South Louisianians who want the area’s poor image to be revamped have new reason for hope.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has hired Idea City, an Austin, Texas marketing firm, to launch a campaign that aims to improve South Louisiana’s image within the nation, region and the state.
Haley Rushing, chief purposologist for Idea City, and her team have immersed themselves in Louisiana’s culture by visiting the North Shore area, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles, where they interviewed leaders and read a variety of literature about the area.
“It’s a complicated set of criteria,” Rushing said. “One piece of the puzzle is what we’re doing, which is letting people know about South Louisiana. There are many misconceptions based on the tourism industry.”
Mukul Verma, director of communications for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, said an advantage of hiring Idea City is that the firm has an outsider’s view of the state’s national image.
“They are able to look at many things that we think are detrimental but are actually helpful,” Verma said.
Idea City lists the following as Louisiana’s core values: family, camaraderie, tradition, diversity, community, joy of life, faith and ingenuity.
The campaign, titled “Energy for Life,” is attempting “to create a brand and image for the corridor and to link the economies to create more jobs,” said Verma.
Rushing said the firm plans to develop the media plan within the next four months and launch the campaign next spring. The media plan is an investigation of Louisiana’s residents and people throughout the nation who share South Louisiana values. Idea City will explore what kinds of media they use, such as newspapers and television shows, and use these media as a means for broadcasting their messages about the area.
The group expects “Energy for Life” to begin changing perceptions in a year, with major progress being made within five years.
The strategy of the campaign is to emphasize these values to make South Louisiana a more attractive place to live and work.
Rushing said although the campaign is aimed at a national and regional audience, it is also intended to change how Louisianians view their own state, especially graduates of Louisiana universities.
“We want to get the best and brightest of Louisiana graduates and keep them from leaving,” Rushing said.
Rushing said their second audience is graduates of Southern Louisiana universities who have moved on to other places such as Chicago; Memphis, Tenn.; and Dallas.
Some University students agree South Louisiana is in need of an image upgrade.
“You always hear on the news about [Louisiana’s] obesity and negative politics,” said Caitlyn McMullen, nursing junior. “Louisiana is always on the news because something else is wrong.”
Justin Corte, accounting senior, also acknowledged Louisiana’s poor national image.
“When you consistently are in the top of the bad lists and the bottom of the good lists, you have a bad image,” Corte said. Students, however, also believe in the good aspects of South Louisiana.
McMullen said family, hospitality and the acceptance of diversity are core values in the area.
“We definitely have the Southern hospitality,” said Danielle Joyeux, nutritional science sophomore. “But more than that, there’s a lot of room for growth in Louisiana, and this generation is very ambitious. But at the same time, we still have old-fashioned morals and traditions more so than maybe other parts of the nation.”
Joyeux said she has faith in the program’s success.
“It’s going to take a long time,” Joyeux said. “But eventually, as the campaign starts to grow, it can be successful, especially with partnering with the community and making strides to reach out to the people and give Louisiana the drive to want to make the state better and grow economically.”
Some students, however, believe the burden of improving South Louisiana’s image should not fall entirely on Idea City’s shoulders.
McMullen said although the campaign may be beneficial to some degree, the change must ultimately begin internally.
“You have to not just change the image, you have to change reality,” Corte said.
Verma said he has high hopes for the campaign.
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “It will hopefully align a lot of politicians and people across the corridor for a good purpose.”
—-Contact Lindsay Rabalais at [email protected]