By Chloe Ayres, Senior Graphic Designer Your brand conveys your destination’s personality. Just as our personality is a mixture of inherent traits and characteristics that develop over time, your brand is a mix of existing factors and developed characteristics. Branding is how you shape and communicate the personality of your destination to your customers. While…
Read moreThe 10 Branding Principles We Live By
[embed]https://www.flickr.com/photos/129767087@N03/16703717985[/embed] By Bob Davies, Brad Strategist 1. A Brand is a creative expression of a value proposition. We start with the fundamentals. A value proposition is the foundation for the Brand. It is the key to business or organizational viability. We create value propositions by generating a large number of possibilities and then evaluating them…
Read moreBranding Process Kicks Off For Elizabeth City, NC
By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Two weeks ago, The Goss Agency had the pleasure of visiting one of its clients, Elizabeth City, to present the results from our branding process. Located on the Pasquotank River in Eastern North Carolina, Elizabeth City truly is a gem of Southern charm and culture. The branding process uncovered Elizabeth…
Read moreClassic Creative – Haywood County
Haywood County, after our branding workshop filtering and prioritizing all the features and visitor experiences, determined that the authentic Appalachian culture and clean natural environment were the assets that rose to the top. Thus, “Haywood County, Authentic Appalachian, pure and simple” was born. A new logo was created by illustrating the landscape in a turn-of-the-century…
Read moreQ+A: How Do I Optimize Pinterest For My Destination?
By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator and Social Media Manager 1. Why is Pinterest important for travel destinations? You may ask: Isn’t Pinterest just a website where stay-at-home moms find cool recipes and quirky DIY crafts? While there may be some truth in that, there is so much more to Pinterest that your destination can benefit…
Read moreSome Web Design Trends in 2016
Photo Credit: UXPin By Eddie Maiale, Design Intern Web design trends are consistent in one aspect - They are always changing. You could say it is a living beast on its own. Tackling the beast this year is no different. Trends this year include: moving toward a more minimalist design versus the 3D look, adding…
Read moreWhy You Need to be Focusing on Native Advertising
By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager & Digital Director Display ads, the advertisements that you see on the top and sidebars of almost every webpage nowadays, are in decline. One part of the problem is that they are rarely relevant to the user. While this has changed somewhat with Google Adsense’s targeting algorithm, it started to…
Read moreADmirable: Chipotle’s New Campaign
Fast food giant Chipotle recently came out with an animated short about two kids who grow up locked in competition with each other. The heartwarming video works because it captures Chipotle’s brand distinction in an entertaining way that resonates with others. Memorable brands don’t just offer great products or services, they connect with their audience…
Read moreYOUR EMOJI SAYS IT ALL
By Rachel Hornay, Art/Copy Intern They say that a picture is worth a thousands words, especially with today’s language evolving with the usage of emoji characters. Emojis are intended to illustrate, or in some cases replace altogether, the words we send each other digitally, whether in a text message, email, or tweet. Instagram calls emoji…
Read moreSustain Your Brand using Instagram and Food
By Courtney Jacobs, Account Intern Brands are constantly looking for ways to engage with consumers on social media. However, one challenge is noticing the trends occurring on various platforms and capitalizing on them successfully before the competition. One such trend that is growing in popularity centers around food. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t…
Read moreVine on the Decline
By: Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Vine has had a rough year. The popular social media app that allows users to string together a series of videos up to six seconds long in all is quickly losing market share in the digital advertising industry. Competitors like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are all moving to capitalize…
Read moreWhy It’s Important to Build a Brand Consumers Can Relate To
By Brady Rothschild, Account Support I recently read an article in HuffPost Business called “The Future is in the Hands of Brands”about building a brand customers can relate to. In this article, they spoke about how certain Youtube channels are viewed millions of times, even though the content of these channels is not exactly great.…
Read moreUber Goes Local with their New Brand Identity
By Chloe Ayres, Head Designer AirBnb, Tinder, Yelp! – all of these apps provide location-specific information content on a global scale. All of these companies have also adopted the “McDonald's model” of “a burger should taste the exact same in every McDonald's.” While consistency is certainly key in establishing a strong brand identity, it also leaves…
Read moreIdeation Workshop Brainstorms Brand
Big thanks to the Natchez Democrat for their latest story about our recent ideation workshop for the city of Natchez. Full story below and on their website at http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2015/10/16/ideation-workshop-brainstorms-brand/. Before the branding comes the brainstorming. That's the mindset The Goss Agency--an Asheville, NC based cultural tourism branding firm--is taking in its quest to identify a…
Read moreAsheville Marketing Firm brings National/International Tourism Destination home to Asheville
We're proud to represent Asheville on a global stage for our new destination client, Natchez, Mississippi! Read the full press release below and read this piece by Natchez Democrat about the news: Asheville Marketing Firm brings National/International Tourism Destination home to Asheville NATCHEZ, MS, September 17, 2015 – The Natchez Convention & Visitors Bureau has contracted The…
Read moreCreating a Brand Identity You Can Easily Expand
In this piece for design blog identitydesigned.com, Greg Jewett of Ho Chi Minh-based Rice Creative chronicles the process of visually branding a new business through his work for...
Read moreVisit Natchez Convention & Visitors Bureau Retains The Goss Agency for Branding Services
PRESS RELEASE Branding Agency to Work in Conjunction with New Public Relations Agency NATCHEZ, MS, September 1, 2015 – The Visit Natchez Convention & Visitor’s Bureau has contracted The Goss Agency, one of America’s leading cultural tourism branding services firms, to direct a comprehensive brand audit of the 300-year-old historic destination. The Goss Agency will work in…
Read moreLeveraging Your Distinction with Smart Branding
Did you know bulls can run faster uphill than down? I was having a conversation yesterday with a client prospect. She mentioned the need within their tourism attraction to radiate their brand and engage visitors with its message. Kudos and camel rides to her! (“Camel rides” is a good thing here - meaning exotic and adventurous…
Read morePromoting Your Social Media Channels
All too often, we see clients and potential clients fail to promote their social media presence. It’s important to use your website, newsletters, blogs, and other visible places to promote the fact your company is on social media...
Read moreAdvertising Paradise: St. Lucia
--Backstory behind St. Lucia creative and advertising by CEO Jeff Goss One of the most amazing, unspoiled destinations, and islands in the Atlantic, yet the branding “Simply Beautiful” with a hibiscus flower, a flower that existed on my own street in Atlanta, could be for any place, many places. After the airline lost our luggage, and…
Read moreNew Brand Image and Website for Paradise Beach Resort
The Goss Agency Launches New Cozumel, Mexico Paradise Beach Resort Brand Image and Website Asheville, North Carolina - The Goss Agency recently launched a new website and brand image for Cozumel’s stunning Paradise Beach Resort, one of the most pristine, idyllic destinations in all of Mexico. The branding work began with an evaluation of the property…
Read moreNew Tourism Client, Mitchell County
The Goss Agency is executing a portfolio of TGA proprietary quantitative and qualitative research and branding tools to ascertain Mitchell County’s most compelling features, benefits...
Read moreWhat You Need to Know About Branding in 2015
Branding is sometimes misunderstood, which isn’t surprising considering that the word “brand” has wildly different definitions, many with negative connotations. Here are a few...
Read moreBranding Process Starts with Ideas, Not Design
We focus on the idea first, the idea that communicates your key benefit in a manner that identifies with your target emotionally. Only then do we do the design...
Read moreOur 5 Step Branding Process
To conduct the most effective messaging, we believe it is crucial to have the intelligence and consumer insights to identify with your prospect personally and understand what it is about your product or experience that hits your prospect’s “hot buttons.” We have the research, brand measurement and positioning tools to prepare exceptional creative messaging…
Read moreMarketing Insights: Two Schools of Thought
The “Two-Schools” by Bob Davies, Brand Strategist What I’m noticing is that there are two distinct “schools of thought” with respect to marketing these days. One is being advanced by the content people. It is about spontaneity, real-time marketing and responsiveness. The marketing of presence. These days we develop--no crank-out--the content and push it through…
Read moreIs That For Here, or To-Go? Tourism Marketing in a Mobile World
We stand in the middle of an ever-evolving digital revolution, my friends, and that revolution is being delivered via emerging mobile technologies, apps, smart phones, and tablets...
Read moreEffective Social Media Tools: TweetDeck
There are many tools you can use to monitor Twitter, but my personal favorite is TweetDeck. With it's super-organizable column structure, you can follow lists, search terms, activity, notifications, and more...
Read moreNew Branding Campaigns Launched for Haywood County, NC, and Paradise Beach Cozumel
Emphasizing Haywood County as a destination for authentic Appalachian culture, The Goss Agency completed a multi-day branding session with the Haywood County Tourism Development...
Read moreVisual Press Releases
It’s all about the images. We live in a visual world – cameras on our phones and in our pockets; Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest at our fingertips. Press releases should reflect this. Images make everything better...
Read moreDigital Press Kits: Lessons from Non-Profits
When it comes to digital press kits, non-profit organizations are way ahead of the curve. They have a great story to tell, need to get as much earned (as opposed to paid) media as possible...
Read moreDigital Press Kits: Just the Facts
Do you feel like you answer the same seven questions about your company or organization all the time? Do more than half of your press/marketing calls involve questions like...
Read moreDigital Press Kits: With Images, Size Matters
One of the key benefits to online press kit is the ability to include multimedia files, like videos and images. Images can be broken down into two categories: graphics and photographs. Both of these can play a key role in your digital press kit.
Read moreOh no, it’s SEO! The story of the brand behind the curtain.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s basically the discipline used to improve your natural (or organic) ranking or position on the search engine results pages...
Read moreRebranding Historic Biltmore Village
by Jeff Goss Situation: A 109-year-old village historically designed for the artisans, craftsmen and women, employees, and support staff for the Biltmore Estate, Biltmore Village grew from a desolate place in the 1970s to achieving a wealth of independent restaurants and shops, along with national brands. Even with the rich shopping-experience stores were not…
Read moreDigital Press Kits: Where to Start
Alright, so you are convinced that you need a digital press kit. But where do you start? Fear not, you’re already farther ahead than you think. You probably already have a printed press kit that you provide to...
Read moreAssessing Your Brand
Equally important to creating and adhering to a brand is assessing your brand in the marketplace. Assessing your brand enables you to understand how your customers currently see your company and what elements or perceptions compel them to choose you over a competitor. Conversely, it also allows you to identify misperceptions and obstacles to purchases,…
Read moreEstablishing Your Brand
Why is it important to brand your business? Why not just hire a logo designer online and a web programmer to throw a website together based on that cool template you saw, then call it a...
Read moreYour Brand on Social Media: To Troll, or Not to Troll
David Griner's post over on Adweek Year of the Troll: Brands Learn to Love Messing With Consumers brings up some interesting points about the latest social media stunts being used by brands...
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