I Love New York Partnerships
by Deborah Garry
Partner, BBG&G Advertising & Public Relations

Recently, I attended the Governor’s Tourism Conference at Bolton Landing on Lake George. Besides enjoying the beautiful setting, we had the pleasure of seeing the revitalized I Love New York campaign unveiled, including clever adaptations of the traditional icon to convey all the offerings available in New York state: from skiing and rock climbing to dance, theatre, golf, history, and agritourism. To see for yourself, go to www.iloveny.com.

One of my favorite presentations during the three-day event was the session on Social Networks & Viral Marketing. The creativity and ingenuity displayed by the presenters impressed and delighted. This presentation, and others, stressed the importance of building partnerships when marketing a destination or event.
Probably the most important lesson is that you are NEVER just marketing a destination or event. You are marketing an experience of value that a traveler can find nowhere else.

How to turn a destination or event into an experience people will come back for.

Often, key ingredients for success are the partnerships you form and the social networks you tap into. A case in point: the “Grapehound” Wine Tour on the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.

This very successful event sprang from an unlikely partnership between Cayuga Lake wineries and the local Greyhound Rescue organization. For four days in late July, greyhound lovers from all over America are welcomed at sixteen different beautiful wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York to enjoy time with their hounds, taste some delicious food and wines, and celebrate all that these beautiful dogs have brought to our lives. Why does it work?

First: flexibility and creative collaboration. The Cayuga Lake wineries were willing to team up with the Greyhound Rescue Organization and generate a partnership that might appear unlikely on the surface but offered an element of intrigue. The wineries hoped to build a relationship with a new, loyal (and returning) market by developing a four-day weekend package for people and their dogs. The rescue organization was able to spread their message to more people, and celebrate greyhound adoption as a cause. Support from local hotels, restaurants, and vendors were critical in building the event package. Hotels agreed to waive “no pet” policies and any pet surcharges in exchange for full bookings.

Second: leveraging an existing social network. The wineries envisioned that people who like dogs and rescue greyhounds are also good prospects for wine tours. And, they are the perfect example of a social networking group – a group of people who are very connected, have an existing communications network in place, talk to each other frequently, have web sites, and network with one another at multiple annual events.

Good partnerships like this expand market reach, increase profitability, leverage value, and offer tremendous opportunity for those willing to think outside the box.

The Grapehound Lesson.

• Be open to disparate ideas and seemingly unlikely partners.Leverage Face Time - connect in person. Explain to a prospective partner the value inherent in a proposed partnership.Bring emotion into the package. People really love their dogs. The Cayuga Wineries, and local hotels, vendors, and eateries that bought into the event, learned that if you treat people and their dogs really well, they’ll treat you well. And come back next year for more.
  
  
• Say “Yes.” Hotels that would not waive their “no pets” regulations or surcharges lost out on increased bookings, increased revenue, and higher profits.

Another Case Study in Innovation: “Winter Recess” in Ithaca.

Ithaca wanted to increase visitation and tourism revenue during their winter months. Ithaca is still beautiful in the midst of winter, but COLD. What could they do?

The Ithaca tourism team went through a critical thought process. They wanted to figure out how to turn their winter landscape into an advantage. They asked themselves:

• What are our winter assets?
• Who is the best audience for these assets?
• What is the emotional appeal for that audience?

As they thought about viable audiences they hit upon teachers - a group of people all on vacation the same week in February. Since Ithaca has an education base, at first they considered offering teachers an event that centered on opportunities for education, study, classes, etc. A few teacher friends quickly set them straight. No, No, NO. The last thing teachers want in February is anything that remotely resembles school. What teachers want in February is relaxation, refreshment, and rejuvenation.

So, the Ithaca team put together:

The Package: incentives on lodging, spas, food, shopping, etc. to offer VALUE and appealing events to provide QUALITY.The Emotional Appeal: teachers’ desire for a getaway providing fun, relaxation, and rejuvenation.The “Unique Selling Proposition”: nation’s first communitywide “festival” for educators.The Event: a network of local partners and buy-ins creating a critical masse of offerings across a ten-day event. They didn’t have to invent anything – only harness strengths the community already had into an experience that provided value and quality to their audience.The Promotion Channel: leveraging their audience. Teachers are a sizeable affluent audience, well connected, and accustomed to networking and sharing information with one another.Implementation: A “VIT” Pass giving access to incentives and programTactics: market through the educational social network:

• emails, phone, and faxes to individuals found through associations, educator sites, etc., turned up by searching on Google.post cards.e-invites.dedicated web site.
• The organizers mined the educational social network like crazy. Teachers emailed other teachers, or other associations. Bloggers found them...all this contributed to some wonderful viral PR.

The “Winter Recess” Lesson.

Take a fresh look at your destination, event, or place of business. This is a good exercise for any business in any industry. What assets already exist within who you are that could support a social niche or market segment? Remember - look beyond the obvious. Focus on your strengths in a new way.

Choose an audience for whom your strengths could offer Value and Quality. Stand in the customer’s shoes for a moment. Think about it from their viewpoint. What do they want? Market with meaning. Remember, it’s about their experience.

Form partnerships within the local community to create critical masse. Harness the social network within your niche audience and get them talking to each other. Integrate social causes within your program. Help people to do good while being part of something fun and memorable.

If you are looking for a good source of information on groups of people with very specific interests, go to www.collectors.org: the Offical Web Site for the Association of Collecting Clubs and the National Association of Collectors. You can find groups of people who collect or who are into just about everything under the sun.

It’s a Great Time to Love New York Partnerships.

This is a very exciting time for the tourism industry across New York. The rejuvenation of the “I Love NY” campaign has sparked a surge in energy and enthusiasm, and the program offers real value for those in the tourism and travel industry and provides interactive advertising and partnership opportunities. The state offers several grants and opportunities through the Empire State Development Office and NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Your best shot at gaining some of those grant dollars is to build collaborative partnerships and expand a destination or attraction into a travel experience. Be creative!

Not only that, but preparations are well underway for celebrating the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake that bear their names – and the 200th anniversary of Fulton's successful steamboat voyage on the Hudson River. From the Canadian border to New York harbor, a host of exciting events and activities is being planned. There are boundless opportunities for communities, destinations, and travel attractions to participate, plan their own events, and get involved in the Quadricentennial celebrations.

Think about it. There are 80 million travelers within a three- to five-hour drive of your location. It’s a great time to help others love New York.

Deborah Garry is president of BBG&G, a full service advertising, marketing, and public relations agency servicing a wide range of local and regional clients from healthcare and financial services to B2B, tourism destination, and franchise promotion industries. She can be reached at smartstrategies@bbggadv.com