The New Jersey Highlands Region spans seven counties and is a protected landscape of rolling hills, forests, farms, and history, all just 40 miles west of Manhattan. With its mountain trails, Revolutionary history, farms and produce stands, and small towns that welcome you like an old friend, the New Jersey Highlands Region reveals a side of New Jersey that feels totally untouched and unexpected.

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BRAND DNA

  • Target audience
  • For urbanites open to explorations off the beaten path,
  • Frame of reference
  • the New Jersey Highlands Region, a vast, peaceful, and protected watershed 40 miles west of Manhattan,
  • point-of-difference
  • defies preconceived notions of New Jersey, granting new discoveries and a natural retreat from the most densely populated areas in the nation
  • Benefit
  • so you can pick a getaway from “leisure as usual.”

Regional Challenge:

The protection of its natural resources and particularly the watershed, which supplies much of the state’s drinking water, is of utmost importance in the New Jersey Highlands. The challenge was balancing this focus on conservation with the economic needs of the region’s cities and towns. They needed a brand story to define a relatively unknown region and encourage visitation that would respect its beauty while bolstering economic vitality for its many towns, businesses, and residents.

brand solution:

In a region as large as the New Jersey Highlands, community engagement needed to include not only residents but also stakeholders already involved in visitation promotion in their cities and counties. Working with this group, North Star’s research uncovered that the region’s natural beauty and varied assets universally evoked a sense of surprise and delight. Building on that insight, the “You Never Knew Jersey” brand was born. This brand theme with a bit of “Jersey attitude” was paired with a visual identity that depicts the beauty and ease of the region, creating the perfect balance to intrigue and invite visitors in to discover more. Brand activation began with the development of a dedicated tourism site for the region to build awareness and provide visitors with the tools to plan a trip to enjoy the New Jersey Highlands.