The Brand California has been steadily built over a period of decades, providing the foundation for a multi-billion destination year after year: $106.4 billion in revenues supporting 917,000 jobs and generating $6.6 billion in tax revenues in 2012.
So, with a flat annual budget of only $50 million, how does Visit California consistently construct such a valuable destination brand?
The long view + strategic thinking
As an organization dedicated to the long-term impact of in-destination tourism, Visit California has a distinct advantage: the ability to execute a long-term strategic plan for a brand that is more than just a place: it is a product in and of itself, to be packaged and sold.
By carefully constructing a brand paradigm that both reflects the state's values and the aspirations of potential visitors, the brand has used strategy to become one of the most valuable in tourism.
The most recent 5-year plan shows how dozens of stakeholders were brought together to create a plan for Brand California. By bringing together a diverse group, the organization ensures buy-in and cohesion for the state's marketing plan.
Within the 5-year plan, new ideas were catalyzed into a strategy outlining "the importance of going beyond brand building and inspiration and placing a heavier focus on engagement. Connecting with consumers across channels and over time to develop relationships that lead to higher affinity for the California product and ultimately increased lengths of stay and spend in the state."
The sustained long-term approach has provided the organization with the opportunity to build a strong foundation for the brand.
The organization can provide a consistent perspetive long-term, and really evolve the brand to suit the changing market environment.
The organization must also be clever in leveraging resources and developing strong assets that can be employed across platforms and in different ways.
An example of the impact of stable funding from the VisitCalifornia team:
A few years ago, China was a small blip in overall visitation to California. But research revealed that China was exploding and would soon become the state's No. 1 overseas visitor market.
Because we saw that on the horizon, we strategically positioned ourselves to take advantage of that. We've been able to establish a marketing presence in China, educate the travel industry on catering to Chinese consumers — all important steps to capturing as much of the China market as possible and maximizing the economic benefit to California. unexpected changes in the market, but that same research helps us be prepared for those shifts.
In addition, the mission of the organization moves beyond promoting California as a travel destination and into the means of accomplishing this mission via digital tools.
In a recent case study with Google (an obvious benefactor of this frontier), CEO Caroline Beteta speaks about how the place gets marketed as product:
As it happens, marketing a place has plenty in common with marketing a product, particularly when that place already has such a strong global identity to begin with. You need a compelling story, a healthy budget and committed stakeholders who share your vision.
Fortunately, Visit California has all three. Under Beteta’s watch, the destination brand has grown into an “investor-oriented, $50m-plus global platform” with over 6,000 companies on board. And we’re not just talking about about independently owned motels, here - we’re talking about some of the planet’s biggest brands, from Disney and Universal Studios to AEG and Marriott. “Whereas most tourism boards are political,” says Beteta, “we’re entrepreneurs.”
Nonetheless, it can sometimes be challenging to bring stakeholders in line with the long term view. As the VisitCalifornia team points out, "businesses are driven by sales or more tangible immediate metrics so we have to work hard to get them to believe in a longer term vision and we do that by marketing California, the brand."
Ultimately, a traveler must first pick California before patronizing its businesses, so the battle for walletshare in a consumer's limited travel budget is truly the front line.
Focusing on consumers, and their changing habits, has been the cruz of VistiCalifornia's strategic thinking.
Integrated, impactful ad campaigns
The limited budget is broken down as follows:
Brand advertising sits atop Cash Mountain, and drives the spirit of the entire brand.
The most recent campaign was a clever infusion of a brand powered by celebrity, sights and preconceived notions, and targeted to those "California dreaming."
The team has been focused on "building a brand and connecting with consumers to create inspiration and keep California top of mind." The core of this strategy has been wide-reaching television commercials that capture the spirit of California.
From Betty White to the Governator, the commercial leveraged some basic "misconceptions" of the state - and was distributed in multiple international markets.
Note how the second commercial points to a .co.uk domain - signifier of each campaign's far reach.
The campaign extends all the way to Australia, showing the organization's true international focus , as well as how each commercial is targeted to a particular cultural demographic.
While the TV commercials, given their celebrity starpower and natural wonder, are the most visible, the bulk of brand marketing spending is on magazines. Glossy one-pagers pepper issues from many outlets, showing that print is still popular.
Granted, these numbers are a couple of years old, but still indicate how the media mix trends for many large destination marketers.
A multi-screen focus
Beyond the media mix, the digital frontier continues to be a driver of success of Visit California's growth in market- and mind-share.
By layering their activities across screens, the organization can increase reach, boost engagement and deliver a more efficient return on dollars spent.
Speaking of the multi-screen world, the Visit California team knows the importance of being everywhere consumers are.
The frequency of message, across channels and platforms is becoming increasingly critical to break through the cluttered content environment.
The ‘multi-screen’ environment is interesting and playing a large part in the fragmented media environment that is leading marketers down this path of strategy refinement.
We are working with our media agency to create programs that cross devices. Programs that once were just broadcast integrations now include integrated digital extensions and compelling calls to action to reach consumers across platforms.
Successes include pairing a microsite to a recent promotion with Entertainment Tonight, which added an interactive component to the on-air segment called "California Dreamers" that focused on celebrities' favorite spots statewide.
Another is the co-branded iPad app with Sunset Magazine, which allowed a lean-back experience for consumers considering a California escape. After 6 months, the team saw that 60% of traffic to the app was international - again highlighting the strategic plan's aim to focus on international markets.
Focus on the results
Finally, the Visit California team was incredibly results-focused. With only $50 million to spend each year, results must be carefully tracked and matched with spend to calculate a true ROI that can drive their conversation with stakeholders during the next cycle.
The organization has consistently tracked advertising effectiveness, thus delivering public benchmarks for performance measurement.
By proving results, the team has much more leverage going into meetings and partnerships.
Our success is measured by economic impact to the state of California. We assess this impact through incremental travel to and spend within the state as a result of our efforts.
Currently, we utilize a two-part tracking study in the markets where we are running advertising – U.S., Canada, U.K. & Australia – looking at intent to travel before and after our advertising flights. This is a conservative methodology as it primarily focuses on impact of our advertising and does not account for efforts in our owned and earned channels, or in the other international markets where we have a presence.
In 2012, Visit California reported the following ROI statistics:
- 50 million aware households
- 4 million incremental trips
- $7 billion incremental spending
- 355:1 ROI
Ultimately, regardless of whether it's a public company, private entity or public/private partnership, the results are what counts. Visit California has been able to not only capitalize on the creative cachet of a widely-known brand, but also boost its profile beyond what it may have been without guidance.