Ads Show City’s Faces From Golf to Garage
The Birmingham News
Michael Tomberlin , News staff writer
Big Communications created the DiverseCity campaign for the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau. The print advertisements highlight golfing, dining and shopping options in the metro area as well as one-of-a-kind attractions like Vulcan and the Barber Motorsports Park.
Even little-known destinations such as the Garage, a bar, and the Peanut Depot are included in the campaign.
Historical Civil Rights attractions are featured as well as the performing and visual arts destinations.
“We’re really scratching the surface here, we could go deeper,” said John Montgomery, president of Big.
Rather than roll out one new ad over time, Big and the convention bureau decided to produce 16 separate ads that could be used in several different publications targeted at the convention and corporate event industries, all with the “Birmingham, the DiverseCity” slogan. The first is a full-page ad in the current edition of “Spirit Magazine,” Southwest Airlines’ in-flight publication.
Jim Smither, president of the convention and visitors bureau, said most in the industry subscribe to multiple publications. Having a diverse set of ads they see time and time again should help drive home the DiverseCity message he said.
“I think all the ads combined create a very strong brand for the city,” he said.
Smith said the bulk of the bureau’s $1 million advertising budget is going into the ads and although people who live in the Birmingham area may not see them, those the ads are aimed at will.
The DiverseCity slogan can also be used in other types of advertising and can also be “co-branded,” or matched, with advertisements by other businesses and organizations, Montgomery said.
Smither said Birmingham is already known within the convention industry as an affordable place to hold an event. What is not as known, he said, is the variety of entertainment, leisure and business choices available here, something the new campaign addresses.
“I like the sophisticated message,” he said. “Without saying it, we’re showing a meeting planner or a tour operator decision maker that we have everything the bigger cities have at a Birmingham price.”
Montgomery said another element of the new DiverseCity slogan is how it plays off the city’s stigmatized past in Civil Rights and how diversity is celebrated here today.
“We don’t want to move away from our Civil Rights history but turn it into a positive and something that makes us a destination for people all over the world,” Montgomery said.
Smither said he hopes the campaign will resonate in the same way as a previous one Big created. “Birmingham All-Star” featured well-known natives such as Fannie Flagg, Bart Starr, Courteney Cox and Charles Barkley to pitch the metro area.
For more information, please contact Robin Oliver, Director of Public Relations, at 205-322-5646, ext.103 or email her at robin@bigcom.com
