A tourism campaign has two goals – make the people who haven’t yet visited want to go, and make the people who’ve already been long to return. The New Orleans tourism spot I just saw on FX – launched in April as part of their spring/summer marketing push – makes me want to go back. I knew the song. I knew the scene. I knew the food. And now I want to hop on a plane and head southwest. Here’s the TV spot:

The only issue I have with the ad is that I don’t find “Follow Your NOLA” to be that enticing of a tagline – even if you know what NOLA stands for, the line itself doesn’t grab you emotionally. Fortunately, the emotion of the spot, the spirit of the people, and the authenticity of the New Orleans experience more than make up for it.

For the purpose of this post, I “followed my NOLA” to the website, which pays off the ad beautifully, and may even salvage the tagline with calls to “Follow your Curiosity,” “Follow your Rhythm,” and “Follow your Fire,” among others. At the center of the website (and of the whole campaign), is a spinning fleur-de-lis. You are invited to give it a spin, and see where you land. This is not only interesting creatively, but a perfect embodiment of the attitude of the destination. It’s exactly what you do when you go there. Sure, you can plan every minute of your New Orleans trip (believe me, I am a planner by nature), but the best way to see it is to just go where the wind takes you.

Not every destination would be able to get away with this approach. The haphazardness of the look and feel of the website would not work for Chicago or Tucson or San Diego. It is a perfect match only for New Orleans.

As a huge fan of the city, perhaps the most unique in the entire country, I hope this campaign will drive more people to see where the fleur-de-lis takes them.