Reno Tahoe USA: A Little West of Center.
After 13 years of declining tourism, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority turned to us for a fresh approach to marketing the region. So we went out and chatted to people in the region. Looked at all the giant stacks of research they had done. We even hit the streets to speak with tourists. What we learned was this: Reno is probably not “America’s Adventure Place,” as they were claiming. They are, however, a surprisingly cool little town beneath the surface. The type of place that appeals to people looking for authentic experiences, and are repelled at the first sign of slick presentation.
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Far From ExpectedWhich brings us to why we market Reno Tahoe the way we do. You don’t run buttoned-up ads and hope a buttoned-down crowd figures out what you really mean, and vice-versa. You have to ask for what you want. So our strategy is decidedly buttoned-down. It asks people looking for the anti-sanitized, -lobotomized and -commercialized to take another look at Reno and Tahoe together. We used deeply saturated backgrounds to provide visual references to not only Reno’s smoky card rooms, but Tahoe’s timber and ski lodges. The “badge” we created is a simple, recognizable, and above all, honest avatar that evokes road signage, lift tickets, machine-stamping and an overall sense of honesty and trustworthiness. And our second tagline “Far From Expected” is executed in the same font as the Reno Gateway sign (Ok, about that tagline. It’s not actually our favorite. Our recommendation, “A Little West of Center”, earned us front page news in USA Today, largely due to the fact that the Mayor of Reno is a little hard of hearing and thought the line was “A Little Left of Center.” A shame when you consider that “A Little West of Center” line tested off the charts, but…c’est la guerre.) |
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Spokes-Sheep?First off, he’s a sheep, which makes him inherently funny. Second, he’s a bighorn sheep, which makes him not only the state animal of Nevada, but a little bit badass. He’s stubborn. Hardheaded, if you’ll excuse the pun. And just the right amount of Weird. He’s literally the symbol of the region as a whole and everything it stands for. But why stop there? New badge. Check. New tagline. Check. New marketing message. Check. Bighorn sheep. Chiggidy-check. Next, we set about changing what people say about Reno. Which meant a good old fashioned advertising campaign targeting San Francisco–outdoor, radio, a coordinated push on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and FaceBook, and plenty of good old fashioned PR. |
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Fast forward to 2010.Our campaign is reaching 80% of the entire Bay area between 7-8 times (for less than $12 a head). We amassed over 1,000 fans in the first week of the “Save Reno 911” campaign. And our Sant Crawl and Bay to Breakers promotions helped double website traffic; improve regional tourist revenues by 30% and Flickr and YouTube views by 30%. All in three short months. The most important metric of all? The average daily rate (ADR) paid by hotel visitors jumped by 6% for the first time in 13 years. It’s like getting an extra mint on the pillow. |
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