Selling Minnesota tourism can be challenging during our winter months. Especially, after the week we just survived with air temperatures in the Twin Cities dipping to -28 degrees.
“I think what we find is people really enjoy the diversity that we have in this state,” said John Edman, Director of Explore Minnesota. “Winters, yes it’s quite varied in terms of whatever month it happens to be. Sometimes it’s cold, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s snowy, sometimes it’s not. But there’s incredible variety.”
This week hundreds of tourism industry professionals have gathered in St Paul for their annual conference and with that a new campaign from Explore Minnesota, "Find Your True North".
“There’s so much in the term north. It started with the Super Bowl and the Bold North,” said Edman. “The north is not just a geography, it’s a feeling.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz opened the conference and said the new slogan fits.
“It’s fitting that on the heels of last week, when the rest of the country was a finding out how cold it would be in some places in Minnesota, Minnesotans were going about their daily lives. Looking out for their neighbors, not panicking, not calling States of Emergencies,” said Gov. Walz.
In 2014, Explore Minnesota launched their award-winning “Only In Minnesota” campaign with more than 1 million uses of the #OnlyinMN hashtag.
“Tourism in Minnesota is a $15.3 billion industry that touches every corner of the state,” said Gov. Walz. “I’m excited about this new campaign that will attract even more visitors to the True North.”
The “Find Your True North” campaign officially begins in the spring with a series print, television and digital ads in Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Minnesota. Specially targeting Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Omaha and Winnipeg.