It was back in 2012, as the city recovered from the great recession, that our City Council authorized the first year of Greeley’s new image initiative. After several months of public input and planning, the first ad campaign was launched in June of 2013.
In that first year, the initiative’s paid advertising campaign, called Greeley Unexpected, was funded through the lodging tax on hotel stays and some carryover dollars. Since then, it has been funded exclusively by the lodging tax, which is restricted by law for use solely for community promotion. I believe those dollars have been well spent and past and current survey results support that conclusion.
The November 2015 survey shows that community advocacy among residents is up a solid 8 percent. That means literally thousands of people in Greeley are now more likely to say positive things about their city than when the first survey was conducted in 2013. And when asked directly if the campaign impacted their opinions of Greeley, 64% of residents and non-residents said “yes” it did improve their opinion of the city. This is definitely demonstrating that the momentum seen in the 2013 survey is continuing.
With that evidence of success validating our efforts to date, we’ll launch year four of the campaign at Friday Fest on June 3. You are all invited to this free Go-Cup concert event where fire eaters, fire spinners, face painters, stilt walkers, balloon artists and a great band will entertain everyone from 6-9 p.m. Stop by the Greeley Unexpected booth for giveaways and the new magazine that highlights more stories about what makes Greeley great.
Visit greeleyunexpected.com after June 3 to see the new campaign and stories.
Roy H. Otto
City Manager