Quesnel’s new tagline ‘It’s in our nature’ replaces ‘The Gold Pan City’

Quesnel, B.C. – Goodbye ‘Gold Pan City.’

After about a year of extensive community consultations the city of Quesnel unanimously approved its new brand this week.

The new brand includes a new tagline – ‘It’s in our nature’ – replacing ‘Gold Pan City.’

                       Quesnel’s new logo

There’s also a new logo, a complete visual identity and a brand strategy.

In a statement, the City said the new strategy was prompted by the local business community who felt Quesnel needed to do a better job of marketing itself to the world and that the ‘Gold Pan City’ tagline wasn’t an effective way to attract people to live, work and invest in the community.

Mayor Bob Simpson says he’s pleased with how it all worked out.

“Absolutely. Our business community, from all of the business associations and the chamber gave it the big thumbs up,” he says. “And then when it was presented in council chambers there was a spontaneous applause by council members and senior staff at the end of the presentation and before the vote, which was a unanimous vote, to endorse this new strategy and move on with it.”

So, what’s the goal of the new strategy?   

“As a transition community, the goal first and foremost is to retain the residents and businesses that we have,” says Simpson. “And so, the branding message has to speak to today’s residents and to those who have chosen to live her as much as attracting visitors, residents and new businesses.”

He says the new tagline – “it’s in our nature” – speaks to people on many levels.

“It recognizes that dependence on natural resources for our economy. It’s also our nature that a lot of people come to live here because nature is close enough that they can get out into trails, our ski hills, our ATV and snowmobiling trails as well,” says Simpson.

“And ‘It’s in our nature’ to come together when we’re confronted with challenges, to be collaborative and collective in our responses and to take on those challenges.”

He says lying below that are the attributes of the City’s communications and marketing strategy – which is centred around the affordability of homes in the city (he says the average home costs $166,000).

“That’s part of what we did is we talked to people who have moved here recently and asked them why they chose Quesnel. And that ability to buy a piece of property to call your own and to enjoy all came up.”

Simpson says the City’s many amenities will hopefully attract more people from the Lower Mainland to come and live there.

“We have a hospital, we just recruited 15 doctors, we have a new primary care clinic. We have one of the best indoor soccer facilities in British Columbia as well as a brand-new arena being built,” he says.

“We have an outdoor soccer complex, baseball diamonds that are three times as many baseball diamonds per capita then the average community in B.C.”

He says the branding strategy cost $80,000 and notes they were about to source “the lions share” of that – around $70,000 – from grants.

Simpson adds the new brand will be augmented by a new website this April.

“The City’s website is grossly outdated. It’s not searchable in any real way. It will be clearly articulated with social media so we can manage and drive the kind of stories that we want to about our community.”

He says the new website will cost an additional $80,000 but notes that it’s “100 per cent sourced from third party dollars.”