{"id":14161,"date":"2013-03-01T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14161"},"modified":"2013-02-28T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T20:01:10","slug":"for-tourism-marketing-south-of-france-hits-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=14161","title":{"rendered":"For tourism marketing, south of France hits home"},"content":{"rendered":"

New \u00a0campaign will capitalize on county’s cosmopolitan flair<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Blair<\/a>

Blair Mahoney, executive director of the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau, explained the importance of boosting tourism in the region.<\/p><\/div>\n

It wasn\u2019t exactly an identity crisis, but the folks entrusted with promoting the area as a tourist destination have agonized for some time over the optimal way to describe the area\u2019s ambience, attractions, and geography in ways that generate more visitors.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau held a news conference with representatives from Dana Communications, a Princeton-based ad agency. The bureau selected Dana to set the tone for increasing tourism with a branding initiative \u2013 creating engaging materials that will connote the region\u2019s myriad offerings -from the Brandywine River Museum to QVC to the Wharton Esherick Museum.<\/p>\n

Highlighting the importance of the tourism industry, Blair Mahoney, the bureau\u2019s executive director, cited research showing that visitors infuse the local economy with an average of $300 a day. He expressed gratitude to the Chester County commissioners, who recently raised the hotel tax, giving Mahoney\u2019s agency funding for the marketing promotion.<\/p>\n

Dana\u2019s creative director and chief operating officer, Lynn Kaniper, said two main challenges emerged quickly: how to encapsulate the diversity of attractions and how to identify the geography so that outsiders had an immediate sense of place. After an intensive three months of meetings, tours, and interviews, the team had a voila<\/em> moment \u2013 consistent with a region of rolling hills and artisan cuisine that has hosted Marquis de Lafayette and a plethora of du Ponts.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re thinking of traveling to Europe anytime soon, you may want to reconsider. If Dana\u2019s crew makes its mark, residents may feel more joie de vivre<\/em> right in their backyards. \u00a0An invasion of Europe-inspired \u00a0tourism materials will tout the region\u2019s cosmopolitan flair with the logo: Brandywine Valley, the South of France, just a little west of Philly.<\/p>\n

Even the name Brandywine Valley got a makeover and \u2013 with some inspiration from Longwood Gardens and local wineries \u2013 appears with the stylized letters \u201cb\u201d and \u201cv\u201d intersecting to resemble a bursting flower. The colors? Soft green and deep merlot.<\/p>\n

Westley Hackmann, a senior account executive at Dana, said the next step is \u201cto educate the consumers about our brand.\u201d Toward that end, he said promotions would occur at popular venues, such as the Philadelphia Flower Show. It\u2019s enough to make you \u201cappreciate the unique attractions, wonderful food and wine, lively events and scenic rolling hills of our charming Pennsylvania countryside destination.\u201d For more information, visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.brandywinevalley.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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New \u00a0campaign will capitalize on county’s cosmopolitan flair By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times It wasn\u2019t exactly an identity crisis, but the folks entrusted with promoting the area as a tourist destination have agonized for some time over the optimal way to describe the area\u2019s ambience, attractions, and geography in ways that generate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,1],"tags":[2018,180,29,1234,1736,2855,369,2856],"class_list":["post-14161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-blair-mahoney","tag-brandywine-river-museum","tag-chester-county","tag-chester-county-commissioners","tag-chester-county-conference-and-visitors-bureau","tag-dana-communications","tag-longwood-gardens","tag-wharton-esherick-museum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}