stars and the moon on the other. . .but I don’t know how to post it! :-)
Startertown could riff more on the entrerpeneurial thing, too.
..starting out a business or venture.
Or also the young adult demographic, starting out in life (music/art scene and so forth as a a place hipper than one would think), starting out a career (lots of opportunity for IT/tecies) ,and starting out a familiy (good schools, nice suburbs, very cheap and affordable and we value family life too).
So it can play to a younger demographic without being tooo historical (auto starters).
Its a lot better than “ender town.
I heard awhile back that Dominoes Pizza and a few other franchise chains “test” their new products in the Dayton area because they get a little bit of every demographic depending on the location. This either speaks to the segregated district/neighborhoods or the fact that this is the true America…..
My tagline would be Dayton: It’s Cheap Here!
Your, “values art music” connection hits in with my recurring contention that The Arcade needs to be redeveloped as a local music museum/performance venue.
We should solicit water bottling companies to reclocate here to take advantage of the existing natural resources.
One of Dayton’s proudest technological achievements the invention of the pop-top, the single most significant piece of party technology needs a whimsical celebration of its’ own.
“Startertown” ,…the conceptual notions and the real selling points, work for me,.. the name reminds me too much of “Bartertown” the post apocalyptic Road Warrior town mayored by acid queen Tina Turner, a town dependent on a single resource that is controlled by an ill tempered dwarf constantly screeching “WHO RUN BARTERTOWN?!” – small point
otherwise GOOD PR STUFF!
yvan,
Thanks for the laugh…now reminds me of “Two Man Enter! One Man Leave”.
I like Startertown, not a big stretch here since we already had Tooltown and Techtown…whatever happened to “It’s Great in Dayton”?
Seriously, though I do like Startertown.
Good luck Tuesday…I’m voting early today.
Tooltown died – Techtown is treading water, Startertown reminds me of a starter wife.
It’s not great in Dayton, anymore.
We need to locate 3 or 4 large companies here – others will come after that – and give them HUGE tax breaks, so we can get people employed. But I know everyone thinks that big companies should pay huge tax rates.
Dayton – Treading Water for Years
Dayton – Government Handouts is our Middle Name
Dayton – You are getting closer to Indiana
Dayton – Still living of the backs of the Wright Brothers
Dayton – The City that Can’t Move On
Dayton – Let’s Beat the Dead Wright Brothers Horse
Dayton – Looking to the Past to Secure Failure is our Future
Dayton – Let someone else do it
Dayton – Our School are only NEAR the bottom
Or maybe we should actually build on the small strengths we have and try to attract NEW business as well a steal other big businesses from other cities. What is the point anyway? It will never happen bc we are too scared to actually move forward.
“We need to locate 3 or 4 large companies here”
…and this is not like “The City that Can’t Move On” how?
@@@@@@
“the name reminds me too much of “Bartertown” the post apocalyptic Road Warrior town mayored by acid queen Tina Turner, a town dependent on a single resource that is controlled by an ill tempered dwarf constantly screeching “WHO RUN BARTERTOWN?!”
For some reason this reminds me of Brechts “Mahagonny”?
Our last flood was in 1913- and we built damns so it wouldn’t happen again. One of the biggest public works projects ever when adjusted for modern dollars.
Not to mention, this also supports your overall theme of Dayton’s inventiveness. Did Dayton, like so many other places, bring in the Army Corps of Engineers to build the dams and plead to have the Federal Government pay for them? Nope! Instead Dayton rallied its best minds, created the Miami Conservancy District and paid for the whole thing through local initiatives. Yet another example of the StarterTown spirit.
(Click my name to go to the Wikipedia entry for the Miami Conservancy District; I wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed to put a link in my comments)
My only concern about the StarterTown idea: it sounds too techy and flashy for an area that votes heavily conservative. It may work very well for inspiring students to come out and vote, but usually the 18-25 crowd is the smallest demographic represented.
Instead of focusing on high-tech inventiveness, could you take the same exact ideas and reword them as “frontier spirit” and on people taking pride in being able to do more with less and especially on people being able to do without the Beltway’s hand-me-down ideas? I think that’d sell much better with the older demographic (reminding of the great history of Dayton with the promise of reclaiming that old inventive spark that has been lost) and it’d be able to find more common ground with the gigantic area of OH-3 that is rural Warren, Clinton and Highland Counties.
Oh, and silly followup but:
You are running your YouTube videos on DATV, right? If there’s no rules against it, I’d make use of the free sounding board, especially since a lot of the active local community uses DATV to get information out to the public. Either make your own informational about Dayton problems, resubmit your South Park Soliloquy with a political commercial at the end, or get interviewed by one of the regular hosts like Ron Moreland. It’d be a quick way to spread the word (though maybe too late…)
DATV won’t allow political without giving equal time.
When we first submitted SP Soliloquy- they made us take out a line “thanks to Buckwheat Zydeco- you should buy his music”
So- thanks- but, it’s also too late.
People on DATV know me. We’ll see what happens on Tuesday.
Still need people to go door to door for me this weekend. You can do it while doing Obama walking.
Thanks
That was when Dayton and the Country was celebrating innovation. With few exceptions this area lost the creative spirit. I will admit that the Internet has allowed the inventive people in Dayton to meet on line and eventually in person. These relationships may provide the incubator to return to that can do and do it by ourselves spirit.