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TDA launches 'Life's Playground'

FLAT ROCK — Henderson County Tourism Development Authority leaders formally launched a new promotional brand Tuesday night and shared their hope that the stylized depiction of mountains, rivers and leaves would become a unifying image that attracts more visitors.


The TDA’s marketing committee worked for more than a year with a Myrtle Beach-based consultant, rejecting some ideas and massaging others, before it settled on “Life’s Playground.”
“Our research that we did showed that people come here to come to the mountains,” said Selena Einwechter, the owner of Tiffany Hill Bed & Breakfast in Mills River and a marketing committee member. She explained the multilayered meaning of the curvy strokes in brown, green and blue, which represent the Blue Ridge Mountains, fall leaves and rivers, streams, lakes and waterfalls. “The Hendersonville font is fun and playful. We didn’t want it to look too corporate.” The magnifying glass invites people to “look closer.”
“We’re hoping everybody can get behind it and get excited about it,” Einwechter said.
David Nicholson, chair of the TDA, said critics who say the tourism-promoting agency should have stuck with “City of Four Seasons” don’t understand the purpose of the new brand.
“It’s a tourism tagline,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be the city’s motto.”
The agency the TDA hired came up with the tagline and image after research, surveys and input from the tourism industry.
“We did about eight planning sessions with community stakeholders,” said Andy Kovan, who managed the Henderson County campaign for the Brandon Agency of Myrtle Beach. “We did a lot of research. We found what was inspiring to people about Hendersonville was that it made them get up and get out and add to that experiential portfolio.”
It’s going to be used as a headline and as a tagline,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be a powerful image to get people to come here.”
Mayor Barbara Volk said the city plans to use the image, too.
“We’re incorporating it as far as the signage,” she said. “We’re going to have our own version of it.”
After finding out what brings people to Hendersonville, the selection of an image and a tagline was the second step. The next step is incorporating the image into advertising across print, radio and on-line media and using it in new signage designed to help tourists find their way around and guide them to the county’s many attractions.
“I’m excited about where we are and what we’re doing,” said Shannon Clarke, the immediate past chair of the TDA. “We’re hoping this will bring consistency to our messaging, hoping there will be some buy-in from the municipalities as we move into our wayfinding signage.”