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BOSTON (State House News Service) - The advertising campaign that promoted Massachusetts as a welcoming place for all types of people reached more than 1.5 million people and drove thousands to seek out additional information on a state website and social media channels.
Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism Executive Director Kate Fox said Tuesday that the "Massachusetts For Us All" campaign concluded at the end of September and "resulted in 1.6 million impressions and 12,000 clicks and performance on social media primarily driven by our Instagram stories." MOTT launched the $750,000 campaign in June.
In June, Gov. Maura Healey announced that digital billboards highlighting LGBTQ+ couples had gone up across Texas and Florida -- states that recently peeled back rights for people that the governor has said she will protect in Massachusetts. The billboards read "Massachusetts For Us All" and also appeared in locations around New England.
The billboard campaign was one part of Healey's efforts to frame Massachusetts as a more desirable place for people to live or work. While she pushed tax cuts and reform to improve the Bay State's competitive standing with other states, Healey has also touted values like equality as reasons that people should pick Massachusetts to be their home.
On Thursday, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation will host a free webinar exploring national migration trends and what they mean for Massachusetts. MTF said in a May presentation that Massachusetts reached its highest outmigration in 30 years last year with an estimated 110,900 people leaving from April 2020 to July 2022. And while Massachusetts has long relied on international immigration to compensate, MTF said that immigration was not enough to overcome domestic outmigration in 2022.
High housing costs, congested roads and often unreliable public transit loom as longstanding challenges for Massachusetts residents and businesses.
Written By Colin A. Young/SHNS
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