Visit California relaunches, in once-a-decade site overhaul

Visit California, the digital portal for the state's direct marketing organization (DMO), relaunched today.

The cost was $250,000 to revamp the website's infrastructure, in what was called a "once-a-decade overhaul." The website will become a centerpiece of California's approximately $100 million-a-year media marketing plan.

A more flexible architecture enables the site to now handle bigger visuals and rapid updates of content. It can also perform better on mobile devices.

The US site relaunched today, but it won't be until late February when the global versions for 9 languages, and localization for Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, will appear.

To cover the marketing costs, the DMO hopes to earn revenue from new native content from commercial partners. Those will start to appear in late spring.

That approach differs from some DMOs that aspire to earn revenue mainly off of banner ads and commissions for transactions.

Visit California's vice president of marketing Lynn Carpenter said in an online press conference:

"Our goal wasn't to increase site traffic, but to set ourselves up to establish a global platform that will last for another 10 years.

Today we get 5 million unique visitors a year globally. We receive 41% of our traffic via mobile."

Carpenter said the agency it hired to visualize the redesign, Code and Theory, pushed Visit California out of the typical, search-focused DMO template that her team would have gravitated toward. Added Carpenter:

"In the past, the website was subordinate to our DMO mission of driving arrivals to California. Now we think of it in terms of as a vehicle we can use to inspire people and convert, especially in international markets, such as Brazil and China, where they typically have limited understanding of California beyond Hollywood and Disneyland. Our website and our three-year content plan are together intended to show people sides of California they haven't seen before, and to do so in a way that's shareable."

Like a lifestyle brand

The overall plan of VisitCalifornia is to be at the top, or "inspiration" end, of the travel transaction funnel, and then to move interested travelers over to content providers' sites to get planning and booking information. This is a move away from the site's prior emphasis on conversion.

The new site prominently profiles "remarkable Californians who have manifested their big dreams in the Golden State," according to Carpenter.

Counterbalancing that theme of "dreaming big," the site plans to use self-effacing humor to poke fun at Californians and the quirky stereotypes about them, such as a photo of a skateboard park that floats on a bay.