Congrats to Idaho Tourism for their big wins at the National Councils Awards at the ESTO Conference!
The ESTO conference was held earlier this week in Salt Lake City. One of several national conferences held by the US Travel Association, ESTO (Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations) is a national forum centered around bringing local, regional and state marketers together to learn about the latest trends, marketing tools and global challenges that face the travel and tourism industry today. As a 3-day event, the conference included national speakers, breakout sessions, and several key-note addresses by industry leaders. The event ended with the annual National Councils Awards, which was a celebration of marketing and creative excellence across the national, including the Destiny Awards, Mercury Awards, and the State Tourism Director of the Year.
We are proud to announce that Idaho Tourism won two Mercury Awards:
Best Print Advertising for the Great Idaho Getaway Campaign, which features one great family from Seattle on a 10-day, 2,200 mile adventure of a lifetime through Idaho.
Niche Marketing for Cruising the Loop, which, through a partnership with Harley Davidson, featured a group of female motorcycling journalists traveling Idaho’s Grand Teton Scenic Byway and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
We are so honored to have worked with such a great team and for a great state!
It just looks like a 3D-kinetic-paper-sculpture thingumbob. Or, Behind-The-Scenes of the Idaho Winter Campaign.
In traditional print advertising, placement is key. It’s all about reaching the right audience at the right place, at the right time. Different media outlets and publications are combined to achieve a desired reach and frequency level, and all that. That is so old school, though.
When Drake Cooper was asked by the Idaho Division of Tourism to find new ways to bring the Idaho Winter Adventure to life, we decided it was time to get off the page and get out into the real world. With the primary target of neighboring Northwest metropolitan areas, we installed a giant paper snow sculpture in one of the most heavily traveled areas, the Bellevue Square in downtown Bellevue. With a holiday foot traffic of over 120,000 shoppers a day, this opportunity proved to be a no-brainer considering that a print ad may take up to one month to reach just 400,000 impressions.
Under the call-to-action moniker “Tear it up,” shoppers are treated to a visually arresting installation constructed by Hens & Chicks Collective as an artful reminder of Idaho’s wide-open winter escapes and jaw-dropping snow assets, and adventure possibilities.
(This is the trailer for the Tear It Up Installation. The making-of-video is even more awesome, with behind-the-scenes look at how Hens & Chicks Collective work.)
At several kiosks on site, visitors were prompted to visit the Idaho Winter website every week in order to enter to win a series of impressive prize packages in any of Idahoʼs deluxe key resort destinations. Even Jake Moe, co-founder of Powder Magazine, was on hand to answer questions about Idaho snow. Visitors to the website could check out current powder conditions, learn about other Idaho resorts, watch the behind the scenes video on the massive snow sculpture, and share with friends via Facebook and Twitter.
Call it luck, or some insider strategery, the installation launched just 50 yards from the grand opening of the Bellevue Square Microsoft Store. This event drew large crowds and long lines along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and celebs like Apolo Anton Ohno, Dave Mathews Band, and Miley Cyrus. This flips the idea of distribution—the audience comes to us.
One further nod to Microsoft was the integration of Microsoft Tag technology for the QR codes on the display. This allowed people to access the Idaho winter website by simply using their mobile devices to snap an image of the code, go online, and enter the contest.
The results? With over 21,000 website visitors, 11,000+ sweepstakes entries, 6,119 partner opt-ins, 20 promotional offers (both online and at Bellevue Square)—the winter installation “ad” thingumbob is going strong.
High-Fives to all the suppliers and partners that donated over $30,000 in prizes.
Shout-Out: Idaho Division of Tourism, Idaho Film Office, Ski Idaho, Sun Valley Resort, Brundage, Schweitzer, Grand Targhee, Horizon Air, Smith Optics, EpicQuest, Kemper Development Company, Vision Marketing, Kira, Sara, and Shannon with Hens & Chicks Artist Collective, Mitch Mattraw with Cabfare productions, Lisa Gerber, Jennie Myers, Joe Quatrone, Josh Mercaldo, Justin Yonk, Lindsay Shumate, Amanda Cash-Crowley.
Big Bear Lake is Southern California’s only true four-season mountain resort, located 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The area has a seven mile long lake with fishing and water sports in the summer. It also has two full-service ski resorts in the winter—Snow Summit and Bear Mountain. The 200-member Resort Association, consisting of lodges, hotels, ski resorts, marinas and restaurants, enlisted Drake Cooper to help ramp-up marketing efforts to attract visitors to the Big Bear Lake region. This included not only a website redesign but a cohesive brand upgrade.
The new brand identity for Big Bear was launched under the thematic “Live It. Up.” This direction inspires and motivates outdoor enthusiasts to reap the benefits of an all-season escape out of SoCal city doldrums for some full-on fun.
For the brand, Drake Cooper created an identity scheme inspired by various National Forest trail signs at Big Bear Lake. The key elements of the logo include a newly revised “bear” icon, along with the brand designation “Mountain Lake Escape” which describes the heart of the brand. A modular identity system was created which allows for versatility to change out the icon in the shield, to help communicate certain activities or marketing objectives.
The website was redesigned, shifting to a more member-focused functionality based around individual detail pages for each of the association members. Coupled with an SEO revamp, a custom-built, easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS) was developed so the members can easily update content, events, maps, alerts, banner ads, and much more.
The new brand identity and website launched mid-February to rave reviews from Big Bear Resort Association and site visitors.
Shout-Outs: Bill Drake, Mona Teffeteller, Chad Connally, Josh Mcdannel, Justin Yonk, Heidy Agalsoff, Dennis Budell, Joe Quatrone, Amanda Cash-Crowley, Dave Casey, Joe Boren, Javier Barrera, and Gummibear.
Drake Cooper Wins A W3 Silver Award
Recently while standing in a movie theater line, we wisely avoided the pretension of quoting Marshall McLuhan and instead cited Prince who once said, “I don’t care 2 win awards / All I wanna do is dance, play music, sex, romance.” While we wholeheartedly agree with the latter part of the quote, we have to differ on the first part—we actually do like to win awards. Mainly because we get to recognize all the awesome work of our team and tout great client relationships that produce great work.
So, we’re proud to announce that the Great Idaho Getaway Project website won a Silver in the W3 Awards. Not a small feat, considering the 3,000-plus entries received this year alone. The W3 Awards, sanctioned and judged by International Academy of the Visual Arts, “…honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, marketing programs, and video work created for the web. In honoring outstanding websites, web advertising, web video, & Mobile Apps.”
The Great Idaho Getaway Project was developed to create an engaging on-line brand experience demonstrating Idaho’s adventure potential. The concept revolved around snatching a Seattle family with one over-worked Dad off to Idaho for a 10-day real-life adventure. Followed by a 25-person crew with six cameras, we captured all the adventure, fun, scenic wonder, top-notch dining, and luxury accommodations they could fit into the ten-day trip.
A break-though website was developed that brings together both worlds of rich, engaging technology with a user experience where website visitors can watch the film, check out the bonus footage, follow the family’s route, get ideas for their own adventure, and even book a trip of their own.
The fully-integrated push for the Great Idaho Getaway Project blended social media, online marketing, search-engine marketing (SEM), public relations, and print advertising.
We’d like to give a virtual fist bump and props to our great client, The Idaho Travel Council and the team who brought the Great Idaho Getaway to life: Drake Cooper: Josh Mercaldo, Lindsay Shumate, Joe Quatrone, Jennie Myers, Sean Young, Cale Cathey, John Drake, Jamie Cooper, Lisa Hawkes, Karma Jones, Josh Mcdannel, Justin Yonk, Chad Connally, Amanda Sapp, Amanda Cash-Crowley, North By Northwest Productions: Lorena Davis, Jeff Noble, John Eames, John Nance, and Producer Tony Jensen.
I was thinking about the state of Idaho’s travel industry and trends in travel, namely social media and location-based technologies, and I realized the two topics create an interesting paradigm.
The Idaho Statesman and Idaho Business Review recently reported that Idaho’s $3 billion travel industry is on the rebound, with some outfitters reporting they are expecting a 40 percent increase in their 2010 bookings, based on the busy past six months.
Idaho Division of Tourism director Karen Ballard reports that revenues from the state’s 2 percent tax on hotel, motel, and private campground lodging was up statewide in May and June.
I’m confident this growing trend will continue into the fall. Why? Because people still want to go on vacation, and I think that more than ever, people want to GET AWAY. And here’s where the interesting paradigm comes in.
In this industry, we constantly read about social media and location-based marketing platforms like Gowalla and Foursquare, new iPhone apps, and even Groupon and Living Social. These platforms are our constant topics of conversation regarding the industry. Opportunities to engage…interactive marketing…chances to listen…added value…ETC.
Moreover, I love USING these platforms. They’re fun. You get sweet deals. You’re in with the cool kids (everyone’s doing it).
But you can’t check-in to Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. Nor should you try and update your profile while casting a fly in the south fork of the Salmon.
So while social media and location-based technologies are a big “trend” in travel and marketing, are we missing a developing trend that’s seeing travelers seeking distance from their social media profiles, cell phones, and even cell services for that matter?
The nerd in me will always love, study and consume new social media and technology platforms like Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla. But the ideal purist in me who believes that one only needs a garden in the backyard, fresh water nearby, roof over their head, and love in their life, sort of hopes that people are using their vacation time to escape to parts of the world that remain raw, pure, entirely natural and full of adventure. Idaho’s vast outdoors certainly fit that bill. Keep an eye on us to see if the trend to truly get away is emerging right here in the Gem State.
“We are a people in motion, whether on the Trail of Tears, Route 66 or the Interstate System. From Jack Kerouac to Willie Nelson, the lure of the road and the promise of the journey still hold us. And it was Lewis and Clark who gave us our first great national road story.”
—from “Why Lewis and Clark Matter” by James P. Ronda, Smithsonianmagazine, August 2003
Many web sites on the history and mythology of the old west look like they were designed by The Apple Dumpling Gang. These presentations are a clumsy mix of brochure-ware and armchair-historian long copy that recalls the achingly tedious history textbooks many of us slept through in Junior High.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, being the old west’s answer to Homer’sOdyssey, has been prone to this sort of neglect-by-design. While numerous sites offer lots of information about various aspects and portions of the trail, most don’t revitalize the history while inviting people to take part in rediscovering the journey (with post-oughties web tech to boot).
The Idaho Travel Council and Idaho Historical Society decided it was time to bring the Idaho chapter of the Lewis and Clark journey to life.
Drake Cooper created an re-vamped site with richer design and engaging interaction. Not only are there educational resources, native people history, interactive route maps, galleries, and Lewis and Clark journal excerpts, there are new ways to interact via taking your own trek and even, geocaching.
Visitors to Lewis and Clark in Idaho will learn that there was more to this journey than they once knew. They’ll see that it wasn’t just a story about two explorers and the legendary Sacagawea, but about many men, women, explorers, and native people on the cusp of a challenging, shared future.
“Lewis and Clark matter today because they act as a benchmark by which we can measure change and continuity in everything from the environment to relations between peoples. But more than that, their adventure reminds us that we are not the first Americans (native and newcomers alike) to face difficult choices in troubled times. William Clark, Sacagawea and Coboway lived in a complex, often violent age. The winds of change blew as hard then as now.
When honestly told, the Lewis and Clark story inspires without leading us into simpleminded platitudes. History humanizes us by giving names, faces and texture to our physical and mental landscapes. Not only do the Lewis and Clark stories entertain us, they serve as a map and guide for life on the American ro
“The Lumpkins have a great time, seem impressed by the range of activities, and come across as genuinely grateful and actually somewhat relaxed by the end. (Unlike in My Own Private Idaho, no one dies or is forced to have sex for money, which is a plus.)”
We thought we’d take the opportunity again to thank our clients, vendors, and agency peeps who made this possible: Joe Quatrone, Josh Mercaldo, Lisa Hawkes, Jennie Myers, Lindsay Shumate, Sean Young, Justin Yonk, Chad Connelly, Brad Rowan, Jeff Noble, Lorena Davis, John Nance, Julie Grant, Anthony Jensen, Peg Owens, Ron Gardner, and everyone at NXNW productions.
Some interesting points the author, Sharkey, points out include that travelers seem to prefer 100 strangers’ travel recommendations over a professionally published book’s; the benefits of real-time reviews and postings; the cumbersome elements of carrying physical books; the quality of well-researched content that books usually contain; ETC.
One tone rings throughout this article though – and it’s that the world has gone digital.
For those involved in travel and tourism, if you’re not at least headed in that direction as well, then you might as well go home.
The Idaho Travel Council is an industry leader in sharing their travel guides and marketing campaigns in the digital realm. In December ’09, they made their image-rich travel guide available online. Their website, www.visitidaho.org, also features advanced 360 degree, 3-D ‘tours’ of seven scenic travel hot-spots in the state.
Most recently, the ITC released “The Great Idaho Getaway”, an online family travel documentary about one Seattle family’s 10-day Idaho vacation. “The Great Idaho Getaway” combines a real family’s testimonies about their travel experiences in Idaho with the ability for viewers to research and plan their own “great Idaho getaway.”
So in response to Sharkey’s question, “Why not do both?” It seems the Idaho Travel Council has answered that question in multiple ways.
On-demand information for Idaho winter fun. The Bogus mobile project was developed to target iPhone and other webkit based mobile browsers to provide useful information for the skier on the go. An additional version was developed to target less capable mobile browsers, bringing the best possible experience to a wide range of devices. The content on the mobile site reflects the most frequently visited content on the main Bogus site plus other helpful information. To enhance the experience, AJAX content loading was used to minimize requests and keep the mobile site responsive. Handy info for those great Idaho powder days.
Addressing the troubling rise of what’s being referred to as “nature deficit disorder” is the driving force behind a new initiative that deems 2009 “Be Outside – Idaho Children in Nature” year. More than 100 state and federal agencies are partnering with educators, health care professionals and private entities to help raise awareness about the importance of children establishing a meaningful and lasting bond with the great outdoors.
In support of this initiative, Drake Cooper worked with Idaho’s Department of Parks and Recreation to design a website encouraging nature-deficient youth to go outside and play. The website, designed by Justin Yonk of Drake Cooper, includes 101 ideas for ways to play outside, the latest news and events happening outside in Idaho, information on how to get involved with the initiative, Idaho maps featuring destinations and attractions and plenty of other goodies.
