Ocracoke, Here is Your Brand

Here it is! The big O is for Ocracoke. The sun's rays are like spokes in bike wheels, because everyone loves biking around Ocracoke. Also everyone loves Ocracoke sunsets. And Ocracoke waves. "Island" is written in a freehand style to suggest the freedom of island living. The colors evoke the sun and water and sky. 

A sample ad (not pictured) shows soft-focus beautiful, skinny white people (it's just one ad – perhaps we will see some diversity in the total campaign) recreating on a beach with the copy: "Where doing nothing means everything" followed by the tagline "The cure for the common beach" underneath our new logo. 

Over the next few months, this new logo will make its way onto Ocracoke Civic and Business Association's official tourism information source, the ocracokevillage.com website (which will be rechristened and redirected to visitocracokenc.com). You'll also see it on t-shirts and advertisements and next year's Walking Map.

This logo was several months in the making. It's a process, people. Here's how it came about:

Last year, Ocracoke Civic and Business Association hired Element Advertising and Magellan Strategy Group to create a new branding and marketing plan for the island.

The money to pay for this branding/marketing initiative came from occupancy tax funds. (The initial grant was $50,000) OCBA board member Chip Stevens headed up the committee to choose a marketing firm; six companies responded to his request-for-proposal, two were chosen to present to the committee in person on Ocracoke, and Element/Magellan got the job. "We picked them because they are data-driven," Chip said as he introduced Element creative director Jack Becker at last night's meeting. 

Jack joined the meeting by speaker phone, narrating a slideshow presentation expertly handled by OCBA board member Connie Leinbach. Jack has years of background in logo development, destination marketing, branding, and copywriting. Jack worked on a brand strategy for Ocracoke while Chris Cavanaugh of Magellan ferreted out Ocracoke's visitor profile. Who visits here – and why?

Back in April, Magellan sent out a Customer Perception Survey to people who've stayed on Ocracoke (they got their email addresses from five lodging and cottage rental businesses and one retail business). 3002 people responded. Based on their survey answers, plus some data gleaned from VisitNC and Nielsen research, Magellan came up with these demographics to describe Ocracoke (overnight) visitors:

• 49% are empty nesters
• 55% are age 45–64
• 35% visit Ocracoke as a party of 2
• 59% did not have anyone under 18 years old in their party
• 28% make $100,000-$150,000 and 29% of them make over $150,000 making them slightly richer than the national average

Yes, plenty of families visit Ocracoke, but this data suggests that we'll get more bang for our advertising buck if we try to reach more childless older couples with beaucoup disposable income. Ocracoke appeals to those folks. (Anyone who's seen the crowd at the Ocrafolk Festival can attest to that, amirite?)

In addition to asking the visitors, Magellan also talked to three Ocracoke "brand architects" selected by OCBA. Helena Stevens, who is the OCBA travel and tourism director, was one of those architects and the only one mentioned by name. The architects chose 8 "stakeholders" (Ocracoke people, presumably business owners. It wasn't made clear who they were or why those particular individuals were chosen.) Those eight peeps did one-on-one interviews with Magellan staff to discuss a 37-part questionnaire on a range of topics about Ocracoke.  

Jack didn't go over all the 37 parts to the questions, but he presented a couple of slides of research highlights.  

When asked, "When you think of Ocracoke, what comes to mind?" the stakeholders replied: Undeveloped beaches, riding a bike, the harbor, the lighthouse, Howard Street, and Springer's Point/live oaks.  

When asked, "What makes Ocracoke distinct as a vacation destination?" they answered: Getting there/Island Aspect, Beaches/Driveable/Undeveloped, Water Sports/Biking, Family-Oriented/Safe, Fishing Village Atmosphere, Native/Reconnection, and Historic Landmarks. 

75% of the stakeholders (6 out of 8 of them) thought that "undeveloped beaches/being an island/Dr. Beach putting Ocracoke on his top ten list" was what differentiated Ocracoke from other beach destinations. The other two people thought it was a combination of "water sports/no driving/fishing village" (by "no driving" they mean that it's not necessary once you're on the island.) 

So what might make someone come to Ocracoke who's never been? The visitors who were surveyed said: Beaches, Low-key/stress escape, Ferry, and History. 

Jack mentioned that a surprising find of their research was that the ferry is not the negative that some Ocracoke residents and business owners think it might be. Our visitors – at least the ones who are coming to spend a night or more – think the ferry ride is part of the water-based adventure they seek on Ocracoke.  

From this point in the presentation, Jack got into the psychology of who they want to reach with their marketing. People have both emotional and rational reasons for loving Ocracoke. And since women are the vacation decision-makers in most couples and families, effective marketing will find ways to target women with rational and emotional messages about Ocracoke. Like maybe putting the ad described at the beginning of this article in a banner right where she's looking online, searching for that perfect spot that makes sense for her family (rational) and feels right (emotional), maybe a vacation destination where she can stop worrying and enjoy a nice margarita. (I must admit that as a woman in the target demographic, I can't help but feel condescended to when I hear ad copywriters talk. Ugh. Are all middle-aged moms such bundles of anxiety that we need permission from a marketing exec to feel we can unwind a bit and enjoy ourselves? Really? But I digress.) 

Jack mentioned freedom several times, saying that the Ocracoke "brand promise" is freedom from worry, freedom from stress, freedom to bike and find a spot on the beach, etc. Ocracoke's new advertising will support the brand promise, he said, and, in more detail than I will describe here, showed how that idea gets broken down into specific messages directed at specific targets (daytrippers, couples, families, etc.) 

The logo unveiling came at the end of Jack's presentation, and was, he explained, based on insights from a collage of colors and images that his colleague Valerie Kulbersh developed with the brand architects. 

The next step in this marketing process is to work on public relations, media strategies, re-working the OCBA website to make it fit the new brand messaging, and advertising development. "We will continue to learn more about daytrippers," Jack said. "But the limited advertising dollars will go to increase overnight visitors."

So far, OCBA has paid Element/Magellan $30,000. They've budgeted another $68,750 in fiscal year 2017-18 for these next steps. Starting January 1, 2018, Ocracoke lodging businesses will charge an additional 2% occupancy tax, which will generate about $300,000 in revenue annually. 2/3 of that money ($200,000) has to (by law) be spent on advertising and marketing for the island. The money will funnel through a Tourism Development Authority to Ocracoke Civic and Business Association to (presumably) Element/Magellan for implementation of their complete marketing program into infinity and beyond!  

Editor's note: the survey I posted earlier has been closed. 

If you'd like to put in your two cents about the stakeholder questions above (When you think of Ocracoke, what comes to mind, etc.), please do so in the comment sections below!