Yes, the state does need marketing help.
A two-year, $22 million marketing campaign to establish a “brand” for Connecticut is something important to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, but the Department of Economic and Community Development chose to “launch” the effort with a late-in-the-day email blast to reporters today.
The campaign will led by Chowder Inc., a New York ad agency ‘specializing in destination marketing and advertising.” Their clients include the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and the NFL, as well as a Connecticut financial institution, People’s United Bank.
Other members of the team are Fleishman-Hillard, a global public relations company based in St. Louis, and Media Storm of Norwalk and The Harrision Group, a marketing firm based in Waterbury.
“For the last two years, Connecticut has been the only state in the region to have allocated no marketing money for stimulating business development and tourism,” Malloy said in the press release. “As we looked at competing states’ branding plans, we knew we needed to advertise the state aggressively as a great place to do business and visit. This smart new strategy, leveraging the state’s investment in tourism to further economic development goals for attracting new business and recruiting new talent, will help us get there.”