New tourism campaign is ‘edgy’

The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau wants more people to visit — and by rebranding the area, they plan to make it happen.

The Edge of the Triangle tourism campaign kicked off June 19.

Dave Gephart, chair of the visitors bureau board said the campaign will focus on the “edginess” of Chapel Hill and Orange County.

Gephart said the Orange County area offers visitors a lot that the surrounding counties cannot provide.

To help with the rebranding of the county, the bureau hired the Clean Design advertising agency, which is based in Raleigh.

Gephart said they chose Clean Design because of their background in hospitality and bureau work.

Clean Design could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Patty Griffin, communications director for the bureau, said the campaign will focus mostly on Chapel Hill, with the hope it will bring tourists to other parts of the county, including Carrboro and Hillsborough.

She said more than 17 million people visit the Triangle annually.

Griffin said the campaign will cost about $300,000 over the next year, and will focus on the unique music, food, art, performance and character of Chapel Hill.

“This vibrant town has been around for a couple hundred years by defining what is sharp, new, edgy and real,” she said.

Valerie Foushee, Orange County commissioner and visitors bureau board member, said the brand name of Chapel Hill was crucial to drawing tourists in to other parts of the county.

“We recognize the power of that brand name,” she said.

Anthony Carey, general manager of the Siena Hotel and the marketing chair of the visitors bureau board, said they chose to focus on Chapel Hill in order to distinguish themselves from other Orange counties in the nation.

He said they wanted to draw in more Sunday-through-Thursday professionals who travel to the Triangle on business, which research shows Orange County lacks in comparison to Raleigh and Durham.

Carey said there wasn’t as much of a need to increase single-day tourism.

“We do a great job as a community to sell ourselves out every Friday and Saturday night,” he said. “We’re edgier than the rest of the Triangle. We’re really cool.”

Gephart said that the bureau will keep track of the campaign to make sure it is succeeding.

“We’ll be evaluating it throughout and see if it needs tweaking and whether we reach our targeted market,” he said.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.