City of Poughkeepsie
Creating inspiration for a city that’s on the rise. The re-branding and revitalizing of Poughkeepsie.
PROVIDING POST-PANDEMIC INSPIRATION FOR THE CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE
In May of 2020, the City of Poughkeepsie was beginning to regroup after the first phase of the pandemic. Outdoor dining was being permitted and the city government wanted to recognize the many people and organizations that had stepped up to help their neighbors and to instil a feeling of ongoing support and recovery. Go Gladys was tasked with creating an inspirational video that would reach out and reflect the diverse community that is the city of Poughkeepsie. Ashworth had previously created a logo and slogan for the revitalization of the City of Poughkeepsie – PKGO. This has been widely accepted by the city government and the population. We took that slogan and built it out to be PKGO FORWARD. Filmed quickly and safely throughout Poughkeepsie with members of multiple communities within the city, the video was built around a script that was paced to build emotion as it progressed. The Mayor of the City was featured along with many citizens. The video has had thousands of viewings and prefaced the Mayor’s State of the City message for 2021. Go Gladys is located in the heart of the City of Poughkeepsie and we feel proud of the way the city is handling its greatest crisis since the Revolutionary War and the 1918 pandemic. We feel an emotional attachment to this gritty post-industrial city that is on the go. The video won a Gold Award from the NYX Marcom Awards in the category of strategic communications.
A CITY IN SEARCH OF A RENAISSANCE
Poughkeepsie is a post-industrial city with some significant assets, flanked by the Hudson River and colleges such as Vassar, Marist and Dutchess Community College. Go Gladys were already staunch fans of Poughkeepsie when we were approached by the city administration to create a brand image to spearhead a new era for the city. Aware that past such image-building exercises had failed, Go Gladys designed a process to build consensus and enthusiasm behind the eventual image beginning with a survey and ending with a website.
USING DATA TO SUPPORT BRANDING
Go Gladys worked closely with city personnel to devise a 5 question survey that was chosen to select and eliminate some visual brand options. The results showed that most of the more than 600 respondents had positive feelings about the city and believed it to be more modern than it is historical. At the same time, the almost 200 year old city seal of a beehive was not to be ignored. Ashworth worked with a team of stakeholders from around the city, not just the administration, but those involved in the arts, business and nonprofits to create a brand image that was modern, energizing and reflects a city on the go. And the logo PKGO was born!
A WEBSITE FULL OF POSITIVE CITY STORIES
In addition to a logo, Go Gladys recommended establishing a website that was not a governmental site, but one that reflected the pleasures of Poughkeepsie as a place to live, work, contribute and play. The resulting website is becoming a repository of positive stories about Poughkeepsie, told by the people of the city. Poughkeepsie is now to be the home of a new medical school created by Marist College and Health Quest. The city is indeed on the go and Go Gladys is thrilled to continue our productive partnership with a city we have grown to love.
USING VIDEO TO MOTIVATE THE PUBLIC TO PROTECT OUR CLEAN WATER
The City of Poughkeepsie is fortunate to be located on the banks of the Hudson River, which provides the city, and several surrounding towns and villages, a group known collectively as the “Hudson 7”, with fresh water. But clean water takes collective effort. The video that Go Gladys scripted and produced is one of three public relations mini-documentaries about Poughkeepsie’s water. This video highlights the water treatment process, briefly explained through animations, and also presents the work of the “Hudson 7” and the Riverkeeper organization, to protect the Hudson River as a source of clean water. Magnificent drone footage of the Hudson and compelling commentary by those who help produce and protect clean water make the video informative, emotive, and educational to the public. Animations were designed in house and produced by RossMedia.
CREATING A DOCUMENTARY VIDEO TO EXPLAIN THE STEPS THE CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE IS TAKING TO MODERNIZE ITS SEWER SYSTEM
In response to periodic media reports on the subject, Go Gladys produced a video for the City of Poughkeepsie to detail the impacts of increased ground saturation due to rain and snowfall that can overwhelm the sewer system and cause “combined sewer overflows” or CSOs. The video also outlines the millions of dollars the city is investing in improving the sewer system infrastructure and plans for short- and long-term solutions with the eventual aim of limiting overflows completely. If you can’t imagine how two songs by the Beatles and the classic “Stormy Weather” can help tell this story, watch and see.
VIDEO MINI-DOCUMENTARY EXPLAINS THE NEED TO CUT DOWN MULTIPLE STREET TREES IN POUGHKEEPSIE
The emerald ash borer is an invasive species that has infested full-grown ash trees across the U.S. and in the City of Poughkeepsie. The City worked with the The Environmental Cooperative at the Vassar Barns and the City of Poughkeepsie Shade Tree Commission to do a census of street trees that were infested by the borers and Go Gladys produced a documentary video to explain to residents why familiar trees needed to be cut down. Each tree destined to be cut down was identified by a card we designed that was tied to the tree by volunteers from Vassar College.