Woodfield convention bureau tries new name, logo to lure visitors

A 30-year-old convention and visitors bureau in the Northwest suburbs is getting a fresh look in hopes of luring more visitors to the region for work and play.

The Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau has been rebranded as Meet Chicago Northwest, and will feature a new logo, advertising campaign, and tagline: It’s Better on the Edge.

The new brand was unveiled Wednesday at a reception at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel.

Evident in the new name is the region’s proximity to Chicago. And the organization’s logo graphically represents that location, officials say, with a letter “C” that has a compass point — resembling an airplane — that points to the northwest.

“Chicago Northwest is more than a direction,” said Dave Parulo, president of Meet Chicago Northwest. “It’s more than a spot on the map. It is a market that buyers understand.”

Parulo said conversations began nearly two years ago about rebranding the organization, which resulted in the hiring of an advertising and marketing agency earlier this year.

He said those within the organization put together a brand wish-list: they wanted a brand that would capture the imagination, make an alluring promise, be something that would define the region, work well with search engines, and be memorable.

“We felt our brand didn’t talk to our customers or community partners,” Parulo said.

The advertising firm, Milwaukee-based STIR, identified trends about the convention bureau’s customers, market and competition, Parulo said.

The Schaumburg-based organization does marketing for eight communities — Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Itasca, Rolling Meadows, Roselle, Schaumburg, Streamwood and Wood Dale. Each town helps fund the organization, though it receives a large portion of its funding from the Illinois Office of Tourism.

The organization was started by 30 local civic leaders in 1983 as the Greater Woodfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson said the new brand would help expose the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel to not only local and regional users, but international ones as well.

And he added local officials are “adult enough” to concede that Woodfield or Schaumburg doesn’t have to be in the title.

“(People aren’t) going to look for Woodfield or Schaumburg,” Larson said. “They’re going to look for Chicago.”