April 15, 2009
By Denis Flanagan and Lee Ann Knudsen

Please visit LO’s new face to the public, www.landscapeontario.com.. Vision, commitment, long hours and resources have come together for LO’s ambitious branding initiative, and we made our Canada Blooms deadline! The new site should make you even more proud of LO than ever. The key to LO’s effectiveness is volunteer spirit, and hard work by the volunteers on LO’s Branding Committee brought Green for Life alive.

The strategy and the critical path for GFL were devised over a year ago. Some agricultural commodities, such as beef, pork and milk, have used successful promotion campaigns to drive demand for their products. Our industry has a great story to tell, about the unique family and environmental benefits our products provide. Why not tell our story to the public?

The promotional plan proposed was quite brilliant, and it recognized that building success for our industry means treating consumers with respect, and providing true value. We cannot afford to buy TV time or billboards to broadcast our message, but we can build a public-targeted website about the beauty and benefits of horticulture, full of our members’ detailed knowledge. Consumers are hungry for information, especially information relevant to our locality, and the richness of the content we can provide reinforces the professional stature of our members.

Content of this high quality deserves a top-level visual presentation, and the committee worked through icon ideas and web proposals to arrive at a beautiful visual identity package. Members are embracing it with enthusiasm.

Through this process our association name, Landscape Ontario, was transformed into a verb — a call to action — urging all to join in and Landscape Ontario!

So we have a plan, a brand and a site. We have built it, but will they come? The committee has done all it can to drive success of this project, but ultimate responsibility for spreading the Green for Life message rests with you. Use Green for Life branding every opportunity you can! Put it on your trucks, your website, your print ads, your jobsites, your invoices, your store signs … and let us know about other exposure ideas you come up with. We have over 2,000 members across the province, and our power to build the brand is the envy of big corporations.

Green for Life: let’s landscape Ontario.
 

Green for Life: The specifics

To get on board, visit www.horttrades.com/GFL. There, you may download print-quality logos for all your uses. Instructions are posted for uploading your company’s member profile to the new site — enhanced functionality allows you to post photos and your logo, actually giving you your own page on the LO site! You may also order marketing materials. We have gone through over 5,000 GFL stickers, and have 12,000 more coming in a range of sizes and styles.
 

LO’s Branding Committee

LO members owe thanks to our passionate Branding Committee members:
Robert Adams, Diana Cassidy-Bush, Phil Dickie, Paul Doornbos, co-chair, David Emmons, Tom Intven, Tim Kearney, Shannon Lindensmith, Steve Macartney, Bob McCannell, co-chair, Jim McCracken, Mark Ostrowski, Nick Solty, Melissa Spearing and Alan White.

Caption: Landscape Ontario’s brand comes to life at Canada Blooms