[R]eady to “Get NEKed”?
That’s the name of a new Northeast Kingdom-centric marketing campaign rolled out last month by the Northeast Kingdom Regional Tourism Marketing Partnership, a collection of chambers of commerce and regional stakeholders determined to boost the Kingdom’s public image.
Playing off the local abbreviation for the Northeast Kingdom, the campaign encourages people to strip “away the surround sound of everyday life” by visiting Vermont’s sparsest region, according to its website.
“A goal of the campaign, too, is to really represent the Kingdom as a fun … place to be,” said Joe Short, vice president of the Northern Forest Center, which facilitates meetings and funding for the marketing group.
Behind the catchy name is an effort to spur investment in the state’s three poorest counties — Essex, Orleans and Caledonia.
“We’re a remote, rural community with a small population,” said Katherine Sims, director of the Northeast Kingdom Collaborative, one participant in the marketing planning. “For many of our businesses, they need to rely on not only locals but additional income from visitors to make ends meet.”
Planners figured the campaign needed to be “a little edgy” to bring those outsiders in, Sims said. “You’ve got to sometimes be a little different to get people’s attention.”
Hence the name.
The campaign publicly launched on June 10. It stemmed from conversations going back to the summer of 2016, Short said.
That year, the Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Association phased out its staffing and programs after decades of organizing marketing for the region.
The question became, “How do we continue to market the Northeast Kingdom collaboratively, recognizing that marketing is increasingly sophisticated and digital,” said Short.
Regional organizations might have been challenged to launch digital campaigns individually, he said, but they decided to work together and promote the entire Kingdom.
As Sims said, “Folks really see that it’s in everyone’s best interest to tell everyone’s story, that there’s very little competition. Celebrating Island Pond and biking and skiing — all of that together creates a compelling package … We are better together as a region, and I think the campaign embodies that.”
In trying to create a unified message for the three-county region, “simplicity and authentic experiences came up a lot,” Short said. “Quiet, solitude, but also kind of this unique funkiness of the Kingdom. It’s tucked away, but there’s a huge diversity of stuff to do.”
The campaign promotes area tours that cover outdoors sights, athletic events, music, brewing and the arts. Organizers may add ice cream and farm tours, too, Short said.
Some of the tours offer incentives: By completing five of the 20 nature tours listed on the campaign’s website and submitting photos of the visits, trekkers can win a sticker packet. Those who take on 10 of the outings can win a T-shirt.
The prizes feature the campaign’s Frankenstein-esque logo — a cow with moose antlers wearing a golden crown. “An eye catching mashup of a lot of things that people associate with the region,” Short said. “And it looks good on a T-shirt.”
According to Short, the campaign’s website has attracted 2,000 unique sessions since it launched, and its Facebook posts have reached over 85,000 people in that same span.
The hope is that businesses benefiting from customers drawn by the marketing effort will in turn invest in the campaign. Right now, it’s funded by private donations and grants from the Northern Border Regional Commission, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, USDA Rural Development and the Vermont Community Foundation, Short said.
Investments over a year and a half total $70,000, he said.
Part of the trick with efforts like the campaign is keeping the Kingdom’s identity in balance, Sims said. “We need a little more influx in economic development, but not so much that it changes the character of our place.”
“We’re not trying to position the region as something we’re not,” she said. “There’s a delicate balance.”
In some ways, the campaign mirrors broader efforts to attract new people to the state, like Think Vermont. That campaign has faced criticism in the Legislature from representatives who want to retain Vermont’s history of self-dependence.
That sense of individualism remains in the Kingdom, too, and a slick marketing campaign with a cheeky slogan might raise eyebrows in some of its quieter towns, where people could balk at flocking tourists.
Sims acknowledged as much. “But I think when they explore what that actually means, I think that folks see the need to break through the noise” and understand the message is about shedding the chaos of daily life, she said.
“I think that really resonates across the board with folks.”
