It’s time to jump right into Zephyrhills.
It took more than a year, but the City of Zephyrhills has finally settled on its new brand — from a logo, to town slogan, to color schemes and more.
There will be a blue, green and teal color palette that honors the sky and the water and green for the rolling hills and open spaces in the area and an emphasis on the Z in Zephyrhills in the logo.
All of this was shown by city officials, as well as representatives from North Star Place Branding + Marketing, a Jacksonville-based consulting firm hired to research the town and develop a new brand, in a detailed presentation to the City Council on Sept. 25.
The city has long been associated with bottled water — hence the former town slogan, ‘The City of Pure Water.’ It’s also widely known for its skydiving and annual flock of snowbirds.
Now, it has a new slogan: ‘Jump Right In.’
“It’s a homage to the identity already there, while still moving forward with a new brand, a new message for Zephyrhills,” Sam Preston, director of project management for North Star, told The Laker/Lutz News. “And the city is much more than skydiving and water. (The new slogan) is an invitation to, well, everything — to businesses to dining to residents to all the events.
“It’s ‘Jump Right In’ where you can belong, where you can make the most of your life.”
While the rebrand was formally accepted by the city, Zephyrhills officials said it will take time rolling out the new brand.
Firstly, the city and North Star are still putting the final touches on the designs of the new logo. Then, the rollout of the new brand will be very gradual, as it will take time to integrate it around town and through the city’s varying departments.
Plus, rolling out a city-wide brand of this magnitude takes time — most likely years.
“You don’t want to do it all at once,” Preston said. “For example, when you retire one car in the fleet, you replace it with the new branding — doing it all at the same time is difficult and expensive.”
The city has several plans to implement the new colors and logo, which could include new monuments around town, but also putting it on park and street signs.
City officials told The Laker/Lutz News there are no plans for a formal reveal event or celebration, instead it will use a gradual approach, integrating the new brand over time.
One of the first times residents could see the new city’s new brand will be at the tentative groundbreaking for the updated Hercules Park. The groundbreaking event for the more than $5-million project on the 12-acre parcel of land at the corner for County Road 54 and Gall Boulevard is set for Nov. 28 at noon.
North Star began the nearly $70,000 rebranding project in July 2022, starting with collecting data from Zephyrhills residents and those that live nearby, looking for input on the town from outsiders’ perspectives.
The firm collected data from 1,486 unique inputs that included nearly 1,000 people completing an online survey, plus on-site conversions, focus groups and interviews. The information revealed how the city is perceived and helped shape the new logo and slogan.
North Star officials said it wanted to find a new narrative for the town, while still embracing its longstanding identity. In the end, the new brand still incorporates two important elements from Zephyrhills: the water and the skydiving.
Ironically, the City began the rebranding process because “City leaders also believe strongly that Zephyrhills offers much more than simply being referred to as the city of pure water.”
“People just walk up to me, and say, ‘Why are you spending so much money on this (rebranding)? Why are you spending any money at all on this? What’s wrong with the logo we have? This is where the water comes from, what’s wrong with that?” City Manager Billy Poe told The Laker/Lutz News in February.
“And it’s not to get rid of the water logo or get rid of the skydiving component. We feel we’re more than one thing, and we want to tell our story before someone can tell it for us and then not get it right.”
The City also posted a website laying out its rebranding initiatives, as well as answering questions behind the reasoning of the process and research.
All that information can be viewed by visiting AuthenticZephyrhills.com.
Published October 04, 2023
