The Hamilton County Convention and
Visitors Bureau is trying to keep pace with the county’s growth.
This month, the bureau unveiled a new
logo and launched a new ad campaign, and the name of the organization
could be the
next thing to change—possibly early next
year.
The logo integrates a map pin that looks a
bit like a balloon and is commonly seen on Internet mapping sites.
The organization launched a newly branded
website Nov. 11 at Visithamiltoncounty.com and this month will begin
running billboard,
television, radio and print ads hyping the
changes. New signage in and around Hamilton County also will surface in
addition
to new brochures using the map pin logo.
Bureau officials hope the new campaign
will teach locals and visitors alike to associate the sighting of the
map pin with
a positive message about things to do and
see in the county.
Gone is the folksy logo that looks like a
postal mark with the slogan “8 Great Towns 1 Destination” underneath
it. Instead, the red map pin with a white
star in the center will be accompanied by big block letters to the side,
customized
with various messages. The primary mark
says “Visit Hamilton County Indiana.” Another says “Hamilton County
Indiana.com,” while others highlight such
attractions as sporting and cultural destinations and events.
“We needed a mark to step up and
represent the brand in a better way than the current mark,” explained
Deputy
Director Karen Radcliff. “We’re going from
a mark that signifies charming, quaint and old-fashioned to one that
conveys energetic, contemporary and fun.”
The new mark, Radcliff explained, also
gives the organization the ability to have a consistent county-wide
identifying mark
with the distinctive red map pin, but
allows county tourism officials flexibility to modify the adjacent
wording to market
various aspects of the county.
The re-branding also signifies a shift in
marketing as new generations mature and rival the massive buying power
of baby
boomers.
“Millennials are set to surpass boomers
in travel spending by 2017,” Radcliff said. “We want to be mindful
of that in our marketing.”
Radcliff added that as that shift takes
place, online marketing will be more important than ever, hence the map
pin logo.
While much is changing in the marketing
plan, it will continue to use the “Only closer” and “Closer than
you think” slogans it began using in 2011.
Six-figure budget
The organization has set aside slightly
more than $100,000 for the re-branding this year and another significant
sum is expected
to be set aside for 2014, possibly
including a re-naming effort.
The bureau has been working with
advertising and marketing firm ThreeSixty Group for several years, and
the Indianapolis-based
agency was instrumental in the
re-branding. Having worked on tourism and event marketing campaigns for
the city of Indianapolis
and Brown County, ThreeSixty Group is no
newcomer to these types of efforts. Area residents are likely to
remember the Big
Red Arrow campaign ThreeSixty Group was
involved in that helped promote Indianapolis’ arts and cultural
attractions
in late 2004 and 2005.
There are several reasons why the map pin
is the ideal new logo for Hamilton County, said Scott Willy, ThreeSixty
Group co-founder,
noting that it took numerous internal
conversations and work with focus groups to come up with it.
In addition to being readily
identifiable, Willy also thinks the new logo will be well suited for
gorilla marketing.
“We think this mark is ideal to be used
as a locator icon at ongoing events,” Willy said. “We envision
placing giant map pins around town to
point people to notable destinations and happenings.”
What’s in a name?
Bureau officials are contemplating
following the lead of other convention and visitors bureaus which have
put an action word
such as “visit” or “go” in their moniker.
It’s also important, Radcliff added, to
have a name that conveys the organization is “an authority on Hamilton
County hospitality and tourism.”
In August 2012, the Indianapolis
Convention and Visitors Association changed its name to Visit Indy.
Visit Indy invested $30,000 in research
and testing, and another $150,000 producing new marketing materials
ranging from
letterhead and print ads to trade show
booths.
“Originally we didn’t intend to change
the name, but in our testing, we realized Indy had a very positive, hip
connotation,” explained Visit Indy CEO
Leonard Hoops.
Convention and visitor bureaus in
Wichita, Kan. (Go Wichita); Bloomington (Visit Bloomington); and
Washington D.C. (Destination
D.C.), among others, also have changed
names recently.
“Convention and visitors bureau or
convention and visitors association are monikers that are cumbersome and
don’t
carry much meaning with travelers—leisure
or corporate,” Hoops said.
Hoops added that Visit Indy also plays a
lot better online and in social media than Indianapolis Convention and
Visitors
Association.
Hamilton County bureau officials said
they didn’t re-do the logo and name at the same time because they
thought it
was important to change the logo as soon
as possible and put more thought into a name change.
One reason officials launched a new logo
and are contemplating a name change is the county’s growth and other
changes.
Hoops thinks there’s a natural need to change a city or region’s tourism branding “periodically.”
“Brands need to be somewhat fluid as
points of emphasis change,” Hoops said. “Sometimes the changes are
incremental. Other times it’s more of an
overhaul.”
Hamilton County’s brand may need to be
more fluid than most. Growth in the county is rampant, and the
construction
of attractions like the Palladium, Grand
Park and Nickel Plate Arts Campus, and burgeoning destinations such as
downtown Carmel
and Noblesville, gives the bureau reason
to race to stay up with the times.
“The old logo is a little small town,”
said ThreeSixty Group’s Willy. “The new developments in Hamilton
County are not small-town thinking.”
Massive change
The branding overhaul is happening as the
organization dramatically changes its role in the community.
In the eight years since Brenda Myers
became executive director, the organization has morphed into a
developer, grant giver
and landlord. The strategy appears to be
working.
The number of visitors traveling to
Hamilton County has grown from 1.7 million in 2005 to 2.1 million in
2011, according
to a study commissioned by the bureau.
About 2.2 million visitors are projected for this year.
Visitor spending grew from $244 million
in 2007 to $292 million in 2011, with expectations of at least $300
million this
year.
The annual budget for the organization,
which has 17 full-time and 18 part-time employees—has grown from
$880,000 in
2007 to $2.9 million this year. That’s
been more than offset by the rise in taxes flowing into the county from
visitor
spending, Myers said, up from $79.7
million in 2007 to $94 million in 2011.
Myers and Radcliff have spearheaded an
effort to make travel youth sports a major thrust, working with area
parks departments
and private organizations to make sure
they have the know-how and facilities to bid for regional and national
contests.
In 2011, Myers and Radcliff worked with
the Hamilton County Council and Hamilton County Tourism Commission to
let a $3.4
million bond to support facilities
development. The total cash outlay by the bureau over the past eight
years has been almost
$7 million for everything from parks and
sports facilities to an artist’s colony.
In 2008, the bureau began an arts
initiative to mimic its youth sports movement. That arts effort
culminated in buying two
houses in downtown Noblesville in 2011 to
house Nickel Plate Arts, a place for artists to meet, work, hold classes
and perform.
Radcliff and Myers have also aggressively
marketed Hamilton County as a destination for weddings, family reunions
and other
corporate and leisure gatherings.
“We’re looking at every aspect of our
organization,” Radcliff said. “We know if we don’t change
to match the rapid growth of the county
around us, we’ll get left behind and miss out on a lot of
opportunities.”•