Tuesday evening, the Redding City Council made the decision to award a five to ten year contract to the Redding Chamber of Commerce, beginning July 1st of this year. To say we are excited to take on this opportunity would be a significant understatement. For me, personally, I have wanted to contribute to this space since my first day at the Chamber in 2016. Like many people who call, email, private message, or stop by our office each year looking for things to see and do in and around Redding, I also had at top of mind, chambers of commerce as “resource centers” for guests to a new community.
There is a good reason for this. Destination marketing, place branding, and tourism services are under the scope of work of chambers of commerce in many communities across the country. Of course, for many years now, this function has been far more than a visitors center and a wall of brochures highlighting local attractions and experiences. This is a multimedia, digital explosion of content. In my opinion, it became essential for us to bring in an experienced, proven leader in marketing places to help us form a branding strategy for Redding. We have found who we believe to be the best in the business – DCI. DCI will assist in the strategy, and the Chamber will make sure that the voice and story we tell about Redding is authentic, which will mean engaging with stakeholders representing a cross-section of the community. The way we see it, it is crucial that those within our community believe and buy into the messaging if we expect those outside our community to also believe it.
