How Mannheim progressed from a descriptive brand to an engaging story.
EMBASSY helped the city of Mannheim evolve from an abstract description of the City of Squares to a concrete promise for the population and newcomers. The unifying motif for Mannheim residents and newcomers is the desire to build a better future for themselves, their families and others. From this, EMBASSY developed a concrete message: »The future is made in Mannheim.« The brand values, brand vision, brand mission and messages for the location themes were derived from the new brand essence in close consultation with the city and became the new guiding principle for Mannheim’s communication.
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A glance at the city map of Mannheim clearly shows that the gridded city layout is the defining feature of the City of Squares. The claim »Life squared« focussed on this aspect and was intended to communicate Mannheim’s potential. In practice, it was difficult to bridge the gap between the abstract city plan and the relevant message. What does »Life squared« mean? How can a story be told with this brand?
EMBASSY was called in to evaluate and to refine the brand together with the city’s marketing department. The approaches for refining the brand were developed in a streamlined process in close consultation with the responsible committees and in short workshops.
During the process, we uncovered a unifying motif that runs through the biographies of the 18th century Huguenots, the inventors of the 19th century,
the 20th century wit its guest workers and the new Mannheimers of the 21st century: all came to Mannheim in search of a better future.
This gave rise to a new claim that put the people who live and work in Mannheim centre stage instead of the buildings: »The future is made in Mannheim.« Values, vision and mission as well as messages on the relevant location topics of business, education, culture, social affairs, tourism and history were developed in close consultation with the client.
»The future is made in Mannheim« is at the centre of the lives of Mannheim’s residents and those who want to become one. The new message was integrated into the visual identity and has formed the common thread for numerous activities, initiatives and campaigns of the Mannheim city marketing department since summer 2016.