With a lot of flair, quality of stay, impressive architecture and a well-mixed, broad range of chain stores and owner-managed specialist stores as well as numerous service providers and restaurants, Iserlohn's city center offers the best conditions for a shopping experience for young and old. Far too often its shining light is put under a bushel.
This should now come to an end. The Waldstadt is going on the (advertising) offensive with a large-scale marketing campaign. The message "Echt Iserlohn" ("Genuine Iserlohn") is now being broadcast to the world via large posters in Iserlohn and the surrounding towns as well as in radio spots and social media posts.
"The aim of the campaign, which we developed together with the agency Smart Media from Menden, is to clearly highlight the many advantages of our city centre," explains Dirk Matthiessen, Head of City Marketing, who, together with colleagues Thomas Pütter, Simone Korte and Olivia Fandrich, forms the city project team for the campaign.
And to ensure that the campaign lives up to its slogan "Echt Iserlohn" (Genuine Iserlohn), only motifs from the heart of the city are deliberately used for the design of the posters and social media posts. Korte explains: "We are promoting four pillars that make life in Iserlohn beautiful: Retail and services, gastronomy, culture and our events." The first motifs that have now been published consistently show scenes from the city quarter, from Wermingser Straße, from the museum and from a large inner-city textile department store. "The pictures speak for themselves and make you want to visit Iserlohn," says Thomas Pütter, confident that the motifs will hit the mark with viewers - especially those from the surrounding towns. They show the charming corners of the city center, many things that you don't really notice when passing by, but also everyday shopping scenes, small details that make the city center so lovable and worth living in - always paired with a snappy slogan. The radio spots are just as precise and in harmony with the image motifs.
However, the campaign is not intended to be a flash in the pan; rather, sustainability is the trump card. The campaign should fulfill a timeless claim. The constant is the authenticity of Iserlohn's city center, represented by the slogan "Echt Iserlohn". On this basis, new motifs from all sectors will be presented time and again to showcase the city's diversity. And this will continue until summer 2025 at intervals of varying intensity. This is made possible by the "Sustainable inner cities and centers" funding project of the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), which provides the necessary financial resources and also supports a number of other sustainable, sometimes experimental project modules for Iserlohn's inner city.
In times of tight municipal budgets, such an elaborate campaign, which fulfills a frequently expressed wish of retailers, would otherwise never have been possible with municipal funds.
For this reason, all city center stakeholders and Iserlohn enthusiasts are invited and encouraged to follow the Echt Iserlohn page on Facebook and Instagram and share the posts, "because the more widely we share the message of our diverse, lovable and liveable city center, the more people from near and far we will reach and inspire," says Matthiessen.
