The Big Easy Prepares To Celebrate Its Tricentennial Year In 2018
If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you know that you emerge from it ready to tell your friends dozens of fun stories from your trip.
It’s a city that’s made for memories, from the food to the drinks to the music to the silly things you did or witnessed at events like JazzFest or New Year’s Eve (PubClub.com’s top destination for NYE, by the way).
And now, with the city set to celebrate its tricentennial year in 2018, the Big Easy is going big with an advertising, marketing and public relations campaign focusing on those stories it creates for locals as well as travelers.
It starts with “One Time, In New Orleans” in a new advertising campaign from New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC). The campaign will debut on Monday, September 11 with ESPN (Saints/Vikings) broadcast spots airing during the first Monday Night Football game of the 2017 NFL season.
The film features a street performer, Lloyd Dillon, and legendary jazz drummer, Johnny Vidacovich, telling stories to a crowd in Jackson Square as footage is projected onto the iconic Presbytère behind them.
A series of seven national print ads, featuring archival photography from the 1940’s to the 2000’s, will expand on the city’s story-rich history.
For those visiting the Big Easy, a reclaimed shipping container with IBM Watson and artificial intelligence software will be at different festivals throughout the year, providing an opportunity to record stories from locals and tourists. Called the Story Booth, it will trigger different film projections based on audio triggers (i.e. saying “brass band” will activate a projection of a brass band).
A smaller version of the booth will be installed at Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) starting in 2018.
“This is more than an advertising campaign,” said Mark Romig, President and CEO of NOTMC. “It’s a platform to forever associate New Orleans with great stories and storytelling.”
Beyond the film, print, and Story Booth, the campaign features social content; a city-wide mural project; hyper-targeted digital banners; branded content partnerships with NCIS: New Orleans, Billboard Magazine, Garden & Gun, Upworthy, and more; a robust influencer marketing campaign; three Tricentennial statues; public relations; OneTimeInNewOrleans.com campaign hub; and a new brand identity logo created from the city’s architecture, colors, and textures.
“The campaign is more about curation than creation,” said Darryl Berger, Chairman of the Board, NOTMC. “Personal stories about New Orleans are far more powerful than any stories we could hope to write ourselves.”
The “One Time, In New Orleans” campaign will enhance efforts by NOTMC and the tourism industry to continue bringing historic numbers of visitors to New Orleans, and to promote the 2018 Tricentennial signature events throughout the year.
Tricentennial Website: 2018nola.com
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