GEORGETOWN, S.C. —  Starting today, Georgetown County will be known as the Hammock Coast.

The Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce held a meeting last night to launch the county’s new branding campaign.

Representatives from S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism and the Charleston-based marketing agency Rawle Murdy Associates were at the Tara Theater in Litchfield to help kick off the project.

The campaign will encourage families, golfers and romantics to visit the area by asking them not to come.

In interactive ads posted on websites and social media networks, Internet users will see pictures of a family on a beach, a golfer teeing off and a couple drinking wine, but there will be a photo bomber in each of the pictures.

The man, dressed like a goofy tourist – complete with a floral short-sleeved shirt and white zinc oxide on his nose – will hold a sign that says, “Please don’t visit the Hammock Coast.”

“People love this place because it’s a secret,” Rawle Murdy representative Henry Mathieu said. The intention is to “promote the Hammock Coast as South Carolina’s best kept secret.”

Locals promoting and reacting

Annette Fisher, a representative from the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce, encouraged the local population to claim and embrace the hammock coast.

“Put it on your website; mention it in conversation. Immediately start branding,” she said.

Kathi Grace, marketing director for Myrtle Beach National Company said that her company will try to get the logo and name out to visitors and golfers by making references online and putting the logo on shirts and other embroidered goods.

“Hopefully the community will get behind it,” she said.

Leadership Georgetown County member Tom Winslow agreed that the new brand is important.

“With increased tourism it could be a real benefit in developing the area to a tourist destination, even if people visiting Charleston and Myrtle Beach just come down for a day visit,” he said.

Winslow said he loves the logo, which is a hammock between two palm trees with a crescent moon above, but he has concerns about the advertisements.

“I’ve always thought of Georgetown as a welcoming place. I’d like to put a more positive spin on it,” he said.

Goals of the Hammock Coast

Rawle Murdy representative John Kautz said the next step in the process is to create benchmark goals for what should happen as a result of the campaign.

Since most of the advertising is online, Rawle Murdy will focus on how many visitors the new website, HammockCoastSC.com, will receive.

Everyone is focusing on drawing an initial attention to the area, said S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism representative Beverly Shelley.

Shelley compared the advertisements to people in the area waving their arms over their heads and shouting, “We’re over here! Come here!

“Right now, the goal is to attract visitors, whether they’re coming back or coming for the first time,” she said.

By Anne Jones

annej@g.clemson.edu