November 15, 2007

Durham’s A Hit With Sailors

Shopping Story Ideas Requires Creativity

How do you promote community image to one audience while rehabbing community image with another? It’s risky at best and impossible when the budget available is almost half less than communities without the need for image rehab.

You can’t use advertising because as the saying goes, “Using advertising to address image problems is like pouring gasoline on a fire.” And besides, it takes a ton of advertising to make a dent in today’s overcrowded communication environment. And it lacks credibility. It is you, talking about yourself. Hardly impartial.

This is why DCVB deploys an intricate mix of traditional promotion to those markets where Durham’s image is good, but needs to be deepened, and tools like publicity or “earned media” and “social media” to deal with the audience where Durham’s image needs to be rehabilitated.

It is only possible because DCVB gets significant assistance from grassroots groups like Image Watch and because Durham has such strong character and self pride.

When it comes to “publicity” DCVB uses the Durham News Service. This involves pitching stories, creating and distributing media advisories and releases, and helping to facilitate media tours with writers from across the country and around the world.

Sometimes the angles used by writers and reporters are unexpected. DCVB recently pitched a story for a freelancer writing for Sail Magazine to visit the Bull City to gather information and do a story on the new “Catch the Wind” exhibit and its sail boat pond at the Museum of Life and Science, but she also ate at several restaurants while in town, went wafting on the Eno River and visited Duke Gardens, which may lead to other articles.

Another writer wanted to know about the “view from above.” Durham doesn’t have mountains or very tall skyscrapers, but DCVB submitted several ideas, e.g. view looking down from the American Tobacco smokestack, view from the top of the Hill Building down on the Bull statue, view from the tower of Duke Chapel, and the view from the Carolina Barnstormers bi-plane.

During the just completed fiscal year, DCVB documented 250,610 stories across the nation that featured Durham or Durham based assets. This is the equivalent of reaching a combined circulation of 56.5 billion, which would equal $6.67 billion in traditional advertising, but with much more credibility.

It takes work, though, and that’s why publicity is often termed “earned media.” It doesn’t just happen, and the seeds are often planted years in advance.

Durham’s A Hit With Sailors

Shopping Story Ideas Requires Creativity

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