Ad campaign revealed to improve New Orleans image

NEW ORLEANS – This city’s visitors bureau has unveiled an aggressive – and at times humorous – advertising and marketing campaign to lure back doubtful tourists in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The effort includes a “branding” campaign intended to improve the city’s image, a print and outdoor ad campaign and a television show.

“The key is to make people understand that culture exists in New Orleans in a way that it never has before,” says Stephen Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Tourism & Marketing Corp.

“We have to create a brand that will reflect the eternal nature of the people who live here.”

Print ads will run in business magazines, travel trade publications and publications for the convention industry. Slogans address head-on the questions that many doubtful visitors have.

One ad shows Mardi Gras revelers and includes the slogan “Open. To Just About Anything.”

In another, a woman sits outside a door in the French Quarter holding a glass of red wine. The accompanying slogan reads: “Dry? We were never dry.”

“We’ve got to disarm people and make them laugh just a bit,” Perry says.

The visitors bureau also is underwriting a television series, “A Whole New Orleans,” that promotes travel to the city. Thirteen half-hour episodes are planned; it hasn’t yet been decided how the show will be broadcast.

The branding campaign is called “Forever New Orleans.” That phrase, which highlights the word “new” and also features an encircled fleur de lis, will accompany all advertising literature.

Perry says the campaign is intended to show visitors that New Orleans’ cultural offerings are constantly evolving. Despite the changes to the city’s landscape the bureau wants to communicate that “we are here forever.”