Inspiration Behind the Effort
In 2017, Reinvent Hampton Roads established a steering committee on tourism and recreation to explore ways to grow and expand the Hampton Roads tourism industry. The committee’s report identified the lack of a cohesive regional tourism identity and marketing effort as one of the major obstacles to expanding opportunities and growing tourism.
The report observed that the lack of a regional identity was inhibiting the ability of the region’s economic development leaders to successfully market the region. Furthermore, the name “Hampton Roads” was cited as a major challenge due to low recognition and was perhaps even a liability for the region’s future success.
Building on this work, the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable organized a regional branding committee in 2018, which included members of the Business Roundtable, representatives from each of the area’s chambers of commerce, members of the original steering committee, local universities, the Port of Virginia, and well-known branding and marketing professionals in the area.
That group’s charge was to assess the “Hampton Roads” brand and make recommendations on the appropriate next steps.
Envisioning 2020 is part of that process.
Portsmouth from the air.
WHY THIS MATTERS
More and more cities and regions across the country are embracing placemaking and place marketing to attract and retain the talent needed to support and grow their economies. Placemaking includes intentional actions to make a place more appealing to live, work, play, learn, and visit. Place marketing focuses on identifying, packaging, and sharing a location’s unique and differentiating story. This most often includes an overall communications strategy and associated naming architecture, imagery, and messaging.
(Think about Nashville’s emphasis on being “Music City,” or Austin, Texas embracing that it’s “Weird.”)
Where to start with Hampton Roads? How about by better understanding the region’s current identity and related placemaking and place marketing challenges and opportunities?
The committee recommended hiring SIR (formerly the Southeastern Institute of Research) to conduct this assessment. SIR is a 55-year-old national market research and communications consultancy with experience supporting governments, organizations and businesses located around the Hampton Roads region.
Reinvent Hampton Roads, the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable and the Hampton Roads Chamber approved the committee’s recommendations.
The Virginia Zoo in Norfolk
MARCH 2019: KICK-OFF
The first step for Envisioning 2020 is to conduct primary market research phase, which officially began in late March 2019 and will run for approximately nine months.
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