McKinley County launches Find Your Joy brand, aims to boost local appeal

McKinley County leaders have rolled out a new community brand called Find Your Joy to strengthen the county's image and unify promotion of its tourism and outdoor recreation assets. The brand is explicitly defined as "McKinley County delivers enriching and memorable experiences that lift your spirit," and county staff say the effort is intended to make the region more recognizable to people who do not yet know what the area offers.

A McKinley Brand Action Team or MBAT has been formed to operationalize the brand across residents, businesses, and organizations that want to participate. The group will focus on ensuring the community understands the brand mindset, developing strategies to enhance recognition and recall, implementing tactics to reinforce the brand, and striving to improve the experiences associated with McKinley County. MBAT will also work to create a unified marketing voice, coordinate cooperative marketing, promote success stories, manage brand usage, and expand a network of local brand ambassadors.

Residents and businesses can participate by becoming brand ambassadors, a role the county frames as providing experiences that lift others' spirits in everyday settings. The county encourages social sharing of those experiences with the hashtags #findyourjoy and #mckinleyjoy. Supporting materials are available including a branding toolkit, a brand guide, an overview brochure, and a narrated presentation, and interested parties can request access to those documents. The county lists Brian Leddy as Brand Manager and provides a contact phone number at 505 863 1400 for more information.

From an economic perspective, a coordinated county brand can improve marketing efficiency and help capture more visitation to restaurants, lodging, outdoor recreation sites, and retail outlets. Greater brand recognition tends to increase recall among potential visitors and can lower per dollar acquisition costs when local governments and businesses market together. For residents that rely on tourism and visitor spending, clearer promotion could translate to steadier demand and more predictable seasonal activity.

The Find Your Joy initiative is positioned as an ongoing community effort rather than a single campaign. County officials invite local participation and cooperation to build a consistent identity that supports economic resilience and civic pride.