Strengthening the Fair Family

In less than a week, I’ll be trading in my OLG swag for my Allen County Fairgrounds Board of Directors t-shirt. I’ll spend my week bringing joy to families by running countless events during the Allen County Fair—like Kids Day, the hot air balloon flight and glow, Art & Music Night and Little Miss coronation.

There’s just something about the county fair that makes my heart light up.

It was always hard for the board to put into words exactly what it meant to attend the fair. With some help from One Lucky Guitar, we crafted the brand platform “Timeless Fun!” back in 2018, and it has served us well. As a marketing message, it’s spot on. Things move at a different pace at the country fair, and traditions run rampant.

With a strong brand message and refreshed marketing materials, what we needed next was a new website and a strong parent brand. So, when the Allen County Fairgrounds turned 30 years old in 2019, we started talking about an overdue update to the Fairground’s identity.

Then, in 2020, like other events all over the globe, COVID-19 shut down the Fair, cancelled rentals and halted fundraisers for us—but it gave the board time to finally focus on updates to the grounds and a refresh to the Allen County Fairgrounds identity and website.

My amazing friends at OLG stepped up again, and the entire board was smitten with the brand refresh. Finally, the Allen County Fairgrounds and Allen County Fair brands work in tandem, and the website is easy to navigate—whether you’re looking to enter the Outhouse Races at the Allen County Fair or want to rent a building for a special event.