by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Landing unveiled its new Web site and logo Tuesday, but only one will still be around when the riverfront mall celebrates its 20th birthday next summer.
“This is not the official new logo, but it is the official new Web site,” said Rachel Kaltenbach, public relations director for the Landing. “We are going to hold a public competition for the new logo and we will announce the winner at our 20th birthday party.”
The current logo and Web site were created by Spark Inc., a local full-service advertising and public relations agency. Kaltenbach, who left the Landing earlier this year for several months, said she actually started the new Web site process in 2004 when she sent out a request for a proposal. At the time, the Landing was owned by Baltimore-based Rouse Co., which had an across-the-board Web site for all of its properties.
“They were all the same but with different information and they were not user-friendly,” said Kaltenbach, who said she got back about a dozen proposals from regional advertising, marketing and Web design agencies.
Kaltenbach sent an RFP to Spark President Rich Davis, whom she knew through a project she worked on while she was at The McCormick Agency several years ago.
“I based our decision on pricing and the ability to do what we wanted,” she explained. “I went with Spark because they supplied solid references and based on other Web sites they had created.”
The new site — the first since Toney Sleiman bought the Landing in August of 2003 and only the third in the Landing’s 19-year history — features up-to-date information on events and tenants. It will also change as big events come and go. Both Spark and Kaltenbach will maintain the site.
“I will maintain the events, information and news about the merchants. Spark will do the major changes,” explained Kaltenbach. “The home page will change throughout the year. For example, during the Georgia-Florida game, there will be a bulldog and a gator at the top fighting with each other.”
Davis said recreating the Landing’s site was an opportunity to modernize while increasing the amount of information available.
“Our vision was to create a look that was contemporary and sophisticated yet still fun and dynamic, just like The Landing is, itself,” said Davis. “For the Web site, we realized there was a lot of great information to impart and over 40 tenants to promote, so we opted for simple and clean over flashy, but I think that’s something site visitors will appreciate.”
Kaltenbach said the new logo and Web site are important steps in establishing a Landing brand and look, especially considering the changes over the past year — the addition of Club Paris, an expanded Discount Pro Wear and the coming Fuddruckers — and the major changes yet to come. Tuesday night, City Council approved legislation that will provide the Landing long-promised parking. Once the parking issue is resolved, Kaltenbach said Sleiman will begin remodeling the Landing, a plan that includes opening the entrance at the foot of Laura Street.
Kaltenbach said she will start accepting public submissions for the official new logo early next year. There will be a set of rules posted on the Web site and she said the new logo should be simple, yet creative.
“We want something that can be recreated in various ways like on T-shirts, cups, mugs and pens,” she said. “We want something that won’t look old in five years.”