Dear Answer Man: A family member recently returned from a trade show of sorts on the topic of travel. Among the information they came back with was a button featuring a flamingo and a slogan proclaiming Winona as the "Miami of Minnesota."
What’s that about? -- Minnesotan, not Floridian
Dear Minnesotan: It hasn’t been too long since Winona officially branded itself the Miami of Minnesota but unofficially they’ve been making the joke for quite some time. It’s not that Winona is known for its bikini clad residents and delectable Cuban food. So what is it then?
"Winona is the warmest place in Minnesota, according to Weather Almanac, so we like to think that our extra three degrees (on average) make us a little extra balmy here," according to Cynthya Porter, a marketing specialist who works with Visit Winona. "When it's zero degrees, we'll take anything, right?"
OK. I’ll buy that. But is that it? Of course not.
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"Second, if you look at a map of the outline of Florida and the outline of Minnesota, Miami and Winona are in roughly the same geographic spot for each state, which we think is funny," Porter continued. "And yes -- our miles and miles of pristine Mississippi backwater islands have fantastic sandy beaches -- kind of like Miami Beach, except frozen for part of the year (haha)."
Add in Winona’s entertainment offerings and it makes the city of approximately 27,000 people "surprisingly cosmopolitan for a small city."
The ad campaign has run in some print publications in the Cities and has been in a digital iteration all across the Upper Midwest.
