Branding Detroit

Here's more about Detroit's branding campaign. Commercials will run on MTV and the Comedy Channel.

Detroit is hip, you should visit, ads say - Detroit Free Press, 6/14/07: "The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau announced plans Wednesday to market the area to young adults in Grand Rapids and Cleveland, using three TV commercials touting Detroit as a hip and exciting destination.

For the first time, the organization is trying to attract more visitors to southeastern Michigan by going after 21- to 34-year-olds who live within a 5-hour drive of Detroit. Most of the visitors who come to the area for leisure trips live in western Michigan and Cleveland....

Marketing research found that Detroit's auto attractions, casinos, music and sports activities particularly appeal to adults in that age group. And though they spend on average about 25% less on a typical trip than older adults, they travel more frequently."

More on marketing Detroit's music to tourists

Detroit News, 2/11/07 - Detroit's music scene is strong, but too hard to find: "The Convention and Visitors Bureau has divided the region into five districts and is creating maps and Web pages dedicated to highlighting the music venues, restaurants, bars and shopping areas that exist within each. They'll be creating pod casts and short digital films highlighting Detroit's hidden gems with the express purpose of generating a buzz among young people.

'We've been marketing to baby boomers for two generations, and it's not working,' Townsend says of the branding campaign's focus on 18- to 35-year-olds. 'Why not go after the younger groups and get them hooked so they'll come back again and again?'

That's a smart strategy.

If people want to know where the White Stripes, The Dirtbombs or Slum Village got their start, they shouldn't have to struggle to find out. Point them to the Lager House, Saint Andrews Hall and the Attic Bar, to name a few of the above ground undergrounds.

Making it easy to find these places is a good start, but it would be even better if a music district were created around the joints that already exist in the city or those that once did like the Grande Ballroom or the original Hip Hop Shop.

Then we wouldn't even need the maps."

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Detroit promotes its music to tourists

Soundslam News: "Despite the loss of some of Detroit's hip hop core, it seems that the city's Visitor's Bureau has recently recognized the strength of the Detroit hip-hop scene as a catalyst for new tourism. Last Wednesday, the Bureau released their new advertising campaign entitled, D. Cars, Culture, Gaming, Music, Sports, reflecting several facets of hip hop's influence.

In the press release, the Visitor's Bureau stated, 'Hot cars. Leading-edge music. Vegas-style gaming. Diverse culture. Championship sports. These are the attributes that define metro Detroit and offer the most appeal as a tourism destination.' Larry Alexander, CEO of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (DMCVB), said that including music, these five categories give Detroit the identity as 'the American city where cool comes from.' The ads' demographics focus on a narrow 21 to 34 year old range. While the older baby boomer generation remembers Detroit for its economic deterioration, the youth, especially hip hoppers, see Detroit as a hot bed for each of the five categories. VisitDetroit.com also explicitly takes advantage of Detroit hip hop by giving updates on hip-hop events and a thorough history of its scene, shouting out Eminem, Kid Rock, Slum Village, J Dilla, and old schoolers such as The Crew Called Open Mic, A.W.O.L., Smilee, and Kaos & Mystro.

The aesthetic of the ad campaign also shows glimpses of hip-hop's influence. The campaign's logo (fig. 2) shows a sleeker version of the old English 'D' found throughout Detroit hip-hop's marketing."

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Your music should sound like where it's from

Great Lakes Myth Society, a Detroit band, talks about place-based music.

Myth, mirth and fresh water (Metro Times Detroit): "'Music should sound like where it's from. Even if it's not entirely in the lyrics, it's about the dark and the light. Pop music is so wonderful and beautiful, but the girl songs have been written so many times over, and all the neat little pop themes, so it's kind of going back to folk music to where a certain sound seems more genuine.'[said Timothy Monger].

"Tim's older brother, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter James Christopher Monger, agrees. 'I think the further north you get, the more folk songs are just outright dark. It's just all laid out there, in British folk all the way through to Scandinavia. There's a reason why there are so many black metal bands in Sweden -- they're all based on folk music, because the translations of those folk songs, the titles themselves, are the entire story. Like, 'My baby was born with one arm; a monster ate it three weeks later.' It's all Beowulf.'"

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Rolling Stone's Best College Town Music Scenes

In 2005 Rolling Stone published the book, Schools That Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide. Here are the 10 best cities. If you go to the article, you can get more info by clicking on each city.

1. SEATTLE

2. CHAPEL HILL/RALEIGH/DURHAM, NC

3. DETROIT

4. AUSTIN

5. NASHVILLE

6. ST. LOUIS

7. SAN FRANCISCO

8. ATHENS, GA

9. MINNEAPOLIS

10. PORTLAND, OR