Featured Project: Ottawa Visitors Center Billboards

Client Response:
Ottawa Visitors Center's Executive Director Bill Jankowski said, "Tandem Design is very thorough in their research to make sure the client gets exactly what they want and…they make me look good."

Project Goals:
The Ottawa Visitors Center needed a way to entice interstate drivers to exit and experience their shops and restaurants. Given the media, the graphics needed to be simple and easily legible in less than eight seconds at speeds of 65 miles per hour.

Project Challenges:
The client had an existing billboard campaign that was ineffective. As a result, they hired Tandem Design to create a new campaign, but were very upfront about their overall billboard skepticism. Part of their criteria was to develop four billboards with four different reasons to stop. Two were to be very specific in promoting restaurants and shopping, while the remaining two billboards were to be more general, focusing on Ottawa sights and fun.

Project Results:
The client's faith in billboard media was restored when Tandem Design's campaign won the Illinois Governor's Conference on Tourism Award for Best Advertising Campaign of the year in 2000.

Although not part of the client's original campaign criteria, Tandem Design included the "Experience Ottawa" logo in the billboard designs to continue the consistent branding that had been created by Tandem Design for the Center in other marketing projects, including the visitors guide and an annual print advertising campaign.

Finally, due to budget restrictions the client chose to erect the billboards in two stages. However, Tandem Design recommended designing all four boards simultaneously, which produced significant cost savings for the Visitors Center.