Tourism marketing campaign to emphasize friendliness, COVID security

Jayne Hoadley, owner of Greenfield Chocolates, wears a “Hancock County Smiles” mask to work in her shop.

GREENFIELD – Hancock County’s Tourism Commission is asking local businesses to put on cheerful faces.

The Commission’s latest advertising campaign highlights both kindness and precautions for COVID-19 by using masks with cartoon smiles and the tagline “Hancock County Smiles”.

“Our real smiles may be hidden, but we have our smiles on our masks,” said Brigitte Cook Jones, executive director of the Hancock County Tourism Commission.

The Tourism Commission logo for their Hancock County Smiles campaign features a laughing face mask.

A series of digital advertisements featuring local business owners wearing the smiling masks will go live this spring to attract more businesses from nearby communities to Hancock County.

COVID-19 has hit the tourism industry hard as travel costs have dropped dramatically and the economy as a whole has declined. This also applies to the tourism commission. While it received some grants over the past year, most of the company’s money comes from a tax on local hotel rooms. By the time more people come back to Hancock County, Tourism Commission revenues will decline.

The Hancock County Smiles Program hopes to counter this.

Jones said the intent of the campaign is to promote the county as a safe, friendly community where people who, after months of social distancing, may be frustrated visiting the same few places can enjoy something new without traveling too far .

Jones hopes the county may also be able to attract traffic that would otherwise lead to Indianapolis. For those in the “donut” counties, Hancock County might be a more comfortable destination than driving downtown, she said. Indianapolis received some negative attention for high levels of violent crime in 2020, with a record number of murders in a year.

For many people, trips that require an overnight stay are also still out of the question.

“They want to go somewhere else, but they don’t really want to go anywhere,” said Jones.

In order to attract companies to participate in the campaign, the Tourism Commission sent postcards to locally owned companies. Some of the respondents are now working with Andy Wilkins, Digital Sales Manager at Daily Reporter, to create videos that will be used for the digital advertising campaign.

“We have many locally owned restaurants so we’re highlighting a few,” said Jones, along with retailers and other local businesses.

The tourism commission also wants to expand the campaign. Going forward, they’ll encourage people to use the hashtag #hancockcountysmiles to share their memories of visiting the county’s shops. They are also looking for a local dealer who can mass-produce the smiling masks.

Jayne Hoadley, owner of Greenfield Chocolates, is one of the business owners participating in the campaign. She said she appreciated the campaign’s focus on sending the message that small businesses are wary of COVID-19.

“Since the beginning of COVID, we have achieved a higher level of awareness and visibility with our security practices,” said Hoadley. While the company’s employees have been cautious anyway, she wants customers to know what steps employees are taking to protect customers’ health.

Unlike many other companies, according to Hoadley, their level of business has remained relatively constant throughout the pandemic. She said she thinks that’s because a lot of people wanted to be COVID-safe.

“Chocolate is affordable luxury,” said Hoadley.

Costas Stylianou, owner of Costas Grill and Lincoln Square Pancake House in Greenfield, is also participating in the campaign. He said the county is well positioned to take advantage of tourism on a smaller scale and people wanted to visit a nearby community.

While the majority of Stylianou’s customers live in Hancock County, he has seen more and more visitors from Marion and other countries in recent months.

“Hancock County, particularly Greenfield, is a very emerging area,” said Stylianou.