Ad agency still searching for Connecticut's identity

Since being named a few weeks ago to "brand" the state, Chowder Inc., a New York ad agency, has been asking people in the Northeast what they think of Connecticut.

Well?

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," Corinne Casagrande, the agency's vice president, said Monday. "It was kind of eye- opening."

Of the New England states and New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Connecticut is the one about which people know the least and the one they consider the least appealing as a vacation destination, she said.

"It's not that they have a negative perception (of Connecticut)," Casagrande said. "It's a result of very low awareness."

Chowder's findings would seem stunning were it not true that in 2009, Connecticut cut state spending on tourism promotion to $1.

"We became the only state in the country that did not have a marketing budget," said Randy Fiveash, the state's tourism director. "That's not a club you want to be in."

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has set aside $15 million for the cause in each of the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years, a commitment "unprecedented" in state history, according to Fiveash.

Most of the funding - $11 million each year - will cover the state's contract with Chowder and its partners in the branding effort. The team put together by Chowder includes Fleishman-Hillard, a global public relations firm with headquarters in St. Louis and an office in New York City; Media Storm of Norwalk; and the Harrison Group of Waterbury.

Much of the money will be spent advertising on radio and TV, in newspaper travel sections and online, Fiveash said.

In Connecticut, tourism generates about $11.5 billion a year in travelers' spending and $1.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, according to the most recent study conducted by the University of Connecticut's Center for Economic Analysis. It's also responsible for creating more than 110,000 jobs, about 6.5 percent of the state's total.

"That's what's been lost on a lot of folks in the past," Fiveash said. "(Spending on tourism) truly is an investment. It's one (whose benefits) we can prove. We know how many people stay in hotels, how many visit the casinos, what the attendance is at our attractions. We know whether (the spending) moves the needle or not."

"Clearly, there's a connection," said Tony Sheridan, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.

Last year, when the private sector kicked in nearly $1 million for a statewide advertising campaign, "the numbers on mystic.org (the Mystic Country tourism website) jumped immediately," Sheridan said. "Tourism has the greatest potential of any industry for kick starting business. It's incredibly important."

Chowder's charge is to settle on an identity for the state, a brand, Fiveash said.

"It's not just a slogan, a bumper sticker or an ad," he said. "It transcends all those things. It's something you identify the state with. That's what we're after."

Chowder, which has devised campaigns for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, A&E Television Networks and the NFL, is used to working with clients that inspire well-defined perceptions, which it has found is not the case with Connecticut.

"Even within the state, when we tried to probe for opinions by asking, 'What does Connecticut mean to you?' people had a hard time," Casagrande said. "We'd love to explore that some more.

"In Boston, they think of Connecticut as Yankees fans. Or it's Fairfield County versus all the other counties," she said. "People in New Jersey, they think there's a lot of rich snobs (in Connecticut)."

Outside the state, Casagrande said, "one big thing that surprised us is that people don't think Connecticut is part of New England. They think it's part of New York or the 'tri-state area' or something.

"If they know anything about Connecticut, they know Mystic. They're aware of the casinos and they know the casinos are close to Mystic. They mention submarines."

By spring, aspects of Chowder's campaign will appear. Before then, the agency will start asking state residents to share their personal stories about the state's iconic people and places and how their interaction with the state has shaped them.

"We'll mine them for some gems or a common thread," Casagrande said of the stories. "We get the residents on board first and foremost. Instilling pride in the state is the first step."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com