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Libertyville touts its wares in first promotional video

Libertyville is enjoying a renaissance, but the village isn't resting on its laurels.

Instead, it has gone on a marketing offensive and, for the first time, has created and released a video highlighting village and area attractions and urging people to visit.

The 1-minute, 55-second professionally done piece is available on YouTube, the village website and Facebook pages and through the websites of tourism partners, including Visit Lake County, hotels, restaurants and other businesses to share with their clientele.

It features slices of life in and around town with a jaunty acoustic guitar playing underneath. In video snippets, people are seen walking among the downtown shops and having dinner, for example, while the promise of live music, ample hotel space and other attractions, such as Out to Lunch in Cook Park, is shown.

There is no narration, and among the only sounds is a "whoop" from three women toasting wineglasses. The idea is to showcase the appeal to visitors from northern Cook County to southern Wisconsin, and to capture a bit more of the audience interest from those who visit for the area for business, sporting events, weddings or recreational opportunities, for example.

"We know the majority of our visitors are probably coming from communities surrounding us about 10 to 15 miles out," said Heather Rowe, the village's director of community development.

The video was produced by VDO Productions in Libertyville for $750, but the village isn't the only community with a new promotional campaign.

"Good Morning, Mundelein" debuted in September as a promotional video about the community made with the award-winning Mundelein High School choir. Lake Forest also is set to debut a black-and-white ad campaign featuring locally owned businesses.

"While we have a lot of great assets here, it's important to stay in the forefront of people's minds as a destination," Rowe said. "If we're already attracting them, why not find another way to appeal to their interests, to have them stay longer and keep them coming back?"

That has been happening to some extent throughout Lake County, which recently reported visitor spending in 2014 reached a new high of $1.26 billion, a 5 percent increase over 2013. Visitors generated $27 million in local tax receipts and the tourism industry supports 10,330 jobs, according to Visit Lake County.

But the state's hold on hotel revenue for local tourism bureaus could have a negative impact, according to Maureen Riedy, president of the marketing and tourism agency that has a dozen paid municipal members, including Gurnee and Vernon Hills, the two largest sales-tax producers in Lake County.

Riedy said the state has withheld nearly $300,000 that is used for sales, advertising, marketing and programming. While the agency has an overall budget of $1.5 million, it has eliminated a staff position, canceled its fall marketing campaign and is cutting expenses, she said.

"You have to be out there marketing when there's so much competition," she said. Local legislators are sympathetic, she added.

"They certainly understand the economic impact of it (tourism), but I think everybody is frustrated this (state) budget process can't move forward," Riedy added.

The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, the Illinois Restaurant Association and the Illinois Council of Convention & Visitors Bureaus have launched a social media and print campaign warning of risks if tourism funding isn't restored.

Meanwhile, as of midweek, Libertyville reported 3,392 views of its YouTube video amounting to 9,013 people reached.

"Just like any good business, you need to build your brand image," Rowe said.

@dhmickzawislak

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