The Shires of Southwestern Vermont
Destination Marketing Organization (DMO)
Mission
The Shires of Southwestern Vermont Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), a 501c3 nonprofit, seeks to foster and use the combined energies and assets of the North and South Shires of Bennington County, to promote entrepreneurial spirit and to support the cultural, scenic, environmental, agricultural, historic, and recreational assets of the entire Shires region.
Scope
The scope of the Shires DMO is to effectively run and manage key elements of the region’s marketing efforts on behalf of all the people of The Shires of Southwestern Vermont Region. Additionally, this group will work to create a common place for marketing and communication institutions and assets throughout the region to meet. These institutional stakeholders will be encouraged to communicate their work, collaborate across industries and talents, and grow the travel and tourism base of Southwestern Vermont. The DMO is an entity under the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce who’s mission is to promote, lead and advocate a unified effort, on behalf of its members, to maintain and improve a healthy business climate and rewarding quality of life for the entire Shires of Vermont region.
The DMO will work to:
Develop and promote The Shires of Southwestern Vermont Brand and its portfolio of communication vehicles (print, guide, social, outdoor, video, SEO, experiential, etc.).
Support ongoing Shires of Vermont Byway (Route 7A) growth efforts including the ongoing Byway advertising rack distribution system.
Provide meetings, programs and events that encourage cross promotion and cross development of partners/marketing stakeholders.
Pursue and fulfill available grants from various sources for marketing, travel and tourism purposes.
Advocate for travel, recreation and marketing efforts and funds for Southwestern Vermont
Create a travel and tourism internal culture of partnerships, collaborations; a 1+1>2 model
History
The Shires of Vermont DMO was originally formed as a Regional Marketing Organization under the State of Vermont Legislature. In an effort to decentralize tourism funds and provide regions the opportunity to market their own brands, the Legislature set up RMOs throughout Vermont in 2000.
In 2006-2008, the “Bennington County Regional Marketing Organization,” one of the only remaining and funded RMOs in the state went through a rebrand process. Hildene hosted the branding exercise with 40 leaders from Bennington County. The group traveled the county and met with various groups and organizations asking, “Who are we? What is our Brand? What are our attributes?
In the spring of 2007 the group of 40 leaders met again at The Equinox Inn with Bill O’Neal. Out of that meeting “The Shires of Vermont” name and tagline are born. By the fall the first logo is created and various groups are held to introduce the brand.
By January of 2008 a celebration of the Brand was held gathering of Community, Legislators, and Businesses. This includes a website launch which serves as a portal to Chambers (at that time Bennington, Manchester, Dorset, Arlington). Chambers started actively using The Shires as a regional marketing umbrella. The Shires of Vermont RMO (as it is now called) was successful in getting ongoing support from Representative Dick Sears in the form of state grant funds.
In 2009, Will Moses (great-grandson of “Grandma Moses”) was commissioned to create an original painting to depict The Shires brand. The painting goes on tour through The Shires and is later turned into posters, magnets and other memorabilia.
From 2007 to 2011, grant funds from the state help fund the growth and further development of brand related activities including attending trade shows as The Shires (NYTimes Travel Show, Connecticut, Big E, Boston), creation of first lure piece “Museums of The Shires,” creation of a “flip” magazine, incorporation of The Shires logo on all Arts Weekend inserts into the Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal. In 2010 the creation of The Shires of Vermont Byway occurs replacing Route 7A with the moniker. The Shires RMO, with support from both large chambers and the Shires Byway Committee in partnership with the Bennington County Regional Commission, have the main travel corridor (Route 7A) connecting The Shires and designated the “ The Shires of Vermont Byway” by the State of Vermont and Federal Government.
By 2016, the RMO has created both interpretive panels throughout the region and launch the Shires of Vermont Rack Distribution System which encourages travelers to stay local by focusing marketing collateral in over 20 racks throughout the county with local attractions.
Also in 2016, the Manchester Chamber, one of the last remaining Chambers in the county, closed. This leaves the only remaining large chamber, The Bennington Area Chamber, left to shepherd the RMO group. The RMO group goes through a small rebrand changing their name to The Shires of Vermont Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) and continues to support regional marketing efforts.
The Chamber takes on more of the day-to-day operations of marketing the region by embracing the Shires of Vermont marketing efforts including social, print, digital, rack distribution and public relations.
As the COVID pandemic spread and the Chamber took on many of the actions of the group, the DMO group become more dormant especially with many of its core, faithful volunteers moving on and retiring.
Today, The Shires of Southwestern Vermont brand and organization continues to be stewarded by the regional Chamber. Various marketing campaigns, social and digital media efforts, grants and stakeholder gatherings are managed by the Chamber.
Benefits of having a DMO
Increased coordination and organization of regional and local marketing agents and institution
Reduced duplication of efforts and inefficiencies of scale
Increased resources and respect of our groups in the larger community
Greater communication capability of the group (e.g. to the community, to business leaders, advocacy and legislation at the State/governmental level.
Evolution of the Brand
The Shires of Vermont Byway is a documentary film highlighting the people and places along Vermont's Route 7 and Historic Route 7A in Bennington County Vermont. This byway travels through some of Vermont's most beautiful and historical areas, from the state line in Pownal to Manchester. Your host, Greg Cutler, explores 25 places of interest along the way. Produced by Catherine Stewart, with production support by GNAT TV, this project is the second in a series highlighting the newly designated Byways of Southern Vermont. This documentary is a first place winner in the 17th Annual Alliance For Community Media - Northeast Region - Video Festival.
Interpretive Panels
These interpretive panels highlight the hearts of the Southshire and Northshires and are posted in Bennington and Manchester respectively. Click the images bellow to see and download the full pdfs.
