The Design Group of Little Rock added to its Pine Bluff clients list Friday as the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission named the Black-owned advertising firm as its competitive-bid winner and agency of record.
The Design Group, led by CEO Myron Jackson, will champion a rebranding of the Pine Bluff area and devise an advertising campaign to support the city’s destination marketing.
The agency is sounding a theme based on Pine Bluff’s unique culture, people and history, Jackson told Arkansas Business. The Design Group in October announced a $2.5 million contract to represent the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff through 2024.
“As a multicultural communications shop we spend a lot of time telling stories that feature the African-American and Hispanic communities,” Jackson said. “That lines up well with the population of Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, and with needs that the commission has.”
The firm will completely revisit destination marketing, Jackson said, stepping away from a common tourism theme of beautiful scenery. “We’re going to employ a concerted focus on heritage tourism, and what we call intentional placemaking.”
Cultural tourism and placemaking have helped make tourist magnets of small cities like Austin, Texas; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Asheville, N.C.
“We are going to build a better brand story,” Jackson said. “We’re going to tell amazing stories of the people of the bayou, the culture of Pine Bluff and the region, and we’re expecting to yield some amazing results. The approach has had great success in other parts of the country.”
The vision comes from Sheri Storie, director of the A&P Commission, which supports local tourism with the proceeds of a 3% sales tax at restaurants and a 2% tax at Pine Bluff hotels. The taxes raised $1.58 million for tourism promotion in 2019 and again last year, bucking a trend of declines linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a news release, Storie said Jackson’s firm will help the commission define Pine Bluff as “a distinctive travel destination” with a “powerful and fascinating history” that has long gone untold. “We’ve seen how cultural and heritage tourism has positively impacted large and small cities around the country, from Virginia City, Montana, to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana,” Storie added. “It’s time to share the stories of the courageous men and women who lived and worked in the Delta Lowlands, the people who called this place home.”
Jackson said the idea is to build “a brand that changes the perception of Pine Bluff,” helping to create “Arkansas’ next great tourist destination.”
According to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal agency based in Washington, “a high percentage of domestic and international travelers participate in cultural or heritage activities while traveling, and those that do stay longer, spend more, and travel more often. Heritage tourism creates jobs and opportunities, helps protect resources, and often improves the quality of life for local residents.”
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