In the coming months, professionals in the Boston area who like skiing are going to get an online earful about how great it is to live in the Rutland area.
That area will be called the “Killington Valley,” though, under the rebranding undertaken by the regional marketing initiative being developed by the Rutland Economic Development Corp. and Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce.
The $200,000 campaign is being funded by the city and a number of local corporations and organizations.
The campaign aims to reverse the population decline in the area by encouraging people who visit to come here to live. The “Killington Valley” name was selected to piggyback off the Killington Ski Resort’s strong brand recognition.
A video launching the campaign was unveiled Friday at the Killington Wine Festival.
“We’re going to push it out on social media sites,” said Lyle Jepson, REDC executive director. “It’ll be on different sites, like REDC’s and the chamber’s.”
While other local resources will be highlighted later, the initial phase of the campaign will focus on mountain biking.
Rob Megnin, director of marketing, sales and reservations at the Killington resort, said the sport emerged as a logical theme during early meetings with Jepson.
“Pittsfield has some crosscountry trails, we have our thing and down at Pine Hill Park there is another element,” he said.
Megnin said that during the past four years, Killington has spent $5 million expanding its summertime offerings, much of that on mountain biking, a sport which he says is on the cusp of major growth.
“It’s not just for really high-end guys in body armor — we’ve got families coming here,” he said.
Jepson said the effort to get those families coming here permanently will take place primarily online.
“I think most of the assets will go to digital media,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to spend money very quickly in larger markets like Boston and New York, so we’re going to have to pick what we do very carefully.”
Jepson said Vermont marketing company Mondo Mediaworks is making sure the ads wind up in the right places.
“They have introduced me to different markets I am unfamiliar with but that the target audience is frequenting,” he said. “With social media, there’s lots of different opportunities.”
Mary Cohen, CEO of the chamber, said Mondo has tools that allow them to effectively target individuals.
“It’s kind of like when you buy a pair of shoes online and suddenly you start seeing shoes everywhere,” she said.
First, though, Cohen said, the campaign will make an effort to improve the attitudes of people already living here toward the local area. Cohen said she realizes that many of Rutland’s harshest critics are Rutlanders.
“I’m hoping that it’s not a huge battle, but that’s where we have to start,” she said. “As we invite people to live here, we all have to have the same message that this is a cool place to live. … You have to live somewhere else and come back to appreciate what we have here. We do live in an outstanding place.”
The city contributed half of the initial funding.
“ Never in my time in public office have I seen a moment when there has been such genuine interest in working together towards common goals, than right now,” Mayor David Allaire said at the roll-out.
“The Regional Marketing Initiative is an example and opportunity for all of us to pull in the same direction,” he said. “On behalf of Rutland City, we are pleased to be a major supporter.”
Jepson said the initial money is expected to get the campaign through about two years and that they hope the rest of the county will contribute after that. He said he has begun asking local governments to contribute $1 per person living in their towns.
“With about $60,000 … plus continuing to gain support from business and industry, we believe we’ll have enough to sustain the effort moving forward,” he said.
The initiative was conceived as a 10-year campaign.
“The loss of people in our community didn’t happen all at once,” Jepson said.
He said REDC will use sales tax revenue to gauge business growth, but they had no specific benchmarks for success.
“ We just want to see growth,” he said.
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