New branding campaign touts Huntington Beach as the ‘Soul of SoCal’

Huntington Beach residents can now claim they live in “The Soul of SoCal.”

Visit Huntington Beach, the official destination marketing organization for the city, announced the new brand in late June at a meeting at the Pasea Hotel & Spa.

The organization partnered with Texas-based The Atkins Group, an advertising agency that predominantly promotes tourism, to create the new slogan, while simultaneously continuing the Surf City USA nickname.

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“Huntington Beach has long been known as Surf City USA and one of California’s quintessential beach communities along the Southern California coast,” said Visit Huntington Beach President and CEO Kelly Miller in a news release. “We learned that Huntington Beach resonates deeply as a destination that authentically delivers our brand promise: endless summer, flawless waves, laid-back luxury and an unhurried, welcoming future full of life enthusiasts that represents ‘The Soul of the SoCal’ experience to our visitors domestically and internationally.”

Councilmember Billy O’Connell said he sees this as “great branding” for the city.

“This is Southern California’s greatest city to come to,” he said. “We have great hotels. There’s so much to do for families. There’s great surfing.”

But everyone doesn’t seem so keen on the idea.

According to a survey from the HB Citizens for a Better Downtown, 96.6% of those surveyed “hate the new slogan.”

Some Huntington Beach residents took to the Facebook group Huntington Beach Community Forum on Wednesday to express concerns about the new slogan.

“What does Texas know about Huntington Beach?” asked resident Cindy Dodson Windle.

“More like ‘Souled Out’” commented Jordan West.

Visit Huntington Beach officials maintain the branding will further promote the city.

A full media campaign is planned for the summer to introduce residents to the new branding, including digital, social and print media, as well as a new website, said Visit Huntington Beach Chief Marketing Officer Susan Thomas.

“Our new campaign is focused on storytelling and content engagement around three distinct visitor experiential pillars: laid-back luxury, multi-generational family travel and action sports,” Thomas said in an email. “Given the dynamic, competitive environment in the travel marketplace in general, and many exciting new products adding to the Huntington Beach experience for visitors, Visit Huntington Beach is following industry best practices by assessing our brand position, including quantitative and qualitative research with leisure and group travelers domestically and internationally.”

“Our core brand absolutely continues to be Surf City USA,” she added.

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Brittany Woolsey, brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey