Adam Stoker: [0:00:01] Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. This is going to be a fun one for all you Swifties out there. It is finally time we will be covering the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. I want you to know first of all, how this idea was hatched. I would love to pretend that your host, Adam had this brilliant idea to talk about Taylor Swift and her impact on the destination marketing industry. But I need to make sure that I give credit to Julie Sheffield. Julie runs our podcast team here at Relic and does an incredible job and she had this brilliant idea and I also need to let you know that is specifically in the script here that she had a brilliant idea to do an episode about the Era's Tour and Taylor Swift's impact on the destination marketing industry.
So what you're going to hear today is a couple of destinations that were able to host one of Taylor Swift's concerts in their destination. Talk about the preparation, the impact, the experience on the day of the event, the phenomenon that it is. And I think we'll all be able to learn a little bit about the importance of when something like this happens to your destination. Don't let it happen to you, but make sure that you are approaching it directly and making sure that you're intentionally building a strategy to maximize the impact.
I think another great example of something like this is I've talked to a lot of destinations when the eclipse comes to town and maybe that would even be another really interesting episode to do. But when the solar eclipse happens, all of a sudden you have thousands and thousands of people in your destination just because you're in the path of where the best place to view the eclipse would be. And a lot of destinations will make the mistake of just letting that happen, letting it happen to them and then not capitalizing on the opportunity and building a relationship with those visitors.
These destinations that we'll talk about today were faced with that same type of situation with Taylor Swift coming to the destination and they didn't just let it happen to them. They had a very intentional strategy and did an incredible job of planning, executing and maximizing the impact of Taylor Swift's presence in the destination.
So without further ado, I want to dive into our interviews, we've got two of them and the first one is Choose Chicago and I've got Isaac Reichman and he's the director of corporate communications here and he's going to give us the inside scoop on everything Eras Tour in Chicago. Isaac, thanks for joining us today.
Isaac Reichman: [0:02:44] Thank you so much for having me.
Adam Stoker: [0:02:45] What in the world does it mean when you find out that Taylor Swift is coming to your city?
Isaac Reichman: [0:02:52] Oh, my gosh. I mean, it's always exciting. It's, as the third biggest city in the country in Chicago, we fully expect to be on a tour. So when the tour is announced we know that it's going to be Chicago stops but we also know that nobody excites locals and visitors to quite like Taylor Swift. So always exciting, it was so exciting to have her for three shows this past summer.
Adam Stoker: [0:03:19] Awesome, awesome. So a lot of our fans out there are Swifties and we decided what we've got to look at this and the reason it's a fascinating case study for me is I think as destinations in general, a lot of times we will look at the traditional items that impact travel and tourism and we mark it in kind of our normal way and then you get this massive anomaly that is completely different from what happens in a normal year or whatever. And I think you in Chicago, you've got the benefit of being one of the largest cities and knowing you're probably going to be on a tour, but it completely changes the way you have to plan. And so I'm curious, once you knew what the schedule was, once you knew what the dates were, how did your team jump into action? What was the planning like and a little bit of the lead-up?
Isaac Reichman: [0:04:14] Yeah. So, what really made Taylor Swift's tour interesting in Chicago is this was the first weekend in June when Taylor Swift came through. Typically when you have a concert like that, that's the main driver that weekend. But this weekend happened to be the same weekend ASCO as American Society of Clinical Oncologists and the James Beard Awards. So two major annual things happening in Chicago every year, Taylor Swift is not planning around those, but here in Chicago, we had a lot of work to make sure our hotel partners were prepared, transportation providers, everybody across the city that's involved in hospitality and tourism, they needed to know hey, we've got 40,000 oncologists, plus we've got a packed soldier field for three days of Swifties and we have foodies in town for James Beard Awards. You better be prepared, you better have all your staff ready for an incredible weekend. Lots of positives, obviously, but also be prepared for back-to-back restaurants, be prepared to be full just making sure everybody was prepared for that weekend.
Adam Stoker: [0:05:24] Awesome. And, I mean, I think its pretty normal for when there's an announcement like this. You've kind of got that moment where the team is a little bit starstruck and super excited that it's happening. Right? And then you've got the moment that they kind of jump into action and the starstruckedness, which really isn't a word, but that kind of wears off, right, and the team gets going. And so I'm curious how long was that period of the team being starstruck and excited and how long did it take for you guys to go into planning mode?
Isaac Reichman: [0:05:53] You know, here in Chicago, we are always ready to play and ready to move. So I think we shifted pretty quickly both us at Chicago coordinating with our hotel partners, but also our partners over in the city, the logistics that goes into a mega concert like that is no small feat putting something like that together from the police perspective and all that. So there was I think we hit the ground running pretty quickly converting to the planning mode there. And obviously, we are not planning these mega concerts, but last summer was full of a lot of major shows really having their first big tour post-COVID. So there was a lot of opportunity for that all summer.
Adam Stoker: [0:06:41] And you mentioned you're not the one planning these shows. And I think in traditional government or quasi-government organizations, there's a little bit of a tendency to look at it and say, hey, that's not my job, right? Like we're not the ones planning the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. And so some of this we don't have to worry about. But the problem in a DMO and I know you guys recognize this that's why you jumped into action, is that so much of the experience that these Swifties and even these oncologists and the foodies that are coming to town the same weekend, that experience is going to be part of the perception of Choose Chicago's brand. And so how do you decide, first of all, what's your responsibility and what's not as an organization and then prioritize and decide what needs to be done?
Isaac Reichman: [0:07:29] Yeah, that's a really good question because again, we're not providing city services, we are not that organization, but we kind of think of ourselves a little bit the convenor of the information chairs. Like we have a responsibility, everybody around the city knows that Taylor Swift is in town. Not everybody knows about the clinical oncologists, right? Because that's just it's not as we're here to talk about Taylor Swift.
Adam Stoker: [0:07:53] Yeah, they don't have the same kind of recognition or, or fanfare.
Isaac Reichman: [0:07:58] No, there isn't local bars having specials for the – but it's our responsibility to share that information to really convene the folks that are ready to prepare for these major events and to make sure they are prepared to make sure information is communicated in a timely manner. Again we are major stakeholders at the local hotels and to make sure they are prepared and have the information they need because as I said, it was a record-setting weekend, but that was only because everybody was prepared for it to be that.
Adam Stoker: [0:08:33] Got it. Okay. So you did all this work to prepare everybody, you guys kind of grasped the gravity of this and then you went out and started preparing the other departments and other organizations and all the stakeholders that were going to need to be involved, how well did people grasp the impact that this was going to have before it happened? And the reason I'm asking that question, I just want to make sure that I'm being clear here. Were people overwhelmed or were they well prepared or was it a mixture of both?
Isaac Reichman: [0:09:02] I think they were well prepared. And I remember in the days leading up to it that we were hearing from our hotels that hey, we are sold out across the board. This is going to be an incredible weekend. Like we went into that weekend thinking we are going to set records and we did. So it wasn't too much of a surprise. I think there was both everyone was well prepared. I will just say Chicago knows how to throw major events isn't our first rodeo. I don't know if it's true, but we claim to have the largest gathering in the United States of all time when the Cubs won after the Cubs won the World Series.
So we're used to this. So it isn't too heavy of a lift to have concerts like this. But there was such a sense of optimism and excitement across the city that weekend. I think the timing of it first weekend in June. So you're right at the beginning of summer, everyone is excited about summer. It was a beautiful weather weekend. As I mentioned earlier, this was the first time we've had these mega concerts since COVID. So there was a lot of this sort of bottled-up emotion getting out that weekend in a really positive way. I remember I was lucky enough to go to one of the nights of Taylor Swift. And I remember just walking I walked along the lakefront to Soldier Field and you had that interesting dichotomy of oncologists on their way back from a place in suits with all the Swifties dressed up on their way and interacting, mingling, seeing each other. There was excitement really all over. It was a really, really positive weekend all around.
Adam Stoker: [0:10:45] And how did the oncologist react to you choosing to go to the Taylor Swift concert instead of to the oncology conference?
Isaac Reichman: [0:10:52] You know, I don't know if I was invited to the oncologist conference. I think I'm lacking a couple of the credentials to really fit in there. I think they were excited to kind of share the weekend because they're not used to getting the coverage that Taylor Swift gets. And any interview we did any time that we talked about the weekend, we always said it wasn't just Taylor Swift, it was also ASCO so they definitely got a little bit of extra publicity helping to cause this amazing weekend.
Adam Stoker: [0:11:23] Well, I've got to imagine the nightlife and had a little bit more to offer than it did on alternate years.
Isaac Reichman: [0:11:31] And that's also something obviously a lot of people went to the conference but you there were specials, there were promos, there were parties in bars and restaurants all across the city that weekend that so people that even weren't at the concert were able to take part and our hospitality and tourism partners were able to really benefit from that weekend as well, even if they weren't near Soldier Field or even if they weren't directly involved in the concert.
Adam Stoker: [0:12:01] Awesome. We talked about just the gravity of this and the significance of having Taylor Swift come to town. You guys did a lot of planning. I'm assuming that you also had tools in place that allowed you to truly measure the impact of an event like this. I'm curious what planning took place to make sure you had the ability to measure what tools did you use and then what were your findings.
Isaac Reichman: [0:12:27] Yes. So we crunched our hotel numbers that weekend and we were very happy to say that it was the weekend in terms of hotel room demand that has ever had. We had more hotel rooms filled and more hotel revenue that Friday and Saturday than ever before. And again, that's because of all these factors happening at once. But we can certainly say that Taylor Swift help set records in Chicago from that weekend.
Adam Stoker: [0:13:00] Awesome. So record-breaking weekend. Obviously, you had the reporting in place to understand the records that were broken. I think one of the questions I have is you've got Taylor Swift coming to town and you've got the impact of this event. I think you guys because you're a city that is usually a part of the tour that sees a lot of these major events, like you said, you had the largest gathering in the US, at least that you're aware of, right, when the Cubs won the World Series, what advice do you have for destinations that may not have the historical or the experience that, that goes into this? How do you prepare when you haven't done it before, you haven't been there before?
Isaac Reichman: [0:13:47] Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of the things, the most important thing is to make sure that any event goes off smoothly and that's obviously way more and beyond the role of a DMO. But recognizing that the success of this event, whether it's a major convention, whether it's a concert like this, that determines like the success of the event itself determines its impact. So if an event is run smoothly, then the people that come to Chicago for that weekend, go back and tell their friends, wow, I just had an incredible weekend in Chicago and I can't wait to go back. That matters so much. It isn't just directly the impact of that weekend thinking about how that weekend can add, build upon itself to have a long-term impact.
So I think recognizing that the DMO might have a role to convene other folks and to share information and to do more than just have the event to be excited about it. And relatedly, when you think about marketing then, how can you from a marketing perspective make the impact of this weekend last longer than just the event? How can you– we were really intentional about sharing information following the event about how it set records to talk to media about that to be really public about this because I think then that adds more excitement gets people even more excited to go to Chicago.
Adam Stoker: [0:15:20] I love that. Okay, so I'd love to have you speak because I think there's an assumption in a situation like this that it's going to be super easy to just pick up the phone and call the other organizations that you're going to have to collaborate with. But I would imagine the relationships that it took in order to make those calls; those relationships were not built the week you found the Taylor Swift was coming to town. You guys have been cultivating those relationships with other organizations in the city and surrounding area for a very long time so that you didn't have to build a relationship at the time that you had a need. And so I'm curious from a collaboration perspective, how do you cultivate the relationships that allow you to make that phone call and get a good reaction when they pick up the phone?
Isaac Reichman: [0:16:07] Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of the keys is to make sure that you are communicating proactively regularly with all of your different stakeholders, whether they be your partners at the city that provide the services, whether it's your stakeholders like hotels and restaurants so that you have a regular cadence of communication. So when there are major events, when there is something new to share, you're not introducing yourself; you're not reaching out for the first time. We are really intentional about communicating with our hotel partners on at least a monthly basis if not a biweekly basis just so they know what's coming to town so they know what to expect even when there aren't anything, isn't anything major going on. So that we have that regular cadence of communication that we are involved with the city whenever they are planning for major events. So that we are there at the table, even if there isn't anything to provide, we are still maintaining that regular cadence of communication. Then when we have these major events, we're prepared; we know who to talk to and all that.
Adam Stoker: [0:17:13] Yeah, I look at some of those types of relationships as you have to make a lot of deposits in the account of a relationship before you make a withdrawal like that. And if you haven't made adequate deposits prior to that event, it's going to be very difficult to get these other organizations that have to be involved to put in the effort, put in the time and support your brand as an organization. So it sounds like you guys did a good job of making deposits before him.
Isaac Reichman: [0:17:41] Yes, certainly. And I have to thank the whole team at Choose Chicago, it's obviously way beyond my role and the communication side but we have an incredible sales team and client services team that work so closely with our partners all across the city.
Adam Stoker: [0:17:55] Great. And do you feel like it was a mistake to not partner with the Chicago Bears and have someone from their team date Taylor Swift the way Kansas City did?
Isaac Reichman: [0:18:05] You know what? Yes, absolutely. That's on us I take full responsibility for not making that connection earlier.
Adam Stoker: [0:18:14] Yeah, just for future reference. I think it would probably be a good idea to have somebody from the local pro team date, the star that's coming for the major concert. It might really help.
Isaac Reichman: [0:18:23] Just opportunity. We'll add that to our notes for our next major concert.
Adam Stoker: [0:18:28] I love it. So my question now is it's kind of an interesting one, but I think it'll be a good indicator of how smoothly the event went and that's after going through all of the preparation, all of the execution, attending the event like you did, getting feedback from partners, getting feedback from attendees, I guess the question is, are you more of a Swiftie today than you were before she came?
Isaac Reichman: [0:18:58] Yes, absolutely. I think from a personal perspective, I was, I kind of locked into tickets through my sister-in-law and had I mean, it was unbelievable. You know, when you go to a concert like that, you understand why records are being set and the excitement across the whole city really had -- It makes me appreciate the power of music and mega concerts and things like this because this summer we're here to talk about Taylor Swift but Ed Sheeran had the most tickets ever sold. The biggest crowd ever at Soldier Field was Ed Sheeran.
Also, Beyonce came, Beyonce we didn't have the benefit of any major conventions going on that weekend. And it was the second-best Saturday in the history of our hotels when Beyonce was in town. Lollapalooza had the biggest Lollapalooza it's ever had. So really seeing this summer, we didn't have a ton of odd years; odd years in Chicago are smaller for conventions than even years. So it was a pretty small summer in terms of meetings and conventions. So all of our success was driven by the leisure traveler and many of them came to town for these mega concerts and seeing not only the numbers but also the energy around town. Thanks to events like this was really powerful.
Adam Stoker: [0:20:25] I love that. It actually makes me want to ask you an additional question if you don't mind. And that's the one of the things that I love about events is that they're great drivers for tourism and what I mean by that is they're actually the trigger event that will cause some to go ahead and book the trip. However, the three hours of the event or however long the specific event is, that's not a full experience, that's a piece of the experience. So as a destination, how do you make sure that while that three hours was the driver for the booking that you're creating a holistic experience that goes far beyond just the event or concert that might be happening at that time?
Isaac Reichman: [0:21:04] Yeah, that's a really good question and is really key to leveraging these major events. We always talk about leveraging events like this and not just making them one-offs. And I mean, the key is to -- we are lucky enough in Chicago that Soldier Field is right on the lake with the backdrop of our amazing downtown, right over there, right nearby. And so we are lucky to have a destination where it always leaves you wanting more. You always want to come back and really build off that.
But I think the key again is to have those relationships with our community so that the restaurants and bars are prepared for these sorts of events so that when you are going out before or after that you're having an experience that leaves you really happy about your experience in Chicago. So it is, it's so much more than just the concert. You know, it's everything before and after. And it's, as I said, it's having these people then maybe this is their first time in Chicago or maybe they are regional, they are coming from downstate Illinois and they hadn't been in Chicago since COVID. And maybe what they heard was that downtown Chicago is a ghost town since COVID. And then they show up and that's not the case. And they're telling people they are coming back; they are excited about the city.
Adam Stoker: [0:22:30] Great. Well, Isaac congrats on an incredible event, the destination I'm sure the team as a whole did a great job pulling this together and I really appreciate you taking some time to share your experience and the impact of this event with our show. I'm curious, is there anything that maybe I didn't ask you that should be shared with other destinations?
Isaac Reichman: [0:22:55] I talked about it a little bit but just want to be clear that we don't run these events, right? As a DMO we're not booking concerts, we're not coordinating everything that is going on at these mega concerts. But still recognizing as a DMO the role that you play in making them a success, but even more so making them have a lasting impact on your city. Just kind of recognizing that there is a role to play instead of just saying, oh no, no, we don't organize that.
Adam Stoker: [0:23:25] Great. Yeah, you can't have the, that's not my job attitude, right?
Isaac Reichman: [0:23:28] Yeah, absolutely.
Adam Stoker: [0:23:29] Isaac. Thanks a lot. This has been fantastic. I appreciate your time.
Isaac Reichman: [0:23:33] Thank you so much for having me.
Adam Stoker: [0:23:34] So clearly, Chicago had a pretty amazing approach to having Taylor Swift in town. I want to get to our second destination. I've got Julie Calvert; she's the president and CEO of Visit Cincy. And they also had a really great approach and experience in having Taylor Swift in the destination. Julie, first of all, thanks for joining us today. Really appreciate you being here. I do have to know before Taylor Swift came to town, were you a Swiftie? And after the experience that you've had and having Taylor Swift come to come to town, are you a Swiftie now?
Julie Calvert: [0:24:10] Well, first of all, thanks for having me on today to talk about just the complete phenomenon that we experienced here over the summer with Taylor Swift and all of the Swifties from what seemed like across the Midwest descending upon Cincinnati for three days in June in the beginning of July. And to answer your question, I would say that I always liked Taylor Swift. I always enjoyed her music, but I now consider myself a fully vested Swiftie and to that point, I'm still wearing the bracelets. So yes, I am. And it was just such a fun thing to experience with the city and all of that. But I'm sure we'll talk about the details of that moving forward. But I still think that there's still a halo over the city with regard to Taylor Swift. And I think there's a real desire here in the city to find some way to recreate that magic that was here. So the big buzz on stadium tours and things like that. But I do think that Taylor Swift and all that is really just its own force to be reckoned with as obviously Tokyo is experiencing now with her kicking off just yesterday.
Adam Stoker: [0:25:30] Oh, yeah, absolutely. And one of the things on that I wanted to ask you is there's lots of major destinations that when a tour is announced, they kind of know they're going to be one of the stops on the tour, right? For you in Cincinnati, did you know that Taylor Swift was going to come as part of her tour or were you kind of surprised and delighted that you actually were going to be on the list?
Julie Calvert: [0:25:52] Well, certainly we were delighted to find that out and to be clear; we were the only city in all of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to host the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. We have a great venue in Paycor Stadium. We are a city that's very centrally located in terms of the ease by which to get around. We do big events here in Cincinnati for sure. We've hosted international events; we've hosted the All-Star Game in the past. And so our track record with hosting wide-scale events with ease and success is and was very, very good. I think the key really to us hosting that it's all about relationships in any business. The folks down at Paycor have a really, really good relationship with the company that books Taylor Swift. And so when they were looking at cities within the Midwest, I'm not sure that they looked at a different city other than Cincinnati. So certainly we were up to the challenge and we knew what we had to show and improve in order to be able to continue to host these types of events.
Adam Stoker: [0:26:54] So if she was going to come to the Midwest, you felt like you had a pretty good shot of being, being one of the stops to accommodate.
Julie Calvert: [0:27:01] Oh 100%. And you know, it really is a very, very calculated and smart tour. We can look at where she was performing across the nation where you could get that really strong regional tour into this or regional draw for that tour into the cities Boston, New York the next thing after us was Kansas City, so that's about eight hours from Cincinnati. So really a smart strategy to really be able to draw the entire nation in some way, shape or form into this tour, whether or not your city was hosting it. We certainly saw that here in Cincinnati.
Adam Stoker: [0:27:36] Great. And I'm going to throw you some red meat here because I feel like I want to give you that opportunity. But why is Cincinnati of course, a great place for Taylor Swift to choose to host one of her events? Why was it the right choice?
Julie Calvert: [0:27:50] Well, I think there's several reasons go into that. I mean, number one, our geographical location draws from the south all the way up through the north and then west into as far west as Saint Louis, Kansas City and then certainly to the east, to the coast. And we always say that this is a fact that we are an hour's flight or a four-hour drive of 60% of the nation's total population. So that certainly is a major draw into it. We are a city that has a successful track record of hosting wide-scale national and international events that are safe, that are successful, that offer ease of movement if you will. We have a great number of hotel rooms. We were the number one market over that weekend for Airbnb across the nation. So that's why the availability of accommodations are great.
And just our restaurant scene, our arts culture, our music scene is really strong in Cincinnati and she's performed here before. It's been a while, but she's performed here before. So she, it wasn't sight unseen for Taylor Swift and I think also just the -- Adam, just the welcoming of the city of how we wrap our arms around these large events and embrace them, we don't take ourselves too seriously. You can, I mean, I'm not saying that she did this but she could, if she wanted to, she could have walked around this city and I think that she would have been relatively undisturbed versus that doesn't happen. I mean, you see what happens in New York City. They park outside of her condo. I mean, you've got a college student tracking every plane ride she makes now and in Cincinnati we're pretty humble and pretty like when you're here, you're one of our own. And I think that's comfortable for people who are performing here whether it's musical performers or it's certainly stage performers. But Taylor Swift is really her own great force. And so I think that we just made it very easy and comfortable for her and she's used to that type of environment.
Adam Stoker: [0:29:54] Great, very accessible destination, you’ve got the infrastructure to support an event like that, and of course, you've got the hospitality that makes it a comfortable place to be. I think those are great pillars to be an attractive destination for an event like this.
Julie Calvert: [0:30:08] Yeah. And I think also when you look at where the venue was down at, we had this area between the two stadiums called The Banks and it's a multi a park, there's street infrastructure, there's park, it runs up to the Ohio River, there's plenty of parking. It's the nation's largest municipal parking garage underneath both stadiums, so lots of accessibility. When you look at this, this whole craze that was taking over these Swifties creating their own concert sometimes 15,000… 20,000 people strong outside those venues. It was a safe place for people to go and do that. We weren't like having it spill over into the highway like MetLife or other stadiums we're seeing. I mean, literally, it's what the Banks was built for, was to host and to really scale in those large attraction events. And so to have that park just kind of readymade for that, the merchandise trailer was set up there, certainly lots of restaurants, bars, entertainment venues all along that, that multi-acre park, so it was the perfect setting for that in addition to the other reasons that you just mentioned.
Adam Stoker: [0:31:15] Awesome. Sounds like a great venue, a great location for it. You know, I own an advertising agency and when we pitch all the time to win big opportunities, and there's two very important moments when you win a big pitch. There's the first moment where everybody is celebrating and excited and ready to conquer the world. And then there's the second moment when it's like we got a lot to do to prepare for this. I've got to imagine that you had a similar coupling of moments when you found out that you guys were going to be one of the stops Taylor Swift. So tell me about those two moments and there may be a little bit about the preparation for the event.
Julie Calvert: [0:31:52] Yeah, I'll tell you, we call that phenomenon of the second piece of, oh boy, we got a lot to do is we felt like the dog that caught the car, right? We finally caught the car. And so it's kind of like, oh boy, now what? But again, I mean, that moment of seeing our name of Cincinnati among those lists of cities was unexpected. It was like winning the lottery. You always buy that ticket in hopes that one day it's going to happen but then when it does, it's like you pinch me, did this really happen? But then the preparation started right away for that. And we pulled together many groups across the city and across the region. And of course, Cincinnati is on the banks of the Ohio River. So 40 feet away is the state of Kentucky. About 30 minutes to the west is the state of Indiana.
So really kind of pulling in the resources from the elected officials to this fire and safety folks, to the medical folks, to the engineering, the traffic, all of that, the hotel community, the restaurant community. The parks pulling everybody together saying, hey, we need to really prepare and it's not just the concerts, the easy part, we can't control what's going on in the concert. But we got to control this environment because lots of people were going to come who didn't have tickets and that may be their only experience. But Cincinnati, we wanted that to be pleasant. We wanted it to be joyful. We wanted people to feel like this was their Taylor Swift experience. It was going to happen right in Cincinnati. So we were creating a memory for life. And so we took that very seriously.
Our police department was fantastic; really turning them into ambassadors. They're always very good about giving people directions and helping people get to where they need to get to. I mean, there were people directing traffic at every intersection downtown to make sure that the ease into the stadium into the parking was easy. So people didn't remember the time as the time I came to Cincinnati and sat in traffic. I mean that nobody likes to see that and nobody says that was their best experience ever. So again, we looked at this event holistically, but from everything happening outside of the stadium, what was happening in the hotels, we decorate all the lobbies of the hotels with Taylor Swift selfie stations. So you could do all that. There were events on Fountain Square where people could go and get their face painted, make their friendship bracelets, have that experience on the heart of our city on Fountain Square and then walk four blocks south and being in the Banks where Swiftinnati was taking off. That was really a unique experience for us too and it was, it was really, really well received.
Adam Stoker: [0:34:14] Okay, so that was my next question. I'm glad you kind of provided that segue there. How did Cincinnati become Swiftinnati? And what was the brainstorming process for that like? What was the execution of that? And how much mileage did you get out of that?
Julie Calvert: [0:34:28] Well first it was something that just occurred very naturally in the city and everybody trying to make plays off of her name and things like that. We even played with Cincinnati making and making that but Swiftinnati really sort of, really kind of won the day. And, again, it just, it really occurred very naturally. It wasn't like we all sat around in a room and said, okay, we got to rename Cincinnati. It's just something that just naturally started to happen and then it got some legs and you got some people who are very passionate about Cincinnati about creating those really almost like celebratory carnival-like if you will, festival-like experiences where they set up bracelet-making stations and face painting stations and places where you can buy hats and clothes and all sorts of things down there on the banks.
We had a very, very good partner in the folks that run the Banks that really just said, hey, you know what a lot of our restaurant tours and folks are very entrepreneurial. So let's just let this unfold very naturally. And again, with the full thought and the goal being, what's the experience going to be like for the people that are coming and how can we make this the best experience for them, whether they've got a ticket or not? In fact, they won an award for that whole experience they did down there at the Banks. And I would imagine if there's another stadium tour where she has an opportunity to come back to Cincinnati, it'll be even bigger and better the next time because you've kind of got the footprint now for that and how it happened.
But it was so neat to walk around and see because you saw all sorts of age ranges of people. You saw groups of women, you saw groups of kids, you saw a lot of women and their children everybody kind of like Taylor Swift bedazzled out if you will. I mean, the big pink hats going on and it was just a weekend that I would just describe as nothing less than joyful. I mean, there was a lot of joy, a lot of happiness and I'm most proud to say that there wasn't one incident that involved the police in a negative matter.
There was actually a story where somebody like dropped a wallet, somebody picked it up, gave it to the police and we already get that wallet back to somebody. There was crime. So it was really a really joyful weekend.
Adam Stoker: [0:36:36] Oh, that's great. And you know, this conversion to Swiftinnati, I know one of the things that you guys created in that process was the Swiftie Guide to Cincinnati. That was an actual asset that you created. How did you decide to do that? What was the process like? And then did people like using it?
Julie Calvert: [0:36:53] Yeah. So I think the beginnings of the Swiftie Guide really came because we've had two years prior to this a really great run with the Bengals going to the Super Bowl. So we were creating a Bengals guide. We were hosting playoff games here in Cincinnati. We had them go to the Super Bowl; they won the AFC championship two years in a row or the division championship anyway. We did the same thing, all things where, where can you experience the Bengals? Where can you feel like you're part of the excitement even if you're not here? So we kind of took that footprint and said, okay, now let's apply that to people who maybe don't necessarily like sports, right? They're in the music and culture and that type of thing.
So where to eat? Where to stay? How to get around? Where are the Taylor Swift watch parties and what are the restaurants that are offering Taylor Swift-themed foods or drinks or things like that? And it was all age ranges because you've got the moms who are looking for a nice weekend experience with their daughters and their sons for that matter, like I did with my son or just groups of people who were coming just to experience the city. So anything from very family-friendly offerings and environments to ones that cater to the older crowd where they want to go and sit down and have a couple of drinks and some good food and just really enjoy the fact that they're here.
So it was an all-encompassing guide, if we put it on our website and basically the website that of Taylor Swift was the highest volume of traffic to our website that we've had in all of 2023. So they were really kind of flocking there to find the information. The average engagement time for our guide was 87% higher than the full site average. It was one minute and 43 seconds on the site versus just what do you say like 20 to 30 seconds. So they were on, they were searching, they were looking for things, they were downloading pages, they were downloading information and it was the only place in Cincinnati where there was a comprehensive guide to do that. And so I think it was a great service for our visitors for sure.
Adam Stoker: [0:38:49] So you were clearly well prepared. I mean, you converted the city to Swiftinnati; you created the Swiftie Guide to Cincinnati. But it's almost like there's no amount of preparation that can prepare you for the phenomenon the day of and just how many people it is and how wild it is. Kudos to you guys for not having an incident I should say that involved the police negatively or anything like that because I think that's amazing. But what was it like to just have that many people descending upon the city? Was the day of what you expected? Tell me a little bit about the actual event.
Julie Calvert: [0:39:28] Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, the weather couldn't have been better. It was beautiful on that first step Friday of the concert. It was just so gratifying. I mean, you work your whole career to promote a city to create a place where people feel like they belong, a place where they feel like they can interact with people who are, they're sharing the same experience. So people who didn't know each other at all before they came to Cincinnati. Maybe somebody's from Pittsburgh, somebody's from Chicago or somebody's from Nashville and they're meeting underneath this common love of Taylor Swift and the fact that they were one of 69,000 people out of all the fans in the world to be able to be with her that night within that stadium just to be there and watch the way that she interacted with these fans.
I had somebody say to me because I was commenting about how when she would talk in that stadium, everything just quiet. I mean, it was like 70,000 people, you could have heard a pin drop, right? And I was like I made the comment that it was amazing to me how she can quiet a crowd of 70,000 people. And somebody corrected me and said, no, no, no, she wasn't talking to 70,000. She was talking to me, she was talking to me. And so to have that type of control over the crowd and over your audience and to know your audience that well, it was what I would describe a life-changing experience for so many people.
Again, that kind of played itself out in, in the fact that everybody was polite with one another and nobody was pushing, nobody was shoving, no incidents. It was just really a beautiful night, two nights in Cincinnati. The second night on Saturday, it was bad weather that was predicted for about 11 o'clock that night, which her concerts were to end at 11. So they bumped the concert back to start at 6:30 and nobody was late. Everybody got there and she commented on that. She's, oh, sorry we changed the time but y'all got the message and you're here and everybody's in their seats and ready to go and it was really special. I think we'd have a hard time recreating that type of magic in Cincinnati with another kind of event.
Adam Stoker: [0:41:31] Yeah. I think there's not very many concerts like that that could change the time and still have everybody show up at the right time. I think that's amazing.
Julie Calvert: [0:41:40] And they were like two hours ahead of the concert. There wasn't that much time. And, and the great thing about it is that the moment that concert ended at 10:30 about 15 minutes after, at 10:45 it started to rain. And so we would have waited, people would have got rained on and instead they didn't, they were just showered in, in such a great time and a great experience. It was really nice to see.
Adam Stoker: [0:42:02] Wow. Okay. Let's talk economic impact then Julie. I mean, of course, this generated a lot of revenue for the city of Cincinnati. What do the estimates look like now that you're kind of through the experience looking back? What kind of lift did you see?
Julie Calvert: [0:42:17] So, occupancy in downtown Cincinnati was 98%. So basically, it was a complete sellout; 92% throughout the rest of the county so the compression that it created was really phenomenal and fantastic for sure. It generated more than 2.5 million in hotel revenue just for downtown. Which to put that in perspective, that's over two nights, 2.5 million in hotel revenue. That's probably a couple of weeks of hotel stays to generate what we were able to generate through this concert in one night; then 5.3 million over two days throughout the county. So those are numbers, we just haven't seen.
But I also want to want to keep in mind that there was actually that was during the time when the Reds were on that big run and they went from last place to first place and there were three sold-out games that weekend, so that was also going on in Cincinnati. Our professional soccer team FC Cincinnati had a sellout game on Saturday night of the concert. So we weren't only negotiating the tens of thousands of Swifties that were here over two nights. I mean, there were a lot of fans for both the sports teams that were coming in to play. And there was also another concert down at the banks at another smaller music venue that we have, where people were negotiating all that. So there was kind of like this perfect confluence of opportunity to create some lift for the restaurants, the hotels, the entertainment venues.
But again, just again, that's for the planning was crucial from a traffic flow standpoint to make sure that people were getting where they needed to get to very easily and very efficiently. Getting back to the economics, I mean, 3.8 million in tax revenue including 1.6 million in just local taxes generated alone, 1.4 million in state taxes, nothing to sneeze at there. And 750,000 almost a million dollars in federal taxes that were generated which all that money goes back into the city, goes back into the state to fix roads and create infrastructure and do that. So, I mean, you talk about somebody moving the GDP of the nation. I mean, when this is happening in every city that certainly is something that's good for an economic boost. And we were here in Cincinnati just proud to be able to provide that.
Adam Stoker: [0:44:31] Amazing that those are incredible numbers that you're pulling there. I've got to ask though, if Taylor Swift had dated Joe Burrow instead of Travis Kelce, what do you think those numbers would look like?
Julie Calvert: [0:44:43] Oh, boy, probably I mean, more than off the charts for sure. I mean, I think for a city like Cincinnati, I mean it's very different than say, the city of Chicago and New York but I think we probably would have eclipsed what that was saying and it's funny because Joe Burrow made a funny comment and you might have heard it but he was basically saying, yeah, I don't know. I may stop by versus Kelce, like, actually making her the friendship bracelet it with a number on it. So, certainly, he swung big and caught the big fish for sure. But, but Joe's our guy, he's our guy.
Adam Stoker: [0:45:17] Yeah, just got to update that Tinder profile. See if we can't get a more high profile. Just kidding. Well, Julie, this is really incredible. I think that the question that I would have now sometimes we're victims of our own success, right? And of course, you had Taylor Swift come to town and you had all this economic impact. And one thing that's so interesting about stakeholders is that once you give them a taste, they kind of expect those results on an ongoing basis. So, how are you managing expectations after that experience so that people aren't expecting that every weekend you should be 98% capacity?
Julie Calvert: [0:45:55] Yeah. Well, I mean, I think generally people realize that that's sort of a once-in-a-generation thing that's going to happen, but yet it gives you the permission to keep thinking big and dreaming big because we know we can do this. Coming up this summer, Luke Holmes has picked several cities across the United States to do a stadium tour. He's coming to Cincinnati for two nights in August. Our stadiums both at Great American Ballpark, Paycor where the Bengals play and then at TQL Stadium where FC plays all have big stadium concerts this summer. So from Kenny Chesney's coming to Cincinnati, you've got the Foo Fighters coming to Cincinnati. You've got Luke Bryan is now coming to Cincinnati. Luke Holmes will be here. So there's lots of concerts that are coming that we've never seen this many at one time. So you have to think that that had some sort of an impact on those promoters and those people who are booking these concerts saying look at how the city shows up to do that.
Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies in this town to say, well, we could never do that. I mean, that wouldn't happen in Cincinnati. And now that you see these successes that are happening from the All-Star game to safe, sold-out playoff games two years in a row with the Bengals there is a belief that we can win and we can do this and people want to be part of that success versus sitting back and pointing fingers and saying, what are you doing for me lately? They're saying, hey, how can I help? What can I do? And so that's a good thing, that we're seeing and it makes the folks this town that are responsible for making sure that Cincinnati's top of mind whether it's for a convention, some kind of a tour or the Broadway series that we're making sure that we're pushing and we're making those things happen and we're all doing it together.
Adam Stoker: [0:47:44] Yeah, you're describing that a lot of these successful events and things like that that have come to town are having an impact on community pride as a whole, which results in more positive sentiment towards the community. What would be a really cool study to look at is how that increase in community pride or sentiment towards the community affects the visiting friends and relatives category, which is sometimes so difficult to measure and capture. Of course, we're not going to solve that on this conversation. But man, that would be kind of an interesting number to look at.
Julie Calvert: [0:48:14] Yeah, I mean, even anecdotally, you see it, you feel it. So I mean from that perspective it's, it's really a good thing. I think it is real. People want to be associated with things that are considered winners. Certainly Cincinnati, I'm not really a big fan of this term, but I'll use it because it makes sense. But punching above its weight class, which I think that's rooted in negativity. The fact of the matter is we deserve to be at the position that we're in because we've worked hard. We create good experiences, we welcome people, people feel like they belong here. It's just the charm and the ease of the city. And we've created hundreds of thousands of new fans for Cincinnati who will want to come back here now. And hey, I want to check out that restaurant. I want to, oh, there's this Broadway show that's playing and it's not in my town and I had a great experience in Cincinnati. I'm going to go back and explore for the weekend.
And the Swiftie Guide to Cincinnati really kind of highlighted those things too that, you know why you're here? Yeah, you're here for the concert, but also check out the zoo, our museums, our parks, our guided walking art tours. We have a lot of street art here in Cincinnati and murals along our walls. And each of those, if you get on that tour tells the history and the story of Cincinnati all the way from our riverfront up through our historic over-the-Rhine neighborhood. So there's too much to do for one weekend. But now you've got that guide in your hand and you're looking for that next city to go to for a long weekend or whatever, got professional sports, professional arts and culture, that's the place I want to go to.
Adam Stoker: [0:49:44] Fantastic. Julie congrats on an amazing event and a really what sounds like an amazing destination. I haven't been to Cincinnati, but it's definitely a place that I want to add to the list after this conversation. If people want to learn more about you or Visit Cincy or anything related to Cincinnati, what's the best way for them to do so?
Julie Calvert: [0:50:03] Yeah, I think a couple of ways, I mean, certainly we've got all of our social media handles on Instagram and Facebook at Visit Cincy and certainly our website at visitcincy.com is really the most comprehensive place to learn about everything there is in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and across our region. All when we talk about, it's all about our culture, our Cincy culture. And you can really learn where culture reigns in the city, whether it's sports, music, festivals, arts, culinary. We got the Bourbon in Northern Kentucky; we've got the beer in Cincinnati. So that mash-up of stuff really tells a great story for a city that's right in the middle of the Midwest that to your point you may not expect to have that type of energy, but certainly, we do.
Adam Stoker: [0:50:44] Great. Well, I'm a BYU alumnus and so now Cincinnati and BYU are in the same conference. So I intend to make a trip to come see a game. So looking forward to it and thanks again Julie for taking the time.
Julie Calvert: [0:50:55] Okay, thanks so much, Adam.
Adam Stoker: [0:50:57] And thanks everybody for listening today. I hope that you were able to gather just how important it is to have a very intentional strategy when big major events or windfalls like this happen in a destination. Both of these destinations gave us great examples of how they prepared, executed and delivered on an incredible experience to support having Taylor Swift come to town. And I hope you also just caught the gravity of having an icon like Taylor Swift come to town. It was an incredible episode, an incredible tour. And I hope you guys really enjoyed listening to today's episode. Thanks, everybody for listening and we'll see you next week.
[End of transcript]
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