‘I am St. Louis’ campaign draws raves at City Nation Place event

The Missouri Historical Society’s “I am St. Louis” campaign took the metro area by storm this past year. Now it’s gone international.

The campaign stemmed from a speech that the nonprofit’s CEO, Jody Sowell, has been giving around St. Louis in recent years, stressing the region’s incredible history and pivotal role in key American events. (“I am the place that was known as Mound City, that was ruled by three empires, where enslaved people used the courts to fight for their freedom,” it begins. “I am the place that argued it should be the nation’s capital. I am St. Louis.”) It escalated last September, when Sowell’s organization asked people to share their own St. Louis story—and triggered an onslaught of no fewer than 350 versions on social media.

Last month, Sowell and Explore St. Louis marketing director Julie Gilbert did a tag-team presentation about the campaign’s success at the City Nation Place event in Vancouver. That annual convening draws tourism agencies to discuss, in its words, “nation, city, and place branding and marketing strategies,” Sowell says just about every other presenter came from a branding agency or an organization like Explore St. Louis. Says Sowell, “I was certainly the oddball, but it was truly, truly energizing.”

Gilbert says Sowell drew a rapturous response. “He had everybody eating out of his hand!”

She used her part of the presentation to explain the importance of leaning into how people feel about their communities and building on their sense of pride. 

“Civic pride isn’t just a nice idea, it’s a strategic advantage for destinations,” she says. “And particularly with how Jody really pushed ‘I am St. Louis,’ a lot of those people saw St. Louis for the first time from him. In my introduction, I really talked about how he created the narrative that has invited our locals to rediscover St. Louis, and looking at it grounded in history, but focused on pride, connection, and possibility, because that’s what it really is.” 

For his part, Sowell hopes he inspired other tourism agencies to branch out—to “find the storytellers.”

“I told them, ‘In St. Louis, it makes absolute sense for that to come from the Missouri Historical Society, because we’ve been protecting, preserving, and sharing the St. Louis story since 1866. But for you, it might not be the historical society, but I bet there are artists or columnists or amateur historians who are some of the best storytellers about your community.’” He adds, “You know, we just said we’re going to make this happen because of all the response we’re seeing in the community [to the speech]. I said they’re not usually just going to do that, and they’re not even going to come to you. You’re going to have to search them out.” 

Why It Matters: As Explore St. Louis gears up to hire a firm to develop a unified brand for the region, Gilbert says the homegrown Missouri Historical Society campaign is very much a part of the conversation. “Once we select that company that will come in, it will be stakeholder interviews and neighborhood interviews,” she says. “With that conversation, [the question becomes] how do we align and ensure that we can build from ‘I am St. Louis’ and make sure that we can continue ‘I am St. Louis’ and then have that umbrella over it, for that outreach to the visitor?” 

She adds, “Aligning with the Missouri Historical Society, people are going to believe that more than just two marketing organizations telling those stories. It’s that authenticity and naturalness and truth in history that will really allow us to move forward as a destination.” 

What’s Next: Explore St. Louis is set to have final interviews with companies vying to build its website next week. At the same time, it’s evaluating proposals from firms that want to work on the regional branding initiative it’s leading. Gilbert says more than one firm that was in Vancouver for City Nation Place incorporated elements of “I am St. Louis” into their proposal.