On Tuesday I attended the monthly luncheon meeting of IABC Atlanta featuring a presentation about the recent Brand Atlanta Campaign. Being an Orlando area boy, and with tourism such a major focus of the Central Florida area I was curious to see how Atlanta was coming together to market themselves.

Atlanta sees Orlando as one of their major competitors when it comes to conferences and basic tourism. With that each of the respective cities has their own image problem: Atlanta is seen as more business and less destination, while Orlando is more destination and less business. In Orlando organizations such as the OrlandoEDC and Florida High Tech Corridor Council are working to help change that perception. In Atlanta there is now Brand Atlanta.

Presenting were Bill Rheil and Hala Moddelmog. They reviewed the initial research they used to shape the campaign and discussed how they built a core group of stakeholders within the Metro Atlanta area. The stakeholders included local governments, chambers, CVBs and some of the larger corporations that are based in Atlanta. The eventual goal is to make Atlanta a premier destination city, not only for business, but travel.

As part of a phased roll-out the intial campaign targeted the residents of the area. They realized they needed to get the locals excited about the campaign, otherwise they were doomed. One of the major issues facing Atlanta is the separation between the ITP and OTP. The Interstate 285 beltway that surrounds Atlanta has created somewhat of a cultural barrier. You are either Inside the Perimeter (ITP) or Outside the Perimeter (OTP). It's amazing how many local residents don't venture across those bounds. The first step was to educate residents about the numerous activities, attractions and events that are available throughout the city. New attractions such as the Georgia Aquarium and shopping destinations such as Atlantic Station have helped pave the way, but there is so much more. And that's what they want to spread the word about.

One idea from the crowd was a 'Be a tourist in your home town' concept. Encourage local residents to get out and explore some areas that they may not normally visit. An additional $30 in spending at local attractions from residents would represent millions of dollars in additional revenue.

The next step in the campaign is to expand the marketing effort to cities within a three hour drive of Atlanta. Once again they want to educate people that a weekend trip to Atlanta is worth the drive. From there the campaign will expand nationally.

One research slide showed a dramatic perception gap between people that had visited Atlanta and those that had not. The was specifically evident for a general query about 'Things to do in Atlanta'. Once a person had visited Atlanta they realized that there were many 'Things to do'. During the question and answer period I asked a question about this stat. I asked what the campaign was doing to encourage those one-time visitors to help spread the word about Atlanta, especially since word of mouth and consumer generated content is such a powerful force in travel. As of this point they are not doing anything, which seems like they're missing a huge opportunity.

When I get back to Orlando I plan to talk more with some of my local contacts at the CVBs and EDCs to see how they perceive the ATL campaign. It will also be interesting to see if/how Brand Atlanta will begin to market themselves in the Central Florida area.