BENTONVILLE -- Visit Bentonville formally launched its new "brand" with a presentation at 21c Museum Hotel on Thursday.
About 70 people were at the event, which included comments from Mayor Bob McCaslin, Kalene Griffith, Visit Bentonville president and CEO, and Ryan Links with Swirl, the company leading the rebrand effort.
Part of the project included changing the Bentonville Visitors and Convention Bureau's name to Visit Bentonville.
Griffith explained Bentonville was mainly a business destination until Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in 2011. That forced the Bentonville Visitors and Convention Bureau to look at itself in a new way and work to attract the leisure traveler.
Links spoke about Swirl's efforts to brand Bentonville in such a way to capture its heritage and the progressive stage it's in now.
He presented a video showing different scenes and people around the city. The final frame included the new logo, which reads "Visit Bentonville" with "A New American Town" at the bottom. Below that, a tag line read "A town of art, culture and community in Northwest Arkansas."
The video is "viral-ready," Links said after the event. It's intended to give those who live in a Bentonville a sense of pride about their home. When people get a sense of pride about something they want to share it, he said.
"The great part of virality is that it's a natural process," Links said.
Tim Freeman, a branding consultant based in North Little Rock, said the video gave him chills.
"I was motivated and inspired because it was capturing the hometown values that many communities in Arkansas represent, but also positioning Bentonville as a 21st century, forward-thinking, advanced, growing and exciting community to be a part of," he said. "I was proud of what they did."
Swirl did a great job of going beyond the aesthetics and empathetically portraying what Bentonville and Arkansas is about, Freeman said.
Missy Penor, AY Magazine and Arkansas Money and Politics publisher, said the new brand was progressive and all-inclusive.
"It can't just be for visitors and tourists," she said. "It has to be for the people who live here. It has to hit every point of contact, and they did that very well."
The campaign is an authentic celebration of the city's assets, Daniel Hintz, Bentonville resident, said, adding it's also informed by a regional identity.
One of Northwest Arkansas' great qualities is its an aggregate of great communities with their own identities but come together to make an amazing region, he said.
"That's the power of this brand, is understanding where you're coming from, understanding the uniqueness of your community but then also have it resonate and informed by everything else that's happening around you," Hintz said.
Griffith also said Visit Bentonville's success in promoting the city as a tourist destination is tied closely with the relationships it builds with residents, tourist attractions and neighboring cities such as Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Eureka Springs.
The leisure traveler comes to experience the area when they come to Bentonville, she said.
"It's important for us to sell our region, not just our city," Griffith said.
The campaign will focus on digital advertising along with print and radio, according to Visit Bentonville officials. It will also include more videos.
NW News on 02/27/2015