Destination Marketing

2022 Review
Visit Greater Palm Springs concluded a successful year in 2022 with the launch of several new initiatives in addition to flagship brand campaigns targeting leisure and convention sales audiences. These new ongoing campaigns include Benefits of Tourism, Vacation Rentals, Workforce Development, Work Remote, Oasis of Art, and dedicated vacation rental promotion. Over 25B impressions were generated across digital, out-of-home, print, and television in 2022, and over 2.2M television spots aired. Digital media, which is pixeled and tracks people exposed to advertising over a 60 day window, showed over $11.5M in hotel revenue generated and over 12K flight bookings as a result of our efforts.

Additional content programs were also created in partnership with Visit California and AEG, and with Brand USA’s United Stories program. AEG’s program included a four-part series hosted by country artist Ingrid Andress, promoting murals/public art, hot springs, and the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals and was deployed across digital channels, social media, and on AEG’s “waiting room” where ticket purchasers are exposed to ads as they queue. Brand USA’s United Stories campaign featured a multigenerational family from the UK to support international recovery and inspire UK travelers. This content ran on Brand USA's custom page and across YouTube and social media.

Co-op advertising increased in 2022 with six partners participating in our digital and billboard opportunities, and a total of 11 partners for our summer co-op television season. This is a 57% increase over our television partners in 2021. Subsidized co-op pricing launched in July 2022 with the assistance of grant funding awarded by Riverside County, allowing us to discount all programs by 50%. More details on programs and pricing can be viewed HERE.

November/December 2022
For the months of November and December, VGPS’s “What Will You Find” fall/winter campaign continued to run, encouraging travelers to explore a variety of accommodations, attractions, events, restaurants, spas, and outdoor activities. Target markets included both our year-round and seasonal markets, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Chicago, Des Moines, Eugene, Houston, Minneapolis, and New York as well as the Canadian markets of Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and Winnipeg.

For the months of November and December, digital advertising amounted to 26.2M impressions, television advertising generated 2.7B impressions and 372K spots, and out-of-home advertising generated 178M impressions.

The meetings campaign generated 2.3M impressions promoting the overall “Meetings Mean More” messaging, which includes information on wide open spaces and air service.

Looking Ahead
In 2023, VGPS will launch an international media plan in partnership with UK-based agency Finn Partners, which will include digital, social, and print/OOH advertising targeting travelers in the UK and Ireland. Campaigns are planned to highlight the spring break and summer travel seasons (including a new season of the Summer Chill co-op television program), in addition to updates and refreshes to the Oasis of Art and Workforce Development campaigns. In the meetings space, we are excited to be evaluating the “Meetings Mean More” campaign in partnership with Greenhaus, a San Diego-based agency that will be evolving our campaign materials and producing new video and photo assets.

Digital

Brand Campaigns
NEW: A co-op campaign in partnership with Visit California re-launched, running in November and December with Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Sojern, generating 5.1M impressions. A total of 9.8K room nights were booked for an economic impact of $7.1M.
[DANA/COLLEEN: DO WE WANT TO EMBED AN EXAMPLE OF CREATIVE HERE?]

The Oasis of Art campaign continued to run in November and December with creative highlighting murals/public art and midcentury modern architecture. This campaign runs across Centro digital and native, and generated 1.4M impressions.

For November and December, Expedia generated 10.1M impressions, inclusive of our brand campaign and an international California DMO co-op, which targeted the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Mexico. As a result of these campaigns, 14.7K hotel room nights were booked, 11.8K vacation rental nights were booked, and $11.6M in revenue was generated.

In November and December, the TripAdvisor campaign generated 1M impressions, which resulted in $259K in hotel revenue and a total economic impact of $1.3M.

Travelzoo generated 17K clicks to partner deals and pages.

In November and December, Sojern generated 1.38M impressions, and as a result, 523 room nights were booked, equating to a total economic impact of $1.9M.

Centro generated 4.5M impressions. Multiple campaigns ran via Centro, including our Brand, Work Remote, Oasis of Art, Benefits of Tourism, and Workforce Development campaigns.

Vacation Rental
In November and December, dedicated Vacation Rental creative ran across Centro, Nativo, Sojern, TripAdvisor, Expedia and The Desert Sun. This campaign has served 3M impressions.
Television

During the months of November and December, television impressions amounted to 2.7B impressions and 372K spots. Television tactics included cable, connected television and KTLA (Los Angeles).

Television markets included both year-round and seasonal markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Chicago, Des Moines, Eugene, Houston, Minneapolis, and New York, as well as Canadian markets – Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and Winnipeg).
Billboard

For November and December, total billboard impressions amounted to 178M, including Greater Palm Springs brand messaging, a partner co-op billboard with the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells, and supporting signature events like the La Quinta Art Celebration, Cathedral City Hot Air Balloon Festival, Magic of Lights in Indio, Greater Palm Springs Pride, Ironman, El Gato Classic, the American Express Golf Tournament, Palm Springs International Film Festival, and Indian Wells Winterfest.
Meetings

Greater Palm Springs meetings media continued November and December. Throughout the duration, the “Meetings Mean More” campaign continued to target meeting professionals with the overall goal of motivating group business bookings.

This campaign earned 3.7M impressions and included digital display advertising, content stories, social media and email blasts via Centro, CVENT, ASAE, USAE, Connect, Meetings Today, Northstar and Smart Meetings.