Chapel Hill/Orange County Unveils New "Edge of the Triangle" Tourism Campaign

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., June 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau has announced a new "Edge of the Triangle" tourism campaign.  The campaign includes a series of print and online ads and strategies focused on Exploring, Tuning Into, Tasting, Unwinding On, Meeting At ... The Edge of the Triangle. The campaign invites visitors to: "Travel to the fringe of mainstream when visiting North Carolina's Research Triangle. Chapel Hill's sights, sounds and tastes are worth discovering." Some of the materials developed by Clean Design, the tourism bureau's advertising firm, are now appearing in key target markets.  

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The campaign is designed to help support greater demand for overnight, mid-week business, the segment in which we need the strongest help right now, in order to best fast track our economic recovery," said Laurie Paolicelli, Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Executive Director.  "From a visitor's eye, we are Chapel Hill. We recognize the power of that brand name. And we recognize that the entire county benefits when our hotels are full. Our Visitors Bureau works closely with the entire county to grow tourism both under the Chapel Hill brand name, and with events and programs in all of our county's towns."

"The marketing committee, with Visitors Bureau board and staff, set into action a four-pronged approach to grow tourism," said Anthony Carey, Marketing Chair for the Visitors Bureau and General Manager of The Siena Hotel. "We hired a creative and strategic ad agency (Clean Design) that has a track record of helping many cities grow tourism; we talked to stakeholders and conducted research studies on what it would take to increase tourism; we developed a campaign based on this research; and we developed a sales and marketing strategy that asks for business. Clean Design is a branding and design agency based in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The campaign highlights many of the reasons why Chapel Hill is so cutting edge, including:

• Chapel Hill prizes its legacy, whether that's basketball or the hard-to-describe feeling you get from strolling down its tree-lined streets and yet it couldn't be more contemporary. Because of that, it's hard to believe that Chapel Hill, in one incarnation or another, has been here through four different centuries.
• Cat's Cradle. James Taylor. Ben Folds Five. The Cave. Lost in the Trees. Southern Culture on the Skids. Chapel Hill and Orange County are home to wonderful live music. Sometimes you'll find it on the front porch of The Carolina Inn, on Thursdays on the front lawn at Carrboro's Weaver Street, sometimes on last Fridays down in Hillsborough, but you'll find it.
• On one street, Franklin, there are enough world-class meals to satisfy everyone in the world. From first-class pan-Asian cuisine at Lantern, to Elaine's, nouveau cuisine where the chef is justly proud of his wild game. Crook's Corner. In Historic Hillsborough? Saratoga Grill and Matthews Chocolates are only separated by a few yards, so if you're on a tight schedule you can have dinner at one and fresh chocolate at another.
• But it's not all bow-ties and tails here. For barbecue, there's Allen and Sons and Hillsborough BBQ Company and for a nowhere-else-in-the-universe-tastebud-extravaganza, visit Mama Dip's for southern cooking most of the south has forgotten how to cook, and never cooked this well.

This new tourism campaign also kicks off the transition of the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau's new Chapel Hill "Edge of the Triangle" logo and in the coming months a new-look VisitChapelHill.org website and visitor resource materials.

Chapel Hill is located in Orange County, North Carolina and sits next to Carrboro and Hillsborough, NC—the three towns make-up the greater Chapel Hill area. As the official destination marketing organization of Chapel Hill and Orange County, the mission of the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau is to develop and coordinate visitor services in Orange County and to implement marketing programs that will enhance the economic activity and quality of life in the community.  For information, www.VisitChapelHill.org.

SOURCE Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau