2012

Community Brand and Website Development Report, Marketing Plan, and Funding Recommendations

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Brand Development Report (Part 1) Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3-4 Sense of Place Brand Report ................................................................................................................................. 5-8 Sense of Place Website Development Report .............................................................................................. 9-10 Funding Source Recommendations (Part 2) ......................................................................................................11 Suggested Funding Source Contribution ........................................................................................................... 13 Marketing Plan (Part 3) ....................................................................................................................................16 Media Mix ................................................................................................................................................................. 16-18 Budget .............................................................................................................................................................................. 20

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Since mid-October of 2011, Northern Lights Creative Marketing of has been working at the direction of the Cheboygan County Economic Development Corporation to fulfill the mission of the Sense of Place Marketing Project of the county. That mission is to introduce our area and its recreational assets to (1) a new generation of tourists, (2) those looking to retire in a northern paradise and, (3) entrepreneurs seeking a perfect location for their businesses. And its important to remember that a principal goal of the project has been to get our message into the market for this coming tourism season, the summer of 2012, by implementing the marketing strategy beginning this spring. The tourism branding project has been a three-fold effort. One Create the Marketing Brands. Northern Lights Work with the communities of Aloha, Cheboygan, Indian River, Mackinaw City, Topinabee, and Wolverine to enhance or create their marketing brand (logos and taglines). The goal of this place making-branding exercise was to develop logos and taglines both compelling and reflective of the most important destination marketing assets of each community. Equally important, the Sense of Place Project calls for the creation of a county-wide marketing brand which serves as a marketing engine for getting the word out there that this a recreational and lifestyle destination like no other, made up of communities with unique and enticing characteristics for the potential visitor audience. The marketing branding part of the project also calls for the creation of websites and social media marketing pages for the communities with little internet marketing presence and also for assisting those that do have websites and social media underway with integrating their efforts into the broader tourism marketing strategies of Cheboygan County. The brand development phase of the project is complete and the websites are under development Two Develop a Marketing Plan. This is the single most critical element of the Sense of Place Project. Does a tree make sound when it crashes to the forest floor if there are no ears there to hear it? That old expression says everything about the importance of both creating a Marketing Plan that reaches our target audience effectively and funding the Marketing Plan. Naturally, the plan focuses on driving our audience to our marketing websites and our social media instruments at the same time. 3|Page

It also contains a plan to create a County-wide Marketing and Placemaking Alliance made up of people from all the communities of Cheboygan County and leadership from the Economic Development Corporation. This Alliance will help ensure the sustainability of the marketing plan, especially in terms of tasks relative to keeping the websites up to date with fresh and current content as well as contributing to other aspects of community strategic place-making efforts and fundraising. This Marketing Plan is included in this final report and, in short, recommends some traditional media with a heavy dose of internet marketing and agency management. Three Assist the EDC in Identifying Funding Sources. At this point of the project, Northern Lights Marketing has identified a number of possibilities to generate the funding support for the Marketing Plan. We can create wonderful brands and develop a great marketing campaign but without an adequate budget to implement the marketing plan, success in delivering the message to our targeted audience will, of course, be impossible. Elements of the Funding Source Plan are outlined in this report.

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SENSE OF PLACE BRAND REPORT and WEBSITE REPORT

Through the branding workshop process, follow up online surveys, and additional meetings and phone conferences with stakeholders in the communities, key tagline ideas were identified and refined. Images immerged for graphic design applications for logos. Marketing messages highlighting both place-making themes and marketing assets of the communities were developed and honed along the way. The participants in the project on both the community and the EDC Study Committee level understood and contributed to the understanding that the marketing messages to the tourism and future employer audiences had to mesh and create a true and compelling reason to consider Cheboygan County as both a vacation destination and a place to do business.

Our County-wide Brand

Michigans Great Up North The county-wide brand identifies and presents to audiences what Cheboygan County and its residents believe to be real and true about the place they live. The word Great intones pride in our four season outdoor recreational paradise, its natural beauty and natural resources. It also speaks to pride in our communities and our way of life. It promises a memorable experience to the potential tourist and/or the potential entrepreneur. Of course, we live in the heart of the northern Great Lakes. The word Great is part of our heritage. As for Up North, the words are a constant in the vernacular of downstate Michigan residents and people throughout Indiana and Ohio, our principle geographic markets, and it almost always means northern Michigan.

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The Great Up North tagline, Land of Endless Discovery, like the logo itself, is a promise to the potential visitor audience. Its a promise that is easy to deliver on when people come here. We have limitless natural wonders for people to experience when they arrive in Cheboygan County: endless trails, never-ending shorelines, inspiring natural beauty, timeless history, and welcoming communities with unique and fascinating cultures. To those of us who know this place intimately, these images and ideas come naturally to us. Its in the scope of this project to tell the rest of the world about this place.

Community Brands

Aloha The name speaks for itself in many ways. In Hawaii, the word means both hello and goodbye. Paradise to a camping family is being at Aloha State Park. Arriving at Aloha in the summer means bliss imagined all winter long in down state Michigan and at least to the Ohio River. The design speaks to that emotion. The tagline says it, too. Its one of the premier lakeside camping destinations in the upper Great Lakes.

Cheboygan The Cheboygan brand focused on branding the Inland Waterway in their logo and tagline with associated logo art reinventing the traditional lighthouse image of the city into a more modern design. The font however, calls out the past, the days when lumber was king and resort launches plied the rivers and lakes of the Waterway. The brand points to pride in the past and a vision of a bright future.

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Indian River In Indian River, a community that was not envisioned in the original scope of work for this project, embraced a new theme, logo, and tagline that represents what the people of Indian River believe to be their greatest assets: a location at intersections of wonderful northern Michigan recreational trails and a place at the very heart of northern Michigans greatest rivers and amazing inland lakes.

Mackinaw City For some time now Mackinaw Citys marketing tagline has been Living History. Making History. It speaks to the remarkable assets of the Michigan State Historic Parks and Mackinaw City being the gateway to Mackinac Island which is so important to the tourism business in the entire region. It also says that history is still being made there. The tagline has been in place for some time and the Chamber, Tourist Bureau, and Village of Mackinaw City us it in their marketing messages.

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Topinabee The Topinabee Development Association and many residents of Topinabee participated in the development of the Topinabee marketing brand. The focus from the start was getting Mullett Lake into the marketing message and expressing confidence and pride in the villages four season recreational lifestyle. The sunflake represents that as does the tagline. The main logo typeface was chosen for its 19th century train station look as recognition of their historical culture and the train station library in the heart of town.

Wolverine The citizens of Wolverine agreed through the branding workshop process that the village and area needed to embrace and brand as their own the Sturgeon River. Images in the logo had to capture the imagination of what the Sturgeon River could mean to potential visitors, touching on fly fishing, and to suggest magnificent wildlife in the area, centered on the greatest elk herd east of the Mississippi. The tagline needed to brand the river most of all. Trademarking of the above logos, with the exception of Indian River and Cheboygan, will use the collective mark registration method. This will ensure that there will be control of how the marks are used.

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WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

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All websites are completed as far as Northern Lights can take them at this time, with only community leader training for additional local content and content management. Social media platforms need to be created by Topinabee and Aloha community leaders. Wolverine already has an active Facebook presence. It is important to note that websites are never really finished. They are living, breathing marketing entities which require constant attention to current and pertinent content, social media interfacing, and SEO tracking and adjustments.

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. Over the past few months, Northern Lights Marketing has discussed possible funding for the projects marketing plan with many individuals and groups. Below is a synopsis of those explorations.

Area Tourist Bureaus This is perhaps the single most important element of the funding plan. All over the state of Michigan, local city, village, and Tourist Bureaus are considering or have already raised their room taxes from 2% to 3, 4 or 5%. These state mandated head and bed fees are designed to promote their local areas in order to bring in new and more visitors. The minimum is 2% of the room rate before sales tax. One of the reasons is the need to be competitive for the tourism dollar as the economy recovers and to also take advantage of and connect to Pure Michigan marketing. Its all about economic development in the long run. In Cheboygan County, there are three (3) Tourist Bureaus. They are Cheboygan, Indian River, and Mackinaw City. All of them currently charge the 2%. There has long been the feeling in this region that the communities of the area were in competition with each other, room rate to room rate, location to location. Instead, this initiative is the opposite. It calls for a marketing alliance where the additional funds raised by an increase in the head and bed tax goes to promoting the recreational and lifestyle advantages of the Great Up North. The core thesis here is that we to tell a lot more people about what is unique and makes this area a terrific destination of choice. Thats more important than a couple of dollars per room advantage or disadvantage. Northern Lights Marketing recommends discussions with our local tourist bureaus to accomplish the goal of getting their financial support for the marketing alliance. Funding Opportunity: $50,000

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Corporate Sponsorships There are corporate sponsorship (advertising) opportunities on the Great Up North website and within the communitys websites. Businesses, if marketing programs can drive significant traffic to the websites, would find excellent media advantages to sponsoring or advertising on the sites. It would be a brand worth associating themselves with and every business owner or manager in Cheboygan County knows how critical it is to bring more visitors and companies here and how that positively affects business growth overall. Northern Lights Creative Marketing recommends a marketing campaign be developed to find sponsors for the Great Up North website and the community websites. It would need to be completed and produced with quality graphics and with sponsorship/advertising rates established. Funding Opportunity: $20,000 Public Sponsorship County, townships, villages, cities this is a marketing alliance. With economic recovery throughout Cheboygan County being so connected to the successful marketing of our tourism assets, each level of government interested in economic development will need to contribute to the campaign. It is understood that many levels of government are struggling economically all over Cheboygan County. To support this initiative, budgets should be analyzed and opportunities explored to support the Great Up North marketing campaign with funding. This is critical to creating sustainability for the campaign and its results. As stated earlier in this report, we recommend the establishment of a community-wide organization known as the Great Up North Placemaking Alliance. It should be an organization of volunteers from each community who are keenly interested in leading the year-round marketing and fundraising efforts in their respective communities. Cheboygan County itself should be an active member in this organization. Funding Opportunity: $50,000 Service Organization Sponsorship Service organizations in our community are concerned about economic growth as part of their missions. They know as well as other groups in Cheboygan County that this area needs tourism marketing and the benefits of bringing potential new visitors and residents to their communities. Northern Lights recommends a fundraising campaign to the service organizations of Cheboygan County for their assistance creating a sustainable and successful marketing campaign for the Great Up North brand. Funding Opportunity: $10,000

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The Annual Magazine With private sector management of this resource, a percentage of advertising revenue from this glossy high quality publication would be designated as set aside for helping support the Great Up North overall marketing efforts. Northern Lights suggests the Cheboygan County Economic Development Corporation call for presentations and proposals for licensing the Great Up North brand to a publisher-printer, preferably local. Funding Opportunity: $5,000 Merchandising Licensing the Great UP North Brand to a supplier of t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and other merchandise who would sell them at a profit, a portion of which is set aside to help sustain the marketing campaign year to year. Merchandise could be offered in retail outlets in the county and online at the Great Up North website. Northern Lights recommends exploring potential suppliers of merchandise and terms of the program. Funding Opportunity: $5,000 Great Up North Made in Cheboygan County Online Store (TBD) We believe there are opportunities for selling non-perishable goods made in Cheboygan County on the online store of the Great Up North website. Participation by vendors would be free with a portion of proceeds going towards sustaining the marketing plan.

Area Tourism Bureaus Corporate Sponsorships Public Sponsorships Service Organizations Annual Magazine Merchandising Total Annual

$50,000 $20,000 $50,000 $10,000 $5,000 $5,000 $140,000

If additional funding can be raised, additional media buys could be placed such as cable advertising, special interest websites, social media advertisements, or billboards.

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The Marketing Plan of the Sense of Place Project is driven by three questions: Who are we trying to reach? Where are they? How do we get our message to them?

Target Demographics Lifestyle The people we seek to reach share a zeal for outdoor activity in a place that is rich in natural beauty. This audience looks for vacation destinations with pristine water resources for all types of boating adventure. They want endless trails and beautiful forests for hiking and biking with destination opportunities along the way. Their eyes seek dramatic landscapes and elbow room. Our audience includes those concerned with getting in shape and staying healthy, people who like to be active and exercise while enjoying breathtaking scenery. By themselves, with their families, or with friends, they choose a destination because it is a perfect place to enjoy their favorite, active outdoor recreation. They kayak, they hike, they bike, they swim, they go scuba diving, they go boating on lakes and rivers, and they take day trips to nearby attractions. They explore. They often belong to clubs and enjoy traveling in groups to share their passion for their favorite recreational pursuit with good friends. Of course, this audience craves rest and relaxation, too. They appreciate discovering a favorite restaurant while exploring their destination. Theyll seek out museums. Theyll make new friends. They like to travel a fair distance from home to do it. And when they fall in love with a place they come back again and again. Our audience has disposable income but cares about affordability, too. Ages and Gender Our target audience crosses two generations. It includes all baby boomers and most of their children. The plan targets a broad age group, 21-66. It also focuses on target audiences of potential visitors, those about to retire who love northern Michigan, and entrepreneurs looking for great place to relocate or start a new business. The plan calls for reaching men and women almost equally in our marketing efforts, with the exception of specific sport recreation marketing. For instance, pleasure boating would be more 14 | P a g e

targeted to men and kayaking would tilt to women who now equal the number of men enjoying the sport and are by far the fasted growing segment. Passion Interests The plan calls for reaching those empirically identified for having a passion for a specific recreational sport or other interests. Those sports and interests include but are limited to boating, sailing, kayaking, cycling, golfing, off-roading, hiking, fishing, hunting, and history. Geography Our target market in terms of where our audience comes from is pretty straightforward. This plan focuses its message on the suburban middle and upper middle class audiences in key downstate Michigan markets with the same said for select statistical areas in Ohio, Indiana, and beyond. For example, among others were targeting the suburbs of Grand Rapids for cable and social media advertising, the same for Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Lansing, and select other markets, including some areas of north and northwest suburban Detroit if the budget allows it. Great Up North Marketing and Placemaking Alliance We recommend the establishment of a community-wide marketing and place-making alliance. It would be an organization of volunteers for each community who are keenly interested in leading the year-round marketing (especially maintenance of website content and social media), fundraising, and place-making efforts in their respective communities. We envision the Cheboygan County EDC facilitating and coordinating the creation of this alliance and that the alliance would welcome participation from individuals and entities across the county. This alliance must be a public-private place-making partnership with further goals of additional place-making activities outside of marketing and funding. As mentioned, the alliance needs county coordination and the alliance should include at least two people from each community. Directors of the chambers of commerce, tourism bureaus, and townships of the county should be included wherever possible. It is also important to note that regional partnerships with NLEA, MSU Extension and other organizations should be pursued by the alliance. Opportunities for involvement by area youth should also be part of the marketing alliance plans. Northern Lights believes this Marketing and Place-making Alliance is an absolute critical element for the success of the project and its sustainability.

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Media Mix Cable Television Advertising The Marketing Plan proposes an initial cable buy for the period May 1, 2012 to August 31, 2012 to launch the campaign. With cable television, we can reach a vast number of people in our target market by matching programming and time slots to the demographics we are trying to reach. This plan recommends both 60 and 30 second commercials, produced by a creative agency.

Programming and Times:

Costs are approximately $4 per 30 second commercial for the 6 AM to midnight period and $8 per 30 second commercial for the 6 PM to midnight period. We will place the commercials strategically in zip codes of the target geographic markets mentioned above and run both 30 second spots and 60 second ones. The plan calls for investing approximately $50,000 in cable advertising in the campaign in the first year and evaluating that amount in year two. Special Interest Internet Advertising The plan calls for specific recreational interest website banner and sidebar advertising on online magazines.

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Most banner or sidebar ads run at $100 to $300 per month with yearlong packages available which include outbound newsletter advertising which we recommend. Total annual cost would be approximately $12,000. Social Media Advertising The plan outlines an advertising campaign on Facebook. Facebook advertising also delivers a special interest audience. The plan calls for reaching boating, kayaking, and biking fans in our demographic range. The plan calls for spending approximately $5,000 per year targeting that audience through several different advertising programs with Facebook. Social Media Marketing The plan also calls for the implementation of an aggressive social media marketing plan for the Great Up North and the community websites. The Great Up North Magazine Published twice a year (spring-summer and fall-winter) by a private for profit printing enterprise and will be supported exclusively by advertising. The magazine will be distributed at all MDOT Welcome Centers and offered free at special interest retailers and other important locations throughout the state. The Great Up North Magazine is published at no cost to the marketing project of the Great Up North and provides modest income to help sustain the marketing effort. Merchandising The project calls for licensing the brands of the Sense of Place Project to a premiums and promotions supplier. There is no cost to the county and the shirts, sweatshirts, caps, coffee mugs, etc. will be sold at outlets throughout the county area and will provide modest income for sustaining the marketing effort. Items will also be sold through the online store on the Great Up North website. Pure Michigan Advertising The plan calls for coordination of our marketing efforts with Travel Michigans Pure Michigan social media campaign. Pure Michigan has over 1.4 million fans on Facebook, for instance, and through a daily posting of pertinent information about the Great Up North, its tourism assets, and special events taking place in our area, we can garner a great deal of attention with a very qualified audience about why they should visit Cheboygan County. 17 | P a g e

Sister Community Relationship Development The plan calls for the development of a Sister City relationship with a comparable European region. A Sister City program can greatly increase awareness of the visitor assets we have in the Great Up North and over time increase tourism to Cheboygan County from not only the sister city but also the entire region or country of that city. Public Relations Campaign Third party endorsements of our recreational assets are essential. The plan calls for press releases and article development support activities with both print publications and internet special interest magazines. Billboard Advertising A billboard campaign is proposed. Three (3) locations have been identified one just north of Saginaw and one just north of Clare, and ending with the last one as you enter Cheboygan County which says welcome to the Great Up North. The campaign is centered on building curiosity in our target audience about the Great Up North for those who have not been reached by other media and providing message reinforcement for those that have.

We also capture with this location strategy those already in northern Michigan (those in our target market already traveling in our direction) and invite them to discover a wonderful new destination the Great Up North. The billboards will prominently advertise the website addresses of the Great Up North to help drive traffic to the sites. Billboards are offered by Lamar, CBS, and another smaller billboard company. The billboards average approximately $700 per month on mostly yearly contracts. The budget for this aspect of the campaign is $25,500. 18 | P a g e

Marketing Agency We believe this plan needs the coordination and professionalism of a marketing agency and highly recommend that the county or the marketing alliance seek a Request for Proposal from companies qualified to do the following: Creative Development and Copywriting Collateral Materials Development and Management Advertising Management Media Negotiations, Contracting, and Placement Website Marketing Content Management Video Production and Editing Social Media Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Websites Public Relations Sister City Marketing and Communications Cable Television Advertising Production Merchandising Program Management Results Tracking and Reports

To ensure the successful and professional implementation of the Marketing Plan for the Great Up North and the communities tourism brands, this plan recommends a budget for this activity of $4,000 per month in a contract with an agency for a minimum period of two (2) years. All the above activities, to be clearly identified in terms of percentage of time, should be included in the monthly fee. This agency work could be contracted by either the county (which provides for more control of message and accountability) or by the new Great Up North Marketing Alliance if it becomes a legal, non-profit entity.

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Cable Television Advertising Special Interest Website Advertising Social Media Advertising Marketing Agency Billboard Advertising Total Annual

$50,000 $12,000 $5,000 $48,000 $25,000 $140,000

Please note that in the absence of funding sources for this marketing plan, Northern Lights Creative Marketing recommends that either the marketing alliance or Cheboygan County retain an outside agency for marketing services relating to: website maintenance and management website content management website hosting services social media marketing services search engine optimization and visitor tracking other services to be determined

Because neither the volunteers of the marketing alliance nor the staff of Cheboygan County is positioned to focus on the above functions, not employing a professional marketing company to perform these tasks would imperil the value of the brands and their internet marketing success. The true scope of the above work and the cost of this approach should be investigated while funding sources are pursued.

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