Keeping Austin weird in the face of huge success
Austin has seen phenomenal growth in recent decades, but what does this mean for the future of the city’s place brand proposition? We reached out to Tom Noonan, President & CEO at Visit Austin, to understand how they’ve been managing the momentum of their growth and what they’ve done to support their local residents and businesses as they recover from COVID-19.
To start with, can you share what place branding means to you?
When you talk about your place the first thing it needs to be is honest, real, authentic, and it needs to be reflective what your community can offer visitors. We have a new ad campaign ‘It's better live.’ It’s a spin on our positioning as the Live Music Capital of the World®, but it is not only live music - culinary is better here live, our parks and trails are better experienced here live, our venues, all of those things that make up Austin are all better experienced live, and it fits with our branding and the real experience you find in Austin. You don't want to manufacture something that really isn't reflective of your destination; it's not going to sell and it's going to disappoint a lot of people. The authenticity of Austin really rings through with people that come to visit as well as our residents – and that’s absolutely key.
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