Good news for the Oneida County tourist attractions and museums: the County is finally getting its act together and has begun a consolidated marketing scheme to generate interest in Oneida County.

The Oneida County Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled its new brand and marketing strategy at its Annual Meeting Thursday evening at historic Fountain Elms on the Munson-Williams-Proctor campus. Working with Trainor Associates of New Hartford, the OCCVB Board of Directors, President Kelly Blazosky, and industry stakeholders spent several months of research, including an intensive Discovery process, to document and quantify Oneida County’s Assets, Core Brand Values, and Brand Personality attributes, to develop Target Visitor Profiles and a corresponding Core Brand Message to connect with them.

“It became obvious that there were tangible reasons that Oneida County realizes a $1.1 billion tourism impact each year,” said Blazosky. “Oneida County offers a wealth and variety of things that many who live here take for granted, but are appreciated by visitors. As a result, many visitors come each year for specific reasons. But we have never collected that information, used it to develop Visitor Profiles, brand Oneida County accordingly, and then message out to similar visitors to attract them here.”

Many attractions, destinations, events, and entertainment venues have promoted themselves individually without the benefit of an overall County promotional umbrella. All of these assets have never been collectively identified, organized, categorized, and promoted under one compelling brand and brand message for Oneida County until now. This will provide a compelling “hook” for visitors to consider Oneida County as a destination, paving the way for each of these different organizations to attract even more individually.

There is a GREAT deal to see and do in Oneida County-- I have a blog almost entirely devoted to all the great (and inexpensive) things you can do in Central New York, with Oneida County as the hub. But as far as organization of all these places, I have never found anything remotely helpful. It is a constant frustration to always find out about events AFTER the fact, too. I don't want to know about the General Pulaski Festival the day AFTER it's been held! I wanted to go!! Why wasn't anything promoted?

And it's tough to find attractions in this area. Need motorhome insurance? Sure, there's lots of information out there!! Need a place to camp with your motorhome? Well, that's a little tough to find. And I am continually irked by the lack of media attention given to events in this area. I would get out 100% more often if I was aware of even half of the stuff going on around here... I'd sure like to know about the event BEFORE the event occurs, though!

I'm hoping that this new marketing strategy is effective. You can read more about it at the I Love NY blog.