Moore: Marketing Fiasco Symbolizes RI Government Dysfunction

Monday, April 04, 2016

Russell J. Moore MINDSETTER

 

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Believe it or not, last week was triumphant for Little Rhody. 

When the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation unveiled the state's new tourism slogan, the Governor made supportive comments. Rhode Islanders, however, saw through the facade. The slogan was something a second-grader could have created. The video was something a lazy high school student could have made the night before his final project was due. It was riddled with errors, stock footage, and a building located in another country.

How was that a good week? It was good because the average Rhode Island resident spoke up. The collective outrage from the state's residents made a difference. The Governor, during a classic Friday evening news dump, announced that she had abandoned the slogan. She then scapegoated Betsy Wall, the marketing director she hired just a few months ago. Keep in mind this was just days after she scolded Rhode Islanders for being too negative. 

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Triumph of the Commons

Thanks Governor!

(Why she fired Wall when she hired her just about three months ago makes little sense. This process began long before she hired Wall. But someone had to satisfy our collective blood lust.)

That's the type of attention Rhode Islanders need to maintain. Believe it or not, those who hold the reins of power are very sensitive to public sentiment. But when the populace is lulled into a trance watching Game of Thrones or the Boston Red Sox, blunders like last week's can go unnoticed. 

Here's the thing: the amount of money spent on the marketing campaign, and the slogan itself, are not much money in the grand scheme. Yes, $5 million is a big sum. But most states spend much more, per capita, on marketing. And the state budget is $8 billion. 

Bigger Blunders

Yet a story like this resonates with the average Rhode Islander more than bigger blunders. (For instance, did you know that Raimondo's pension fund investment strategy has under-performed its peers to the extent that if we kept pace with them, we would have earned $455 million more?)

I believe I know why.

As a newspaper reporter in Rhode Island I noticed a weird tendency from most of the local public officials I covered. It didn't matter if I was covering small rural towns like Hopkinton, a mid-sized suburban town like Bristol, or a city like Warwick. The mechanism came to light time and again.

Namely: city and town council members would often debate obscure purchases (like boilers for buildings for example) for more than an hour. 

Then, they'd turn around and approve employee contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with 15 minutes of deliberation. The ramifications would impact city budgets for years into the future. 

At first, it bothered me. It seemed sophomoric. It seemed irresponsible. But as I thought about it more, I began to understand. It's just human nature.

For instance, it's easy for the average person to comprehend spending $30,000. Most have done it before. They've bought cars, appliances, and perhaps even on a boiler that expensive. So the decisions hits close to home.

But outside of major business executives, nobody authorizes purchases worth millions. So it's impossible for the average person to fathom the decision. It's overwhelming.

The Laughable Slogan

Which brings us back to why the slogan caused so much outrage. It's much easier for the average person to get enraged when they hear a slogan that a third-grader could have coined.

That's because it validates what everyone in Rhode Island thinks about the status quo. Namely, that everyone in power is there because they know the right people. They win the shoulder fights and wrestle themselves into the good graces of the powerful.

None of this explains why our Rhodes Scholar Governor needed Rhode Islanders to tell her that the slogan was moronic.. The only explanation I can fathom is that she focuses on other things -- like fundraising. 

Who You Know

In any event, let's hope last week's blunders inspire us to pay more attention.

But with a new season of Game of Thrones being released this month and baseball season's opening this week, I'm not holding my breath. More likely than not, we'll go back to focusing on other things.

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Russell Moore has worked on both sides of the desk in Rhode Island media, both for newspapers and on political campaigns. Send him email at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @russmoore713. 

 

Related Slideshow: Raimondo’s Tourism Problems Are Far From Over

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Complete Mismanagement

The story of how three agencies could be hired before the Chief Marketing Officer — Betsy Wall — was engaged is unimaginable in the world of marketing. The fact that anyone in the Raimondo Administration thinks you need to leave Rhode Island to get superior design work is a demonstration of the disconnect between the Raimondo Administration and the talents in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island has many weaknesses, but a lack of fabulously talented designers is not one of them. 

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Solutions Have the Potential to Create More Problems

In her press conference announcing the firing of Betsy Wall and the assertion that the tagline "warmer-cooler" would be discarded, but the logo would remain was another example of the Governor’s unwillingness to understand the issues being raise. To date,  the process, the product and the quality of the work were all flawed.

There is no member of the Raimondo Administration who has significant experience in developing and launching a national brand. 

In the interim, Raimondo has announced that Seth Goldenberg, CEO of Jamestown-based Epic Decade will play a key role in the reinvention of the existing work completed by Milton Glaser and Havas. Goldenberg is a talented facilitator, but he is not a Chief Marketing Officer. The legislature trusted you with $5 million this year and you are asking for another $5 million in this coming year's budget -- it is time to recruit the most talented RHODE ISLANDERS. Selling Rhode Island to America and the world is not that complicated.

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Raimondo and Rhode Islanders

Rhode Islanders are negative. The press is mean. Talk radio is evil. All may be true and Gina Raimondo was not drafted by the Selective Service Agency to run for Governor. She sought the office.

The best way to engage and build trust with Rhode Islanders is to perform at a high level and produce. Bringing in “experts” from out-of-state who fail to perform is not a way to transform negativism.

Iceland footage, stock photos, false claims — hundreds of errors are not the fault of the negative Rhode Islanders.

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Big Trouble

In the past few months, Raimondo has demonstrated that she has a lack of understanding of Rhode Islanders. First, the unwillingness to lower the flags to half-mast in recognition of Buddy Cianci's death was a significant miscalculation.

Every Rhode Islander knows that Cianci was flawed and a two-time felon, but they also know that he did interesting things and was maybe the states most famous or most infamous. 

Raimondo did not understand that most (not all) Rhode Islanders saw the duality of the flawed, failed and accomplished Cianci.

Similarly, she was tone deaf to the reaction of Rhode Islanders of the logo design by Milton Glaser. Whether is is the most brilliant piece of graphic art or pathetic work overpriced by a New York design shop it does not matter. Rhode Islanders clearly want a logo produced by a Rhode Islander. 

She is still fighting a silly fight.

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5)

Out-of-state Addiction

Rhode Islanders may be inferior, but the quote of Mark Twain may be applicable about the reflective talent of Rhode Islanders versus the smarter and more talented out-of-staters. The Governor's Chief of Staff, Commerce Corp boss and many other top appointees are from outside of Rhode Island. But, maybe not as superior as perceived. Rhode Islanders know that Iceland is not in Rhode Island, which restaurants have closed, and the importance of the burning of the Gaspee. 

Twain said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

 

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