Photo by Jason Masters

Tourism marketing in the Orange region is off to a fresh start with the launch of a new brand and organisation known as Orange360.

Launched today at the Orange Visitor Information Centre, General Manager of Orange360, Caddie Marshall, said that Orange360 represents a united all year round approach to tourism, promoting the Orange region as a distinct destination and gateway to discovering the surrounding historic villages.

“The tourism marketing brand for Orange has undergone an evolution through the years from Taste Orange to Brand Orange to Orange Region Tourism and now Orange360,” said Ms Marshall.

“Orange360 encompasses everything that colours our region, all year round and for the first time is a collaboration between the local councils of Orange, Cabonne and Blayney and our surrounding villages.

“Orange360 is focused on driving increased visitation and economic benefit across the entire region. Over 1 million visitors already explore our region every year and the purpose of our new brand is to invite these people to further discover all the wonders and gems that are unique to us - our people, our places and our produce.

“As we developed the new tourism brand, we actively consulted with and reached out to our community to learn how we defined ourselves and our landscapes. We also developed a brand reference group representative of the businesses across the Orange region including the wine, retail, food, arts, and indigenous sectors who provided local feedback.

“This extensive consultation resulted in a brand that will continue to support our tourism sector and volunteer groups that host our unique festivals that celebrate our history, our food and wine. It speaks to our foundation in gold and farming, and our landscapes awash with golden hues. We are deeply proud of our history, our villages and love to show off our landscapes and four distinct seasons.

“As a region we are open and ready to embrace the opportunities that tourism brings. We know that tourism benefits all of us. Just look at what is happening across the region with more events and more new businesses taking confident steps in opening their doors.

“With such a diverse choice of activities, attractions and events across our region, a new website is under construction that will make it easy for visitors to navigate the full spectrum of experiences on offer. Whether they are coming to enjoy one of the region’s marquee food and wine events, to experience our historic villages and authentic country lifestyle or to simply relax and unwind, it will all live at their fingertips.

“Destination Marketing will now take a seasonal approach providing potential visitors fourglorious reasons to come and discover our region for themselves. Orange360 is aboutpromoting our region and its offerings all year round.”

Orange Deputy Mayor Joanne McRae said she’s excited by the new cooperative approach tomarketing the region.

“The new tourism organisation and the launch of the new brand is the latest step in the growing cooperation between local councils and tourism businesses,” Cr Joanne McRae said.

“For me Orange360 is all about a place where visitors can come to get a 360 degree view of the Orange region. It’s a place where they can look in every direction and discover that there’s so much more to Orange.”

“Yes, Orange is about food and wine, but a 360 degree viewpoint shows you that it’s also about the villages, open countryside, country villages in Blayney and Cabonne shires and sports tourism, including bike travellers and bushwalking.”

Orange360, together with each of the Councils, is also developing a Village Viability Strategy to support each Village Association to market and encourage visitation as well as improving links between each of the villages.

Blayney Shire Mayor, Scott Ferguson welcomes the new collaborative tourism approach acrossthe Orange region as a way to expand the reach of our combined marketing dollar to new markets in Sydney, ACT, interstate and even globally.

“We have a diverse and unique product offering in Blayney & Villages and this regionalpartnership is a way to bring even more visitors to our doorstep to boost economic growth, infrastructure and services to regional NSW. Orange360 is a dynamic brand backed by solid tourism expertise in three councils, local villages and businesses working together.”

Cabonne Mayor Kevin Beatty said: “the launch of the region’s exciting new tourism brandOrange360 is integral in uniting our three councils and establishing our unique identity as a major destination. Our cooperative working relationship in turn will help to identify the region and ensure it stands out. This in turn will drive tourists to experience our region’s many products, towns and villages.”

The new Orange360 website will be ready in time to promote our regions spring offerings.If you are a business wanting to learn more about Orange360, membership for 2018/19 is nowopen and all local tourism service businesses are encouraged to contact the Orange360 team on 6361 7271.

Once again, I can’t help but think we’ve blown it. Orange 360….really? What does that mean? It seems that on day one there’s already confusion. GM Caddie Marshall says it represents Orange being a “year round destination”. How? Deputy Mayor Joanne McRae says to her it represents a 360 degree view of the Orange Region. That makes a bit more sense but I doubt anyone would pick up on it. In both cases, there’s nothing unique indicated and the same things could be said about any city. Who dreams these names up? 

Being a marketer myself, I believe something simple and straight-forward like Food and Wine Country or Central West Heartland or even God’s Country, names that conjure up a measure of “feel good” or something “special”.

I don’t want to be negative but sometimes it’s hard not to be. I’m still getting over the name Evocities, and the fact that Orange is still trying to tie itself to Banjo Patterson in some over-rated way, now we have Orange 360. The cynic in me says someone will interpret that meaning Orange is simply going around in a circle.

Is it just me, or are they not giving these brands enough time to brand themselves? Why do we keep hopping from one brand to another before the former has time to cement itself? In all honesty, I'm unsure as to what "Orange360" will say on behalf of Orange; memories of Kraft's renaming of Vegemite to 'iSnack 2.0' spring to mind. ;)