Idea #15: A well-produced advertising campaign and manifesto

Portland has a clear, cohesive, and well-developed strategy surrounding its tourism and travel marketing. It's an active, energetic campaign anchored by Portlandia-esque characters, a specific vision and brilliant visuals. More importantly, the campaign acts as a sort of manifesto for the city. You feel like you're in Portland.

Elsewhere, Cleveland just came out with an excellent video campaign that embraces its seedy, grunge-ish reality. "This is Cleveland" debuted to good overall reviews.

Is it time for Spokane to develop something similar? I'm shocked by the lack of "branding" for Spokane. What are we? Our motto may be "near nature, near perfect," for example, but what do we do to live out and market that brand? Are we advertising in Outside Magazine, showing up at outdoors shows, and campaigning on those strengths? Do we have a video manifesto espousing those values? Or perhaps we want to embrace some other aspect of our city's identity?

It's time for a brilliant marketing manifesto that makes residents proud to live here, entices visitors, and surprises non-residents out of their preconceived notions of our great city. Get on it, Visit Spokane!

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What do you think? Should Spokane's tourism and convention bureau develop a manifesto for our city? Can we compete with something like Portland or even Cleveland? Should we emphasize "near nature, near perfect," or should we head in some other direction? Share your thoughts in the comments, on Twitter, on Facebook, and in conversation.