Clock ticks on state branding

Having their hotel-tax funds cut equally is a pill tourism-district leaders say they are willing to swallow in order to help pay for the launch of a statewide brand.

Yet, just how they will integrate that still undeveloped brand with regional promotion to meet a new Jan. 1 deadline is, so far, unclear, they say.

“We want this to work,” said Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, one of the six districts. “We don’t want to lose our ability to make sure we’re projecting our own brand, because this is designed to be coexisting. We don’t want the state brand to handcuff or restrict the Newport brand.”

The House-passed fiscal 2016 budget cuts hotel-tax funding by 5 percentage points, from 47 percent to 42 percent, equating to about 10 percent of most tourism districts’ annual budgets, leaders in Newport, Blackstone Valley, South County and Block Island said.

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The Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau’s cut is closer to 8 or 9 percent, due to a slightly different formula. The PWCVB last week declined comment.

That same bill has a clause proposed by the governor that has tourism leaders stumped: It stipulates that the R.I. Commerce Corporation will be required to sign off on how regional messages are integrated with newly developed statewide themes, logos and slogans by Jan. 1 of each year, beginning in 2016.

Hotel-tax funds for each upcoming year – the bulk of funding in all six districts – will not be provided to the districts until they “seek and obtain” approval for that integrated messaging, the House bill states.

“We’re supposed to present our materials to the state, but there’s been no dialogue about when they’ll present their material to us,” Smith said.

Asked why the changes were made, Commerce RI spokeswoman Melissa Czerwein said in an email, “We want to make sure the valuable new brand is used frequently and consistently so that it has the greatest impact.”

Czerwein could not say how the decision by lawmakers to change Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s funding approach for the tourism districts from one that was unequal and didn’t significantly affect Discover Newport and PWCVB to roughly even percentage cuts will impact the development of statewide branding. For Discover Newport, that translates to about $290,000 less than anticipated, which Smith said could force the elimination of one or two jobs and reduced advertising and trade-show participation.

Tourism leaders say they support Raimondo’s plan to redistribute the hotel tax to help fund an expected total of $5 million for statewide branding.

But Smith and Myrna George, president and CEO of the South County Tourism Council, warn while syncing state and regional brands should not be a problem, the added layer of government approval risks delaying regional marketing.

“The vagueness of the approval process is the concern right now,” Smith explained. “I’m concerned [if] it gets lost in bureaucracy.”

A request for proposals will be pursued soon so a consultant can “take key steps” regarding the launch of a new brand in time for the Jan. 1 deadline, Czerwein said. She could not say last week what those steps are. •

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  1. Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport said: “We don’t want the state brand to handcuff or restrict the Newport brand.”

    If I may propose, we have an existing brand that would fit, I believe, Newport’s current brand like a glove – and translate state-wide. We should stick with our exclusive brand and interpretive story of being “America’s First Resort”.

    The you-can’t-buy-this-story of how explorer Verazzanno sailed his flotilla into Narragansett Bay in 1524, and as legend has it, wrote in his captain’s log; “I was so struck by the beauty, I decided to linger a fortnight” is invaluable. This record of the first two week vacation taken in America history needs to be absolutely capitalized!

    This is the brand and story we should be shouting from the rooftops. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, we simply need to exploit this exclusive position – and then roll out a Discover Rhode Island First campaign strategy that focuses on all the things we are first at in RI, ie: Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, First state to separate church & state, First enclosed shopping mall, First factory outlet, and many, many other “Firsts” in America.

    My colleagues and I have developed the framework of a plan to implement this – or a very similar campaign – that we are ready to share at no cost with our state government. Please contact me for details and involvement at 401-368-1325, endhunger@cox.net.

    Thanks in advance for your attention and consideration, Steve Maciel

    #RIFIRST