Business

Detroit, Ideal Convention Site -- A New Pitch, Not A Punch Line

August 11, 2013, 9:25 AM

Think your job is tough at times? Imagine how local promoters felt as they pitched Detroit as a convention destination recently.

A dozen representatives from Cobo Center, the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, hotels and suburban offices had a booth at an Aug. 3-6 gathering of the American Society of Association Executives -- people who book trade group meetings.

Bill Bohde, senior VP at the visitors bureau, tells Tom Walsh of the Free Press how it went:

“There were a lot of questions about the bankruptcy situation, a tremendous amount of buzz.”

“Sometimes,” he added, “bad publicity is better than none.”


Kristi Trevarrow, executive director of the Rochester Downtown Development Authority, is shown in this Metro Detroit promotion.

A new set of print and video ads by a Troy agency, SMZ Advertising, helped the team's effort in Atlanta to make lemonade from . . . well, you know the phrase.

The new campaign's theme is “Detroit, America’s Great Comeback City.” Ads feature real people, not models. (A video is below.)

“Our aim is to get the meeting planner to understand Detroit is alive, it’s vibrant and that our bankruptcy is not shutting down our industry or our city,” Bohde said. . . .

The immediate target is the convention and meeting planner audience, he said. After that, the campaign will target leisure travelers within about a 300-mile radius of Detroit. . . .

"There is so much new development going on that will continue into 2015 or 2016 with M-1 Light Rail and new hotels and a new arena and entertainment district, that our campaign has at least two, if not three, years of life to it,” Bohde said.

-- Alan Stamm


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


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