By Valerie Baldowski
vbaldowski@henryherald.com

McDonough has a new video that city officials hope to use as a tool to attract more visitors to the community.

City Councilman Monta Brown played a two-minute promotional video, and a 60-second commercial, highlighting the city’s amenities and tourist attractions during Monday’s City Council meeting.

“It’s part of hospitality and tourism,” Brown said. “Our mission is to promote, and advertise information about the City of McDonough. If we get more people coming in, we’ll get more revenue.”

The video contains photos of the historic McDonough Square, including the Welcome Center, the Col. Charles T. Zachry monument and the Henry County Courthouse. The video also highlights popular annual events, including the Geranium Festival, the Christmas Parade, Music on the Square, Art Attack, and the Roberto Clemente Little League World Series.

“It took about two months to make,” Brown said. “The video became available about two weeks ago.”

Brown said 70,000 vehicles travel the Interstate 75 corridor each day, and that he hopes some of those vehicles can be diverted into McDonough.

“We don’t particularly have to be a destination spot,” he said. “We can be a stop-and-stay-and-play spot.”

The video was the result of a brainstorming session involving 10 members of the McDonough Hospitality and Tourism Board and Main Street McDonough, Brown said.

The video was produced by Integrity Arts, an Orlando, Fla.-based production company, according to Annette O’Banion, president of the McDonough Hospitality and Tourism Board. The funds to make the video were drawn from the Hospitality and Tourism Board budget, she said.

Neither Brown nor O’Banion had figures immediately available on how much the video cost.

City officials plan to air a 60-second commercial, as well as a 30-second commercial the group also produced, on cable television. A timetable for when the city will begin airing the commercials has not been established, Brown said.

He said the city’s Hospitality and Tourism Board will send copies of its promotional videos to welcome centers anywhere in the state, upon request.

“McDonough has had a lot of branding,” said O’Banion. “The question for everybody is, if we’re trying to attract tourists, how do we want the world to see us?”

Brown said the idea for a promotional video was developed during a “One-day Story Jam” camp. The camp was sponsored by the Hospitality and Tourism Board, and was held in November in Orlando, he continued. City leaders provided hundreds of still photos for the video, and six hours of raw video footage to be condensed down into the final version, he said.

“Sometimes you don’t see the trees for the forest,” Brown said. “There’s a lot to do in McDonough, and a lot to do in Henry County.”