Above left: George Nelson of Lutsen, the founder of Lutsen Mountains ski area and a longtime advocate for tourism on the North Shore, enjoyed visiting with MN Representative Tony Sertich. Sertich is a commissioner on the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, which has provided assistance to the North Shore’s tourism industry. Above: Cook County Visitors Bureau Board Member Charles Skinner and Cook County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Sally Nankivell check out the beautiful gift table display. Far left: Robby Vee and his rock ‘n roll caravan performed classic pop, swing, rockabilly and bop music at the event at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino. Left: Attendees enjoyed the fabulous buffet put on by the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino.
Enthusiasm was high for the second annual Cook County dVisitors Bureau (CCVB) celebration at Grand Portage
Lodge and Casino October
13, 2011. A serpentine buffet table laden with hors d’oeuvres and a gift table with a remembrance for every guest to take home greeted those who have worked hard on behalf of the
Cook County tourism industry. There was music, there was dancing. And there were dspeeches.
Successfully joining three dlodging tax district tourism associations and two major
Cook County businesses enterprises “took years of effort by many leaders in the community,” said Charles Skinner,
CCVB chair. “It took the trust and foresight of the entire tourism community to reach this dgoal.”
The whole effort in this case is greater than the sum of its parts. More effective marketing— d such as ads that are bigger and reach more people—can dbe done with fewer dollars by pooling resources. The strategy is to leverage what makes each area of the county unique dand tie it up into a total package to draw a wide cross-section of visitors to the county. d Tourism has been a rocky road this last decade. “Our economy is not keeping pace with inflation,” said Skinner.
New resources need to be found to make Cook County competitive with other large tourist areas in the country.
“We need to get more marketing dollars for tourism,” he hsaid. One way to do this is to garner public dollars to help in the effort, which is believed to benefit everyone in the community. h
CCVB Marketing Director
Tom Borgman gave the crowd what he called a “reality check”:
Cook County, Minnesota is unknown in many areas of the country. In this new media age, they need to figure out a way to break through the clutter. How can this be done?
Cook County needs a “destination brand” that works as an umbrella for the entire county while endorsing individual communities, said Borgman. They need to highlight the wilderness as a place of refreshment. Their marketing audience must make a personal, emotional connection with this area, and this area needs to become known as the northern place to be.
Branding
CCVB has employed the services of an advertising agency called Marketing That Matters of Minneapolis, and they came up with several possible slogans that could etch an indelible image of Cook County into people’s minds. Two of the top possibilities were “Cook County: the point of discovery” and “Cook County: way north of ordinary.” The second one came out on top after the agency conducted consumer surveys of 73 people, some who were fans of Cook County already, others who hadn’t been here.
The brand had to be understandable, memorable, and inspire people to take action, Borgman said. The winning slogan was “Cook County: way north of ordinary,” but adopting it was not as easy as it might sound.
A similar slogan had been used by other entities in other places— Yukon Magazine and Fortune Bay Resort Casino had both trademarked the phrase “a few miles north of ordinary.”
CCVB trademark attorneys believe either of the top two slogan possibilities would be defensible in court.
For now, “Cook County: way north of ordinary” is the phrase that is being used in publications like Minnesota Monthly Magazine, Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, and Cross-Country Skier Magazine, said Borgman.
Before the evening’s singing and dancing commenced, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Tony Sertich gave the group a word of encouragement, sending congratulations for a second year of success from his boss, Governor Mark Dayton.
“What you’re doing is working,” said Sertich. “What you’re doing is appreciated. We’re happy to be working with you.”
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