The mission of the Lake Lanier Convention & Visitors Bureau should be relatively straight-forward. Its responsibility is to keep people visiting Gainesville and the surrounding areas of Lake Lanier. A beautiful lake an hour north of Atlanta should be an easy sell.
However, their task has been tricky in the last few years with a national recession and two years of low water levels in Lake Lanier. The CVB staff have worked to counter-act negative news about the lake and this week they unveiled a new website to attract visitors from Atlanta: SlipAwayToday.com.
Rather than build a traditional tourism website, the CVB choose to use blogging software so that the site can be more dynamic with regular updates on Lake Lanier news and events. The website is accompanied by a new magazine, also called Slip Away, that carries articles on the region (click to download as a PDF).
Beyond the website and magazine, the CVB has been busy improving promotion of Lake Lanier in several other ways:
Re-Branding
The organization was originally called the Gainesville-Hall County CVB. Because Lake Lanier is the center of tourism in the region, they decided to re-brand in 2008 and become the Lake Lanier CVB.
New Slogan
Even though Lake Lanier is surrounded by multi-million dollar homes, the lake had attracted a somewhat down-market reputation. The CVB are aiming to popularise the slogan “Atlanta’s Hamptons” because they view Lake Lanier has having the same relation to Atlanta as the Hamptons do to New York – a glamorous getaway weekend getaway.
New Logo
Continuing the effort to target affluent visitors, the CVB tested a wide-range of logo options before settling on an anchor variation. The anchor is made of up two Ls symbolizing Lake Lanier. The letters are drawn in a high-end font that people are thought to associate with prestigious brands such as Ralph Lauren.
New Visitor Center
Planning is underway to construct a new visitor center at Exit 16 on Highway 985 in Oakwood. The fast-growing location has been chosen to be very visible from highway for people travelling north from Atlanta. It is scheduled to open within the next two years.