Great column from Kurt, should be a must read for those who care about the branding of our area.
I spent 25 years overseeing research, statistics, programming and marketing for media companies in the United States, including serving as a media consultant. I built brands that achieved #1 market share.
In ad agencies, sometimes the baby gets thrown out with the bath water when trying to freshen a brand. That's what this ad agency just did. We're selling sand here folks, and the TDC understands that. What the TDC is missing is a stronger ad message from their agency.
TDC, go back to the agency and tell them to try again, and don't pay them another dime of that $1.3 million until at least three different concepts are created and tested in research with at least 100 actual SoWal visitors.
Seeing words like "Appalachians" and "strand" in that proposed LKM text posted earlier tells me some ad agency copywriter has a Carolinas slant to their writing, i.e. the "Grand Strand" of Myrtle Beach. If much of the original research was conducted using focus groups in North Carolina, throw it out. Rest assured I recognize the NC lingo because one of our sons lives in Raleigh, our family used to live in Charlotte, and as a youngster I lived in Chapel Hill, NC, just down the road from Dean Smith and up the hill from James Taylor's parents house.
Simply put, TDC, your goal should be a brand evolution...not a revolution.
