RESELLING EL PASO: TASK FORCE WANTS TO UNDO DAMAGE OF JUAREZ VIOLENCE
ON EP'S IMAGE

The drug-cartel violence in Juarez is hurting El Paso's image and
making it more difficult to attract conventions, tourists and talent
even though El Paso remains one of the safest cities in the nation,
city officials said.

That has a new, city-convened group of 24 officials from the city,
county, business groups, UTEP, Texas Tech, Fort Bliss, and media
outlets, including the El Paso Times, trying to figure out how to
enhance the city's image and get the word out about El Paso's assets.

People on the city's Strategic Communications Task Force, which met
for the first time this month, "felt El Paso's negative image is
affecting our ability to recruit talent and (draw) visitors. The
consensus was to look at this and address El Paso's image," said Kathy
Dodson, director of the city Department of Planning and Economic
Development. She's coordinating the task force meetings.

Bill Blaziek, general manager of the El Paso Convention and Visitors
Bureau, and a task force member, said he has "too many examples in the
last six to eight" months of groups turning down the bureau's attempts
to bring conventions or meetings here because of the Juarez violence.

About 7,800 people have been killed in Juarez in the past two years as
the drug war has escalated.

The Juarez violence is "beginning to take its toll, and we have to
come together as a community to defend our image," Blaziek said.

"We need effective and positive messaging that shores up or enhances
our image and gives us the ability to talk as one."

The task force's first decision was to survey what types of things El
Paso organizations are now putting out to sell El Paso.

Much of the city's image selling through the years has been through
the convention bureau's marketing campaigns.

Its latest campaign, unveiled last summer, revolves around the slogan
"Real Adventure is Still Alive" in El Paso.

It focuses on selling El Paso's mountains and other outdoor
attractions, its history, culture and food, Blaziek said. Parts of the
campaign are similar to the bureau's previous campaign, which used the
tag line "El Paso -- Do Texas Different."

The campaign was designed by El Paso advertising agency
SandersWingo.

Images in the latest campaign include hikers at Hueco Tanks,
folklorico dancers and Mexican food.

"These are individual (tourism-aimed) campaigns. They are not
development or marketing of a (city) brand," Blaziek said.

The bureau, with an annual marketing budget of about $600,000, aims
its selling at a regional market. It uses print ads, brochures,
airport billboards and the bureau's website, Facebook page and YouTube
videos.

Several years ago, city officials tried to go beyond tourism
advertising by having a branding campaign developed for use by all
city agencies.

The campaign, launched in 2007, revolved around the tag line "El Paso
Texas -- You Have No Idea," and it featured a logo with a cactus and
silhouette of the mountains. The city paid two companies about
$250,000 to develop and implement the campaign.

Morris Pittle, owner of Two Ton Creativity, an El Paso advertising
agency that devised the "You Have No Idea" campaign, said it grew out
of California-based Glass Beach Marketing's research that outsiders'
prevailing emotion about El Paso was ignorance.

It's not uncommon for visitors to come here and say, "I had no idea El
Paso has mountains, I had no idea this is a big city," Pittle said.
The campaign was designed to tell people about El Paso's assets, he
said.

That campaign was revised in late 2007 and took on the tag line "El
Paso, Capital of the Border."

That's a tag line and theme that Pittle liked, but city officials
initially rejected in favor of the "I Have No Idea" campaign, Pittle
said.

A combination of City Council budget cuts and growing violence in
Juarez killed the campaign in 2008.

Pittle said he favored the Capital of the Border theme because it was
a regional concept and also reflected El Paso's true identity.

"People may think the border is a negative thing, but it is who we
are," Pittle said.

The border connection may not be positive today, but it's still
important for commerce and it's still part of El Paso's identity, he
said.

The media focus on the border because of the drug-cartel war gives El
Paso the opportunity to "tell our story ourselves and not let someone
else tell it," Pittle said.

Bob Cook, president of the El Paso Regional Economic Development
Corp., or REDCo, El Paso's privately run industry recruiter, said this
area would be better off without the violence in Juarez. But he agreed
with Pittle that it has "shined a spotlight on this community like
never before and given us a platform to talk about the community,"
Cook said.

For several years, REDCo has employed a New York public relations firm
to reach out to media outlets to do stories about this area.

The PR campaign, which has allowed REDCo to point out positives about
this area, such as a still-thriving maquiladora industry in Juarez,
appears to have paid off with more interest from companies, Cook said.

However, a recently conducted REDCo survey of site consultants showed
that many consultants are concerned about the violence and are having
difficulty recommending this area to clients, Cook said.

Cook said the city task force, which has two REDCo representatives, is
looking at developing strategic, fact-based messages that all agencies
involved with talking to the outside world can use.

The city also would be well served to have a unified branding campaign
with a "consistent look and feel," Cook said. That would give more
bang for the limited marketing dollars available, Cook said.

Pittle agreed with task force members that what is needed now is a
strategy on how to communicate with the rest of the world about El
Paso.

"A tag line won't solve the problems," he said.

Public relations, Facebook, YouTube and "guerrilla marketing," such as
putting El Paso food carts in other big cities, should be part of any
image campaign, Pittle said.

El Paso's Mexico connection used to be a big seller for the El Paso
Convention and Visitors Bureau's marketing. These days, visitors are
cautioned against going to Juarez, Blaziek said.

Now is not the time to sell El Paso's border connection, he
said.

"It's best to position ourselves as El Paso, and sell 'Destination El
Paso,' Blaziek said. "We can re-create the international experience
here with our food, shopping, like Pro's Ranch Markets, and Mexican
music."

Laura Gallegos, communications and marketing director for the Texas
Tech University medical school in El Paso, and a city task force
member, said she doesn't know whether the Juarez violence is hurting
the medical school's ability to recruit faculty.

"In general, El Paso sometimes can be a difficult place to recruit
people" because this is an area people don't know much about, she
said. "We try to get them here (for a visit) to see how great El Paso
is."

Gallegos, a native El Pasoan who left the city for several years for
college and work, said she found that people in other cities knew El
Paso because of UTEP's 1966 college basketball championship made more
famous by the 2006 movie, "Glory Road."

"I think a city branding campaign would be useful," Gallegos said.
"With my marketing background, I know image is important."