September 7, 2002

Letting the World Know about Ottawa, Canada's Capital City-a new marketing initiative

Ottawa is one of the best kept secrets in the world. We are global leaders in Internet Technology, telecommunications and fibre optics; we have world class facilities such as the Corel Centre and the National Arts Centre; we have a wonderful natural heritage.

Yet if one were to walk down Sparks Street, one might be hard pressed to find many people, residents of our City too, who would know that the population of the National Capital Region is over one million and that there are almost two million people within a one hour drive of the Parliamentary precinct.

Cities at one million make all things possible for their young people; they can stay in Ottawa now and do world-class things now. We need to communicate this to our young people too.

We need to make it a priority to address this deficiency. Sponsored signs at key locations inside the National Capital Region and at important ingress and egress points to the City must let residents and visitors know that they are entering a dynamic, new City with a population of more than one million.

We need improved signage on Major Access Roads into and out of Ottawa, Canada's Capital City-on the Trans-Canada, Highway 416, Highway 31, Highway 16, Highway 417, access roads to and from Quebec and the United States, even along local and downtown roads and on significant Ottawa buildings.

We need signs that inform and represent our community well. Below, we show an existing Ottawa sign on Highway 16 and a proposed new type of sign featuring dynamic elements too. The dynamic elements draw the eye (a population counter, time, temperature and distance from the Parliamentary Precinct). These are sponsored signs meaning that we would expect them to generate revenues for our City and feature some of Ottawa's great institutions and corporations as well.

This is just one example of a city-building exercise but an important one. Signs work to inform people; they are an inexpensive way to communicate a marketing message about us and they work 24/7 without complaint. They are not zappable either. At the same time, we are talking about architectural signage and a relatively small number of signs pointing the way to Ottawa so that visual clutter is reduced.

City of Ottawa Sign-- Highway 16, north of Hunt Club, Circa 2002

One Proposed Style for new City of Ottawa Signage

Ottawa Vision

Saragasso City Home Page

Friends of the Future