Armed with $4 million to spend on annual advertising to attract visitors to town, Traverse City has a new brand. 

Traverse City Tourism, the convention & visitors bureau tasked with marketing the region, recently completed an overhaul of its brand, including a new logo and tagline. MMGY, a Kansas City-based marketing communications agency, led the process.

The previous logo and brand architecture was created two decades ago. When TC Tourism Executive Director Trevor Tkach took over in summer 2016, he “knew it was time to freshen things up and do a deeper dive into what Traverse City is now,” he tells The Ticker.

Over the course of more than a year, MMGY staff conducted market research to hear what people knew, liked, didn’t like, and expected of Traverse City, beginning with local stakeholders including officeholders, hotel and restaurant owners, and longtime residents. The team next conducted focus groups in Detroit and Chicago, the largest markets already feeding Traverse City the majority of its tourists. Taking what was learned during those sessions, hundreds of surveys were done in those two markets to further refine key points.

What the team discovered in some cases were new insights -- but more often the data “served as an affirmation” Tkach says. Among the highlights of the findings: 

 -- Locals have a great deal of pride about their home, but also harbor some insecurity about over-reliance on tourism for economic growth.

 -- “There’s something here for everyone,” says Tkach, noting the research uncovered many extremes: it’s a summer destination, but also wonderful in the winter. It’s a great place for an active vacation, but also for a calm, passive one. Much of the ad creative derived from these findings will play off this concept (one ad will tout “Red, white, and all the blue you’ll ever need,” showcasing the region’s diversity of wines and its many lakes and rivers). The language used in ads must “conjure the feelings you have when you get here,” Tkach adds, noting they should “project someone right around the campfire or with best friends dangling their feet off the dock.”

 -- Metro Detroiters are huge fans of Traverse City, and many who vacation here “are very committed to coming back again and again,” though some who have not yet visited worry about the cost of a visit.

 -- Though Chicagoans are slightly less familiar than Detroiters with Traverse City, many voiced that they think “you don’t get to the real Lake Michigan until you get to Traverse City,” believing the water and natural resources are purer here than farther south. Chicagoans also tend to refer to the entire region as “Traverse City,” including areas as far north as the Mackinac Bridge.

 -- Identifying a true comparable market to Traverse City is a challenge; researchers ultimately studied destinations like Cleveland, Mackinac Island, Wisconsin Dells, Wisc. and Lake Placid, NY. When asked which market is Traverse City’s biggest competitor for tourism, Tkach points to other Michigan lakeside towns and also Door County and Lake Geneva, Wisc.

 -- The stakes are higher; as more regions fight for attention and tourism dollars, Traverse City had to up its game. “Traverse City’s has to be the most compelling [travel] message they see,” says Tkach.

TC Tourism will spend $4 million this year in promoting the region, one-third within Michigan, one-third in the Midwest, and one-third nationally and globally.

The process also culminated in a new logo and tagline for Traverse City Tourism, one that Tkach says plays off the dichotomy uncovered in the research. “The ‘Traverse’ is stable, strong and bold, while ‘City’ is a more playful, water-based script.” The logo is already appearing in ads, on the sign at the Visitors Center in downtown TC, and on the Traverse City Tourism web site. The phrase “a pretty great place” will also be incorporated into most ads. 

TC Tourism Board President Fritz Heller says, “this new logo is clean and yet fun at the same time. It kind of 'says' Traverse City, highlights the water and looks fun, and yet is easily recognizable and repeatable. I couldn’t be more thrilled by the outcome.”

Traverse City Tourism is funded by an assessment on area hotel room bookings. Tkach declined to disclose the cost of the MMGY contract.