Sacramento’s Bold Rebrand Attracts New Visitors

Recently, Sacramento has proven itself as an attractive leisure destination for weekend escapes from around the state. Instead of primarily working to attract B2B audiences, the city aimed to also target consumers with new demographics and motivations. But Visit Sacramento has long struggled to establish a singular, long-term identity for the city. When Visit Sacramento came to Position, they had an existing logo and website. Visit Sacramento brought us in to create a cohesive brand strategy and system that would build upon its new identity in a way that engaged businesses and vacation travelers alike.

Here’s what we did.

A Brand System to Communicate Attitude and Rich History

Sacramento is many things to a diverse population of people. Visit Sacramento needed a comprehensive brand system that communicated the city’s storied history blended with a wealth of food, arts and culture, and live music options shaped by an entrepreneurial spirit.

A bold, energetic color palette reflects the vibrant attitude of Sacramento with rich shades of black and gold, aligned with the city’s historic roots. Hand-drawn, illustrative icons reflect the city’s rich food, entertainment, and craft beer scene, with selections highlighting innovation and outdoor activities. Abstract textures provide another way for Visit Sacramento to tell a rich, layered story.

We created a robust messaging platform outlining the brand’s positioning, promise, character, and tone. The complete brand guidelines established the verbal and visual identity for Visit Sacramento while creating a foundational resource, enabling the organization to deliver a cohesive message to its unique audiences.

Targeted Campaigns and Ongoing Brand Support Across Mediums

Visit Sacramento already had decided on a new website and identity. But the new brand needed to be executed properly. We defined the verbal and visual language of the new brand and evangelized that to the organization’s internal teams, board, and outside vendors.

With a complete brand system in hand, we transitioned to the brand support phase. Through our fractional creative director service, we offered Visit Sacramento more flexibility and experience than an in-house team could provide. Position functions as stewards of the Visit Sacramento brand, executing marketing campaigns for different teams and audiences across multiple mediums.

We designed evergreen and special event-themed light pole banners as well as advertisements illustrated by local artists. To expand Visit Sacramento’s reach for the B2B audience, we designed trade show booth experiences along with custom spice mix boxes for attendees tied to local farm-to-fork restaurants. With every aspect of their marketing, Visit Sacramento builds a cohesive brand story.

34% Increased Visits and Lasting Economic Impact

Our work to build out the Visit Sacramento brand across mediums has established a visual and verbal identity for the city’s marketing initiatives. Instead of reinventing the wheel for each campaign, every marketing initiative is built upon the same foundation. With a brand system and cohesive messaging overseen by a fractional creative director, Visit Sacramento implements new initiatives quickly and efficiently.

As a result of our leisure campaign, the target markets that viewed the paid ads outside the Sacramento area increased their travel to the city by 34%. Nearly 12,000 spring and summer visits to Sacramento are directly attributed to the campaign. A paid media campaign through Expedia drove bookings at Sacramento hotels, with $34.20 of local revenue generated for hotel partners for every dollar spent in ads.

With a complete brand in place, Visit Sacramento is positioned to continue to increase visitor numbers and economic impact in the years ahead.