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The moniker is featured in a candy-colored, perfect-suburban-home-studded Web site Valencia.com, which features a tech-savvy young girl selling lemonade at the most competitive market price.
It’s the latest push to market the planned community, which boasts 20,000 homes.
“We thought this would be kind of a fun, whimsical campaign,” said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land Development Inc. “The word was used by a variety of demographics and just means, ‘Wow, neat.’ Valencia is awesome.”
University of Southern California marketing professor Dr. Choong Whan Park said the name’s great, but the marketers better prove its claim.
“The name matters. Name creates curiosity and interest into what the town has. It’s a very interesting and eye-catching name,” he said.
“The distinct and unique name can become a great disappointment if the actual products the town can offer are not able to deliver with the promises.”
Park said it’s imperative for the developer of the community to spell out why Valencia is so special.
“If they are able to spell these kinds of uniqueness and benefits out very clearly, then I think the name can really do its job.”
The Web site seems to do just that with the subcategories “highly rated schools,” “dynamic jobs” and “amazing trails and parks.”
One resident said it’s not just Valencia that’s awesome, but the entire Santa Clarita Valley.
Saugus resident Daniel Weidman said he likes Santa Clarita so much that he hopes the Awesometown campaign brings in new businesses so he can work here, too.
And that’s just what Santa Clarita likes about the Awesometown campaign, too, said city Economic Development Director Jason Crawford.
“It can only help the city’s campaign to get more businesses here,” Crawford said. “I think it’s all about getting positive messages about the community out here. And that’s awesome.”
