Greg Fine is a native – a native Nevadan, that is. Born and raised right here in Reno, NV, Greg has decades of experience – that do NOT make him “old” – in marketing and advertising, writing and publicizing, making him ideal as Director of Marketing at Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT). Bethany Drysdale, TravelNevada’s Public Relations Director, is a public relations veteran, having manned TravelNevada’s PR department since 2011. Together, Greg and Bethany will join us on October 20th to share their insights and their team’s work on developing the latest NCOT campaign – ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ – insights that you can apply to your own campaigns, whether for tourism, technology, or the arts. Here is a glimpse of what they will share with us:
R-T AMA: What is the marketing focus of the new campaign?
GREG: “There are a few answers to this question: First, the custom research we conducted around the Millennial target audience identified key characteristics that drive their travel decisions. This new campaign marries the State’s brand pillars with those Millennial travel motivators to arrive at an integrated campaign that is ‘authentic,’ top to bottom.
This campaign is a truly integrated enterprise. From the public relations ‘buckets,’ to the advertising, to the video deployment, to the social, to the CRM, to the paid digital, to the email, to the cinema… the DNA of the ‘More Stories Than Souvenirs’ promise and the ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ positioning courses through all channels and messaging that is expressed by the campaign.
Finally, we wanted the campaign to fully realize the potential of the ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ positioning. It was introduced in the first iteration through the song from The Killers. This new effort elevates that positioning, while introducing the idea that Nevada travelers will take home real, heart-felt memories than shot glasses or tchotchkes…
“…authentic experiences that naturally marry what Nevada offers with what travelers are seeking.”
R-T AMA: What is the importance of the new campaign to the marketing of the state overall?
GREG: “Last year 42 million people visited Las Vegas. Another 4.6 million traveled to Reno/Tahoe. Our job – and the results that we want from our marketing efforts – is to show a new audience what exists beyond those two locations’ city limits. That there is a whole aspect of Nevada that they probably don’t know about and would certainly would enjoy discovering.”
R-T AMA: What can our audience expect to take way from your discussion that they can apply to their own businesses / clients?
GREG: “Put your efforts behind an integrated marketing focus. It works. Post-campaign research we’ve conducted for TravelNevada’s past two seasonal campaigns reveals in very stark numbers that the paid (advertising) portion of the marketing greatly influenced the recall of the owned (website, social, blogs, etc.) and earned (press/blogger influence). In turn, owned and earned boosted recall and response to the paid. This drafting effect has elevated our ROI from $19:$1 to $33:$1. BAM!…
“…integration is scalable. An organization of any size can develop a cohesive campaign that does not require a huge marketing budget. It just needs to be carefully thought out.”
R-T AMA: How can this tourism campaign be applied to marketing products/services in general?
GREG: “I think this probably sounds very obvious. But research has been our guiding light. It helps us understand the audience. It helps us understand our product on a deeper emotional level. It reveals Nevada’s intrinsic strengths as they appeal to the target audience’s desire to explore and experience ‘real’ destinations…
“Research is the foundation for smart marketing decisions.”
Get your tickets to Greg’s talk today!
$25 AMA Members with RSVP — **become a member and SAVE!
$32 Non-Members with RSVP
$20 Students with RSVP
$40 at the door (No RSVP)