Wall says ‘Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer’ has helped publicize Ocean State

BETSY WALL, chief marketing officer for the R.I. Commerce Corporation, has been criticized for the new tourism slogan, "Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer." / COURTESY LINKEDIN
BETSY WALL, chief marketing officer for the R.I. Commerce Corporation, has been criticized for the new tourism slogan, "Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer." / COURTESY LINKEDIN

(Updated 3:43 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Betsy Wall, the new chief marketing officer for R.I. Commerce Corp., said the commentary surrounding the new logo and slogan, “Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer,” has helped spread the word about the Ocean State.
“Some of the commentary on it has been very humorous. That’s a good thing. The fact is, oddly enough, all this commentary has resulted in a far wider distribution of Rhode Island’s newsworthiness,” Wall said Friday.
“I think people are vocal and passionate about the place they live in … When something’s in the social sphere it has a life of its own,” she said.
Despite being widely criticized and alternative slogans popping up all over the Internet, Wall said there are no plans to change the slogan.
A Narragansett man, Jesse Pugh, has even started a gofundme campaign to raise $10,000 for an alternative slogan from Rhode Island agencies and designers. If the goal is not met, he said the donations will be returned. In two hours Friday, he raised $25.

“It is time to stop our state leaders from making bad decisions. This is a small step towards helping others see the Rhode Island that we do,” Pugh wrote.
Meanwhile, a day after she called for detailed information regarding expenses for the new – and often criticized – state slogan, “Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer,” state Rep. Doreen Costa says Wall should be terminated.
Wall has responded to her critics who say she does not know the state. Wall unveiled the new logo and slogan at the Commerce RI meeting Monday night. It was designed by Milton Glaser Inc. of New York.
“I think I know destination marketing and that was what I was brought in to do … My responsibility is to devise and manage a marketing campaign,” Wall said Friday.
She noted that the state’s tourism director is still in place, Mark Brodeur.
Costa took issue with Wall’s background and said she has “no idea what Rhode Island is about.” Wall, she said, lives in Massachusetts. Wall also led the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism for eight years, until early 2015.

“When questioned by Gene Valicenti on WPRO’s Morning Show, Wall didn’t know about one of the state’s high-profile tourism opportunities – Gaspee Days,” Costa said in a statement. “The state of Rhode Island is paying her an annual salary of $135,000 and she did the job of a college intern, passing the buck when things go wrong … Betsy Wall does not deserve her job or her salary and should be fired immediately. I call upon the governor to terminate Wall and give the job to an actual Rhode Islander. Our talent pool is immense.”

“This is not about one photo of Iceland appearing in R.I.’s tourism video; it’s about a host of errors throughout the campaign, a list of errors far too long to detail in a press release. How can you design a campaign to market the state when you don’t know what the state is about? Newsflash, you can’t,” Costa added.
Wall said a “complete data scrub” is underway to ensure the new tourism website, visitrhodeisland.com, is error-free.
She said much of the material on the site is self-reported by businesses and organizations, and Rhode Island Monthly also provided information.
What’s been lost in the publicity about the new slogan, Wall said, is that it is just a “small part” of the tourism campaign, and it is also only the beginning of a “much wider campaign to engage visitors and drive economic growth.”
“Considering the size of the screen most people will get their travel information (such as a smartphone), it would be absurd to use a lot of that real estate with anything other than extremely useful content,” Wall said.

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She said an independent firm, Meltwater, analyzed the logo and slogan before it was unveiled. She said they gauged reaction from Rhode Islanders and non-Rhode Islanders on the design, and it resulted in a favorability rating of more than 60 percent.
“Whenever you talk about something so subjective as art and descriptive language, people are going to have their opinions and that’s all right,” Wall said.

The new tourism campaign is mainly digital, and will focus on social platforms that were not used before to promote Rhode Island tourism – YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Wall said. They also will have “some paid media” to promote the campaign on Google, Expedia, Travel Channel, Airbnb and more. Print is not the focus of the campaign, though there will be some placements in Rhode Island Monthly, she said.
She noted that the six regional tourism bureaus all were made aware of it, and she expects it will be incorporated into their promotional materials. Asked if they have a certain timetable to incorporate the new logo and slogan into their materials, Wall responded, “We look at it as a partnership, not a directive.”
During the “first wave” of the advertising campaign, she said they are targeting those looking for things to do during April school vacation week.
Wall said “the beauty” of a digital marketing campaign means it can be analyzed quickly and changed as needed.
“A year from now we will know a lot more about what visitors and prospective visitors are looking for,” Wall said.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Doreen Costa is a dogmatic, closed minded person who is an embarrassment to North Kingstown especially those voters in the district she represents. What NK needs are bright, imaginative people with some depth of intellect not a control freak.

  2. Please sign our petition to stop payment for this work and get something deserving of our beautiful state.

    It’s true the list of error is too long to list. The website for this rollout is filled with shoddy, lazy work, too.

    https://www.change.org/p/cool-it-gina-ri-won-t-pay-for-your-lousy-ad-campaign?recruiter=518341511&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_term=des-lg-new_account-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

  3. Gov. Raimondo’s campaign was run on ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ and that is still her mantra. She announced the $5 million campaign months ago to promote RI for tourism/business. We grumbled – it’s a lot of money but let it go. The actual start of the project was between $450-$500K but what ‘jobs’ did it provide? An out-of-state project leader, an out-of state design artist and only $20K to a local company. They made a 2 second mistake – that’s it. It’s fixed at their expense. We have one of the top schools in the country – RISD. They didn’t get the job. There are plenty of graphic artists locally who do great work and would be happy to get it at a far less cost and design something that defined RI.
    Mr. Beckett – there’s your and Ms. Raimondo’s negativity. The logo doesn’t represent RI in any way. $450K went to out-of-state people instead of our own talented people. I’ve seen a few, drawn up within minutes, posted on social media that really represent RI. We live here, we know the State. That logo – sorry, as a native Rhode Islander, I can’t wrap my head around it. No tourist/business will get it either. The video is fixed, up and running – it’s great. The logo needs to go – we want a refund. When our Governor stops out-sourcing work and our money to other states, she becomes believable. Until then, I question her position as the head of the State she is supposed to watch over. She is the negative one – she doesn’t trust us to get it right.