The Park City Chamber of Commerce has a new Marketing plan for both summer and winter media campaigns. It’s good bye to the “Yes, All That” after three years. In September, they launch their new endeavor called “Winter’s Favorite Town” with new data and strategies to reach the Park City destination visitor. Carolyn Murray has this:
Jim Powell is the Marketing Director for the Park City Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau. He says they used data obtained through focus groups to develop the new media campaign.
“You know we went to the effort of actually focus grouping several concepts in New York and L. A. to make sure we were on target with our destination consumer here. They helped us shape which campaign they were going to go with and you know that’s really great feedback to get. We talked with people who had been here and people who hadn’t been here. We put a little emphasis on those who had not been here to say how are we going to change their minds or opinions or increase their awareness about Park City. You know the Winters Favorite Town really resonated with them and we are just in the finishing stages of the TV commercial production and our print creative and it’s really starting to come together and to look really well.”
Powell says a campaign should be relevant for about a three-year run. The social media and URL search products will begin in September followed by several launch times that will hit certain markets through the next 9 months.
“It’ll really kick off in earnest in October. We have a strong lead up to the Holiday. We take a break during the holiday. We come back after the first of the year for our second flight. Then the third flight is really that one we are focused on spring….March and April. One of the modifications we’ve made this last year, or over the last few years has really been to make sure we are pushing toward our need periods during the winter time. And you know that spring need period, that March April period is really an opportunity to put more heads in beds.”
He says they’ve made a big change to cut the chord with Television advertising for the fall and summer campaign. In the past, the Chamber would use digital and cable marketing in key areas. Powell says the new effort is an opportunity to test out using 100% digital for the fall and summer advertising campaign. They use video, display advertising and digital radio like Pandora with very limited print advertising. However, Outside Magazine will have a spread highlighting Park City’s trail networks.
“This year we did a really good piece in Outside Magazine which was really advertorial. And Outside actually wrote a great article about Park City and our trail network here. And got quotes from some of our locals and some of our members to talk about what we’ve got here to offer. It’s a really unique way to do it. Not just a standard old print ad.”
They target specific households by geographic location, age range and income.
“And also with digital there’s a million ways to segment your digital search by search trends of individuals. If somebody searches for XYZ we serve up an ad to them. We also segment by market because there are certain markets we are going to go after like New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, Boston. We look at a lot of different data points. One we look at where people are already coming from. That’s a good indicator of where we should be going. Number two, we look at the number of skiers in a market. Number three we look at the number of flights that come into Salt Lake City International Airport.
Powell says their top international markets are Australia, Mexico, Brazil and the UK.
“Those markets are great, especially Mexico. There are two direct flights, one coming out of Guadalajara, one out of Mexico City. That really makes a difference for us in getting people here. It’s very easy and convenient vacation for them. That market is very upscale. They’re looking for the product that we have in Park City like the Montage and Stein Eriksen Lodge and access to our main street. There are things that are just as important as skiing to those markets. You know they actually love coming here and going shopping because they may not be able to find those goods in their countries.”
The Thin Air Festival is not scheduled for 2019. The conference was a three-year trial intended to build spring visitation.
Powell says they learned a lot about the late season skier market during the Thin Air Festival experiment and for now, it’s on hold.
