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Promoting the 'Phillyosophy' of a Phila. visit

Philadelphia wants more tourists, and the group that works to attract leisure travelers to the city has come up with a twist on its "With Love, Philadelphia" campaign.

Visit Philadelphia, a private non-profit aimed at boosting tourism in the region, is launching a twist on its "With Love, Philadelphia XXOO" campaign called Phillyosophy with large photos that will appear in online videos, print and billboard ads, on a NJ Transit train going to the Super Bowl and in Center City and New York train stations, aimed at bringing leisure travelers to the region. The ad campaign includes school children and tourists visiting Philadelphia's Elfreths Alley; a mother and child at the PAFA; visitors to family-friendly Franklin Square; diners at Reading Terminal Market, and scenes of Philadelphia's skyline. (handout image)
Visit Philadelphia, a private non-profit aimed at boosting tourism in the region, is launching a twist on its "With Love, Philadelphia XXOO" campaign called Phillyosophy with large photos that will appear in online videos, print and billboard ads, on a NJ Transit train going to the Super Bowl and in Center City and New York train stations, aimed at bringing leisure travelers to the region. The ad campaign includes school children and tourists visiting Philadelphia's Elfreths Alley; a mother and child at the PAFA; visitors to family-friendly Franklin Square; diners at Reading Terminal Market, and scenes of Philadelphia's skyline. (handout image)Read more
    by By Linda Loyd, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Philadelphia wants more tourists, and the group that works to attract leisure travelers to the city has come up with a twist on its "With Love, Philadelphia" campaign.

Phillyosophy is inspired by favorite local philosopher Ben Franklin. It was created by Red Tettemer O'Connell & Partners, the advertising agency hired by Visit Philadelphia, formerly the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.

The ads feature photos of well-known local scenes - Franklin Square, Reading Terminal Market, Elfreth's Alley, art and music attractions, and the skyline.

Visit Philadelphia will spend $1.1 million this winter to put the ads online, in print, in Suburban Station, and on a 10-car double-decker NJ Transit train that will go from Secaucus, N.J., to the Meadowlands for the Super Bowl.

Later this year, the ads will appear in special sections of Amtrak's Arrive magazine and the US Airways magazine, and in New York's Penn Station.

"We're coming off a strong 2013 - 39 million visitors came to Philadelphia and the countryside," said Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of the tourism group. That, she said, was up 45 percent from the 27 million who came in 1997, the year the group began marketing the region.

Those visitors generated $27 million a day in "fresh money through the five-county region," she said.

Red Tettemer's assignment was to create "a new thought" around the well-known "With Love" campaign, said agency president and CEO Steve Red.

"Consumers asked us to 'show how beautiful Philly is, show that wow that we see when we come here,' " Red said. "We put beautiful photographs into the next evolution of the 'With Love' campaign."

The ads also will be seen on billboards along I-95, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and Route 30 in New Jersey. With statewide cuts in Pennsylvania tourism funding, Visit Philadelphia's budget went down between $3 million and $4 million a year. "TV advertising pretty much had to go," Levitz said.

The nonprofit group has received a $850,000 state grant to showcase in ads Pennsylvania towns in this region.

And now, with the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, plus Qatar Airways' beginning nonstop daily flights in April between Philadelphia and Doha, tourism officials see a big opportunity.

Levitz said she planned to meet next week with Jack Ferguson, head of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, to talk about ways to "make the most" of the airline merger and the new flights to the United Arab Emirates to boost opportunities for conventions, sightseeing, hotel stays, and the region's economy.