DESTINATION MARKETING

The Destination Marketing department encompasses advertising, brand development, web development, content creation, communications/public relations, destination plan implementation, film/entertainment and cultural tourism. The department leads all marketing initiatives set forth by Visit GPS and works collaboratively with the Brand, Destination Development, Partnership, Convention Sales, and Travel Industry Sales teams to ensure an effective and cohesive message across all media elements.

The department’s marketing efforts take a global approach, with both domestic and international initiatives. This allows the local cities to use their budgets to create new product and focus on local marketing.

Guiding Principles

Working closely with industry partners, Visit GPS identified key guiding principles that steered decision-making throughout the planning process and framed the overall plan structure. Those are:

Develop a destination brand that can deliver on the promise and be adopted by all nine cities and partners.
Create an environment that allows the cities to create new product and enhance the overall visitor experience.
Develop new markets and consumer segments to diversify our visitor profile.
Improve and grow transportation options for all visitors and residents.
Improve and grow the workforce for the tourism industry.
Collaborate and align efforts with member cities, Visit California and Brand USA leadership to drive visitation.

2019 Media Plan Overview

• Total Estimated Media Budget: $4.5M
• Total Estimated Impressions: 7.1B

The goal of the Media Plan is to increase awareness of the destination brand, domestically and internationally, supporting and growing overall occupancy in Greater Palm Springs.

Target Geographic Markets
The media plan is divided into three major geographic markets, which include:
- Drive/Getaway: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas
- Fly/Vacation: Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C.
- International: Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Winnipeg)
Marketing initiatives will be implemented year-round in the Drive/Getaway markets, as visitor research has shown that they remain the top markets throughout all seasons. Fly/Vacation markets, which invest more time into planning their trips on a seasonal basis, will have marketing initiatives implemented during peak and shoulder season months. Top Canadian markets have been grouped with vacation market initiatives.
Customer Funnel
The media plan is also divided into two “Customer Funnel” groups, which include:
- Awareness Building Media: Print, TV, OOH
- Intent (to travel) Building Media: Digital, SEM, Online Promotion, Social Media, Influencer
The 2019 media plan places an emphasis on Awareness Building Media with a robust television and out-of-home presence. While print advertising remains part of the overall media mix to reach target consumers, the 2019 plan will have an increased focus on customized digital programs and online content, as well as targeted social media initiatives in order to build intent to travel and produce measurable data in order to track effectiveness.
Target Verticals
The media plan will emphasize three major verticals, which have been identified as key pillars for the destination.
1. Health and Wellness
Objective: Help the Greater Palm Springs area become known as the premier destination for health and wellness within the following categories.
1. Vitality/Body Section: Hiking, Yoga, Biking
2. Spiritual: Energy Healers, Integration
3. Mind: Relaxation, De-stress, Spa
4. Healing: Medical Tourism
1. Outdoor Adventure
Objective: Strengthen the Greater Palm Springs position as an outdoor and adventure destination with many ways to play including hiking, biking, rock climbing, Jeep tours, AV tours, golf, tennis and more.
1. Arts and Culture
Objective: Help the Greater Palm Springs area become known as an area rich with arts and culture, including many art festivals, museums and installations.

Visitor Image & Awareness

As part of our Image and Awareness study in 2018, we gained a further understanding of the Greater Palm Springs visitor and non-visitor perceptions, competing markets and barriers to visitation. Through this study, we gained insight on our most compelling messaging, which guides our marketing efforts to target relevant consumers. The two strongest taglines where “An Oasis of Luxury” and “Breathe in. CHILL out.” Both messages will be incorporated into our consumer marketing creative in 2019.

Awareness Building Media

• Total Estimated Budget: $2.1M
• Total Estimated Impressions: 6.9B

The objective of this media is to build awareness of the Greater Palm Springs brand as a travel destination. Awareness Building Media includes the destination’s Print, Out-of-Home and Television tactics. Television and out-of-home continue to be a robust part of our overall media plan. Television tactics include broadcast/live television, including cable and KTLA, as well as digital television. Digital television includes programs that are viewed on-demand and streaming online.

Live cable television will deliver ads on channels such as Bravo, Lifetime, Food Network, ESPN, Golf, TNT, TBS, Logo, HGTV, TLC, Discovery, History, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN 2, FX, Oxygen, and WE. Digital television will deliver ads on similar programs on Spectrum, Cox, and Comcast, and also across ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and HBO Go Smart TV apps.

New in 2019 are digital awareness-building initiatives with Pandora and The Weather Channel. Pandora will capitalize on emerging industry trends like audio advertising and the connected home, delivering highly targeted digital radio ads on mobile and connected home devices to specific demographics that align with key destination pillars. The Weather Channel will serve weather-triggered ads to targeted markets on both mobile and desktop. NEW

In 2019, the CVB is also continuing its co-op partnership with top Los Angeles morning news station KTLA in order to reach the California travel market directly. Our “Chill” and “Wellest” messaging continues to encourage the drive/get-a-way travelers to escape to Greater Palm Springs for a relaxing or adventurous getaway.
Intent-to-Travel Building Media

• Total Estimated Media Budget: $1.9M
• Total Estimated Impressions: 107M

The objective of this media is to impact intent to travel. Intent-to-travel building media includes Digital, SEM, Online Promotion, Social Media and Influencer tactics with a stronger call-to-action message. In 2019, we will continue to place a greater emphasis on digital advertising with new customized platforms and content that will provide measurable data and continue to drive traffic back to the CVB website.

New also in 2019 are our digital advertising campaigns with USA Today and Edge Media. These new initiatives are aligned closely with our brand pillars as well as emerging industry trends. USA Today’s hyper-targeted, sharable custom content stories will reach specific demographics of travel enthusiasts, and Edge Media’s digital-first platform reaches LGBTQ travelers through native stories, social media and a geofenced location sponsorship. NEW

Search engine marketing will continue to increase engagement and drive traffic to the website. Online promotions with top OTAs — such as Expedia, TripAdvisor, Travelzoo, and SpaFinder — will continue in 2019, offering valuable advertising for our partners as well as for the CVB.
Meetings & Convention Sales Media

• Total Estimated Media Budget: $437,773
• Total Estimated Impressions: Over 6.2M

In an effort to showcase 2019’s new meetings advertising campaign, we’ve added several publications and initiatives to the overall convention sales media plan, including our upgrade from a 3-Diamond listing to a 4-Diamond listing with CVENT, the top lead generator.

We are also launching initiatives in 2019 with ConventionPlanit.com and Connect, as well as expanded campaigns with MPI, the largest meeting planner association, and Northstar Meetings Group, a top meeting planner publication, in addition to renewed campaigns with several successful publications from previous years.

VISIT GPS PARTNER COOPERATIVE ADVERTISING PROGRAMS

Visit GPS has designed co-op opportunities for 2019 to leverage Partner advertising budgets while increasing exposure year-round. The Co-op Advertising Programs offer opportunities to target the Local Drive market, the National West market, National East and/or Canadian markets throughout the year via television and billboard placements. Visit GPS has designed these co-op opportunities for 2019 to leverage each participating Partner’s advertising budget and increase exposure year-round.

2019 Partner Co-op Advertising Opportunities

Cable Television ($25,000)
Includes:
- Choice of one season (Jan – Apr/May – Aug/Sept – Dec)
- Choice of one market (Drive, National West, Nation East or Canada)
- 1,200 – 2,000 spots per month (depending on selected market)
- 45.3M – 75.5M total impressions (depending on selected market)
- Production of :30 television spot
Television – “Summer Chill” ($25,000)
Includes:
- Timeframe: May – August
- Markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix
- KTLA Metro Los Angeles
  - CVB-produced :30 spot airs 660 times / 91M impressions
- Cable Drive Markets
  - 4,000 spots / 37M total impressions
- Production of :30 television spot
Television – “Fall Chill” ($25,000)
Includes:
- Timeframe: September – December
- Markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix
- KTLA Metro Los Angeles
  - CVB-produced :30 spot airs 660 times / 91M impressions
- Cable Drive Markets
  - 4,000 spots / 37M total impressions
- Production of a :30 television spot
Outdoor Billboards (rate varies)
Includes:
- Timeframe: Jan – Dec, depending on selected market
- Markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and/or Minneapolis
- Production of billboard artwork
- Cost:
  - 2 digital boards: $2,000/metro area
  - 3 digital boards: $3,000/metro area
  - 4 digital boards: $4,000/metro area
Expedia
- Overview: Destination landing page on Expedia promoting Expedia partner deals on Expedia products (Expedia, Hotels, Hotwire, Travelocity, Orbitz)
- Partner Opportunity: Partners may submit special offering to display on destination page
- Timeframe: Throughout year
- Cost: No Fee. Standard Expedia commissionable bookings apply.
Travelzoo
- Overview: Digital advertising campaign on Travelzoo in target markets promoting Partner deals
- Partner Opportunity: Partners may submit special offering to display on destination page
- Timeframe: Throughout year
- Cost: No Fee
SpaFinder
- Overview: Digital advertising campaign and destination landing page on SpaFinder.com promoting Partner Health and Wellness offers
- Partner Opportunity: Partners may submit special offering to display on destination page
- Timeframe: September through November
- Cost: If you have a Spa facility, you can become a SpaFinder Partner. The cost is $3k and includes a SpaFinder listing, redemption options, newsletter feature and more. Standard SpaFinder commissions are collected on the Gift Card amount only

Print

Alaska Airlines
Reaches PSP top airline, Alaska Airlines, via in-flight print magazine. Greater Palm Springs will advertise in the March “California Travel Planner” issue, the October “Best of California” issue, and the November “Greater Palm Springs” issues.

Cost:
- Full Page: $6800
- Half Page: $5200
- 1/3 Page: $4100
- 1/6 Page: $3400
WestJet
Reaches PSP top Canadian airline, WestJet, via in-flight print magazine. Greater Palm Springs will advertise in the February, March, and November issues which feature Greater Palm Springs.

Cost:
- Full Page: $6300 net
- 2/3 Page: $4380 net
- Half Page: $3400 net
- 1/3 Page: $2250 net
- 1/6 Page: $1343 net
Westways (AAA)
Reaches households with a propensity to travel via AAA’s Southern California publication. Greater Palm Springs will advertise in the May/June “Discover Summer” and September “Discover Fall” issues.

Cost:
- Full Page: $12000
- ½ Page: $6090
- 1/3 Page: $4060
- 1/6 Page: 2030

Branded Content - Video

As an extension of Visit GPS' Brand department, the video production team continues to create content that carries the brand message with a delivery unique to each digital channel. Following social media trends and recommendations from the Sparkloft digital team, content is developed, sized and scaled to best serve individual channels, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Our mission is to produce entertaining video content that builds relationships with consumers through a steady stream of engaging, awe-inspiring and motivating storytelling. The videos vary in length from 8 seconds to 5 minutes.

Video content supports all departments including Consumer Marketing, Travel Industry Sales and Convention Sales. Content supports Visit Greater Palm Springs pillars of Outdoor Adventure, Arts & Culture, and Health & Wellness; showcases Visit GPS Partners; and promotes the destination’s unique geography and authentic, diverse experiences. This is accomplished by producing content with a broad appeal.

You can view all our videos on Visit GPS' YouTube page.

"Pow Video"

This is the big-picture video designed to raise brand awareness. It encompasses the destination story and addresses all brand pillars in a complete package. It carries the brand message throughout, sets the tone for all video content and delivers the broad destination picture.

Find Your Oasis brand video
"Push" Video

Regularly scheduled “push” content is designed for our prime audience. These are the staples of our destination story. Videos are visually breathtaking, high energy and inspirational, and weave the story together with imagery, music and natural sound in an organic video package. These are the broad-appeal pieces that are regularly scheduled series content.

Here is an example of our Live Your Wellest video that supports our Health & Wellness destination development pillar.
"Pull" Video

These pieces narrow the scope of our destination story and focus on more urgent editorial opportunities. Short headline videos showcase our Partners’ stories in a different way and are produced for the Convention Sales LinkedIn social feed. The segments are targeted toward an audience already interested in learning more about the destination.

A few examples of our pull videos:

Here’s where you can view all our Summer of Chill in Greater Palm Springs Partner videos.

Original Video Series in 2019

Visit GPS will continue to build out our original series pieces, which give us content on a regular basis and, in turn, increase our social following. These series segments will roll out weekly, on staggered weeks, and feature different hosts/destination ambassadors.

Wander List

Begun in the fall of 2016, the Wander List series tells the stories of off-the-beaten-path attractions and hideaways from a local’s perspective. Season 1 featured 17 evergreen segments. Season 2 included 15 new segments and a re-release of previous episodes. Season 3 will include 6 segments and more than 40 locations.
Chill Chaser

Initiated in winter of 2016, the Chill Chaser series promotes the Chill Pass initiative by showcasing various chill spots and experiences in our destination. Season 1 featured 18 segments, Season 2 had 6, and Season 3 will consist of 6 segments.
dineGPS

Started in the winter of 2017, the dineGPS series features stand-out restaurants and big-personality chefs who masterfully craft unique dining experiences in Greater Palm Springs. Season 1 included 7 segments. Season 2 will feature new restaurants and highlight even more talent from the kitchen.
craftGPS

Launched in the fall of 2018, the craftGPS series explores the science and passion of top mixologists throughout Greater Palm Springs, embodying the creative artistry of the destination’s craft cocktail culture that began in the 1950s. Season 1 will include 8 segments.