The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau on Tuesday unveiled a new slogan and advertising campaign that aims to attract more tourists to Columbus.
From angler fishing to ultimate frisbee tournaments to baseball, CVB Interim Tourism Director Frances Glenn said the new slogan encapsulates a lot of the events and activities that draw people to the city.
It replaces the longtime slogan for Columbus, “The city that has it all.”
“The new slogan lends itself to a broad promotion of lots going on in Columbus,” Glenn told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “It’s kind of a call to action. If we’re in Columbus, we want you to be in Columbus.”
The slogan is part of a larger advertising campaign that has been in the works since April. Glenn said the campaign will include both print and television advertisements designed to spread the word about what Columbus has to offer.
She said a committee is currently working on the digital side of the campaign, including social media and online marketing, and filming for television commercials will likely start at the end of September.
But in the meantime, Glenn hopes the community gets on board with the new slogan.
“We really do want the local community to buy in,” Glenn said. “If everybody is hashtagging it and saying come to Columbus, we want to catch you here, I think with the support of the community … it will catch on.”
And once it catches on, visitors start to notice.
Glenn shared a story of a recent guest whose positive experience staying in Columbus for a business trip led to plans for a return visit this fall.
That, she said, is the type of tourism the campaign hopes to generate.
“It has to be everywhere,” she said. “Like when people sit down at a restaurant and say, ‘Oh, what is there to do?’ That server or that person that checks them into a hotel room could be their one and only contact — certainly their first contact.”
For CVB Board Chair Liz Terry, the advertising campaign is ushering in a new era for the CVB. The bureau is looking at partnering with different entities in Columbus to create new events that will be new for the city and for tourists, she said.
“This is our launching of great things to come,” Terry told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “We just felt like it’s time. It’s time to get started with doing something new. Something, hopefully, that will be better.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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