CHARLOTTESVILLE ALBEMARLE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU ADVERTISING IN DC MARKETPLACE YIELDS POSITIVE ECONOMIC IMPACT TO LOCAL AREA
The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau (CACVB) has announced the results of an advertising effectiveness study that shows its advertising and marketing in the Washington, DC metro area has produced significant economic impact to the Charlottesville-Albemarle area.
Destination Analysts, working with the CACVB and through its website management company, Simpleview, completed the “2013-2014 Advertising Effectiveness & ROI Study” to gauge the success of the organization’s recent marketing campaign. The study indicates that more than 23,600 incremental trips to the Charlottesville area were taken by Washington, DC metro area residents as a result of being exposed to one or more ads. These trips resulted in nearly $25 million being spent by visitors in our destination.
The “study’s goal,” according to Destination Analysts, “was to develop an understanding of the reach and impact, in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, of the organization’s “Where Tradition is Always New” marketing and advertising campaign, which consisted of $424,800 in media placement in magazine, print publications and online.”
Dave Bratton, Managing Partner at Destination Analysts, has observed in his decades of experience that, “Effective destination marketing organizations are those that go beyond the advertising and do the very kind of research that the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau has just conducted.” Bratton knows from his time once spent as Research Director for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. “While we work with many destination management organizations around the country, we have found that organizations that commit to research, the kind that includes analyzing the effectiveness of their advertising reach, are those that have the highest chances for achieving success.”
The tourism bureau’s extensive coverage and resulting success in the Washington, DC marketplace was largely achieved through its execution of key marketing initiatives developed by the Charlottesville-based marketing agency, Payne, Ross & Associates. In 2013, the agency, working with the CACVB, developed the bureau’s new brand imagery and tagline, “Where Tradition is Always New,” which has received positive response by prospective visitors to the greater Charlottesville area.
Other findings in the report reveal;
• 57-to-1 Overall Return on Investment per dollar invested
• $665,864 in estimated taxes generated for Charlottesville & Albemarle
• 71,555 visitor days spent in Charlottesville & Albemarle County
• 3 days was the average length of stay
• $349.04 was the reported average amount spent per-day by visitors
• 33.5% listed “weekend getaway” as their primary reason for visiting
• On a per-day basis, spending at restaurants & dining led with $83.35, followed by lodging at $82.86 (before tax)
• More than 45% said they are somewhat likely-to-will certainly visit the Charlottesville area over the next 12 months
• 54% put the Internet as the primary source for seeing advertisements about Charlottesville versus 46.9% for magazines
• 49% felt that the advertising effectively portrayed the Charlottesville area as “A good destination for a weekend getaway,” while 31.5% said the ads were very effective
• 63% said the CACVB’s ads influenced their decision to visit the Charlottesville area
More women responded to the survey, topping men, 61.5%% to 38.2%, with 44.2 years as the average age of the survey respondent.
CACVB Executive Director, Kurt Burkhart, said “We are very pleased with this first-ever survey conducted to ascertain and benchmark the overall effectiveness of the advertising and marketing we’ve placed in our primary market,” and thanked the bureau’s agency, Payne, Ross & Associates, for their guidance and partnership in this process. The CACVB hopes to do similar survey every two years to gauge consumer sentiment.
Susan Payne, President, and Chris Hurley, Account Manager at Payne, Ross & Associates share in the enthusiasm. ‘It has been our pleasure partnering with the CACVB over the last two years starting with a rebranding effort and subsequent advertising campaign promoting the Charlottesville-Albemarle area as a tourism destination,” they said. “Our main goal was to bring new light to an established historical area and to highlight all that makes it eclectic and relevant to today’s traveler, appealing to both our targeted demographic audience, and beyond. We strove to portray the area as fun, modern and fresh through a series of (12) videos highlighting topics such as ‘history’, ‘entertainment’, ‘weddings’, and ‘arts’, and wove those same themes into a print and web advertising campaign with ads running in regional publications and on web travel aggregator sites. When we heard the results of the study, we were very pleased for the entire CACVB team and for our collective efforts over the last two years. It is nice to see our initial theme of ‘More people, staying longer, spending more’ coming to fruition and as a result, a thriving local community.’ “
Brigitte Bélanger-Warner
Director of Sales & Marketing
Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau
434.970.3632 – warnerb@charlottesville.org
About the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau (CACVB)
In addition to serving as the global resource for marketing the tourism assets of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, through www.visitcharlottesville.org, the CACVB assists tour operators, meeting planners, reunions and other groups in planning visits to the destination. CACVB’s mission is “to enhance the economic prosperity of City and County by promoting, selling and marketing the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle, as a destination, in pursuit of the meetings and tourism markets.” CACVB operates the Downtown Visitor Center (610 E Main St) which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a satellite Visitor Center in the Albemarle County Office Building (401 McIntire Rd) which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as a touch-screen kiosk at Monticello’s Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center.