DOBSON — With festivals in the area kicking off in the coming months, the Tourism Partnership of Surry County is looking to hit the ground running with the “Very Surry” campaign.

At the group’s meeting on Thursday, members discussed the idea of needing a business plan soon in order to get started. MadCat, a Clemmons-based marketing company hired to develop the campaign, presented a marketing plan with a timeline for 45, 90 and 180 days from now. It is up to the partnership to now develop a feasible plan of action given budget and time constraints.

“We believe you need to operate with a sense of urgency with this,” said Scott Rhodes with MadCat. “You need to develop a detailed work plan. It’s not just a marketing thing, it’s all about your business plan.”

“The biggest obstacle is the amount of money we have to spend. It’s going to take a lot of time and money to do this,” said Ed Shelton, partnership member.

Valerie Oberle, partnership chair, agreed saying, “The first thing is to build a business plan. That’s what we need to focus on. Within each of our municipalities we have some resources. We need to identify how we can get this done.”

One of the big points of the marketing campaign is a comprehensive Web site and an ad pool. In order to begin developing any of this as well as letter head and business cards, the group must create a master image incorporating the “Very Surry” logo with an iconic image.

“I think we need to protect the integrity of ‘Very Surry.’ One key part is the creative. We have to have that image. We need to start with that master signature,” said Oberle.

Creating a “Very Surry” Web site will take time and money, raising the question of what to do in the meantime since that domain name has already been purchased by the county. Chris Knopf, partnership member, brought up the point that a “Visit Surry” Web site already exists and is maintain by the county along with each municipality having its own Web site as well. It was suggested that perhaps they could link the “Very Surry” domain name to the “Visit Surry” Web site for the time being.

“We need to decide exactly how we want to go about looking at a Web site within the timeline,” said Oberle.

The group will also have to make a decision as to the size of advertising campaign it wishes to initially pursue. MadCat representatives suggested that the group look at more personalized advertising to a smaller group rather than trying to reach more people with broader advertising. They suggested concentrating on a 200-mile radius to begin with as that is a good distance for people to travel.

“You should maybe trade a little reach to a more targeted impact,” said Rhodes. “You need to look through and consciously decide what the Surry experience is. You need to make a personal invitation for people to come visit. You’ve got to decide how big of a first step you can take.”

“I think the initial image we put forward is going to be so important,” said Shelton.

They also spoke about informing people in the community of the campaign so that they are informed. Community members can then use word of mouth, the most important aspect of an advertising campaign, to spread the message even further.

There was also a push to look at customer service throughout the county in order to ensure that the best possible image is presented to visitors.

“It needs to not be just a customer service training class,” said Oberle of the budding partnership with Surry Community College to offer hospitality training classes. “It’s not just customer service, it’s the experience.”

Members of the partnership agreed to take the marketing plan developed by MadCat home to look through and begin to come up with ideas for the next meeting. They will also look at the top “Very Surry” assets in the county which they want to look into emphasizing in the advertising campaign.

“We have to do a very good job of identifying our priorities and finalize the steps at the next meeting,” said Oberle.

“Next week we need to come up with a final plan and put that into action,” said Shelton.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.