The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau has launched an aggressive, strategic marketing, public relations and direct sales campaign, designed to celebrate its authentic culture, lure domestic and international visitors back, preserve the city’s leading industry (hospitality) and overcome misconceptions about New Orleans among consumers.
According to the press release, “Forever New Orleans” is an international branding campaign marking a major shift in New Orleans hospitality marketing. The Forever New Orleans campaign not only promotes more aspects of New Orleans culture, including the visual arts; it develops a deeper, richer understanding of our culture as unique and authentic, celebrating the very life of New Orleans.
“We want to help people understand that our culture is not just physical things,” said Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet Advertising, which created the campaign in conjunction with Peter A. Mayer Advertising. “Our culture is our spirit. It cannot die. It’s a living culture and it is constantly evolving.”
The campaign features several print ads to be run in business magazines, travel trade publications and travel publications for the meeting and convention industry. The ads that feature photos of various New Orleans-esque scenes are emblazoned with slogans that address head on the questions that many doubtful visitors have.
Using headlines such as “New Orleans is Open. To Just About Anything.”, “Soul is Waterproof”, “Old World, New Promise” and other phrases, the advertising campaign is designed to celebrate a spirit of swagger, showcasing the hospitality industry’s confidence in New Orleans as a destination, and appealing to the meetings industry, travel trade professionals and the traveling public.
A 12-month outdoor campaign was introduced in 18 major markets across the US in mid-December 2006 celebrating these new messages.
Forty-four billboards worth a value of $3 million were donated to New Orleans by CBS Outdoor, through the generosity of Brian Cuyler, general manager CBS Outdoor, New Orleans, and his colleagues throughout the U.S.A.
Tourism the lifeblood of New Orleans
Tourism is big business for New Orleans. As the economic engine of New Orleans, tourism accounts for 35 percent of the City of New Orleans annual operating budget – $210 million paying for jobs, safety, transit, and infrastructure. Tourism also employs the largest segment of the population from across the region.
Without the money engineered by New Orleans tourism, the state would have to raise an additional $3,000 on every family in Louisiana in taxes to cover the deficit. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans lost more than $2 billion in business from business and leisure travelers.
“We need to remind the world that New Orleans is a place where culture bubbles up from the street, where when you wake up and look around, you realize you are in a place that is truly unique and authentic, a place where your molecules get rearranged,” said Stephen Perry.
“Our marketing campaign is ultimately about New Orleans being a great place to live, work and visit. We must fill our hotels, have our restaurants brimming with diners, ensure that our galleries, shops and boutiques from the French Quarter to Magazine Street are filled with eager customers, our wonderful museums and attractions are busy with visitors, our artists creating and our musicians playing, and our festivals and special celebrations reporting record attendance,” said Perry.
“We want to help people understand that our culture is not just physical things,” said Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet Advertising, which created the campaign in conjunction with Peter A. Mayer Advertising. “Our culture is our spirit. It cannot die. It’s a living culture and it is constantly evolving.”
What puzzles me is the low online profile of the Forever New Orleans campaign. www.foreverneworleans.com hardly rates in the search engines and has only small versions of the print ads. Where are the profiles of the New Orleans artists? With just a bit of search engine optimization this campaign could really take off.
Credits
The Forever New Orleans campaign was developed at Trumpet by creative director Pat McGuinness and Robbie Vitrano, art director Melissa Hirstius, copywriter Matt McGuinness and Mark Taylor, photographers Charles Thatcher and Davis Lees.