I turned on the TV yesterday morning to watch how the Today Show was going to portray Rockhampton to the rest of Australia as they broadcasted live in front of the Great Western Hotel.
$2M of advertising exposure, unbelievable opportunity to showcase the city and region as a place to visit, invest and live.
Admittedly I only watched about 10 minutes, enough to see the cast in their cowboy hats promoting to the hilt the image you associate with a Beef Capital tag.
Is this the image we want the rest of Australia to have of us?
Is it a true reflection of the city?
Is it an image that will attract people to visit, invest and/or live here?
Appropriate that the broadcast was in May (just) with the theme Wholly Cow – A Month of Beef being promoted, but what product do we have if people respond to this image by visiting here? The Great Western Hotel, bull statutes, Gracemere Saleyards (if you know about it) and…..??.
The 3rd edition of the My Rockhampton mini magazine (and their website), produced by the Rockhampton Regional Council appears to be projecting a different image for the region.
Prominent are young people jogging, dancing, dinning; not one cowboy hat and only a brief mention of our national capital status appears even though it promotes Wholly Cow, another Council organised activity.
I’m confused what image are we trying to project and I’m a local.
What image are outsiders making out of the messages being put out there?
Mixed messages creates confusion. Marketing something that is not supported by the product expected creates distrust.
Yes Rockhampton is referred to as the Beef Capital of Australia, but how many cowboys do you see let alone cows?
Are several bull statutes really sufficient to satisfy the tourist wanting a Beef Capital experience? Or would one huge uniquely architect designed bull be a better (more photographed) attraction. (Consider the 20 metre tall, 54 metres across ‘Angel of the North’ outside Newcastle, England, that is internationally famous.)
Should we have used $2M of exposure promoting Beef Capital imagery?
Any publicity can be good publicity and congratulations to the people who made it happen and turned up.
To me though this broadcast gave us an opportunity to promote a region that is evolving into a vibrant river city, that has beautiful autumn/winter days, abundant natural features, offers many of the facilities of our capital cities but less traffic, enabling a more relaxed but full lifestyle. A City that has bred champions in their field, including Rod Laver.
Would that image be more successful in attracting people to visit, invest and live here?
Isn’t that the objective!
It appears we have 2 groups (Capricorn Enterprise and Rockhampton Regional Council) who have 2 different idea’s how Rockhampton should be promoted (just visit their websites); this isn’t the best use of our money.
One image needs to be agreed to and one strategy followed.
Consistency, it is a cornerstone of brand marketing.
Efforts are currently being made to better align the focus and efforts of the different organisations, as financial stakeholders we should expect this to be successful.
Continuing with mixed messages means we don’t get the return one should expect from $2M exposure.
#Rockhampton #TodayShow #BeefCapital #GreatWesternHotel #GreatWestern #CapricornEnterprise #RockhamptonRegionalCouncil