The San Francisco Travel Association (SF Travel) has received the Excellence in Tourism Marketing Award from Visit California, which honored destinations and attractions statewide for outstanding tourism advertising, marketing and public relations programs.
SF Travel won in the new category of Best Integrated Marketing Campaign for their multi-media campaign, “49 Hours of SF: Arts & Culture” which was designed to boost summer business from Los Angeles.
In this category, campaigns must show a range of media used in the best possible way to promote or bring a 'big idea' to life online. Creative and media elements must have been designed to ensure that the combination of different media produced the greatest results.
“Our 49 square miles are filled with cultural attractions and events as diverse and fascinating as the city itself,” said Joe D’Alessandro, SF Travel president and CEO. “This campaign allowed us to represent these elements in a way that is uniquely San Franciscan, while giving our partners opportunities to participate and benefit as well.”
“49 Hours of SF: Arts & Culture” was a cooperative trans-media marketing program for San Francisco that leveraged the city’s world-renowned arts and culture offerings to drive overnight visitation during the summer months. SF Travel led the development of the campaign, bringing together arts and culture institutions that included San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Symphony and the California Academy of Sciences, as well as corporate partners American Express and Virgin America.
To generate buzz and press about the summer’s cultural appeal, SF Travel’s crowning point to the campaign was driving a San Francisco motorised vintage cable car down Highway 101 from San Francisco to Los Angeles over four days.
The cable car was decked out with an onboard art gallery featuring images from SFMOMA and California Academy of Sciences, a soundtrack provided by San Francisco Symphony, a snake handler and ambassador from the Academy of Sciences (to promote their Summer of Slither exhibition) a drag queen performer dressed as Matisse’s painting “Femme Au Chapeau,“ and a fog machine. The cable car visited key events and cultural institutions in San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Visitors to the cable car could enter to win a trip to San Francisco.
“We focused our efforts on leveraging all of the marketing tools that were available to us, from traditional print advertising to social media to contests to a guerrilla marketing publicity stunt,” said Lynn Bruni, SF Travel director of consumer marketing.
Other campaign elements included:
* Advertising in Los Angeles including billboards in key areas for an upscale, cultural-minded demographic; print advertising in Los Angeles Times Magazine; and online banners.
* Development of” 49 Hours of SF” printed and online itineraries developed from the perspective of historical icons relevant to each partner: i.e. Gertrude Stein’s 49 Hours (supporting the Stein Collect exhibition at SFMOMA), Mozart’s 49 Hours (SF Symphony) and Charles Darwin’s 49 Hours (California Academy of Sciences.) Other itineraries included suggestions from well-known SF locals, such as Craig Newmark of Craigslist, or Tracy des Jardin who competed on America’s Top Chef. Online, new technology allowed users to create their own itinerary and share via email, Facebook or Twitter.
* A “49 Hours of SF” microsite, which included a Google map with events of “the next 49 hours,” a Twitter feed with all #49HoursofSF posts, and a video feed from SF Travel’s You Tube channel, including: 49 videos of each cultural institution.
“SF Travel has developed arts and culture campaigns for the last four years and the 2011 campaign was the most successful to date,” Bruni said. “Traffic to the web site increased 187% over the previous year, and page views increased 326% year over year. The campaign generated nearly $1 million in economic impact for San Francisco.”
Social media played an integral role in the 49 Hours of SF campaign, driving awareness and engagement with SF Travel and its partners. SF Travel and participating partners used Twitter and Facebook to promote the Los Angeles cable car stunt, and create conversation around 49 Hours. Additionally, a Twitter Trivia contest was held in July, along with a “49 Hours of My SF” video contest in which consumers were invited to submit a 49-second video about why they love San Francisco for a chance to win a trip to the city. The winning video and finalists can be found here: http://www.sanfrancisco.travel/arts-culture/49seconds.html
SF Travel utilised their partnership with San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to promote the campaign via signage throughout each of the terminals and messaging about SFO’s own status as an accredited art museum.
“Outstanding marketing programs like these are a big part of the reason that California is the leading tourism destination in the U.S.,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California and Vice Chair of Brand USA.
The San Francisco Travel Association is a private, not-for-profit organisation that markets the city as a leisure, convention and business travel destination. With more than 1,500 partner businesses, San Francisco Travel is one of the largest membership-based tourism promotion agencies in the country. Tourism, San Francisco's largest industry, generates in excess of $8.3 billion annually for the local economy. The San Francisco Travel business offices are located at 201 Third St., Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103. San Francisco Travel also operates the Visitor Information Center at Hallidie Plaza, 900 Market Street at the corner of Powell and Market streets. For more information, call 415-974-6900 or visit www.sanfrancisco.travel.
Visit California is a non-profit organisation with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs – in partnership with the state’s travel industry – that keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. According to Visit California, travel and tourism expenditures total $95.1 billion annually in California (18 percent of which is international), support jobs for 873,000 Californians and generate $6.1 billion in state and local tax revenues. For more information about Visit California and for a free California Visitor’s Guide, go to www.VisitCalifornia.com.
