Reframing Visit Detroit's Reputation With Chris Moyer, Senior Director of Communications at Visit Detroit
Chris Moyer is the Senior Director of Communications at Visit Detroit, where he utilizes his storytelling abilities and expertise in connecting people to bring visitors to the Detroit area. He is a seasoned communications strategist with nearly two decades of experience in government, clean energy, and economic development across the US and UK. As a passionate advocate for family and dogs, it's unclear which holds precedence in his heart. However, it's evident that he has a passion for traveling, Detroit sports, soccer, and the complex connections between public policy, the energy industry, digital transformation, customer experience, and politics. Chris is a Detroit enthusiast, lifelong learner, traveler, and aging athlete.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Chris Moyer talks about what is necessary to rebuild Detroit’s reputation to entice visitors
What attracted Chris to join Visit Detroit?
The misconceptions about Detroit’s reputation
Chris shares the unknown qualities of Detroit that he’ll focus on promoting
Why Visit Detroit chooses to offer a mobile-friendly website rather than a mobile app
How the organization is using AI to create personalized experiences for visitors
The biggest obstacle Chris faces in attracting visitors to Southeast Michigan
What you’ll learn in this episode:
If your city has great qualities and is even thought to be a hidden gem but is often perceived negatively, what can you say to potential tourists to change their minds and encourage them to visit?
As an experienced communication strategist, Chris Moyers is addressing and reshaping the Detroit area's negative reputation by highlighting the positive aspects of the region. Leading the Visit Detroit initiative, he is reviving and improving the city's tarnished image by showcasing its residents' accomplishments, the vibrant small business community, and the city's rich cultural history. Over the next year, Chris will focus on specific themes such as innovation, music, and culture. By positioning Detroit as a foundational building block of American culture, he aims to attract visitors who are seeking a unique and authentic experience.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni chats with Chris Moyer, Senior Director of Communications at Visit Detroit, about effective ways to rehabilitate the reputation of a city to attract tourists. Chris talks about overcoming the perception that Detroit is unsafe, highlights the tremendous cultural and historical impacts of the area, and discusses Visit Detroit’s approach to using AI and a mobile-friendly website for marketing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design are the strategic foundation for your brand’s success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:34
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to use my expertise in consumer behavior to engage with top business leaders who are propelling their brands forward. Today, I have a very special guest with me but before I get to his introduction, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave provides holistic marketing that inspires people to visit cities, attractions, and the great outdoors. Their behavior models tap into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. This allows them to specialize in answering the question Where to next, then point them in the very best direction yours. Visit offmadisonave.com to learn more. Now without further ado, today's guest is a gentleman by the name of Chris Moyer. Chris is a storyteller and a connector of people and communities. He is currently the senior director of communications and government relations for Visit Detroit. Chris has nearly two decades of work in government, clean energy and economic development in the US and UK. He is passionate about several things including family dogs. I'm not sure which one takes precedent their family or dogs travel, Detroit sports soccer, which breaks out from sports odd in public service. So Chris, welcome to the show.
Chris Moyer 1:54
Roger, great to be with you today. And certainly I love my dogs. My my human family, my daughter, I rank them just ever so slightly above my dogs. And I break out soccer. Because as much as I love all sports, soccer has been good to me in my life. And as a as a former player, I still have a great deal of separate passion just for that.
Roger Hurni 2:22
There is a reason it's called the beautiful game. So I believe
Chris Moyer 2:25
so not the way I played it. I played it in a more pedestrian level. But but others have made it very beautiful.
Roger Hurni 2:32
Well, that's definitely a different show. So we will be we go down that road. Let's start talking about Detroit. I know you could probably speak about Detroit in the next three hours and just given the context of visit to Detroit people but like, oh, he gets tourism and nothing that everything is covered there by the people who are visiting Detroit. But can you briefly give me a sense of, of why someone wants to choose Detroit over other destinations. And that can be national can even be in the area because I know there's different tourism groups around the state.
Chris Moyer 3:09
Sure, briefly Visit Detroit is so proud to represent not just the great city of Detroit, but 137 other communities in the three counties that surround the city proper. So about 4.4 million people. People have been living on the Detroit River for 1000s of years. This this river defines movement. And it was that river that brought French explorers in the early 1700s to Detroit and sort of inspired the industry that propelled Detroit in the late 1800s, early 1900s to become the home of American innovation. Throughout the night, early 1900s 10s of 1000s of people are moving to Detroit every single every single month. And by 1954 Were one of the largest cities in the country. One six of the American economy comes from Detroit. We know we didn't invent the automobile that was invented in Germany in the 1880s. But Detroit changed the way that the automobile was manufactured, produced and ultimately sold to the customer. The first paved road the first stop sign the first try color traffic light, the first highway all come from Detroit. And I always like to say that the great American Road Trip or the great road trip doesn't happen without Detroit. So there's so much incredible automotive and manufacturing heritage in this in this region. That's a big draw of why people come and visit us today. But Detroit story is one of exceptional nuance. We don't have that always have that reputation of 1950. When again, 1/6 of the American economy is is based out of Detroit, and we're the wealthiest city in the world. Detroit had a spectacular fall from grace. And we need to be conscientious and understand that there were a multitude of factors behind that part of it was a changing business environment. 80% of the cars sold in the world in 1954, have a connection to Detroit. Well, that's going to change as the British manufacturing comes back, the French manufacturing comes back, people start buying German cars again, Japanese automotive automakers come to the scene Korean automakers and on and on and on. So now it's, it's just under About 40% of all vehicles are made by one of the Detroit big three, that's still a lot. And there's still a tremendous amount of money in the metro Detroit area. But the other major piece of this was that Detroit really suffered as many places did in North America and the United States, excuse me, United States, specifically, in the 1950s 60s 70s with systemic racism. And Detroit's version of this was different than other northern cities, because it wasn't just taking, you know, somebody leaving their home and moving to the suburbs. Detroit is also took the businesses with them, and so not as many people were coming downtown, and that led to a 4050 year decline in tax rate and population. Well, and then this perception that Detroit is not a safe, safe place. I've got news though, we don't deserve that reputation from 1994 1954. It's 2024. And Detroit is now one of the safest, most vibrant, revitalized communities and a place that people should really start to take a longer look at visiting again, or visiting for the first time yet.
Roger Hurni 7:21
So I wanted to I don't want to get a scab here. I'm kind of curious. That reputation you described really well on you said, you know, it's been a city of innovation, some amazing people in my research, I didn't realize was from there. I mean, we all know Bob Seger, of course, and yeah, and, and Motor City, but you know, it for those who don't know, you know, the birthplace of Motown and yes, my favorite designers, John purchases from there and Malcolm X and Steve Ballmer from Microsoft, like, I could go on with that list. There's a lot of storied sons and daughters of Detroit that had really had an impact on the world. And I agree with you, does it, it deserves a better reputation. So that's really the question I have is, What are you doing now to try to to get people over that hump?
Chris Moyer 8:11
Sure. Well, we got to stay humble. We got to stay hungry. There's so many good things happening in the city right now. We've just had three different national international publications of great No. Conde Nast, traveler, afar and Architectural Digest say that Detroit is on their list of places to visit in 2024. Time Magazine named us one of the world's greatest places just a year ago. There are we are consistently trying to share the message that it is time to reimagine your free your previous conception of Detroit. But the biggest thing, the biggest change is ultimately going to be because more and more people get to know Detroiters you mentioned some of those great Detroiters, the great sons and daughters of Detroit and some of our great exports beyond just the automotive industry. But music wouldn't be music without Detroit. Yeah, it's Motown for sure. And Barry Gordy, the founder of Motown, who, of course was working for Ford and on the assembly line when he was hearing those percussive rhythms and combine that with his passion for creativity and songwriting that led to Motown in the careers of people like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five but Diana Ross, the temptations The Supremes, and on and on and on, but it's also techno it's soul music. People getting to know Detroit as this music destination is also critical to our work as up helping to change the perception. And now more recently, whether it's Eminem or Bob Seger, or Kid Rock, you name it there. Madonna is a from just north of Detroit. So Michigan and Southeast Michigan is this home of so much great musical talent from multiple genres. And we think that that's a key component and how people are going to see Detroit going forward.
Roger Hurni 10:26
It is a much more vibrant and creative area than then people do give it credit for. I completely agree with you. It's, it's, it's a gem. It really is. It's one of those hidden gems that we have in this country hidden right now.
Chris Moyer 10:44
Yeah. And and gem for sure. So more work to be done.
Roger Hurni 10:50
So speaking of more work to be done, you've been there at Visit Detroit for almost a couple of years, I believe.
Chris Moyer 10:56
Yes. Just under a few years.
Roger Hurni 10:58
I'm kind of curious, what were the opportunities that attracted you to the position? And have you been able to check off any of those boxes?
Chris Moyer 11:07
You know, I've had the great fortune of living in multiple different countries and cities in my adult life, I'm originally from just north of the city of Detroit. And, handedly, when I was 18, I thought I want to go somewhere else I want to I want to get out of Southeast Michigan, see the world explore the world. What's here for me, it was later in in life in my early 30s. When I rediscovered all the great things that were happening here that I said, I want to be a part of it. And so my wife and I moved back from another great American city in Denver, Colorado, where we were having a wonderful experience. And immediately work was able to jump in Detroit to city where it matters on the world stage for what it does. But if you care and you give back to the community, you can matter in this city. And I was very fortunate a couple years ago as my predecessor at at the convention and visitor Bureau from a marketing communications perspective retired that the new CEO had heard me talk passionately about the city of Detroit in Southeast Michigan and the possibility the possibilities of of what this region has to offer, and offered me the position of communications director with Visit Detroit. I jumped at that chance. And this is the best job I've ever had. And I I've had a lot of great opportunities in my life. So I hope that every day I help tell the story of a little bit more about Detroit. And my biggest my the thing that motivates me is, I know the work that we do in travel and tourism, meetings, conventions and events, impacts so many people's lives. This is such an incredible industry, because it connects people, it inspires people, it breaks down barriers of cultural Miss apprehension. And it also powers so many local economies and businesses and puts food on people's table. I love this job so much. And I and I I know there are lots of people that have my job, that job and other destinations that get to do great things as well.
Roger Hurni 13:35
Well, you certainly can't tell by your passion. So you know, I'm glad to actually articulate it. That's a great macro picture. And clearly there's a lot of opportunity there. Is there anything getting down to maybe a micro level like what's on your to do list for Visit Detroit that you're you're trying to tackle now.
Chris Moyer 13:56
It goes back to that change of perception. We saw this this past summer that I see what's happening. I'm on the ground, I walk the streets every day. Detroit is a safe place, our crime rate is less than 40% of what it was 25 years ago. This year is going to be the safest year in Detroit history. In the last 70 years of Detroit history. It's just a remarkable turnaround. That has been driven by great work from our police department, city leaders, community. And yet, this is where full circle this summer Gallup did a perception survey on American cities and their safety. Detroit was at the bottom. One D 6% of Americans thought Detroit was safe. It it you know, the perception is so out Have ye with the reality that I'm never going until that perception who better matches reality I'm never going to have a dull day because I've got so much work to do to try to get that that message out there and, and so my to do list on a daily weekly monthly basis is highlight more Detroiters, more Metro Detroiters doing great things in the city and beyond. And highlight the great things, the great developments that are happening, the great new restaurants, the great bars to the fantastic small business community that we have the great American story that you can touch and feel and experience in Detroit. That's That's my to do list every day.
Roger Hurni 15:49
So that all said, What have been your best strategies, marketing or otherwise, for attracting visitors to that popery of everything there is to do there, right? This
Chris Moyer 16:01
we're going to kind of go laser focused in 2024. on innovation, music and culture. And our idea is that when we move the world moves, cars wouldn't be cars, music wouldn't be music, and your world wouldn't be your world without Detroit. And so focusing on those, as opposed to say, saying, hey, Detroit's, there's something for everybody here. Well, maybe there is maybe there is like, if you want to go skiing, don't come to Detroit that this isn't your destination. If you're looking for year round, 80 plus degree weather, no, this isn't your destination, either. That's you can do that and other great places. But if you're if you are looking for what makes American culture, the place, you know, what a special institution that it is, you've got to come to Detroit because this is a foundational building block of of the entire country.
Roger Hurni 17:13
Is That's it? That's a great position. I mean, you clearly own that position. Because, you know, you're probably one of three or four cities entire country that has something similar to that. But everyone talks about the activities. They don't get into the dailies, my work as a behavioral strategist, don't get into the motivations behind why somebody wants to visit, that sense of history, that sense of cultural significance. The ability be able to walk those same streets as a Malcolm X, right? Yes, that that is undeniably yours. And those are great leverage points from a behavior standpoint to shift that visitor behavior to make Detroit. Certainly a destination. And unless you think I'm off base here, that's how I'm sort of armchair quarterbacking that analysis.
Chris Moyer 18:05
Well, I appreciate that our analysis, Roger and I, I think that that's, we're leaning into to that idea as well. You can do great things here. There are lots of experiences to have. But it's we want to get to the why.
Roger Hurni 18:19
Now, well, I wouldn't be a marketing person if I didn't get down to some some brass tacks. I am kind of curious about a couple of areas I wanted to explore with you to get your take on it. In the work that I've done with the destinations and recreation outdoor stuff. Mobile App is becoming a really big deal, you know? And not like the big apps like, you know, the Ubers of the world or what have you, but people will go to destinations and want that places mobile app to discover the undiscovered gems. You know, the things that where the locals go, that sort of thing. I didn't see a mobile app on the store for you unless I miss something, but you do not. Okay. So if that's something you're looking into exploring not see value in it, or is there
Chris Moyer 19:11
every destination is going to make a different decision. What we have decided at at Visit Detroit at this moment, is that, for us, having a exceptionally mobile first experience with our website is a lower barrier of entry than somebody making a choice to download an app to access the content that we have on our website. That's our that's our strategy right now. We have built and designed a new website this year to again be mobile first. That's how most people are consuming the internet content these days. And on top of that, we're really excited, we rolled out a artificial intelligence platform that's very easy to access. It's a little icon of a Model T Ford at the very top of our website. And it asked some very unobtrusive questions about who you are and what you're interested in. And that then guides you in presents a potential pathway to experience some of those hidden gems that somebody could have could experience in, in Detroit and Southeast Michigan.
Roger Hurni 20:38
That's really fascinating. I'm actually looking through the site right now and started to click where you can tell people hey, I'm so aligned with a partner and with friends, and it starts to develop for you an itinerary, is that, because artificial intelligence was gonna be my next question, Chris. Yeah, then too.
Chris Moyer 20:58
I jumped ahead. I'm sorry.
Roger Hurni 20:59
No, no, no, you queued that up perfectly cued it up every way. There's machine learning, which is, you know, a part of artificial intelligence, then there's like ontology based where you're taking things that have no relationship to one another, making a correlation. And all of it is super smart to do. It seems I'm looking through this, this is kind of a rules based yes thing where, hey, you know, this machine learning is taking my information. And it's, it's creating a level of personalization that a lot of websites don't do is that's what's happening here.
Chris Moyer 21:35
That's what's happening here. I don't want to overstate this, we this is not artificial intelligence, where the where we genuinely know who you are, as Roger, we know, this individual interaction based on the inputs that you have provided to us to create a in the moment experience and, and the nice thing about this, where maybe, maybe the area where we we can do more to connect to this. And ultimately, it's going to get better, we believe it will get better and more sophisticated over time. But if Roger, you come as a, a conference attendee, and do the app and enter all this information, it will spit out a different itinerary for you than if you were there with by yourself or with friends, or family. But it's not going to remember. So you come in January, and then you come again in September, it's not going to necessarily remember, Oh, you did this last time? Yeah. So there's, there's room for future growth and optimization.
Roger Hurni 22:47
But you know, I will tell you, you're still light years ahead of a lot of destinations that I see where they will put together itineraries. And I might want to do seven out of the 10 things or four things are whatever, they're not personalized. They're not taking into consideration my circumstances, my preferences, to least create something that's semi personal. To me. There is other layers out there that can look at that implicit and explicit behaviors and make correlations to give me recommendations. That's a different level of AI. I believe, as an industry, travel tourism is moving there and moving there very quickly. But you've certainly gotten a great start. I'm assuming you're going to continue that growth and maybe use generative AI LLM in the future for either brand storytelling or creating travel itineraries on the fly like in market. Those are all opportunities. I'm assuming you're exploring or am I absolutely.
Chris Moyer 23:55
And and, you know, when you have 105 neighborhoods in the city of Detroit, and 138 communities in Southeast Michigan, it is incumbent on us to be able to connect with the traveler and have them be able to weigh find and navigate very quickly to say, Well, I'm on the north end right now. And what are some things that I could do just here and one or two neighborhoods over as opposed to a typical thing which might say oh, you need to go to this restaurant well that restaurants 35 minutes away. That doesn't make too much sense right now let's let's give you an experience a tailored experience to the neighborhood you're in and make some suggestions. So there's, there's a long way to go from that generative AI large language model opportunity and some machine learning that there we're going to do but this is this is a content you Engine and we're one that we're embracing. Excellent,
Roger Hurni 25:02
excellent. kind of curious. I've just a few more questions that I'm wondering what's the what's the biggest challenge you're facing now? What keeps you up at night?
Chris Moyer 25:12
Outside of the perception, you know, changing the perception. Just keeping up, it's our we, we will never do enough. It's it stay humble, we're never going to do enough to tell every story of every person and every reason to come to Southeast Michigan. But what I create one piece of content, am I also doing it? Am I doing enough to make sure that 25 minutes north of Detroit and a great community like Sterling Heights, or Troy, Michigan, or 3030 minutes west of Detroit and Plymouth, that they're getting the same sort of potential exposure to potential visitors as well. So I think it's the if there's something that keeps me up, it's, what am I missing? Yeah,
Roger Hurni 26:06
that's, um, that is, that's a lot. For people in your position, that is a difficult problem to solve. It usually stems from moving people out because the desire of those, pardon the phrase more rural communities or more, it gets, the catalyst is overtourism. And I know and the reason one of the reasons I mentioned the app, I've actually worked with an AI company that they've used an app in travel and tourism, where they tripled the number of places that people visited extended days by getting out to those locations based on behavior modeling. The AI behavior models it all out. Not a really expensive endeavor. But that's the opportunity I've seen universally for everybody in your position is getting people to visit like a local. Right, use those words, you know, and that's, it's a long road. i don't I'm not sure there's a question there. It's more of just an observation that you're not alone in this in this adventure, you know, that
Chris Moyer 27:13
I and that's comforting, and also not his company to this day, at the same sense, because we all have to deal with our own respective challenges. I think it is, it is a blessing that we are such a regional destination, one that doesn't experience over tourism, the way that that other destinations do. Currently, we did we do have a ton of visitors. I mean, we had 16 and a half million visitors in 2022, still tallying what 2023 looks like. But I'm proud to say that Detroit hotels passed a billion dollars in lodging revenue. And it's not just driven by the average daily rate of the hotel. It's it's driven by actual people wanting to be in the Detroit region in 2023. So we're setting we're setting records right now, that is indicative of progress. So more than more to do more people to reach and more connected points that we want to take those visitors on so that they can see the multitude of good in our community.
Roger Hurni 28:28
Is that the thing that you're most excited about right now that you actually see progress? I mean to two years in a position is not theoretically a long time No, has been seen. It's not easy. Blogger says, here's
Chris Moyer 28:39
the I am fortunate to do what I do. But I'm fortunate to do what I do with an incredible team in the organization of Visit Detroit, we've got to absolutely dynamic CEO and Claude Molinari, but it's it's the 23 year old, all, you know, fresh data person on our marketing team to the person that has been doing partnerships services for 30 years within our organization that just feel so passionately, passionately about our mission. It's it makes my job a lot easier.
Roger Hurni 29:14
I can't believe you actually said that compliment about Paul because outside of Detroit, his reputation is far worse than Detroit to just I'm just telling you, we've all heard about him. I'm kidding, Paul. I'm getting I'm Roger, call me. Well, I've got one question. You've agreed with your time I've got my last question I wrap up every show with because I always think there's insight into this question. But I'm curious as to what is the worst advice you've ever gotten that you said no, no to?
Chris Moyer 29:42
Great question. I get that a lot. And I I think that the worst advice that I've that I've probably gotten has some validity to to it. And that is specialize and focus early on. I think that this is we got to keep learning in this world to ultimately achieve big success. being focused and specializing allows you to move up and, and be successful. But be curious, as Ted lasso said, and say yes to as many different opportunities in life at an early stage. And then at some point, start to not saying it to say no, in a way of prioritization.
Roger Hurni 30:49
Yeah. I actually love that the quote from Ted last his character is the Walt Whitman does the be curious, not judgmental. You must feel like that could be a theme for for Detroit because it Detroit it's like, Hey, don't be judgmental, be curious, because we have a lot to offer. I mean, you can almost steal Walt Whitman, and probably be
Chris Moyer 31:12
I suppose I somewhat expose myself as a consumer of modern culture as opposed to reading Leaves of Grass. Of course, that is the great that is the Great Wall Redman. But
Roger Hurni 31:23
a indeed, you're talking to somebody in the studied American Lit and yeah, you know, whatever. So like, you know, I wasn't trying to call you out on it, because Oh, and I went all the way to hit Lhasa when that scene did it. It was so off it Yes. About describing his childhood and, and you know how the all those guys just judged him and judged everyone it was. I feel like it's a parallel analogy to visit Detroit. Don't judge and go see and explore. Curious. I need
Chris Moyer 31:52
to do. Yeah, we need to be we welcome that. We welcome the cure. We welcome everybody. Yeah, but you will find more. With that open heart and a curious mind.
Roger Hurni 32:04
Yeah, I almost feel like that's the new tagline. Visit Detroit. Be curious. If you use it, feel free to give me credit. That's not what you had been wonderful. I really appreciate all your time. Thank you for much for being on the show. Everyone I have been speaking with Chris Moyer. He is the Senior Director of Communications at Visit Detroit. Chris, where can people learn more about you? And Visit Detroit?
Chris Moyer 32:28
Sure, go to visitdetroit.com. I am one of the easier people to find on our website. If you go to the media relations section. I'm purposefully easy to relatively easy to find. So if you have complaints, I also receive those as well.
Roger Hurni 32:46
But when you Oh, no, no complaints. Go to Paul comprehend go to you. Yeah.
Chris Moyer 32:53
i i You can also please, @chris_in_detroit, on Instagram and then LinkedIn. Christopher Moyer, is how I go on in that professional realm of of LinkedIn. And so always excited to connect with new people. Have great conversations, just like this conversation today. All right.
Roger Hurni 33:17
All right, everyone. Thank you very much, Chris. I'm Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal we'll catch you next time.
Outro 33:26
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
