On Thursday, April 12 the City of Globe convened its mayor’s branding and marketing advisory committee at the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce to hear a presentation from a marketing firm the city has engaged and give feedback for strategies to promote the Globe-Miami area.

On hand were Mayor Al Gameros, councilmembers Lerry Alderman and Charlene Giles as well as representatives from Gila County and the “bed tax groups”: the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts; Gila County Historical Society; Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce; the Economic Development Corporation, and the Globe Downtown Association.

The City of Globe has contracted with Ignite Brand Marketing with the help of Resolution Copper, which contributed $1,500 as an economic development investment for the community.

The meeting served as an introduction to Ignite and to the project, which will assess the assets of the community and traffic trends — to find out who passes through Globe and for what purpose — in order to identify a target audience and create a “brand design” for an eventual media and marketing campaign.

A roundtable session sought to discern Globe-Miami’s current and historical identities, the biggest obstacles, challenges and misconceptions about Globe, as well as its “largest untapped assets” and things to experience in Globe.

The discussion was led by Ignite’s Liz Noland, who has done marketing campaigns for small towns in Arizona, including her hometown of Kingman.

Noland compared the discussion to a “psychology session” for the town.

“I’ve seen the dark underside of Kingman,” she said. “I’m not from a big city and I’m not here to put you in a box. I’m passionate about rural communities.”

Previous marketing campaigns have included taglines such as “the last, best small town,” “city of hospitality,” “all roads lead to Globe,” and “ore, lore and more.”

The new effort is tentatively dubbed #WeAreGlobe.

Noland pointed out that a branding project is not “just a logo,” but an identity and emphasized that for it to be authentic, there has to be buy-in from the whole community.

Aside from mining and the plethora of Mexican food restaurants in the region, the history of Globe took center stage in the discussion.

In addition to almost being the first capitol of Arizona, narrowly losing out to Prescott, Globe was home to the first governor of the state, George W. P. Hunt, as well as the first female governor, Rose Mofford.

Prostitution was legal into the 1960s, the last stagecoach robbery took place in the area and there were gunfights and colorful western characters such as Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate.

The burgeoning Globe-Miami arts scene was highlighted as well, leading Alderman to state that everyone was talking about “HAMM, history, art, mining and Mexican food.”

“We want people to be interested in what we have,” Alderman said. “This town is loaded with history; art is here, and if you want to know about southwest history, we have history.”

The campaign is the result of efforts by Linda Oddonetto, who became Globe’s Economic Director and the Community Coordinator in February this year. The position is partially funded through a 3-year grant from the Rural Community Assistance Corporation.

The goal is to develop programs for sustainable economic growth throughout the area to revitalize business and create a more diverse economy.

“We want people to fall in love with Globe,” Oddonetto said.