Case Studies

Historic Downtown Melbourne (DTMB) is a great place to shop, dine and attend events, like the weekly farmers market. However, with so many different venues and things to do there, the overarching brand lacked its own unified voice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DTMB also faced tremendous hardship, as many small, locally-owned shops we’re forced to close.

Melbourne Main Street, the non-profit organization who manages Downtown Melbourne’s revitalization and economic growth, turned to MTN, Inc. to help reposition the destination as a focal point in the community.

This initiative was particularly special to us because we’re not just developing a brand for someone else’s downtown area. Melbourne is MTN’s headquarters. We frequent Downtown Melbourne ourselves — whether to have lunch and shop with friends or to attend an event with our family. As such, we also have unique insight into what the destination is like because we’ve experienced it first-hand.

To kick things off, we considered:

• The history of the location
• Current public perception
• Melbourne Main Street’s vision, mission and goals

Melbourne Main Street planned to revitalize and set DTMB up for economic success by focusing on four main strategies: economic vitality, design, organization and promotion.

The goal was to make DTMB a preferred destination for high-quality shopping, dining and entertainment by preserving and leveraging the community’s historical assets, cultural roots and modern-day charm.

To understand the audience and how to best achieve Melbourne Main Street’s goals, MTN analyzed surveys completed by visitors and business owners, including questions like: “What draws individuals to Downtown Melbourne?” and “What are the positive perceptions of Downtown Melbourne we need to preserve?”

After assessing the responses, we drew conclusions like the importance of including “historic” in the branding, as it embodies the idea that the character, charm and soul of the community will be preserved, even despite inevitable growth.

We then began our identity creation journey

MTN, Inc. pitched five concepts to the key stakeholders. They ultimately chose the variation that used the acronym “DTMB” for “Downtown Melbourne.” The brand’s simplicity lends itself to clear, compelling marketing that’s easy to remember: visitDTMB.com, #DTMB, “Meet me in DTMB.”

For the design, we blended bold, confident typography with icons that represented the historic Melbourne area. A classic sailing icon was added into the negative space of the “D” and a crane silhouette within the “B,” a nod to Harbor City and Crane Creek waterfront.

These icons made it easy to build supporting visuals for the remainder of the marketing deliverables.

Some of the deliverables we executed included:

• Market Research
• Content Writing
• Design & Execution
• Website Strategy & Development
• Strategic Marketing Planning