Since its official incorporation in 1997, the City of Sunny Isles Beach has seen tremendous growth and an unprecedented shift in the makeup of both its developments and residents. As the original oceanfront midcentury motels gave way to glamorous high-rise condos, the city needed a way to coalesce its diverse population around a common mission, vision and brand identity. Input from various stakeholders — government employees, residents, business owners, developers, and visitors — was of paramount importance in assuring each group was heard and represented. 

Jacober Creative crafted a research proposal encompassing different areas of discovery across distinct stakeholders, focused mainly on focus groups and branding workshops to uncover qualitative aspects of the city’s brand, and quantitative data capturing through intercept and online surveys. Our research also include SWOT analysis done in conjunction with the city’s stakeholders. While the COVID-19 pandemic made intercept surveys physically unattainable, we were able to effectively shift our strategy to proactively reach stakeholders through phone surveys. Through our research, we were able to uncover four unifying pillars of Sunny Isles Beach attributes: Landscape, People, Quality of Life, Location. Moreover, our focus groups revealed that despite the differences perceived between the east and west sides of the city, there was a unity in shared appreciation of the natural elements of the locale. 

The outcome was a new highly stylized and contemporary logo representing the colossal ambitions of the city and its skyline, a new evocative tagline (The Height of Living), a finalized set of Core Values and a newly developed city wide mission and vision statement.