Watson was named senior account director. She has a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia.

The Sun News By Vicki Grooms – Georgetown County tourism leaders plan to attract visitors to their county by suggesting they not come.

Why? Because a survey of 400 former guests of the county determined that’s what those people wanted: a place to visit that they could enjoy and would love to keep as their own secret.

Georgetown County Council heard plans Tuesday for the campaign, intended to give the county an image of home. The branding effort will roll out on May 13.

The initiative for both a tourism moniker and an advertising campaign will christen Georgetown County as the Hammock Coast.

John Kautz, brand and relationship manager for Rawle Murdy Associates, a Charleston marketing communications firm, presented the concept to County Council members at their meeting Tuesday. Kautz said work on the campaign began last fall with a survey of past visitors.

“They told us it was the most relaxing place in the world,” Kautz said. “They were into discovering new things, people who want to be in the forefront to find those hidden gems … but they kind of want to keep it to themselves.”

Kautz said most of these people – many who live in Charlotte and other areas of North Carolina, Atlanta and Greenville – recognize subdestinations such as Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet, but they don’t associate the words “Georgetown County” with a place to vacation.

He said his firm’s mission was to leverage those findings and develop a message to bring more visitors to the county.

“We need something that means something to people emotionally,” Kautz said.

The Hammock Coast logo shows a hammock stretched between two trees with a crescent moon in the top corner.

Kautz said the word “hammock” evokes a spot that is relaxed. He said the name also had to be timeless, that “it’s simple by design, so it will stand the test of time.”

The advertising campaign describes Georgetown County as “South Carolina’s secret spot,” an undiscovered vacation destination, and features a man with a sign that reads, “Please don’t come to Hammock Coast.”

The advertising message, which will be part of public relations and social media as well, also came from research results, he said. Respondents said the area is not overbuilt, has a laidback attitude, and it’s a place where they “don’t want you to let anyone else in,” he said.

The ad’s character is “an interesting, funny guy who embodies that … ‘I don’t want you to come here because I don’t want it to change,’” Kautz said. “It gets people’s attention because it’s unorthodox.”

The creative message and the brand has been approved by the county’s Tourism Management Commission, said Annette Fisher with the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce.

The tourism Web site is being revamped, and the concept will be revealed to the public May 13 “to really show off to the community what this actually looks like,” she said.

Bruce Murdy, president of Charleston advertising and marketing firm Rawle Murdy Associates Inc., this year struck a highly unusual bargain with a major client, the supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co, Inc. He agreed to divide his time for six months platooning between his day job and the Pig’s internal team as the locally based grocer restructured its marketing department.

Looking to lift sales and fill the void left by the departure of its marketing chief earlier this year, Piggly Wiggly asked Murdy, whose firm has handled that account for 22 years, to serve as its interim marketing director until replacement Christopher Ibsen came on board in September.

Murdy found a staff that didn’t know what people in other departments were doing. They weren’t used to sharing information between ad, research and internal communication divisions. No one had accepted responsibility for the chain’s Web site and e-mail marketing. ‘The biggest challenge I had was changing culture,’ Murdy told the trade publication Advertising Age recently.

What did he do about it? He installed a digital marketing head, moved people around, asked staff for ideas that could be implemented right away, patched communication between marketing and management and reworked the grocer’s media strategy by moving back to mass-media channels, including TV. Sales began to increase.

Piggly Wiggly CEO David Schools doesn’t recommend the ad-coach arrangement for everyone, but he said it worked because it was based on trust from many years of working together.

Fans of the brand and nostalgia buffs alike will certainly recognize the famous connection between “butter” and “Parkaaaay” from television ads launched in the early 70s. The “moo” and “milk” banter refers to a recent television ad titled “Barn” which touts a new formulation of Parkay table spread made with real nonfat milk. In the ad, a farmer is startled to hear an unusual moo coming from inside his barn, and he discovers the Parkay Talking Tub in one of the stalls. The voiceover calls out that the new Parkay is made with milk “for a fresh and creamy taste.”

“This new iPhone application is a fun and quirky way for fans and consumers to interact and connect directly with the Parkay brand and the iconic Talking Tub,” said Jeff Muench, senior brand manager, ConAgra Foods. “There has always been a great deal of nostalgia and fanfare surrounding the Parkay Talking Tub, and we hope this new iPhone application helps reinvigorate the brand and gets people talking and laughing.”

Marketing firm Rawle Murdy spearheaded the project using voice-activation technology licensed from design firm Creaceed.

“The explosive popularity and adoption of new media provides a great opportunity for classic icons like Parkay to re-connect with consumers – and create a new generation of fans,” said Bruce Murdy, president, Rawle Murdy.

The Parkay Talking Tub was first used in television advertising in 1973. Over the years, the tub has appeared in advertising with celebrities such as Laurel and Hardy (1982), Deacon Jones (1983), William Daniels (1990-91), Crystal Bernard (1997) and Al Franken (1999).

About ConAgra Foods

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America’s leading food companies, with brands in 97 percent of America’s households. Consumers find Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying potato, other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.