Yesterday, the Visit Champaign County Foundation hosted their annual Toast To Tourism event, honoring businesses and organizations in the community that have made a positive impact on both tourism opportunities and quality of life for residents in the area.
The event also served as a launch for Visit Champaign County’s rebrand to Experience Champaign-Urbana. If you take a peek at their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you’ll find a shiny new presentation of their comprehensive content.
Does this mean that they will only focus on events and businesses and organizations in the cities of Champaign-Urbana?? No. But it’s hard to ignore that the twin cities are the hub of this East Central Illinois area. As the home of the state’s flagship university, that brings in people from all over the U.S. and abroad, C-U owns the name recognition. Here’s what Terri Reifsteck, their VP of Marketing & Communication had to say about it:
As a result of market research, holding focus groups, testing advertising, and conducting surveys over the past year, we made the decision to embrace the name that is widely known to hundreds of thousands outside of our community, thanks to the brand recognition of the University of Illinois. Through this change, we will be able to engage with more people and shine a light on the entire Champaign-Urbana area, from as far north as Paxton, west to Monticello, and south to Sullivan. We will continue the work we have always done. Telling stories about the brilliant people, places, and events to explore through engaging content on our website, our social media channels, our videos, advertising, and much more.
Also, I’d just like to add, that although more people purchased Urbana-Champaign t-shirts than Champaign-Urbana t-shirts during that particular Chambana Proud campaign last fall, you’ll note what the “official tourism destination marketing and management organization” chose for their moniker. Come on, it just makes more sense.