Transcript:
Lindsey Norment: [00:00:00] When I think about this year and this past couple of months, we've had to rewrite our strategy and our plans so many times. And that idea of looking at going back to the research has been absolutely important, and then really figuring out how we can change and shift and work together in that way.
Adam Stoker: [00:00:20] Today's episode is brought to you by Relic. As many as you know, I own an advertising agency called Relic and we work specifically with tourism destinations. If there's any of you that are struggling with what to do next or you've tried agencies that don't specialize in tourism or if you've been using a local flavor for years and years and you're just looking for something new, I would say give us a call. Give us the opportunity to take a look at your plans, see what you're doing, use our tourism knowledge and industry specialty to examine everything from your brand to your tactical execution and make recommendations of how to help. We'll do that assessment for free. We'll give you those recommendations for free. And if you like what we say, maybe you can hire us to execute those plans. So, kind of a risk-free opportunity to have us take a holistic look at everything you're doing, provide some recommendations, and you can kind of see us in action.
If you're interested in having us do something like that, please send me an email directly at adam@relicagency.com. I would love to set that up with my team. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. I'm excited to be with you today. We've got a great show coming up for you. Before we do, I just want to remind everybody, if you haven't yet joined the Destination Marketers LinkedIn group or the Destination Marketer Slack channel, you're missing out on some tangible information from the show that we can't necessarily show over audio. Today, on today's show, we're going to go over some really cool stuff that we're going to post in both of those places. So, if you'd like to see that join the Destination marketers LinkedIn group or Slack channel, and we'll make sure you have access to that content. But without further ado, we have a very special guest today. Her name is Lindsey Norment, and she is from the Virginia Office of Tourism. Lindsey, welcome to the show.
Lindsey Norment: [00:02:22] Thank you, Adam. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:25] Oh, we're excited to have you. I want to make sure I get your title correct. You are the brand director at the State of Virginia, right?
Lindsey Norment: [00:02:25] Yes, that's right.
Adam Stoker: [00:02:33] Perfect. Perfect. Well, you're a listener of the show and you actually reached out to me from listening to the show, and so you know how the beginning of it goes. We're going to ask you the same questions, to get started, we ask everybody else. So Lindsey, if you could go anywhere in the world, what is your dream destination? Where would that be?
Lindsey Norment: [00:02:53] All right. Let's see here. I've been trying to think about this question, Adam. It's a tough one. I think being in the travel business, we have quite a bucket list, but I will say my husband and I had a trip planned actually this past May to Ireland that I was super excited about. We obviously had to cancel it, put it on hold. That one is ...
Adam Stoker: [00:03:15] Ugh.
Lindsey Norment: [00:03:16] I know, but it will be the first place we go to when we feel like it's safe to do so. But I was looking forward to driving around the country and seeing just beautiful landscapes that I can't even imagine and drinking pints of beer, and all of that fun stuff. That's an immediate bucket list place. My other one has always been Thailand. I really want to get there. I hope I get there soon. I think it's kind of the best of all trips wrapped into one country, so it's on my bucket list for sure.
Adam Stoker: [00:03:54] Okay. So, my little brother went to Thailand this year, and he goes on and on and on about how amazing it was. It's definitely something that wasn't on my list and has recently been added to my list because it just sounds like an incredible trip.
Lindsey Norment: [00:04:09] It really does. I'm so jealous of your brother. Yeah, I think being able to go and see like the beautiful temples and the elephant sanctuaries. Then, I'm a huge city traveler. I love big cities, so Bangkok is terrifying and thrilling all at the same time to me. It's so much there. I would love to see it. Then obviously the beaches. The exotic tropical beaches of Thailand just kind of seem like paradise. Yeah, hopefully, sooner rather than later I can make it there.
Adam Stoker: [00:04:45] Great. I'll give you the one downside of that trip for him. He was bitten by a monkey and he had to go get a rabies shot while he was out there, and so it was a pretty uncomfortable situation, but other than that, he was fine.
Lindsey Norment: [00:04:58] So, just watch out for the monkeys while you're there. That sounds awful. Sorry to hear that.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:04] Well, he was specifically told, "Don't let the monkeys climb on you." And what did he do? He let the monkeys climb on him, right?
Lindsey Norment: [00:05:12] Oh my gosh. What a terrible part of the trip! Yeah, that would not be fun. I'm not enthusiastic about super long flights. Super long flights. That is also, like Thailand. I don't think I could get any further from Virginia, which is good and bad when you think about the trip.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:32] Yeah. Do you know how long that trip is yet?
Lindsey Norment: [00:05:35] Oh my gosh. When I was looking at flights, it would definitely take me a full day to get there on a plane. Yeah, it's a long flight.
Adam Stoker: [00:05:47] Nice. And going back to Ireland, what is it about Ireland that ... I mean, you had booked a trip, so what is drawing you to Ireland?
Lindsey Norment: [00:05:57] That's a good question. I just have never been to a place like ... Yeah, that's a good question. I'm very intrigued by the landscape there. Just being able to get in a car, our trip was to get a car and drive around Ireland. And I very much liked that sort of travel where we have our own freedom, and it's just let's go on this adventure and see different small towns and be kind of immersed into that culture. I was really looking forward to just exploring on our own. I've heard that the people are so nice and lovely, and I was really looking forward to really meeting people. From what I hear, they really embrace tourists coming in. We'll see what happens moving forward, but being able to really get immersed in that culture, from what I hear, is just so nice and fun. Beautiful. I will say it was probably a different trip. I know I said I love big cities, so I do like the hustle and bustle of going to places. This was going to feel very much like a more relaxed, kind of a go at our own pace, small towns, things like that, small villages.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:18] Awesome. Oh, I hope you get the book that trip again.
Lindsey Norment: [00:07:21] Yeah, it'll happen. It'll happen soon.
Adam Stoker: [00:07:24] Good. Good. Okay. Well, let's talk about a trip you actually got to take. What's your favorite place you've ever visited?
Lindsey Norment: [00:07:32] Yeah. My husband and I, for our honeymoon, did the Italy trip. We went to Italy, we drove around Tuscany and went out to the coast. That's super special and a great trip. We visited, went to different vineyards. It was so beautiful. We ate and drank and just had the best time. I also, recently, went with my sister, we met up in Chicago. I had the best time in Chicago. I just think it was such a fun destination, such a fun trip. I didn't know what to expect. I'd never been to Chicago. I go to New York a lot. My sister lives in New York, so for us to explore a new city and a different city was really fun. Those stand out, as Italy was just epic and beautiful and just one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips that you get to do. Then, on the flip side, I really do love seeing big cities and traveling around them. So, Chicago was awesome and so much fun.
Adam Stoker: [00:08:39] Great. Great. Okay. I've got to ask when you were in Chicago, did you go to Giordano's?
Lindsey Norment: [00:08:45] I didn't. I didn't. Oh no.
Adam Stoker: [00:08:48] Lindsey.
Lindsey Norment: [00:08:48] What did I miss? What did I miss?
Adam Stoker: [00:08:52] Giordano's, when I was in Chicago, that's the pizza that we went to, and it is, to this day, one of my best pizza memories that I ever had. I had such good pizza.
Lindsey Norment: [00:09:03] Oh my God.
Adam Stoker: [00:09:03] Next time you go, let's get you to Giordano's.
Lindsey Norment: [00:09:06] I will, absolutely. Listen, it's on my list. It is such an easy flight from Richmond where I'm at, so that's the other thing is like, I can get to Chicago so easily. I will be going back. I promise you, Adam, next time I will put that on my list. I will try that pizza. I'll get back to you.
Adam Stoker: [00:09:25] I like it. I like it. You won't regret it. We'll put it that way.
Lindsey Norment: [00:09:29] Okay. Sounds good.
Adam Stoker: [00:09:30] Well, Lindsey, I know that you're a listener of the show. I'd love to hear just how did you discover the show and what made you continue to listen?
Lindsey Norment: [00:09:41] Yeah, I was a little bit when I found your podcast, which was not that long ago. I was kind of kicking myself that I did not find this earlier. It has been so helpful and great to listen to other people that I know and don't know in the industry, and that they're tackling a lot of the same issues and situations that I'm going through. I got cued off by a colleague of mine, Katherine O'Donnell at Richmond Region Tourism about DMOU with the podcast. I looked at that podcast then realized there were quite a few really great podcasts dealing with destination marketing, and so I started listening to yours. I'm taking so many walks right now, with staying at home more like everyone else. I've been binge listening kind of to all of the past episodes. It's been a really great way, especially right now, to hear what other destinations are doing during the pandemic, but then also, listening to great episodes before that of just people that I truly admire in the industry.
Adam Stoker: [00:10:50] Awesome. Well, we sure appreciate you listening, that's for sure. A great place to start and dip your toe in the destination podcast is DMOU, Bill does such a great job with the show. So, glad you were able to find these resources and start taking advantage of them.
Lindsey Norment: [00:11:08] Yeah, absolutely. Before that, I think I was just listening to crime podcasts, and walking around listening to true crime podcasts can get a bit creepy. So, I needed something else to listen to, to brighten my walks.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:23] After the show, we'll chat a little bit more about a few of my favorite crime podcasts that can maybe darken your walks again.
Lindsey Norment: [00:11:31] Okay. Thank you.
Adam Stoker: [00:11:33] Okay. Well, you know what, let's dive in a little bit to your background and let everybody get to know you and how you got into tourism.
Lindsey Norment: [00:11:41] Sure. Yeah. I was thinking a little bit about that. I know that a lot of people in the industry have the same kind of initial answers is, I had no idea that this industry existed, and that is true for me as well. I graduated in 2007 from JMU, which is here in Virginia, and I immediately got a job as a graphic designer. So, I started out on that route. I graduated with a degree in media arts and design. So, it was really kind of an all-encompassing degree that touched on different elements of design, media, public relations. I learned website design, advertising. So, it was a fantastic degree from JMU. It really allowed me a couple of different outlets, so I went with the design outlet first. Of course, that was 2007, get to 2008, the recession hits. I was in my job for about a year before the recession hit and they laid off a lot of people at the company. From there, I was laid off, trying to figure out what to do. Looking back on your journey, it's interesting how things connect, but I ended up just taking a temp job at a law office, just helping with the office work. It was a special law office in that they only dealt with cases with motorcycle accidents.
Adam Stoker: [00:13:26] Oh interesting.
Lindsey Norment: [00:13:30] I look back on it and it really taught me, without me knowing, about niche targeting, honestly. Working for this law office, only dealing with motorcycle accidents, I ended up staying at the law office. I became the receptionist, and I stayed there for about a year, almost two years. It was amazing to really learn so much about a lifestyle I had no idea existed. Or not existed, but I didn't know much about motorcycles and people who rode motorcycles. With my job there, they actually allowed me to help out a lot on case management. So, the paralegals, I worked side by side with them a lot managing different cases. What that allowed me to do is, it's so interesting how that role that I had, as kind of a case manager, is really similar to a role in an agency, where you have clients, you have certain projects that you're pushing through. So, learning the basics of managing clients and just that basic workload. It allowed me to hop over to a marketing agency. I started very low level in the account side, like an account manager assistant, if you will, and worked my way up. Looking at that, I know this is a long way of me saying, I finally looped my way back into marketing. I worked at this agency again, dealing with very niche targeting. For all of the marketing that we did, all of our clients were colleges and universities. So, we built campaigns and helped colleges and universities help with their enrollment, help with their marketing, all of that. That's my baseline of how I cut my teeth, if you will, or learned a lot about marketing. After spending a few years at that agency, a friend of mine told me about a role at Virginia Tourism. Again, it was a part-time temp position in the brand department. I took it immediately. It sounded amazing. I didn't really know everything with it, and it was a part-time job, but I knew I wanted to get my foot in the door. After about a year of working part-time, they were able to bring me on full-time. So, I just started as a brand manager at Virginia Tourism, and have been there almost eight years now, which has been fantastic.
Adam Stoker: [00:16:09] Awesome, awesome. Fun to hear how you took the part-time job, took a chance on that, and man, it changed your career. I hear so many of those stories, how taking the low-paying option or taking a risk here or there just changes the course of people's careers and lives and cool to hear how it did that for you.
Lindsey Norment: [00:16:29] Yeah, it is. I think that's what I tell a lot of people is, a lot of times it makes sense your path, trying to figure out which way to go and which opportunities to take. But I feel like looking back, you can realize how they laddered up to get you to where you are. I'm super fortunate I was able to make that transition and find where I'm at now. It's been fantastic.
Adam Stoker: [00:16:53] Awesome. Okay. Well, tell us a little bit about your role as brand director and what that entails for the State of Virginia.
Lindsey Norment: [00:17:01] Sure. I don't know why this seems like a loaded question. It's my job. Yeah, so in my position as brand director, I mainly oversee what we do for the paid advertising side, but I certainly have a hand in everything that our brand touches. So, from paid advertising, I work very closely. Our agency of record is the Martin Agency, which is in Richmond. I can walk. Well, when we're in the office, we're a five-minute walk away from the agency, which has been fantastic.
Adam Stoker: [00:17:40] Just one of the most legendary agencies in the world, not a big deal, right?
Lindsey Norment: [00:17:47] Yeah. They are so wonderful. We're so fortunate to have this partnership. Yeah, they do amazing work. They're truly passionate about Virginia is for Lovers, and with a good reason. They actually created, they came up with the Virginia is for Lovers slogan 50 years ago.
Adam Stoker: [00:18:06] No way.
Lindsey Norment: [00:18:07] Yeah, so there is a really fantastic story of, they kind of started the slogan, came up with it. At the time they were known as Martin and Woltz Agency. Now, the Martin Agency created it in 1969. They were the Virginia Tourism agency of record for quite a few years back in the '60s and '70s. For whatever reason, parted ways. When I came on board eight years ago, we were working with a different agency. Right around 2018, we were looking for a new agency. We were up for submitting an RFP, and we were coming up on our landmark year. 2019 was the 50th anniversary of Virginia is for Lovers, and it just worked out. It's almost poetic just how it worked out, that Martin Agency came in and pitched and did a fantastic job. We were able to hire them, and right before we were going to celebrate this great landmark 50th anniversary. So, it was a great story, a great celebration to have us reunited in this big year.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:23] Awesome. Awesome. You know what? I want you to tell me more about the evergreen tagline that you have, Virginia is for Lovers. Not many places can say they've had the same tagline for 50 years. We're going to take a little break, and when we come back, we'll dive deeper into that brand message that you have.
Lindsey Norment: [00:19:41] Sounds good.
Adam Stoker: [00:19:44] You guys, I have been working on something for the last six months that has been such a giant project, but I'm so proud of it. I'm excited to announce that I've just released my book. It's called Touchpoints, and it's the destination marketer’s guide to brand evaluation and enhancement. It is a comprehensive guide for destinations. To look at their brand, evaluate what you've done and make a very clear and detailed plan of action of how to fix it. Look, I'm biased, right? Because I wrote it, but I think it's so good. I think it's a great guide, and I'm really, really happy with how it turned out. I wanted to tell you guys about it. It's available on Amazon search Touchpoints by Adam Stoker, and you'll be able to get that book for your destination. I think it's going to be, especially for anyone that is trying to look at their brand holistically, this is the book for you, so check it out. Okay, Lindsey, so let's talk about the tagline Virginia is for Lovers. I've got to imagine there's a lot of benefits and brand equity that come along with having a tagline that's evergreen like you have, but there are also some challenges that come along with it too. So, tell me a little bit about the dynamics of your brand message.
Lindsey Norment: [00:21:06] Yeah. That's a great question. The brand Virginia is for Lovers is iconic. It's amazing. I feel so fortunate to have this job, that my job is to be the protector, if you will, or I get to work with this brand that people know, and it has survived 50 years and it's still running strong. The challenges, for sure, are that we do have a very recognized brand, and that's fantastic. You could go almost anywhere in the country and people will recognize Virginia is for Lovers. They maybe have heard of it. So, there's high recognition there, and that's really fantastic. But what our challenge has always been that people do not always connect it to travel. They look at it as kind of this quirky saying. They see it on t-shirts, they wanted a t-shirt, which is fantastic, but they don't always know that it is our travel brand, that we are Virginia Tourism. We are the ones who are trying to promote Virginia is for Lovers, and we want you to see it and connect it to travel and to come and travel to Virginia. Also, with that, it is a brand and a slogan that is 50-years-old. So, this idea of always trying to keep it fresh and relevant for the next generations coming up, that's a huge priority for us for sure, is to make sure that people connect it to travel and that our brand is remaining relevant for people, that it doesn't just go away or lose its importance in people's lives.
Adam Stoker: [00:22:53] Yeah. That's got to be an interesting thing to try to navigate that if it's been around 50 years, you've actually had your target persona go through multiple life cycles. You know what I mean? If you were targeting baby boomers 50 years ago, and no, you wouldn't be targeting baby boomers 50 years ago. It's the generation before that. Right?
Lindsey Norment: [00:23:19] Right.
Adam Stoker: [00:23:20] Tailoring the same message to new personas over the years can't be an easy task. I guess my question is, how do you keep that fresh? How do you, while keeping the core message the same, which by the way, I totally think is a great idea, especially with something as strong as the Virginia is for Lovers brand, but how do you keep it fresh? What a challenge for you in your role.
Lindsey Norment: [00:23:44] Yeah, just a small challenge. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Because what we see is the older generations have such nostalgia connected to Virginia is for Lovers and they remember. Especially when we celebrated the 50th anniversary, we heard from so many people who grew up seeing the brand and they remember it and they remember growing up and seeing the commercials, or they had the bumper sticker. So cool, but that generation is moving on, the ones that remember the brand and have that nostalgia with it. The next generations are coming, and we need to figure out a way to remain relevant to them. They're not going to have the nostalgia that the other generations necessarily have growing up and remembering when the brand came out, was created. Definitely, we do a ton of research surrounding the brand itself. Obviously, we do a ton of research with our destination, but also with the brand. What does it mean to people? What do you think it means? What does it make you want to do or think of? We do a lot of different surveys, a lot of different research. One thing that we encountered a lot was people really connected it to romance, to honeymoons. That was one part. The other was people just thought it was a quirky saying, they had no idea what it meant. They did not know that it was connected necessarily to Virginia and to travel. They just thought it was a weird little saying. So, our strategy continues to evolve. When I first got to Virginia Tourism, we did a lot. Actually, we created different sub-brands in a way, and this was really trying to get away from that, we're not just about romance. We're not for lovers, actual lovers, which is what a lot of people thought, it's all about romance and honeymoons. What we did was we really wanted to show people that Virginia is for Lovers is about anything that you love to do on a vacation, we have that in Virginia. What we created are different sub-brands, Virginia is for outdoor lovers, food lovers, wine lovers, music lovers. Based on the research of what we knew people wanted, what we knew Virginia as a destination could offer and really true, authentic experiences, such as wine. We wanted to create that sub-brand. We spent a lot of time actually putting out campaigns surrounding these sub-brands so that we were truly defining for people like, this is what it means. This is what it means. This is what we have to offer. It's almost just right in front of you. We've since moved from that strategy and we continue to evolve as we're seeing what people think about the brand and what we want to say, but it's a great question that you asked in terms of, how do we continue to help and help create relevance around this brand.
Adam Stoker: [00:26:47] Awesome. I love that you're doing so much research, I know that, based on that research, you had prepared and actually launched an incredible campaign this year that ran for a total of four days. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that campaign and the process and what your experience was like there?
Lindsey Norment: [00:27:08] Yeah, I will. I'm sure that story is similar for a lot of other destinations. We started doing a lot of work when the Martin Agency came on, and looking at 2019 was all about launching out the 50th anniversary of our brand. That was fantastic. We were looking ahead to 2020 of what we wanted to do for the brand and for our campaign. That idea of relevance for our brand, how it fits in, we really started to look at our strategy and helping to define what Virginia is and what Virginia is for Lovers means for people in the travel space. It's no surprise that Virginia, as a destination, we're rooted in history, we are built on the foundation of history. We have so many historic experiences around. When we're all in elementary school, we hear about history that most likely started in Virginia. So, as a destination, that is the first thing that we are rooted in history, but we're also rooted in authenticity. I know that that word is thrown around a lot. But why we do like to use that is because I think, when you have a destination that's so deeply rooted in history, it lends itself to authenticity. Just being able to say that some of the first grapes grown in the US, were planted in Virginia. That idea of we have the history here to prove it, makes it a truly authentic experience. When you can go to a place that, these were some of the first vines ever planted here, or saying ... It really plays off each other. So, we felt really good about being able to say, as a destination, we have history and we're authentic because of that. That really became that baseline of our strategy, and what we started to see as an insight was, looking at that time period at 2018, 2019, what we were seeing is that we're surrounded by this technology that allows us every sort of convenience in the world. If you want food delivered to your door, you can order it from your phone and it arrives at your door, and you can binge-watch anything you want on Netflix with the click of a button. We're constantly connected to our phones and our devices. So, what we were finding is that this insight of what's happening in the world right now has left a bit of a void in people's lives, and we're so connected to our technology and to these things that are making our life convenient, that it's left this void of true, authentic connection, like in real life connection, not connections on Instagram or anything like that. What we were leaning into with that strategy was really trying to position Virginia as the place to reconnect. We felt that was very true because we are a destination that's rooted in this authenticity. Our campaign was really centered on positioning disconnect to reconnect. So, disconnect from the chaos of your life, reconnect in Virginia on these experiences that will bring you back, allow you these real true connections. We were very excited about kind of landing on that strategy, where we were going to go with that.
Adam Stoker: [00:30:41] Yeah. The premise of that campaign makes so much sense to me, of disconnect to reconnect. One of the things that I love is the way you guys structured, especially your video assets for this. You had a really unique video campaign for this. Do you want to dive in a little bit into what that creative was like?
Lindsey Norment: [00:31:04] Yeah, absolutely. This was such a great idea. On behalf of the Martin Agency, I have to give them all of the glory on this. They really push us to keep the creative fresh. So, we decided to ... we wanted to find real families, not actors. They're not hired actors. Let's find real families who had not been to Virginia and let's bring them to Virginia, and let's film their experience. From there, we will turn that into our commercials and our campaign. The summer spot that we created all focused on family travel. We found this really great family out on the West Coast. They had never been to Virginia. On top of that, they were a newly blended family. The parents had children from different marriages. They are now married, and this family had never been on a vacation like this, as a newly blended family before. So, we brought them out to Virginia and we filmed their whole experience here. On top of that, just to reinforce that disconnect, you're going to disconnect on this trip. We took away their devices when they got to Virginia, which --
Adam Stoker: [00:32:25] That had to be an interesting experience.
Lindsey Norment: [00:32:29] It was. The kids were quite grumpy about it. They were not happy that we were, as you can imagine, taking away their phones. They love their phones. Yeah, we filmed, obviously, we filmed all of it. We filmed that part of taking away their phones and the kids are grumpy. But what ended up happening was exactly what does happen on a trip. I think what's really true to anything with travel is you want to disconnect from whatever is going on in your life and truly connect and be present on a trip. What is shown in that spot is this family, for the first time, they're all on a trip together and they're not on their phones. It's four kids all under the age of 15. So, having them all together, you can see through the spot that they're really kind of coming together and enjoying these experiences as a family. It was a really fun spot to shoot and put together. I think it turned out well. I was super happy, super happy with that one.
Adam Stoker: [00:33:32] Awesome. Awesome. And you had a second video as well that I really liked. Can you tell me a little bit about that second video?
Lindsey Norment: [00:33:40] Yeah, absolutely. That was our fall spot. In the fall, we really shift and we focus on couples and we see a ton of couples travel in Virginia, especially to the mountains. So, we really like to push the mountain getaways vineyards, wine, culinary, all those great things. We found a family, they lived in Texas. They had four small children all under the age of five, I think. They were in desperate need of a vacation. They had not been on a trip since they had children. So, we brought them, they left the kids with family, and we brought them out to the mountains of Virginia. They just enjoyed this amazing couples getaway. We took them to this great resort named Primland out in the mountains. The disconnect story there, it was not ... we did not take away their phones. I think they actually would have enjoyed that. They would have gladly handed over their phones. But the disconnect there was to disconnect from the kind of the everyday chaos and to really reconnect with each other since they had not had that time yet. So, we filled that spot. Again, I was so happy. It was a very challenging spot to shoot because of the weather, but we did it. So, it was a big hurray moment when we finished that one.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:09] Awesome. And both of those videos are videos that we can post in the LinkedIn group and the Slack channel, right?
Lindsey Norment: [00:35:15] Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We hope to have that out next year, so it'll be a nice sneak peek, but they're ready for people to see it.
Adam Stoker: [00:35:26] Awesome. Awesome. We'll get those posted. So, if you're listening and you want to see those spots, fantastic creative, check it out when we get this posted when the show goes live, so we'll plan on that. Okay, so a brilliant campaign runs for four days. Talk to me about the pivot that took place from there.
Lindsey Norment: [00:35:47] Yeah, absolutely. Like everyone, we start our campaign for summer in March. So, it went out for four full days before everything really started to happen with COVID-19. So, we felt like it was a responsible thing to just pause and halt our campaign until we saw what was really going on. So we pulled back. Our hope was truly to, oh, we'll wait a month and we'll see. I think everyone's thought process back in March was like that like, "Oh, this will be a short-term situation and we'll get back to it." But as ...
Adam Stoker: [00:36:28] Little did we know.
Lindsey Norment: [00:36:30] Right. It's actually so funny to think back on that time. I was so upset about pulling the campaign and really did not want to and looking back, it's just crazy to think about our mindset then versus now, what we have learned and what we know. We pulled everything and we started to watch the research, honestly. That was the one thing that we could all rely on is, what's going on, how are people thinking, what should we do right now? A big question that we ask ourselves was like when it's irresponsible for people to travel and dine out, what do we say? This idea of responsibility never came so front and center for us as a travel brand. There's always a responsibility there, but truly, this idea of, what are we doing right now? How do we position ourselves? How do we change our strategy? We were definitely seeing a lot of the same research, that I think everyone was seeing in the industry. We work with a great research firm right now, SIR. They were really pulling together all of the research that was out there and we landed on a few insights that consumers really miss traveling. Everyone misses traveling and wants to get back out there, but we're nervous and we're scared and there's fear there. Trying to promote these low-risk experiences really came front and center for us. The other thing is obviously the shorter road trip type style of travel was going to be really key. We know that lots of places are going to be promoting this idea of shorter road trips. So, how can we make that fit into what we're doing in Virginia? We really wanted to key into that idea of low-risk travel experiences. That was really important to be able to lean on the safety and responsibility so that we can ... what we're promoting, we feel good about it. We feel good that we're going to ask Virginians to get in their cars and go experience these things that we know are more of those low-risk, safe experiences.
Adam Stoker: [00:38:51] Got it, got it. I love it. I think that's a great pivot, and the good news is you can hold onto the previous creative for hopefully when we settle down into whatever this new normal turns out to be. Let's talk about something that you've done in the wake of this crisis that I really like, and that's that you've created a grant program so that local DMOs can get support from the state through this program. Would you mind describing that program to us?
Lindsey Norment: [00:39:22] Yeah, absolutely. Everything, all of this kind of launched over the past few weeks, actually. So, it's all very brand new and we're so excited about it. The overall campaign is called WanderLove. We are playing off of the word Wanderlust, which means a strong desire to travel. We shifted that to be in line with our brand, WanderLove. Really meaning a strong desire to travel in Virginia. So, as we're crafting this campaign and thinking about, okay, we really want to focus on road trips and these great itineraries, that can focus on things that we know, people want to go and see in a safe way, we started to ... we're talking a lot to our industry. This whole time, since everything started to happen in March, we are talking constantly to our partners. We have a weekly call with our partners that they can get on, we're talking about stuff that's going on, we're hearing from them. We're doing surveys. We put out surveys to our partners to find out like, what is the struggle that you're going through most? They were just as concerned as we were about, what do we say? How do we get back out there? Budgets are tight. This is definitely a model that we have done with some of our other campaigns as well in the past, that we really liked to have our partners participate. So, finding ways and opportunities for our partners to participate in our campaigns. With this, it was such a great way to bring in our partners. Every destination around Virginia can put together a road trip in an itinerary around their destination. So, we put together this grant to be part of our campaign. It was only for DMOs, they could apply. They would have to participate in the WanderLove campaign. So they would have to put together their own road trip or itinerary and use the creative that we have and use that to talk about their own destination, and we ended up having 90 DMOs apply and they all got awarded a grant. So, we are ...
Adam Stoker: [00:41:39] What kind of money are we talking? How much money was available for each local DMO?
Lindsey Norment: [00:41:46] Yeah, so the grant was for $10,000. So, each awardee was awarded $10,000 to support their program. We have a fantastic department at Virginia Tourism, the partnership marketing department. A lot of what they do is on grants and working with the partners in development. We all really took a look at what was important here in terms of budget and helping our partners, not only for the campaign that we have but for them to be able to latch onto the campaign. We're all saying the same thing, and giving them the money to put a little bit behind to help expand the reach of this message.
Adam Stoker: [00:42:31] Okay, Lindsey, I know we have so many local DMOs that are listening. Let's say that I want to go to my state as a local DMO and say, "Hey, I've heard of this program. And I'd like to see if we can implement something like that within our state." How would you like to be approached? You're at the state level, you get hit up by DMOs here and they're asking for support. What's the best way to approach this with your state and try to see if you can pioneer a similar program in another state?
Lindsey Norment: [00:43:00] Yeah, that's a great question. I was thinking a little bit about how ... like I mentioned, this is a model that we have done for several of our campaigns. It really has started with the fact that we're communicating with our partners a lot and they're telling us what they need. For a long time at Virginia Tourism, this question of, if we put out a campaign and creative and ask our partners to use it, would they? Being a part of these campaigns that have a grant with them, we are asking you to use our creative. Sometimes a destination's branding or logo might be not front and center, instead, it's this creative. In this case, it's WanderLove. That creative is front and center. For a long time, we were talking about, is this something that could actually work with partners like that? What we found is that they were telling us, they were saying, "Yes, we actually would. We want to be a part of what you're doing. We would latch onto this creative in order to be part of a larger campaign. It was a great thing to hear. It has clearly shown us. We did a campaign a few years ago, Crush Friday, a similar situation where we had a grant with it. We had all of the creatives, templated out for partners to use. We did the same thing with our 50th anniversary, and then with this. So, we found that this model works really well when we can help provide a messaging creative, and then a little bit of money to incentivize and to expand that reach all under the same goal of us saying the same message. I think that's really important. When you have a lot of destinations all together, trying to work together, instead of us all saying different things, and for us to say the same message, but make it about yourself in that way too. That's what we found has worked so well. I would tell a DMO to not be shy about telling your state what you think could work, what you want, what you need, because we were surprised to hear that, "Oh, we may be willing to join this creative and be a part of this," and it has worked out so well.
Adam Stoker: [00:45:22] Awesome, awesome, great advice. We obviously could talk about this all day because this is such great information, but we probably need to wind it up for the episode today. So, tell me a little bit, if you were to boil your advice for any destination that's listening down to one simple takeaway, what would that be?
Lindsey Norment: [00:45:47] Oh gosh, that's a big question. This year has really taught us a lot about the pivot. I've been calling it the year of the pivot. We've had to be so flexible and I've had to learn that myself too, to be very flexible. So, we had such a solid plan laid out for this year. We were so excited about it. What we needed to do was we needed to rely on the research of what the research was telling us, not what we were feeling of like, no, I want to still put out this campaign, which was me wanting to say like, "Oh, we worked so hard, let's do this," but really looking at what's happening, what is the research telling us? And being able to pivot in that way. I don't know if that's anything new or helpful, but I think, when I think about this year and these past couple of months, we've had to rewrite our strategy and our plan so many times, and that idea of looking at going back to the research has been absolutely important, and then really figuring out how we can change and shift and work together in that way. I feel so encouraged by what we're doing with WanderLove because we're relying on exactly what we know is happening right and outlook. Then we're joining our partners altogether, and we're going to be doing this together, working together to get through the rest of this year.
Adam Stoker: [00:47:11] Awesome, great advice. Be willing to change when it's required and be willing to collaborate. I think both of those are great pieces of advice. Lindsey, thanks for being here today. We really appreciate you taking the time and sharing the knowledge and experience that you have all the way from Virginia today.
Lindsey Norment: [00:47:28] Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Adam. It was great to speak with you.
Adam Stoker: [00:47:31] You too. You too. Well, everybody, this has been another great episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to leave us a rating or a review, that helps us continue to grow our reach and keep the show going. So, thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you next week. Okay, everybody, we've been talking about recovery for a while now, and my team at Relic has been working on recovery campaigns for several destinations over the last couple of months. They've actually developed a pretty amazing, we'll call it an algorithm to know when it's safe to do acquisition marketing in a market. What I mean by that is you've got government regulations, you've got ... how is the virus affecting that market? Whether there's been a decrease in cases or a decrease in deaths in that market? When is it safe to advertise? Hey, come to our destination. Like I said, our team has come up with this algorithm to provide that information for you and we're offering a free market report. We're calling it Recovery Triggers. If you'd like a free recovery trigger report for your target market, where you want to draw visitors from, please email me directly at adam@relicagency.com, or you can go to recoverytriggers.relicagency.com, and we'll get you set up with a free report, and we even have the ability to send you a weekly recurring report so that you can see what's happening in that market on a weekly basis and make sure you're launching your acquisition campaign at the perfect time.
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