Orange County ad campaign wins awards

Big city food at low prices, high-performing schools and more than 100 historical buildings in Hillsborough alone were just a few of the things highlighted by Orange County’s award-winning ad campaign.

The North Carolina City and County Communicators, or NC3C, presented Orange County with two awards for its “52 Reasons to Love Orange County” campaign — first place in “Marketing Tools using Direct Mail or Print Advertising” and second place for “Most Creative Activity with Least Dollars Spent.”

The project, spearheaded by the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, featured a weekly full-page ad in The Chapel Hill Herald focusing on Orange County offerings for a full year.

“The campaign was diverse, covering anything from the environment to the farmers’ market to the number of famous authors living in Orange County,” said David Hunt, Orange County deputy clerk. “It included historical aspects, outdoor activities and even hog day.”

Laurie Paolicelli, executive director of the visitors bureau, said they got the idea for the project from something similar The Herald-Sun had done with Durham the year before.

“This campaign really focused on services citizens have, but don’t always know about,” she said.

After talking to Durham about their project, Orange County put together a plan using their media partner, Jennings & Co.

Paolicelli said the project cost the county less than $5,000 as the ad space, valued at $250,000, was donated by the Herald. She said that’s what earned them their second place award from NC3C for least dollars spent.

NC3C is an organization that tries to promote professional development among government communicators, said Annette Privette-Keller, communications director for Matthews, N.C. and a member of the group.

“Basically to win an award, they have to show what the purpose of the communication idea is, meet the target audience, be successful, have quantitative results and be creative,” she said. “Creativity is huge.”

She said contenders for the awards are judged by professionals in communication government from around the country.

Hunt said Orange County’s campaign was beneficial because it encouraged people to move to or visit the county.

“It is also a great focal point for economic development to have people look and see all the reasons to consider Orange County for a new business,” he said.

Paolicelli said they received numerous phone calls and emails in response to the campaign.

“By telling people what we had in the county, we told an important story and we got a really positive response from the community.”

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.