Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's a new day for the newly rebranded Visit Buffalo.
Formerly known as Visit Buffalo Niagara, Visit Buffalo officially unveiled on Wednesday its multimillion-dollar tourism brand and marketing campaign aimed at reshaping the image of Buffalo, expanding the local tourism economy and attracting new visitors from across the country.
This initiative is the most expansive brand redevelopment and advertising campaign in the four-decade history of the nonprofit destination marketing organization in Erie County.
As part of the effort also comes an updated logo and a redefined name: Visit Buffalo. The new shortened name aligns with the organization's mission to attract visitors to Buffalo and Erie County.
The advertising campaign now underway is called "That's Buffalo For You." This refrain follows a series of two-word phrases spotlighting Buffalo's unexpected contrasts and distinct personality. They are also the headlines in a wide-ranging media and advertising strategy:
- "Polished Grit" celebrates reinvented industrial sites like climbing walls and beer gardens in old grain silos.
- "Refreshingly Spicy" highlights Buffalo's diverse food scene with flavors ranging from wings to Yemeni coffee and James Beard-nominated chefs and restaurants.
- "Historically New" captures the juxtapositions of restored landmarks - from the Richardson Olmsted Campus and the Lipsey Architecture Center now being built in the expanded Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
Visit Buffalo president and CEO Patrick Kaler says the overall campaign will probably run for, at least, the next 2-to-3 years, while the brand is likely to last for about 10 years. He also expects the campaign to evolve out of the brand in that timeframe.
This message and campaign are steeped in local feedback, and the phrasing and concept reflect deep community insight and local pride.
It emerged from a process that began this past January with a series of listening sessions, interviews and workshops with about 25 local artists, entrepreneurs and leaders in the community with MMGY Global, a nationally-recognized tourism-focused marketing agency hired to help with the process. Those interviews provided input for MMGY Global to help Visit Buffalo shape not just the campaign, but its entire brand identity.
"They were here doing immersive experiences in our destination," Kaler said. "What I liked about doing it in January, they got to experience Buffalo in the winter, because this will evolve into a four-season campaign for us as well. So for the agency to get us through, maybe some people might think, our worst time of the year, as well as into the summer. And then they came in and did all of these immersive interviews with stakeholders."
As for the new logo and advertising, it will be posted around the city for people to see. This includes illuminated night projections on the Statler Hotel, messages on the Buffalo Convention Center's over-street walkway and on city buses.
Perhaps the most important key to this rebranding and marketing campaign is the tourism that is an increasing portion of the economy of not just the City of Buffalo, but also Erie County.
In Erie County, tourism is a $2.7 billion industry, where spending from about 10 million annual visitors generates about $268 million in local and state taxes. It also creates nearly 30,000 tourism-related jobs. This revenue provides each county resident with about $692 in annual tax relief.
In addition, Visit Buffalo has been able to expand its advertising budget to nearly $3 million thanks to a significantly increased share of the Erie County bed tax. That's where MMGY Global was hired to lead the rebranding process launched in January.
With those resources from Erie County, Kaler felt it was the right time to move forward with the initiative.
"We wanted to make sure we were doing this correctly, and we were listening to the community, how the community wants to be represented on this national platform. And I think they hit it out of the park," Kaler said. "I think they truly got Buffalo as a destination, as who we are as a people, as our overall appeal for visitors coming in. But now that we have these resources to go out and tell our story on a nationwide basis, you'll be able to see us throughout the country, but then again, in those targeted markets.
"We wouldn't be able to do this. We would still be going into that 300-mile drive radius, really, only in the summer months. Now we're able to tell a year-round story for our destination. Especially because if you think about our overall hotel occupancy, it's a bell curve, so we have our low periods of time. I'd love to be able to drive more visitation during November, December, January and February. Those are kind of our need period months, so to be able to have the resources to tell our Buffalo story year-round is, truly, a gift from the county."
The new advertising campaign for Visit Buffalo is also reaching broader horizons than any previous effort. New advertising outside of Buffalo is targeting cities with direct flights to Buffalo, including Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Philadelphia. In addition, Buffalo's new brand and advertising is being shared in traditional markets such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse and New York City.
"They're already out there. That's been kind of the hidden factor for us to launching today, because some of the assets have already been out," Kaler noted. "The Duck Boat in Boston has already been out for over a week. There's been a couple of articles in Condé Nast, as well as Bon Appétit, and it has our new branding on it. We thought, 'Oh my gosh, somebody surely is going to see this and start posting about it.' But they haven't really connected all the dots yet. So now with the whole brand launch, we'll be pushing those things out a little bit more aggressively."
And while the hope is for Visit Buffalo to, once again, advertise in Canada, Kaler says the dollars have been set aside, just in case for when the time is right to return North of the border.
"It just doesn't make sense for us to go in with a paid message, at this point, because they're not coming. There's nothing that will entice them to come at this point, because of the rhetoric coming out of Washington, D.C.," Kaler noted. "I've heard from so many Canadians, whenever we've had media in Canada or interviews, is that, 'We love you, Buffalo, but we're not coming right now.' So once we see the tides change, we will go into Canada with that messaging."
So what will success look like for this campaign? Kaler feels it's several different factors.
"I'd say it's the number of visitors that we have coming in. It's the overall visitor spend that is accumulated here. It's the increase in the bed tax, as well as the sales tax. And just the overall success of our destination, getting people throughout all of Erie County that our attractions and our hotels and restaurants throughout all of Erie County are seeing these people coming through their doors," he said.
Already in 2025, Visit Buffalo has hosted more than 30 travel writers on press trips, surpassing the total number hosted in 2024.