Minnesota
Explore Minnesota unveils new marketing campaign
ROCHESTER — Minnesotans got a first look Tuesday at the state’s new ads touting tourism and a move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes that will launch in March — the largest nationwide marketing campaign the state has ever done.
The ads in the new “Star of the North” campaign aim to draw more visitors and new residents, and will launch March 4 in 22 states and Canada. Explore Minnesota, the state’s tourism arm, unveiled the ads to travel industry experts at its annual conference in Rochester.
This is the first time Explore Minnesota is marketing beyond tourism, hoping to inspire Americans to consider relocating to Minnesota, with digital, TV and radio ads targeting communities like Seattle, Boston and Austin, Texas. Separate tourism ads will air mostly in the Midwest as well as cities like Denver and Dallas.
“Our campaigns are going to showcase the best of our state,” said Lauren Bennett McGinty, executive director of Explore Minnesota. “Minnesota can be the next positive chapter in their journey.”
The effort is needed, leaders say, to keep up with other states’ marketing efforts and fill critical jobs. Minnesota’s 3.1% unemployment rate — lower than the national rate — means the state has more job openings than workers. Minnesota also loses more residents than it gains.
“This campaign allows us to stand out,” Bennett McGinty said. “We want people across the country to know our secret: … Life is better in Minnesota.”
The national ad campaigns are part of new efforts at Explore Minnesota thanks to more than $25 million in extra funding the Legislature approved last year for the agency over the next two years, the first time its budget has increased in more than a decade and the largest investment ever.
Gov. Tim Walz said Minnesotans have long been humble and don’t brag about the state, but now is the time to sell its merits. He and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan addressed about 500 people at Tuesday’s conference, the largest attendance ever in decades of it.
“Nothing drives me crazier than to see other states advertising here knowing that what we have here can compete anywhere,” Walz said. “We need to tell the story … This is the place to be.”
The tourism ads feature influencers experiencing Minnesota for the first time in documentary-style ads, such as female anglers from South Carolina catching walleye on Lake of the Woods after visiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River and dining at Krewe in St. Joseph. The livability campaign highlights recent transplants from other states, including Oregon and New York, who have moved to Sartell, Minneapolis and Duluth.
“Talent recruitment is so important,” said Bill Von Bank of Experience Rochester, where the number of visitors has increased this year, nearing pre-pandemic levels. “Once you visit, maybe you’ll move here. Every state wants that.”
Of the new state funding to Explore Minnesota, $11 million is starting a new division called Explore Minnesota for Business, focused on economic development. The first phase is focused on attracting residents, followed by campaigns to lure new businesses and pitch college students on staying here for school and after graduation. Minnesota loses more college students than it attracts.
More than half of the states in the country have livability campaigns like this, Bennett McGinty added.
“To date Minnesota has been too quiet on that,” she said. “We haven’t been doing a good job of marketing of what we have to offer those job seekers or business owners. But that is changing.”
Most of the new funding, including for the new economic development division, is one-time funding this biennium. Bennett McGinty said she will likely be back at the state Capitol next year to ask legislators to sustain the funding.
“This is a long-term plan,” she said. “This isn’t just one and done. I’m hoping people see the effectiveness. I think people understand we need workers.”
Walz said the state will continue to fund the agency’s operation.
Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector makes up the fourth largest industry in the state, with about 250,000 employees at resorts, hotels, restaurants, museums and theaters. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the sector, which lost $14 billion and saw its workforce shrink by 23,000 workers from 2019.
There are some signs of a recovery. Average monthly hotel occupancy rates bounced back to 55% in 2022, up from 36% in 2020, though still below 2019′s rate and still lagging behind U.S. and other metro areas’ hotel indicators. The number of passengers traveling through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport increased to 31 million in 2022, up from less than 15 million in 2020 but still below the nearly 40 million travelers at MSP in 2019.
In 2022, the state recorded 77 million visitors — finally rebounding to the same number as 2019. Those visitors generated more than $13 billion in economic impact. New data comes out in April.
Explore Minnesota is also rebuilding, back to its pre-pandemic staffing levels of about 50 employees.
“We have some ways to go, but … 2023 has proved that travel is back,” Bennett McGinty said. “I would love for Minnesota to have a strong brand that lives on for a long time.”
A rest area along Interstate 94 in Minnesota has been closed to trucks until about Independence Day to accommodate an almost $3 million improvement project.
The eastbound I-94 Enfield rest area between St. Cloud, Minnesota and the Twin Cities between Wright County Road 8 and Highway 25 is now closed to cars and commercial vehicles as crews resurface the entrance and exit ramps, and update nearby sidewalks.
According to KNSI, the full closure is just the first phase of the project. The rest area will reopen to passenger vehicles only the week of May 11th. During that time, the truck parking area will remain closed as crews repave the lot.
The truck parking lot will reopen the week of June 30th, right around Independence Day. During that time, the passenger vehicle area will be shut down to allow for the resurfacing of the lot. The Minnesota DOT expects the rest area to be fully open by late July. The entire project is expected to cost $2.9 million.
Drivers heading east on I-94 are encouraged to use the Big Spunk Lake rest area near Avon, or to drive a little farther out to the Elm Creek rest area.
Could a UCLA baseball team that’s perfect in Big Ten play get better?
Bruins coach John Savage thinks so, which is a frightening prospect for the rest of a seemingly overmatched conference.
While Savage’s top-ranked Bruins completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota on Sunday with a 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium — stretching their Big Ten winning streak to 21 games — he said there’s more upside to be realized.
“Offensively, we just really couldn’t get a lot going,” Savage said after his team went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners. “We just weren’t able to put a lot together, but when that pitching and defense shows up every day, it gives yourself a chance to win, and that’s kind of what we did all three games, really.”
Those elements were so good Sunday that they overshadowed Roman Martin’s solo homer in the third inning and Will Gasparino’s two-run shot in the sixth.
Bruins left fielder Dean West made three superb catches — two leaping and one diving — and four relievers combined to give up only one run in 4 ⅔ innings. Closer Easton Hawk needed only six pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning while notching his third save in as many days.
Savage credited Minnesota’s pitching after the Golden Gophers (22-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) held the Bruins (36-3) to an average of five runs during the series and said many of his team’s offensive struggles were situational.
“We have very, very good offensive players — some of them are in … little ruts right now, but that’s OK,” Savage said. “These guys play a lot and get a lot of at-bats; there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
When it comes to UCLA’s conference record, it’s all been up.
What it means
UCLA’s sweep is further evidence that the Bruins aren’t getting complacent because of their record.
“This culture is really solid, and these guys truly believe in one another and they’re playing for the team,” Savage said. “We’re very fortunate to have this group, and so they love playing together, so there’s no complacency and there’s no reason to because we haven’t done anything; I mean, you’re 36-3, that’s great, but at the end of the day it’s about getting better and playing your best baseball the next 75 days.”
Turning point
Spotting a dominant team an early lead is never a good idea.
That’s what happened when the Bruins struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
West led off with a single to center field, took third on Roch Cholowsky’s double to left and scored on a balk. With one out, Martin hit an RBI infield single off the pitcher’s glove. UCLA was up 2-0, and the Golden Gophers could never catch up.
Did you see that?
Minnesota did not like it when Gasparino admired his home run by lingering in the batter’s box before commencing his trot around the bases.
There was consensus in both dugouts because Savage also didn’t care for it.
“I thought he probably stayed in the box a little too long for me,” Savage said. “That’s kind of not who we are, and they didn’t like that; I wouldn’t like that either, really.”
MVP
West saved multiple extra-base hits with his catches.
Which was his favorite?
“Probably the diving one,” West said. “I think that was the coolest one. I got to leave my feet and make a play on it.”
Up next
The Bruins will open a five-game stretch of nonconference games when they host Hawaii on Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
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