Promotion blitz underway to lure visitors to downtown Corbin

This billboard along I-75 encourages travelers to stop in Corbin.

Downtown Corbin has added an eclectic, interesting mix of unique restaurants and retail businesses in the last couple of years. Now, a marketing blitz is underway to let others know about what the town has to offer.

Corbin Main Street Manager Andy Salmons said this week that an effort is in the works to begin marketing the town to potential tourists as an excellent place to dine and shop in one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants.

Already, the city has purchased a billboard at southbound I-75 mile marker 43 that encourages travelers to “Visit Downtown Corbin” and includes the phrases “Awesome Dining!” and “Unique Retail!”

Salmons said a video has also been produced, with the help of Atomic Feist Productions, to highlight the downtown area.

“We didn’t get a comprehensive view of every business, but we tried to get an overview,” Salmons said. “We tried to get the overall vibe of downtown. That’s what we were looking for, so we filmed it at different times and put it all together.”

Salmons said the plan is to show the video during what is known as “pre-roll” time slots at movie theaters in Corbin, London, Middlesboro and Somerset. “Pre-roll” is the time in between moving showings, but before previews. It is often now filled with advertisements.

“We are still negotiating the price on that, but it should be pretty exciting,” Salmons said. “We are trying to get people to visit downtown Corbin because it’s a fun, vibrant place with a lot of good food and a lot of shopping and that sort of thing. I think the finished looks awesome.”

Salmons said the video would debut on Downtown Corbin’s Facebook page in the near future. Businesses in the downtown area, he said, are welcome to use it in any way they see fit for promotional reasons.

“The license will be totally open. They can use it for anything,” he said. “Our hope is over the next six months or so to do videos for each individual retailer and restaurant that’s unique. We are going to exclude national chains … It’s not that we have anything against them, but they’ve got millions of dollars in their advertising budgets and the businesses we are talking about may just have a few thousand.”

The newest version of the Corbin restaurant guide is also being printed and Salmons said it would be widely circulated in area hotels and motels.