Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Visit Natchez has a secret that has been tough for them to keep, but they hope to tell the whole world about it on Jan. 30.

“We have spent about 18 months working through the process of rebranding Visit Natchez,” said Devin Heath, executive director of Visit Natchez.

That new Visit Natchez branding will launch Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. at an event at the Natchez Grand Hotel, 111 Broadway St.

The rebranding process was a methodical one, Heath said, and included input from just about everyone from tourists to members of the Natchez community.

“It started with feedback from visitors and from community partners. We held sessions with our community partners and talked about what Natchez means,” he said. “We talked to visitors about what they are looking for in a travel destination and what their impressions were of Natchez. We asked what are the things they want to know more of about Natchez.

“We put that together with what we have been seeing and from there, began working on the creative aspect,” Heath said.

The new brand will tell the story of Natchez, representing five positive features of the area.

“Those five positives the brand will convey are the warmth, hospitality and unity of Natchez; that we are a classy and elegant destination with our own sense of character; that we have the ability to connect with the expectations of today’s travelers, that we have historic significance, but modern progression; and that Natchez is far more than anyone would expect,” he said. “So many people come here and say, ‘Boy, I wish I had known Natchez had all this. I wish I had scheduled my trip to spend more time here.’ That’s why it’s important for us to get the messaging out that we are more than you expect.”

The new brand is not as busy as the old branding, Heath said. “It has a clean, fresh look.”

The meeting to unveil the new branding on Jan. 30 is open to anyone who wants to come.

“We want everyone to come out. Tourism affects everyone, whether you own a hotel or a restaurant or are simply a resident. We want everyone to enjoy and embrace the new brand and carry it on. At the meeting we are going to explain the process we went through and talk about who has been involved in it and go over what we are hoping the brand to encompass. We will put it up on the screen and I will outline a lot of nuances of the new logo and tagline,” Heath said.

Businesses and organizations here will have the opportunity to use the branding via licensing agreements and with Visit Natchez.

“We want the company to embrace it, but we want to protect the brand. The licensing agreements are there to protect the brand,” he said.

Visit Natchez worked with the Stamp Idea Group, an advertising agency headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, to create the brand.

“This is kind of what they do. They do branding and marketing and work with organizations, particularly destinations, to market and brand,” Heath said.

Visit Natchez put the new branding effort out for bid in the spring of 2021.

“We went through the bids and based off of their creative ideas and the process they use to design the brand, we chose Stamp,” he said. “Price was a factor. They were not the most expensive and they were not the least expensive. It cost about $40,000. We chose them primarily because we liked their process.”

Visit Natchez will roll out a new website at the same time as the branding.

“We will have the website available for people to see at the event and it should go live within a day or two after that. The new website will be fantastic and is really going to elevate the presentation of Natchez.”