'Visit Duluth' Launches New Marketing Strategy

Visit Duluth
DULUTH - As summer tourism season begins to build, the City of Duluth is beginning to unravel a brand new advertising and marketing campaign like it's never done before. Visit Duluth is no longer solely focused on advertising in the Twin Cities. The team at Visit Duluth told FOX 21's Dan Hanger that it's time to go national and even global to show off "Authentic Duluth."

Those two words: "Authentic Duluth" is Visit Duluth's new approach to showing off what this city now has to offer.

"We really feel that message is what resonates with our visitors," said Anna Tanski, the newly appointed Visit Duluth president and CEO. She and her team are taking a leap for Duluth that's targeting the region, nation and even the world.

"We are in a very comfortable position now to feel like we can try these new things maybe go out on a limb," Tanski said.

That limb includes the same $2 million annual marketing budget, but with a whole lot of changes.  Radio ads are out in the Twin Cities, but TV ads are in, along with digital billboards and social media sponsorships.  And for the first time, Visit Duluth will market on Pandora radio in Chicago, and in more traditional forms in Fargo and Thunderbay areas.

"You know, as much as we love our city and we choose to live here, people have a lot of choices and we need to just keep giving them new ones," Tanski said.

Daniel Fanning, with Mayor Don Ness' office, believes Visit Duluth's new approach is spot on.

"When [visitor] come, I think people are impressed and surprised with how much we've got going on; both as just a beautiful city with things to do, but also on the positive momentum that we've got going on with job creation and job growth and expansion and economic expansion," Fanning said.

From a new destination page on the highly respected TripAdvisor.com, to even a marketing campaign in Germany, Duluth is no longer the lonely step-child of Minneapolis, it's holding its own and then some, with more growth to come.

"So people look at Duluth as not only a place to visit, but also as a place, hey, I could live there and there even seems like there's some opportunities now that there wasn't in the past. It's a really exciting time," Fanning said.

"I think if people who lived here took the time to really go out and experience some of what's new, they'd be amazed and it's easy to overlook that when you live here and see it day in and day out," Tanski said.

Meanwhile, if you didn't hear, Duluth is right now No. 16 on the bracket for Best Outside City in the Country.
Head over to www.VoteDuluth.com to get us in the No. 1 spot.

Reported by:  Fox21online.com