It's just another day in the rehabilitation efforts of Detroit. The city has launched its first business-to-business image campaign in five years, and Al Jazeera America has revealed that it'll place one of its dozen US news bureaus in Detroit, which has one of America's largest populations of people of Arab descent.

The last several months have continued to be rough on the image of the Motor City despite the fact that the Detroit Three automakers have been coming back smartly, manufacturing in metro Detroit is re-expanding, the Red Wings qualified for this month's playoffs for an NHL-record 22 years, Motown: The Musical has debuted on Broadway, and there's a genuine and substantial influx of workers and denizens back in the battered downtown of Detroit.

Still, the city has struggled to find its footing as Michigan instated an emergency financial manager on a resistant Detroit city government, and residents and tourists alike have struggled to "Say Nice Things About Detroit."Continue reading...

Before NBC’s The Office hit the airwaves nine seasons ago, the folks of Scranton, Penn., were a little weary about a sitcom calling the coal-mining town home. After all, as the Scranton Times Tribune points out, the city had been the butt of jokes on All in the Family, Friends, and The Sopranos. The Championship Season, the 1973 Pulitzer winner for Drama about a high school championship team in Scranton that gets together 20 years later, doesn’t exactly leave theatergoers feeling like they want to rush off to visit the place.

Now, the series that focuses on the employees of the Dunder Mifflin paper company is coming to a close and Scrantonites seem to be pleased with how the series gave “a steady supply of residual pop culture cachet.” That cachet won’t come to an end when the series airs its final episode on May 16. It’ll fade with time, but Office love is probably at its peak in Scranton right about now, especially after the show’s cast members, writers and creative team paid a visit this past weekend as part of a big “Wrap Party,” Entertainment Weekly reports.

Along with them came about 10,000 fans who wanted to celebrate the legacy of the sitcom. The stars of the show were paraded through town, signed autographs with fans, sang old tunes to the adoring masses and sat through an extended Q&A.Continue reading...

Benjamin Franklin, Dr. J and the fictional Rocky Balboa have all resided in completely different versions of Philadelphia, but each showcases a different part of the City of Brotherly Love. Now, Philly’s tourism gurus are looking to showcase a slew of different views of the city to potential visitors by showcasing different neighborhoods.

It used to be that colonial-America relics, the Art Museum steps and images of soft pretzels and cheesesteaks were what sold Philly to outsiders, but consumers are a bit more discerning now, so Philly’s tourism board is using its varied neighborhoods to help draw people there. The city has launched its Philadelphia Neighborhoods site, which highlights 14 different areas of the city. According to a press release, the site features “600 new pages of content, photography, mapping, videos and a consumer-generated Instagram feed.”Continue reading...

Spring is springing in Detroit, and the poster child for urban decay is beginning to sing a new song about hope, renewal and pride.

Consider what's going on in the Motor City just today: The Detroit Tigers are playing their home opener of the 2013 season as the favorite to win the American League and the pick of many to win the World Series after last year's flop against the San Francisco Giants. Demand is surging for Tigers licensed merchandise as fans at home and abroad sense this might just be the team's year, with superstar pitcher Justin Verlander signed to a mammoth new contract.

The nearby University of Michigan takes on Syracuse this weekend in its first Final Four appearance in March Madness since the Fab Five team 20 years ago.Continue reading...

Colorado is launching its biggest-ever branding campaign, and it's aimed at entrepreneurs rather than tourists. But so far the effort doesn't account for the 800-pound, weed-smoking elephant in the room.

The Rocky Mountain State is attempting to pitch itself as an entrepreneur's paradise under the new "Making Colorado" campaign commissioned by Gov. John Hickenlooper and led by Aaron Kennedy, founder of Noodles & Co. Colorado has a lot to build on in that regard: The state has always birthed tech and energy startups, and the Boulder area has long been one of the nation's hottest spots for better-for-you food startups.

But let's face it: Since November, any face that Colorado presents to the rest of America has to deal with the obvious issue of whether the state celebrates, allows or restricts marketing of the fact that it voted to legalize recreational marijuana use within its borders.Continue reading...

Michigan's automotive sector isn't the only part of its long-battered economy that's looking up these days. Michigan tourism is hoping to benefit from the renewal of its effective Pure Michigan brand and marketing campaign next month. 

Pure Michigan has become a darling of the private and public sectors alike. Gov. Rick Snyder even threw some more love—and dollars—its way after generating savings by whacking Michigan's film-industry tax rebates a couple of years ago. However, the state government's official branding campaign may not again mention the fact that Michigan has become a right-to-work state. After a kerfuffle over the issue earlier this year, the state tourism folks are considering leaving that bit of business-brand positioning to their colleagues in the economic-development department.

Last year, the Pure Michigan campaign, with its advertising running on a couple dozen cable-TV networks including CNN and the Travel Channel, helped bring 3.2 million out-of-staters to Michigan to enjoy sublime attractions such as the unparalleled Great Lakes coastlines and music festivals in Detroit.

"They spent $1 billion at Michigan businesses—and that's real money," George Zimmermann, vice president for Travel Michigan at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, told brandchannel. "And the great thing is we're only starting to educate people outside the state about how wonderful Michigan is." Continue reading...

Superstorm Sandy devastated much of the New Jersey shoreline and crippled parts of New York City. Many are still recovering, and will be for some time. On Staten Island, many storm victims remain living in a shelter.

Part of the region's recovery will inevitably depend on branding efforts that must override images of utter destruction from the public's mind, just as the need for donations remains as the rebuilding continues.

On the larger scale, New Jersey is deploying its first post-Sandy branding effort to woo tourists back in summer.Continue reading...

Las Vegas has plenty of regulars. You’ve got your gambling grandmas, your bachelor and bachelorette parties, your Elvis impersonators, your big-hatted and loudmouthed high rollers, and plenty of just regular folks coming in to try and make a few bucks off the backs of gambling’s titans. 

In 2012, about 40 million folks came into town to enjoy the lights, noise, and shows of Vegas, but the insatiable tourism board wants a whole lot more. After all, there are nearly 125,000 hotel rooms and 365 nights to fill. Cue a new tourism and place branding campaign, one that touts the city's official digital hub at its busiest time of year.Continue reading...