By now, many of you have likely heard that we have rebranded from ILLINOISouth Tourism to Discover Downstate Illinois. We have already been asked some questions about the process, so we figured we would take you behind the scenes to show everyone how we arrived at our new identity.

STEP 1: WHY THE REBRAND?

This is the easiest question to answer. Simply put, it was time. The bureau started using ILLINOISouth Tourism back in 2012. We have grown since then, expanding our coverage area to 21 counties. We’re not exclusively ‘south.’ Our bureau covers 100,000+ square miles between the Mississippi and Wabash Rivers spanning between the Missouri and Indiana borders – west to east. There are also communities we cover that sit above Interstate 70, which we found a lot of folks do not deem to be ‘south’ (more on that in a bit). Over the years, we also found that ILLINOISouth could be tricky for folks. We’ve been referred to as Illinois South Tourism, South Illinois Tourism, So. Illinois Tourism, Southern Illinois Tourism, and just Illinois Tourism. We can’t tell you how many hundreds of emails have been lost in cyberspace because folks were accidentally emailing us at illinoissouth.org – instead of illinoisouth.org. So, after a decade of using ILLINOISouth Tourism, we decided in early 2022 that it was time for a refresh.

STEP 2: WHY DISCOVER DOWNSTATE ILLINOIS?

Get a snack and hunker down, because this one takes a little more explaining. When we decided that we were going all-in on a rebrand, we wanted to leave no stone unturned. Our team was going to do whatever it took to get all of the information possible about our region. But therein lies the issue, because our region is HUGE. We’re geographically the largest tourism bureau in the state, so we had our work cut out for us. The first thing we did was send out a survey to several of our community partners who remained anonymous. Our decision to rebrand was apparently a good one, because 72% of the people polled responded that we needed a refresh. Then, we dove deeper and asked folks to explain our region. Those results were not nearly as clear cut. What we quickly found is that location is relative, especially regional location. It all depends on where you grew up and where you are now. Remember that phrase - LOCATION IS RELATIVE - because it helps describe this entire process. Some folks believe that southern Illinois is anything south of Interstate 70, others believe that it’s south of Interstate 64, and yet others are of the thought that southern Illinois spans from Route 13 and south. There were several comments that ‘south’ or ‘southern’ does not describe us because we do not cover all of southern Illinois. That part is true – our friends at Southernmost Illinois Tourism cover the ten-county area of Route 13 and below (keep up the great work, Carol!).

So where are we then? As you see by the map we have included, our area is so big that it includes both the 618 and 217 area codes. We asked folks in our survey and focus groups to tell us exactly where our region is. We were told it was ‘mid,’ which in this day and age is not a phrase we were going to use. It was also described as central, but we couldn’t in good conscious use that because our friends in Chester and Carmi are clearly not central. The best response we received was, “Discover South of Central and North of Southern Illinois. LOL.” While that respondent was being tongue and cheek, they’re not wrong. It was a difficult task because again, location is relative. Every single person on this planet has their own sense of direction and location, and we’re not all wrong – but who is right?

After months of compiling these surveys and name suggestions we then had a brainstorm session as an office. We came up with a few different names and then sent out yet another survey. Want to guess the most popular name option? It was Discover Downstate Illinois. Out of half a dozen different options, 60% of our respondents picked that as their favorite. So that’s your winner, right? Nope, not even close. Some of the respondents said that anything south of Interstate 80 to folks in Chicago is ‘downstate.’ Likewise, we heard from a few other people that anything north of Mt. Vernon is ‘north’ or ‘upstate.’ All together now…location is relative.

At this point we wanted to keep digging, keep kicking the tires to find the absolute best name to describe us.  It was decided at that point that we should enlist the help of an agency. After a thorough search, we landed on Cork Tree Creative. Their staff came to our office, and we went to theirs for a couple hours each time. We brainstormed, we talked, we laughed, we sat in silence, and we came up with a vast array of different names. We’re talking about 16 different people who have all these survey and focus group findings, all forming a mind-meld for the best title. After talking about our goals, objectives, and our amazing community partners – that group of 16 people came to the same conclusion that a survey already did – Discover Downstate Illinois describes us best.

The biggest reason why Discover Downstate Illinois suits us so well is that it doesn’t prohibit us from assisting future communities or neighboring counties who have considered joining our bureau. That is top of mind for us, point blank. We don’t care of it’s a town of 2,000 or 42,000 – if a community needs help marketing and promoting their attractions and events and they don’t have the means to do so themselves, we are here to help. It’s what we do; it’s what we work for. For example, if a city along Route 13 in southern Illinois wanted to join us but our title consisted of ‘central’ or ‘middle’ – that would be misleading because that community is south. On the flip side, if we coined ourselves with the term ‘southern’ or ‘south’ and Coles or Edgar Counties wanted to join us – that’s also misleading because those areas are more ‘central’ and ‘eastern.’ So in the end, Discover Downstate Illinois is extremely applicable because all of those aforementioned communities can be considered ‘downstate.’

Here is the thing though, we still weren’t done. Our office wanted to be very sure that we were making the right choice. Before we even went into design mode with Cork Tree, we sent the new name to 13 former employees of ours. They are folks that once had a vested interest in the bureau and cared about the area, so we know that they would be honest. All 13 of them gave us the thumbs up, not one dissenting opinion. So, this naming journey that started in March of 2022 now finally came to a finish in September of 2022. It was a decision that wasn’t made lightly. From there, we then worked with Cork Tree on the design, which didn’t take nearly as long…thank goodness.

We do hope you found this insightful. The rebranding effort was one that took 11 months, and for the most part we have heard nothing but positive reviews. In the end, we know that not everyone is immediately going to fall in love with our new identity, just like there were people who weren’t in love with ILLINOISouth. You simply can’t please everyone in regard to this topic because…location is relative.

What we can tell you is this - our unwavering commitment to this region does not change with our new look. We are going to continue cranking out publications, we will travel miles and miles to visit each community and promote them on everything from Facebook to TikTok. We are here to let travelers (both in Illinois and out of state) know that there are GREAT things to do in our neck of the woods. We love this region, and we appreciate you taking the time to read what made this whole process so special.