Campaign Will Pick City’s Hot Spots
The Birmingham News
William Thornton, News staff writer
The Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau is officially rolling out the “In Birmingham” campaign today at a kickoff party beginning at 5 p.m. at the BJCC Arena Club.
The initiative will include four 8-foot by 8-foot “IN” boxes to encourage community input. While the large boxes will appear at major events, smaller 10-inch by 10-inch versions will show up at businesses around the city in the near future, allowing residents to pick their favorite shops and restaurants.
“In Birmingham” is a cooperative marketing campaign from the visitors bureau, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board and the City of Birmingham.
Big Communications conceived and planned the campaign, which will spotlight area tourist sites, shopping destinations, restaurants, sporting events, convention possibilities, and promote Birmingham as a family reunion site. Advertisements will appear in national trade magazines, in-flight magazines and other publications.
Its logo – a red box around the word “IN” – might also show up on T-shirts, bumper stickers and buttons.
Big Communications President John Montgomery said print ads should begin appearing within the next month, the first showing up in Birmingham Magazine in March. Subsequent ads will appear in Meeting and Convention, Convention South, and Black Meeting & Tourism magazines.
“We’ll have some regional and local print ads appearing as early as May,” he said.
The campaign also will show up on elevators around town within a few months. Plans call for the red “IN” logo to adorn elevator doors, opening up to a message within the elevator welcoming riders.
A wrinkle in the new campaign is the partnership between agencies to focus attention on Alabama’s largest city. Susette Hunter, director of sales and marketing for the BJCC, said the concept allows different organizations to focus around one message in the hopes it will benefit them all.
“It’s the first time that a whole lot of different organizations around town have come together to support one campaign, not just focusing attention on themselves, but spotlighting the city,” she said.
Residents will get a chance to contribute to the campaign by suggesting “in” places to shop or eat by placing their choices in the smaller “IN” boxes throughout the city or by voting online. The businesses will then be able to display the “IN” logo on their storefronts.
The campaign’s Web site, inbirmingham.org, is already up and running, with a link for participants to nominate their favorite spots.
Some have already started to submit. Dilcy Hilley, vice president of marketing and communications for the bureau, said she is already filling an accordion folder with “IN” nominations.
“It’s amazing, because it’s happening even before we’ve told anybody,” she said. “It just shows you’ll get 20 different answers if you ask 20 different people, which is exactly what we were looking for.”
E-mail: wthornton@bhamnews.com
© 2008 The Birmingham News
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