Submitted byEdward Boches

Chief Innovation Of!cer, MullenProfessor of Advertising, Boston University

@edwardboches

Five positioning ideas for

Since I’m not there, a few things about me. I’ve been a partner at Mullen for 30 years and spent 15 of them as executive creative director and chief creative of!cer. During that time I helped position and launch brands that include Monster.com, Google Mobile, Nextel, Stride Rite, Tufts Health Plan, Oxygen Media, Puma apparel, Reebok Golf, Lending Tree and many more.

Today I remain at the agency part time as its chief innovation of!cer and teach advertising and creativity at Boston University where I am a full time professor.

I often commute by bike along the Esplanade from the Longfellow Bridge to BU. It’s both a joy and at times treacherous. Of course, you know that.

Edward Boches

Objectives:

Develop a position and tagline for The Esplanade Association

Connect it to the Esplanade’s many uses and the Association’s mission

Make it work for both the Esplanade (the park) and the Association

Consider use in future marketing efforts and signage

Be "exible enough to work with a new name or logo

Overview

Boston is a great city indoors. We have museums and concert halls. Historic sites and restaurants. Places to gather, connect, and be inspired. But Boston is also a great city outdoors. Thanks to the Esplanade and all that it has to offer.

Everything from morning yoga classes, to eagerly anticipated concerts. As a result people come to play and relax. To see and be seen. To wander and wonder. And to get away from the indoors and into the outdoors. Spend a little time on the Esplanade and you quickly realize that Boston is a great place to be outdoors. And the Esplanade is Boston’s great outdoors.

Reason  why  this  idea  works:    

The  nice  thing  about  this  idea  is  the  double  meaning  of  Boston’s  Great  Outdoors.  It  suggests  that  Boston  is  great  outdoors,  thanks  to  the  Esplanade,  and  also  reminds  us  that  the  Esplanade  is  Boston’s  great  outdoor  experience.

Works for: The Esplanade The Associationx x

Boston’s Great Outdoors

Restoring Boston’s Great Outdoors

Restoring Boston’s Great Outdoors

Restoring Boston’s Greatest OutdoorsPreserving Boston’s Great Outdoors

Options

Note:

There  are  a  number  of  ways  to  play  with  Boston’s  Great  Outdoors.  This  direction  has  lots  of  potential.

Why do we come to the Esplanade? We come to walk along its winding path. Or !nd a secluded bench beneath a tree. We come to cycle and sail. To read books and to daydream. We come to watch our children play. Or to be children again ourselves. We come because we can hear music. Or discover silence. Work off calories consumed that day. Or savor an ice cream. We come to escape the heat. And to !nd the warmth of the sun.

We can do all of those things elsewhere. But the Esplanade, with its natural beauty, its plants and "owers, its many views and its proximity to the river makes them all better. Life – whether strolling, stretching, playing or pondering – is better on the Esplanade.

Reason  why  this  idea  works:    

This  idea  allows  the  Association  to  portray  and  reBlect  the  many  activities  offered  by  the  Esplanade  in  a  way  that  can  brand  both  the  park  and  the  programs  offered  by  the  Association.

Works for: The Esplanade The Associationx x

Life is better on the Esplanade

Life is better on the Esplanade

Strolling is better on the Esplanade

Music is better on the Esplanade

Yoga is better on the Esplanade

Pondering is better on the Esplanade

Playing is better on the Esplanade

Holding hands is better on the Esplanade

Daydreaming is better on the Esplanade

is

is

is

is

is

better on the Esplanade

better on the Esplanade

better on the Esplanade

better on the Esplanade

better on the Esplanade

Yoga

Sailing

Hatch Shell

Playground

Ice Cream

Lagoon

MIT Bridge

BU Bridge

Boston is better on the Esplanade

Making life better on the Esplanade

It’s the antidote to the stress of urban living. To the time we spend in cubicles and small apartments. At the end of the day, you may think you need a drink, but what you really need is a little Esplanade.

You need time outdoors, proximity to nature, space to think and unwind, or burn off some calories. You need the sound of birds chirping. The wind rustling the leaves. The river lapping at its banks. You need a shot of outdoor beauty, of Mother Nature in the middle of the concrete jungle, of a reminder that there is rejuvenation available for the taking.

What you need, what we all need, is a little Esplanade.

Reason  why  this  idea  works:    

This  idea  encourages  and  reminds  people  to  use  the  Esplanade  for  what  it  does  in  so  many  different  ways:  it  offers  us  an  antidote  to  the  stress  and  and  pressure  of  every  day  indoor  life.  It  also  reinforces  the  mission  of  the  Association.  If  we  all  need  it,  we  need  to  care  for  it.  

Works for: The Esplanade The Associationx x

We all need a little Esplanade

Because we all need a little Esplanade in our lives

It’s easy to take our parks and recreation places for granted. Or to assume that they are the responsibility of someone else. The city. The state. The Parks Department. But like any great resource, we have to take care of our urban outdoor spaces. We have no choice but to protect, restore, plan, execute, and make sure that a place as wonderful as the Esplanade, a space so essential to quality of life in our city is cared for.

The Esplanade Association is that someone. We’re here. To preserve the Esplanade. To make it better than it’s ever been. And to make sure it’s still here for generations to come.

Reason  why  this  idea  works:    

It’s  a  reminder  that  we  can  not  take  the  Esplanade  for  granted.  And  it  lets  everyone  who  uses  and  enjoys  the  space  know  that  there  is  an  organization  that  both  strives  to  preserve  the  past  and  make  the  future  even  better.  The  Esplanade  isn’t  merely  a  place  for  the  moment,  it’s  a  place  for  all  time.

Works for: The Esplanade The Associationx

For the next 100 years

For the next 100 years.

In the original plans, the Esplanade offered us a stunning tree-lined park, gracious archways, inviting footbridges, and inspiring views. But that was before parking garages were erected, before Storrow Drive introduced noise and pollution, before budget cuts forced a swimming pool to become a compost pit. Still, behind the erosion, the deteriorating bridges, the aging architecture lies the stunning beauty of one of the world’s great urban parks.

But it needs a vision and a plan to execute it. To restore the landscaping, rescue gathering spaces, revitalize the facilities and reclaim space that rightly belongs to the Esplanade.

Everyone wants the Esplanade to be beautiful. But it takes a committed group of people to bring it back.

Reason  why  this  idea  works:    

This  idea  focuses  on  the  Association’s  role  in  restoring  the  Esplanade  to  its  intended  glory.  By  suggesting  that  the  beauty  needs  to  be  brought  back,  it  calls  attention  to  the  deterioration,  the  old  architecture,  the  imposition  of  Storrow  Drive,  etc.  while  declaring  that  the  Association  is  doing  something  about  it.

Works for: The Esplanade The Associationx

Bring back the beauty

x

Bring back the beauty

Boston’s Great Outdoors

Life is better on the Esplanade

We all need a little Esplanade

For the next 100 years

Bring back the beauty

Recap

Some Alternative Lines

Where Boston lives outdoors

Preserving Boston’s life outdoors

Restoring splendid to the Esplanade

We all need a little Esplanade in our lives

“We want a ground to which people may easily go when the day’s work is done, and where they may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets where they shall, in effect, !nd the city put far away from them…”

(Frederick Law Olmsted, 1870)