Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau
We are strategists, designers and engineers who thrive on creating thoughtful experiences that strengthen the bonds between great companies and their audiences.
Heseung Kim, Ed.D.
President/CEO
heseung@themightyengine.com
May 31, 2012
PHone
Contact
A Proposal for
Date
We are Mighty.
215 384 1944 office
219 Cuthbert Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, PA 19106
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May 31, 2012 Lucy MacNichol Senior Content Development Manager/Editor Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau 1700 Market Street, Suite 3000 Philadelphia, PA 19103 Dear Ms. MacNichol: On behalf of the Mighty Engine team, I am pleased to submit this response to your Publications, Content and Social Media Request for Proposals. We have carefully read all the specifications and conditions in the RFP and agree to all terms, conditions and provisions. For the record, I will serve as your primary contact for this project, and here is my contact information: Heseung Kim, President/CEO Mighty Engine 219 Cuthbert Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19106 215-384-1944 heseung@themightyengine.com We are all excited about the prospect of working with you as your content partner, and we look forward to deepening our relationship with the PCVB team. Thanks,
Heseung Kim, Ed.D. President/CEO
219 Cuthbert Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, PA 19106
P: 215.384.1944
F: 888.726.9052
E: info@themightyengine.com
Why PCVB should choose the Mighty Engine team Our ideas, and ability to execute them. We have the know-how and gumption to help position the PCVB as a global leader in effective messaging that’s channeled through publications, the Internet and social networks.
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What makes us the ideal partner Our mighty team is now even mightier with the addition of two of the hottest local media agencies—Red Flag Media and At Media—both Philadelphia-based with proven national and global reaches. We share a love for our hometown, focused expertise that eclipses that of larger competitors, and a commitment to culturally-competent world perspectives that enrich our ability to secure new global audiences for the PCVB.
Why we want this project We are genuinely excited about the opportunity to reimagine with the PCVB all things related to content: approach, process, messaging, channels, etc. In doing so, we set ourselves the ambitious goal of exponentially improving Philadelphia’s positioning as a top-tier choice among professional planners, the visitors they bring, international, group and niche-focused travelers, and prospective PCVB members.
What differentiates us from our competitors Unique perspectives, experience and expertise as the incumbent PCVB advertising agency, web developers for Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation’s visitphilly.com, and the marketing firm of record for an impressive array of regional tourism assets and events. Proven strategists. Proven content capability. We take the business of improving Philadelphia’s world class branding as a top-tier destination very seriously and welcome this opportunity to take the lead for the first time in all your content and messaging.
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PROJECT TEAM Mighty Engine has added more firepower to our already mighty team. Knowing the breadth and depth of what you are requesting from your new content partner, we have brought on more specialized expertise in both social media and publishing—all to provide you with the one-stop, high-quality content services this consultation demands. Each member of the team brings their own expertise, but all have in common the same values  6
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We’re all Philadelphiabased. More than just geography, this is a statement for each of us. We care about Philadelphia and want to see it promoted properly. We know this town, and many of us have already spent a lot of time raising its profile and a multitude of our great region’s visitor assets. And since we’re all based here, you’ll always have us close at hand, streamlining your management.
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We’re all big, but not too big. Each of the partners we have assembled is deeply experienced and comes with their own solid, proven team. But this doesn’t mean we would assign you some junior account exec to be your point-of-contact; rather, the CEOs of Mighty Engine, At Media and Red Flag Media would all personally oversee your account and all its details. At all times, PCVB would be receiving the value of having our most experienced strategists and senior staff from each partner agency, with the convenience of one reliable project manager for all communications and accountability (Mighty Engine’s CEO) and one co-manager (Mighty Engine’s Content Director).
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We all have a demonstrated commitment to excellence. Whether it’s growing a local, Philadelphia magazine on sustainability to a nationallyrecognized network of awardwinning publications, or building a successful social media consulting and content practice in a hypercompetitive and quicklychanging industry, or consistently being one of the hardest-working and most successful branding, advertising and web firms in the region, each partner has built a hard-won reputation for consistent quality and exceeding client expectations. We wouldn’t seek to be your content partner if we weren’t confident we could deliver you the same.
Mighty Engine (LEAD PARTNER)
Mighty Engine would be your primary contractor and would ultimately be responsible for all deliverables and for maintaining a consistently high level of service and superior quality.
We are Mighty. We’ve been proud to serve as PCVB’s ad agency and general go-to local marketing firm for much of the past decade, delivering the products and services that have helped the PCVB succeed. What we’re most proud of: we’ve had to compete twice to keep this honor, and each time you have selected us to continue as your advertising vendor based on the results we deliver, the crispness of our creatives, and the energy and professionalism of our team. Last year’s MarCom award is just one example of what can emerge from the PCVB-Mighty Engine partnership. Our “World Premiere” campaign for PCVB/ PCCA brought home the top prize from the Association of Marketing & Communications Professionals, and was selected among more than 6,000 entries from the U.S., Canada and other countries for excellence in terms of quality, creativity, and resourcefulness.
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And now we’re glad to be given the opportunity to prove ourselves again to be your partner for a range of print, online and social media content creation. Mighty Engine is a dynamic, award-winning web, branding and advertising firm based in Old City. In fact, we are the largest certified woman- and minorityowned marketing agency in the Philadelphia region. Our creative, experienced team boasts expertise in all of the areas of content development and project management you seek, including deep familiarity with the travel and tourism industry and Philadelphia’s place in it, our City’s unique history and visitor assets, a versatility with new technologies and social media, and proven expertise in reaching both business and consumer markets. We began operations in 2000 (originally as the Osiris Group) and,
in the years since, have grown to a staff of 15 full-time employees. Just this past quarter, we added a new art director and two engineers to meet increased client demand for our services, no easy accomplishment in these trying economic times. Throughout our history, we’ve led countless efforts to provide our clients with the kinds of marketing and communications material they need to thrive. Whether these assets are printbased or online, what they share is smart messaging.
With everything getting smaller and flatter in the digital age, the PCVB, like many of our other clients, seeks a stronger global presence with the ability to speak directly with local audiences around the world. Several months ago, we began to think through how to best approach this phenomenon. How do we create messaging and websites that are both relevant on a global scale, yet able to speak directly to targeted local audiences in other countries? Our solution was to partner with other firms similar to ours with expert knowledge of local audiences in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world:
BRAZILIAN PARTNER: Célula Criativa The Célula Criativa design and advertising firm mixes graphic thinking with user-centered design theories. Their team of professionals has more than 15 years of experience, and includes project planners, writers, designers and social media specialists, and vast experience in market research. Their offices are located in the heart of Rio’s arts district, right between the Corcovado mountain and the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
CHINESE PARTNER: Celine Ong Based in Shanghai, Celine is experienced in marketing and event management for varied industries and is very wellconnected in her city’s entertainment and tourism scene. Among her current projects is a startup venture promoting luxury travel packages to Europe. She also works with a tested network of local copywriters, designers, and PR professionals she can call upon to assist on this project while keeping costs manageable.
We are currently in the process of identifying additional international partners, specifically in Western Europe, India and Korea. 11
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At Media
(Subcontractor)
For this project, At Media would take the lead on all social media activities. They would also participate as a full partner in strategic planning and execution on all aspects of the campaign, adding a unique perspective and insight into all channels of communication.
Since 2006 At Media has been serving local, national and international brands with effective social media strategy and management, yielding the highest return on investment for their clients. While starting as a full-service branding agency, At Media’s social division has grown to service nearly 37 brands with valuable social campaigns and regular network growth that has received recognition from Philadelphia Business Journal as “Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2012.” At Media was started by Antoinette Marie Johnson and Tyler R. Westnedge to fill a void in the marketplace of affordable, high quality branding and social media consultation. Since their inception,
they have earned the reputation as the go-to social media experts, white-labeled by larger advertising agencies to serve clients such as TD Bank, Cheapcaribbean.com and Skillshare. Their much sought-after status is based, among other things, on their proprietary formula and process for social network growth among very specific targeted audiences. Their talented team possesses expert community management skills that can be tailored to make the PCVB’s presence known within your prioritized networks.
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Red Flag Media (Subcontractor)
A Philadelphia-based independent magazine publisher with almost 20 years of experience, Red Flag will take the lead on publication production and distribution while working closely with Mighty Engine on design. Red Flag has grown from upstart to startup and beyond, now publishing three monthly magazines while offering design, production and distribution consulting services to others.
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Red Flag’s unique array of publications has provided them with a wealth of magazine distribution knowledge. Their three monthly titles each flow through vastly different distribution channels, giving them varied background and unique broad industry expertise. Their regular publications are 
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Grid.
A hyper-local guide to sustainable living in the city of Philadelphia launched by Red Flag in 2008. In stores now: Issue #39. Circulation: Grid is a free magazine with a circulation of 30,000 that is distributed through 400 local dropspots including coffee shops, libraries, and restaurants.
MAGNET.
A newsstand stalwart with in-depth features, reviews and opinion on the world of indie-rock that debuted in 1993 and was relaunched as a print magazine by Red Flag in 2011. On newsstands now: Issue #88. Circulation: MAGNET has a circulation of 40,000 and targets domestic and Canadian newsstands, but its primary distribution method is through a network of independent music retailers. Red Flag also has a database of passionate subscribers.
DECIBEL.
The thinking-man’s (and woman’s!) heavy metal bible—and the only monthly extreme music magazine in North America—was launched by Red Flag in 2004. On newsstands now: Issue #93.
Circulation: DECIBEL is an international newsstand publication with a circulation of 50,000. Red Flag deals with major magazine distributors (Ingram, Disticor, Source Interlink), along with servicing thousands of domestic and international subscribers.
Red Flag aggressively shops their bulk printing each year, leveraging these multiple titles to increase their buying power. 17
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Staffing Plan
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Overall Account Management led by Heseung Kim, Ed.D., President/CEO [Mighty Engine] As your account manager, Heseung Kim will be responsible for ensuring the quality and timely execution of all our team’s deliverables and services. She will also serve as the chief liaison to your web developers and advertising sales teams to help ensure an optimal integration of our collective efforts. Dr. Kim will be supported directly by our strategy group, comprising of the CEOs of At Media and Red Flag Media, and the directors of the other sub-groups: editorial and messaging; social media; art and design; publication creation, printing and distribution. We’ve also added a subgroup entirely devoted to international market penetration, which will grow as Mighty Engine identifies partner agencies in Western Europe, India and Korea.
Heseung Kim, Ed.D.
President/CEO [MIGHTY ENGINE]
As President/CEO of Mighty Engine, Heseung is primarily responsible for leading Mighty Engine’s strategy, research and creative teams for all major accounts. Among many other awards and recognitions, Dr. Kim was recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 business leader to watch and just this past year as a Minority Business Leader. A member of PCVB’s Sales & Marketing Committee, LEADERSHIP Philadelphia and the Greenlight Fund Advisory Council, she is also a trustee of Children’s Village, Mighty Writers, the Union Benevolent Association and East Rock Institute. Heseung holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale University, a master’s in education and a doctorate in psychology from Harvard. Project Role: The buck stops here. Heseung will be your account lead and have overall responsibility for delivering all we promise, on time and to your satisfaction.
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Strategy Group
Steven Sonntag
Antoinette Marie Johnson
Justin Rentzel
A multifaceted writer and strategist, Steven is responsible for overseeing content development–everything from communications plans to advertising and website copy. Steven is a lawyer with a background in nonprofit corporate law, and has more than ten years of senior management experience in the nonprofit sector. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University, a master’s in public administration from Rutgers, and is a graduate of Temple Law School.
Antoinette leads her woman-owned, Old City-based agency to achieve impressive results for their enterprise and nonprofit clients. Named an “Entrepreneur to Watch in 2012” by the Philadelphia Business Journal, Antoinette started her career in digital mapping both locally and abroad. Assigned to help Google add more features to their map products division, and then leading roll-outs in new markets throughout South America, Antoinette led teams to significantly increase market share in Latin America for Google Maps by 30 percent. She is a Temple graduate and writes extensively on social media and digital technology, not only on her own blog (atmediadesign. com/blog) but also in publications like Philadelphia Magazine and Philadelphia Rowhome Magazine.
Justin leads Mighty Engine’s design team, bringing with him a wealth of agency experience, a wide-ranging portfolio and a penchant for crafting elegant user experiences. He is the chair of the AIGA Design Awards and an active member of Philly Ad Club’s Young Professionals Group. At Mighty Engine, Justin directs the design team in creating visual communications for key projects, including the PCVB, the Philadelphia Marathon and Old City District.
Content Director [MIGHTY ENGINE]
CEO [AT MEDIA]
Project Role: In addition to being part of the Strategy Group, and serving as co-manager or backup to Dr. Kim, Steven will be responsible for all written content we develop for PCVB. He will allocate writing responsibilities across our mixed team, and ensure all material is presented in a clear voice consistent with the overall messaging strategy.
Project Role: Antoinette will play a leading role in all planning and strategy, particularly as it relates to social media and the web. Her ability to create custom digital maps would also be highly utilized when reenvisioning the PCVB map strategy.
Art Director [MIGHTY ENGINE]
Project Role: Justin will have overall responsibility for creating the branding and visual look-and-feel for the entire PCVB family of print and online communications. He will allocate all design responsibilities across our mixed team, and ensure all deliverables are consistent with the overall strategy.
Alex Mulcahy, Publisher [RED FLAG] Alex founded Red Flag Media in 1993 and oversees daily operations and Grid editorial. He recently won the Lewis Mumford Award for Architecture Journalism from AIA Philadelphia, and is being honored this summer with the Sustainable Living Leadership Award from Pennypack Farm. Project Role: Alex will be a key part of the strategy team as we come up with a comprehensive content plan to implement across all PCVB’s channels. He will have particular input on the design, production and distribution planning for the various publications. 21
Editorial and Messaging Group led by Steven Sonntag, Content Director [Mighty Engine]
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Emily Freisher
Brandon Shockley
Associate [MIGHTY ENGINE]
Associate [MIGHTY ENGINE]
As a writer at Mighty Engine, Emily has her hands in a slew of projects and spends her days waxing poetic for client web and branding initiatives. Emily holds a degree in journalism from Temple University, where she was a 2009 recipient of the New York Women in Communications Foundation scholarship, among other awards. Emily is also a food lover at heart and spent time last year working on organic farms throughout France and Spain, harvesting, baking and becoming fairly passionate about eating fresh food in large quantities.
Brandon is an artist, communicator, blogger, and impractical joker. He graduated from The Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles where he studied music under and performed alongside best-selling artist Ken Rosser. He has also worked with an ethnographic researcher, conducting studies into the future of online gaming for a Fortune 1000 firm. He has an interest in music, media, design, philosophy, and economics, all of which he brings to his work as an important part of Mighty Engine’s content and social media teams.
Project Role: Writing, research, project support.
Project Role: Writing, research, project support.
Social Media Group led by Antoinette Marie Johnson, CEO [AT MEDIA]
Gabrielle Bonghi
Community Manager [AT MEDIA]
Alex Shuptar Senior Associate [MIGHTY ENGINE]
Gabrielle is responsible for assisting and delivering strategy for digital content in the social sphere, while managing accounts ranging from retail to non-profits. She has effectively maintained high levels of engagement and results for all accounts, and is an expert at identifying changes in networks that aid a client’s audience. Gabrielle holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of the Arts and joined At Media from her previous position as Content Manager for Philadelphia Media Network.
Alex joined our team in 2009 with the attention to detail and smart planning skills needed to push our clients forward. Prior to joining Mighty Engine, he participated in the City Year program, where he provided in-class and after school support at Martin Luther King High School, as well as student mentoring services. He has also been active as a volunteer, working with autistic children and coaching youth soccer teams. Alex graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 2007 with a degree in English.
Project Role: Gabrielle will be the Community Manager for all PCVB social media. She will be responsible for approving all content from our team, and working with the PCVB team to manage the flow of all social media messaging. She will also be responsible for monitoring and reporting on all social media performance metrics.
Project Role: Alex will assist with social media strategy, management and daily content production.
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Art & Design Group led by Justin Rentzel, Art Director [Mighty Engine]
Jamie Leary
Lauren West
Art Director [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Senior Designer [MIGHTY ENGINE]
Jamie graduated from the University of Delaware and took additional courses at the Rhode Island School of Design and Philadelphia University. He oversees the design and production of Red Flag Media’s three monthly magazines, and is the project lead for all custom publishing jobs.
With a fine arts degree in graphic design, Lauren's work at Mighty Engine helps our clients develop innovative and creative collateral for web, print and beyond. Before beginning her tenure here, Lauren wore various hats in Philadelphia’s bicycling community, including bike shop sales manager, marketer and graphic designer. Her designs also recently won a public art competition that will showcase her work on over 70 new street banners in University City, running along Baltimore Avenue between 45th and 50th streets.
Project Role: While Justin will have overall responsibility for visual branding, Jamie’s role will be to translate that aesthetic to the major print publications that are part of this project.
Project Role: Design and production.
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Bruno Guerreiro
Melissa McFeeters
Bruno graduated from Tyler School of Art and now oversees all design for DECIBEL and MAGNET magazines, along with making posters in his free time.
Melissa is a graphic designer and illustrator with a Bachelor of fine arts degree from Tyler School of Art. Her work has been exhibited in the 2011 Philadelphia Design Awards and Victory for Tyler: Works on Paper Competition, and most recently was awarded the 2012 AIGA Fresh Award. She currently designs and illustrates for Grid magazine.
Senior Designer [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Project Role: Publication design, layout.
Graphic Designer [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Project Role: Publication design, layout.
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Publication Creation, Printing and Distribution Group led by Jamie Leary, Art Director, [Red Flag Media]
Andrew Bonazelli
Lucas Hardison
Claire Connelly
Andrew is the managing editor of DECIBEL and MAGNET, the editor-in-chief of SMACK and the Deciblog, and is a published novelist. He graduated from Kent State University with a bachelor of arts degree in magazine journalism.
At Red Flag Media, Lucas handles a broad range of responsibilities from IT and web development to photography and pre-press production. Lucas studied film at Drexel University before moving on to work in such diverse fields as civil engineering and exhibit manufacturing.
Claire manages distribution for all three of Red Flag Media’s monthlies. Prior to joining the Red Flag team, she worked as General Manager at the White Dog CafÊ. She graduated from the University of Scranton with a bachelor of arts degree in communication.
Managing Editor [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Project Role: Andrew will oversee the creation of your major publications, including the OVG. Coordinating with the Art and Content teams, he will manage the process of moving the publications through initial design through production and distribution.
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Production Manager [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Project Role: Overseeing production and printing of your major publications.
Distribution Manager [RED FLAG MEDIA]
Project Role: Overseeing distribution.
International Markets Adriano Renzi
Roberta Barros
Celine Ong
As the founder and art director of Célula Criativa in Rio de Janeiro, Adriano is a talented illustrator and has published more than 20 books in Brazil, Portugal and the U.S. His firm specializes in introducing international brands to the local Brazilian market, and his branding and design work is an important part of the firm’s success. In addition to his art director duties, he also teaches at a local prestigious art college. What makes him uniquely suited for this project: not only is he familiar with his own home market, he also has a deep knowledge of and affinity for Philadelphia from his several years of study at the University of the Arts.
As a senior account executive at Célula Criativa, Roberta helps develop messaging and design elements to help their clients market to a variety of Brazilian audiences. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in social communication from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro School of Arts. In addition to her duties at Célula Criativa, she is also a professor at Estácio University in their graduate communications program.
Based in Shanghai, Celine is experienced in marketing and event management for varied industries and is very well-connected in her city’s entertainment and tourism scene. Among her current projects is a startup venture promoting luxury travel packages to Europe. She also works with a network of local copywriters, designers, and PR professionals she can call upon to assist on this project.
Designer [CELULA CRIATIVA]
Writer/Designer [CELULA CRIATIVA]
Project Role: Shaping messaging and design to reach a Brazilian audience.
Brand Marketer [FREELANCER]
Project Role: Shaping messaging and design to reach a Chinese audience.
Project Role: Shaping messaging and design to reach a Brazilian audience.
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OUR APPROACH Outside-In Too often in our experience, communications strategies are devised from the inside out, meaning that organizations get too enamored of their own internal business silos and lines of authority. They force outside viewers to think like them to navigate a hierarchy of notso-intuitive information architecture and messaging. We propose to turn this on its head. Instead of just thinking about the products that you have traditionally produced (like your existing OVG and PPG) and the channels now available for content distribution (your current website and social media channels), we took a step back. We put ourselves into the shoes of those you are trying to reach—professional meeting planners, prospective and current members, and visitors—and sought to reimagine the products and processes we would find most useful and compelling. We began with the target audience that represents your largest critical mass: visitors and conference attendees. Based on our experience as your incumbent advertising 28
agency and our expertise within the tourism industry, we are well aware of the ways in which GPTMC and PCVB oversee different groups of visitors, GPTMC leisure and PCVB business. But we also recognize that visitors (whether they are labeled leisure or business for our accounting purposes) don’t necessarily differentiate themselves between theses two types of visitors. That, in our mind, is an example of inside-out thinking. They see themselves as visitors or tourists. At most, they may say they’re here for business, pleasure or both; even still, all visitors have a similarly wide range of interests, varied demographic and psychographic profiles, etc. The only real differentiating factor may be that some strictly “business” visitors may just have less free time than their counterparts. So how does this play out throughout your content channels? The initial results of our brainstorming can be found in the relevant sections that follow.
Finding your voice What’s clear after reviewing your content—no matter the channel—is that it is hard to define and identify an engaging, clarion voice coming from PCVB. There is consistency to be sure; but that consistency often comes at the expense of being bland and undifferentiated. As part of our outside-in approach, we think you should embrace a little inconsistency in your voice. For the sake of better serving your diverse audiences, we propose that you start thinking about communicating through a variety of personae, each with a distinct tone and personality uniquely suited to the audience you want to reach and move. We came to this approach by considering our own travel and tourism experiences. Some of us who’ve had the good fortune of traveling overseas can talk about at least one experience where a friend (or even a friend of a friend) went way out of their way to generously guide our experiences: hand selecting itineraries based on our interests, where to eat, what to see, who to meet, etc.; chauffeuring us about; constantly being there as an interpreter and guide to make sure you got the best deals, saw the latest and greatest, including treasures off the beaten path; always making sure we were comfortable. Most of us, as we even got to enjoy experiences like this, would readily admit that, for the most part, Americans are not so quick to return the favor. We’re far less willing to show this kind of hospitality. Which got us thinking... What if the organizing metaphor for our approach, including the editorial voice we could assume, was that of a trusted friend? Or a personal guide? Someone who would take the time to get to know you, the visitor, and guide you, being oh so generous with their time, knowledge and connections. How about creating a specific persona that could be a proxy for this kind of trusted friend in Philadelphia? Maybe professional planners could be guided and further swayed by a composite sketch of your award winning sales and service team, all personified in a personality named Phil or Philomena, who could have a blog, Twitter account, and even author-themed articles in your suite of publications. This unique approach is amenable to great follow-ons and integration ideas for the web and social media alike. After all, effective Internet communications is about establishing and keeping conversations going among personal and professional networks. Trusted friends for visitors could be differentiated by visitor types (single, couple, family, gay, etc.), international source/ethnicity, interests (bikers), geography or neighborhood.
Produce, produce, produce original content As a modern organization intimately involved with modern marketing, you understand that, to be successful, PCVB must be a continuing source of high-quality content. A significant part of our approach will be to help you ramp up your content production, and to maximize the use of each and every piece of content you do create.
Show your members even more love We want you to think of your members as a significant resource for content creation, not to mention as significant channels for helping to spread that content. We propose to increase value added services to PCVB members and bond together members as a single branded community. Creating this brand movemen—with PCVB content at its heart—will strengthen the connection between your brands and your members, making all of your services more appealing in the process. Specific ideas for each channel are detailed in the sections devoted to publications, web, and social media.
Go global by thinking local It may be counter-intuitive, but it’s fast becoming a fact of life: the smaller the word gets, the bigger the return on locally-focused messaging. One-size-fits-all messaging just isn’t as effective as that which is carefully tailored to local markets. It’s the reason why we have recruited marketing partners in two of the fastest growing overseas markets: Brazil and China. 29
The Brazilian Perspective Brazil is on the verge of becoming one of the U.S.’ most important trading partners, and tourism exchanges are part of the reason. Already, Brazil ranks as the fourth largest source of overseas visitors to the U.S. (according to State Department figures), and that number is supposed to balloon. In fact, the U.S. Department of Commerce forecasts that 2.8 million Brazilians will travel to the United States in 2016, an increase of 87 percent from 2011. We have recruited Brazilian marketing partners to work with us on this and other client accounts. We’ve held preliminary discussions with them about PCVB messaging and how it could be tailored to meet the local market there. Here are their top-line recommendations:
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Don’t focus on nightlife.
With a nightlife scene that only gets started after midnight and lasts well into what we would consider the next workday, Brazilians are a bit jaded by extravagant nightlife promises from tourist destinations. Instead, they seek other kinds of tourism opportunities.
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Discount hunters. Deals and shopping represent some of these other kinds of opportunities. Tariffs and exchange rates often significantly inflate the prices of goods in Brazil. If you’re interested in an iPad, for instance, the savings you accrue from buying two or three of them at the Miami Apple Store, rather than one in São Paulo or Brasília, more than covers your airfare. It’s not surprising, then, that one of the most popular forms of travel to the U.S. are group shopping tours. Traveling in groups led by Portuguese-speaking guides gives middle-class Brazilians confidence to come here in search of bargains.
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Show off our history.
Just like their American, Asian and European peers, Brazilian tourists are looking for more than just extravagant shopping trips. The trouble is, most Brazilians seeking history and culture on vacation are prioritizing trips to Europe rather than America. And those history buffs who do head to the States are heading to cities like New York, San Francisco or Washington, D.C. over Philadelphia. We and our Brazilian partners feel there is opportunity to grow this by emphasizing our history. We are, after all, the birthplace of the American Revolution, where we threw out a European power to claim our independence—a history that resonates with Brazilians, too.
The View from Shanghai For years, travelers from China have been among the fast-growing market of international tourists to the U.S. In 2008 alone, almost 500,000 Chinese traveled to the U.S., staying on average 23 nights and spending $7,200 per visit. And according to the U.S. Travel Association, that number is projected to grow 61 percent by next year.
Given the breathtaking growth in China, it’s little wonder our clients have been encouraging us to establish marketing ties there. We’ve been able to assemble a top-flight collection of freelancers who know each other, the Chinese market and how to market to residents planning trips overseas. We’ve held preliminary discussions with them about PCVB messaging and how it could be tailored to meet the local market there. Here are their top-line recommendations:
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Branding.
Asians are extremely brandconscious. Not only do we need to emphasize that shoppers here have access to the best brands at affordable prices, we should also dedicate effort to positioning Philadelphia as a high-end destination.
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Part of the Asian obsession with brands is a reverence for our Ivy League universities. Creating opportunities for Chinese visitors to attend special lecture series, sit in on select classes, or attend events with some of Penn’s most distinguished faculty could be an import draw and brand enhancer for the city.
That Philadelphia is in the middle of everything is a standard part of PCVB messaging. But especially for Asian markets, where they lack a detailed understanding of American geography, special emphasis needs to be placed on the closeness of New York and Washington, D.C.
Create educational opportunities.
Proximity.
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Leverage local ambassadors.
Because of our large collection of worldclass colleges and universities, we have a substantial number of international students here from Asia. Since the best ambassadors are always the ones you know, we should develop a system to incentivize these students to spread the word back home about how wonderful Philadelphia is. We have ideas on how to effectively accomplish this. 31
CASE STUDY:
Philadelphia Marathon Over the last six years, Mighty Engine has played a central role in helping turn around a race that had been struggling to meet its yearly registration goals, and helping to transform it into a race that is wellrecognized and consistently sold-out earlier each year. Year after year, the Philadelphia Marathon (operated out of the City Representative’s office) continues to partner with us because of our ability to consistently deliver messages and creatives that resonate with runners of all levels—helping to highlight the race as one of the premier marathons in the country. Our outside-in approach has been instrumental to the success we’ve been able to provide them. In developing creative advertising campaigns and social media strategies, we have always focused first and foremost on the psychology of the runners. Past campaigns like “Eat My Dust” and “Kick Asphalt” have played upon the competitive nature of marathoners and their desire to be successful—whether that means setting a personal record on the course or being able to finish the race. This year’s campaign, “Redefine Possible,” celebrates those striving to exceed physical or self-imposed limitations. Using #redefinepossible, folks can tweet training updates, share health and fitness tips, and 32
follow other messaging tied to the Marathon. The end result of all our creativity and strategy has been record numbers of runners and fans attracted to the race from around the world, directly resulting in a 3,000 percent boost in net revenue for the City and an appreciable benefit to local hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses. Race attendance has climbed from less than 10,000 runners when we first acquired the account to 24,000+ runners. The Marathon also now attracts a more competitive, elite group of runners each year, as measured by runners’ finish times. And now that the race is at capacity in terms of runners, we’ve been helping the Marathon devise new ways of growing revenue based on the psychographic profile of fans, family and friends supporting the runners. One example is a feature called Shout Outs, which allows folks to place a personalized message to a runner in the Official Philadelphia Marathon Race Guide.
PROJECT PLANNING AND WORKFLOW Publications & Web
With our global team of content developers—many with extensive experience crafting material designed to promote Philadelphia and its visitor assets to tourists and meeting planners alike—we are confident we can develop the narrative and manage the production of the deliverables you need. Although we approach each project differently based on its unique needs and expectations, the process we expect to follow for each of your major publications or deliverables is as follows:
• Planning and stakeholder input. Our strategy and content team leaders will meet with your team and other relevant partners, members and stakeholder to ensure that we all agree on the purposes, audiences, priorities and expectations for the deliverables. We will also establish strict timelines and milestones for each project, and manage all partners to ensure they are kept.
• Research and asset inventory. Our team will review all past material, content of current and previous versions of the deliverables, and related assets such as photographs and multimedia content. With your team, we will develop an inventory of content that needs to be refreshed, repurposed, or replaced entirely. Also during this period, our team will research similar materials from some of your competitors to see if there are things we can learn from the way they present material or—more importantly—if there are things we should stay away from.
• Outlining. A critical part of projects of this type, we will present to your our initial outline of how the deliverables should be structured (for the website project, this would include a full information architecture for the site). We will then work with you to revise and update the outline until we get it right. For more complicated, longer publications like the OVG, the outlining processes will include grayboxing and sketching page templates to guide the content creation process.
• Managing information flow. We know from experience that many of your major deliverables require a significant amount of interaction with multiple partners, advertisers, content contributors, photographers, and so on. Our role will be to manage all this, collating and editing all the incoming content, adding it to our own, and delivering a final product for your review. If you do not already have one in place, we will suggest a backend editorial workflow system that could help streamline getting content and approval from members and other wide-spread content providers.
• Content drafting. We expect much of the content for your deliverables to require significant new writing. Based on the outlines we develop with you–and within the timelines we establish–we will present you with content drafts and then make updates based on your feedback.
• Finalization. Once all content is collated and approved, we will hand these off to your designers for layout. If desired, we can manage the process of moving the projects through completion. 33
Social Media Daily social media content creation and relationship management is different than preparing content for setpiece publications and websites, so our approach and workflow for creating it is also necessarily different. Your Mighty Engine social media team will be lead by the strategist and community managers from our partner in this proposal, At Media. Together, we will take you through the following time-proven process to lay the groundwork necessary for us to make informed recommendations, create strategy, content and successful management.
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Research and Strategy Step 1 First Cut Session.
Meeting with designated members of your marketing team, we will conduct a project initiation meeting to introduce our team, gather the login information we’ll need to begin working on your accounts, review your current strategy, discuss next steps and outline your goals moving forward.
Step 2 External Research and Analysis.
Based on the information you share with us during our first meeting, we will develop a competitive set of groups to see how other CVBs are utilizing social media to reach to their target audiences. In doing so, we will look at what’s working and what’s not, develop a better understanding of their audiences, what matters to them, why and how they interact, and what strategies we want to adopt.
Step 3 Content Analysis.
We will take a detailed look at all PCVB publications and web content for cohesive brand messaging.
Step 4
Strategy Development. Using the information collected in Steps 1-3, our team will compose a full strategic plan for all social media accounts, including: • Best practices review and delivery • Goals and objectives • Peer/competitor analysis • Audience analysis • Recommendations for content, community, integration and networks • Tracking/analysis • Creative campaigns
Step 5 Integration.
Our team will ensure that social media is working with all other marketing communications and is being fully leveraged to maximize ROI.
Step 6
Ongoing Engagement. Upon your approval of the social media plan, we will put the tools and technologies in place to launch your campaigns. • Implementation and Management. This involves daily content updates through social media accounts, as well as nurturing ongoing relationship through direct messaging and conversations. We will also set up your Social Community Relations Management platform to facilitate ongoing interactions and track key metrics. • Regular Oversight and Weekly Reporting. We will set up your Social Community Relations Management platform to facilitate ongoing interactions and track key metrics, which we will provide to you in weekly reports. • Quarterly Meetings. We will schedule quarterly meetings with your designated marketing team to talk about the success of your campaigns, areas we would like to see improvement, and discuss new ideas to further engage your target audiences.
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PUBLICATIONS: Our Approach We live today on a planet that is smaller than ever before. For communications professionals, that our world has never felt so small presents a unique set of challenges, but also a number of new opportunities. In a market where many clients are coping with economic aftershocks and a new set of global competitors, value-added services have become a prerequisite to remaining competitive as a CVB. As your content partners, our network of local and global agencies would love to take on this challenge to create authentic, engaging publications to reach your diverse audiences.
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As detailed in the previous sections, our approach is informed by our collective years of experience in marketing research and strategy. That’s why we believe that the best way to communicate with your readers is through a series of customized editorial voices that are uniquely matched to each of your visitor categories.
When our team began to reimagine the positioning of the PCVB’s publications, we started with a series of bold questions: What if the official visitors guide was more than you expected, more engaging and exciting than the typical coffee table ornaments found in hotel rooms across the country? What if the official visitors guide could be a memento of time well spent in Philadelphia? Could high-quality travel and leisure content be repackaged and marketed in the form of books and magazines? (Hint: Yes!) Could the PCVB re-position itself as a travel and lifestyle publisher with a more sophisticated audience than UWISHUNU or similar Philadelphia-based outlets? How can we give visitors a better idea of the Philadelphia experience? How can we make this experience easier to enjoy? When we look at PCVB what do we see? A local tourism agency? Or a business-to-business service leader shaping the future of destination marketing?
And these were just the start.
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Throughout our process of seeking answers to these questions, we kept returning to one common theme which guided our inquiry: highquality content as a means to enhance your competitive advantage.
Across all of your many audiences, we believe there are two major reading styles that must be addressed in order to create compelling publications. For the purposes of this document we have identified these reading styles as browsing and hunting , each with its own set of unique behaviors and objectives.
In the past, visitors needed contentdense publications because information about local attractions was scarce. The Internet has made that information plentiful, making the reader’s attention a scarce commodity.
frustrates the reader when she can’t easily return back to earlier information or refer to the table of contents to find it.
layouts, and table of contents to allow the reader to jump to helpful information and easily refer back to it throughout their trip.
Your competitors rarely embrace both reading styles.
We propose a rebrand of the visitors guide with an eye-catching name that encourages visitors to carry the guide with them. To accomplish this we suggest a name like Take Me which emphasizes that the guide is an item of value and a tool.
The ability to succinctly organize and present information in a compelling narrative has become a value-added service for content consumers, browsers and hunters alike. To satisfy both audiences, your publications need to draw readers in with an engaging features section followed by a consolidated, clear listing of attractions and resources. This clear delineation will allow browsers to enjoy a publication that is visually pleasing, uncluttered, and easy to explore while hunters can quickly jump to a consolidated directory to find their answer. The combined strategy we are proposing would allow you to create a publication that is both a reference directory and a magazine. This eliminates the need for editorial content in the sidebars of directory listings, a practice which often 38
In rethinking your approach to marketing publications, one of our fundamental challenges will be to cater to these two distinct reading styles, but we believe it’s possible for one publication to satisfy both groups. • Browsers look to you for engaging editorial content, hot attractions, humor, and points of interests. These readers want engaging content that helps them connect to the people and locations they are reading about. They read your publications by flipping pages, opening to the middle, stopping occasionally at photos and faces, and looking for something to anchor their attention.
Austin and San Francisco are both examples of magazinestyle publications, with editorial content that focuses on unique urban experiences, interviews with locals, and must-see neighborhood attractions. San Diego and Minneapolis, on the other hand, are strictly directory resources and simplified/streamlined information. We encourage PCVB to lead the way in user experience within tourism publications and give your readers both. Further, this new layout that will be familiar to anyone who reads magazines or papers in which classified ads are organized into one section, separate from features. To help better serve hunters, we propose a smart redesign of the indexes, page
• Hunters seek no-nonsense answers to their curious questions. Where’s my hotel? How far to the nearest dry cleaners? Do I have time to see a show before dinner? Hunters read to get finite packets of information so that they can get around town with minimal delay and distraction. These are the readers that go to an index or a table of contents and hunt for a keyword that will lead them to their goal. No doubt this process sounds familiar: it’s exactly how search engines work.
To additionally enhance the convenience and portability of this publication we also suggest redesigning your maps to focus on specific neighborhoods, visitor profiles, and interest groups. The utility of the map could be further enhanced by making it easy to remove and take notes on during travel. Disney, for example, offers park visitors the opportunity to create and publish their own maps (for a small fee), spotlighting their most memorable sights right on one page. Letting readers truly interact with your publication will ensure both its usability and its memorability.
Value Added Services/ New Revenue Streams Picture The Hipster’s Guide to Philadelphia or Philadelphia, One Cup At A Time on the shelves of Urban Outfitters or Barnes & Noble, and you’ll see that this content strategy is far more comprehensive than other CVBs. The beauty of great writing and useful information is that it has a life well past the point of distribution. Repackaging and selling this content as a pocket travel guide is an innovative branding asset that adds value for both visitors and the PCVB.
In addition to the ideas outlined above, we have also identified ways to embed value added services and new revenue models into your publications. One of the major benefits of investing in a more engaging publication is that popular content can be re-packaged and/or licensed in the future. By combining highlights from various issues, the PCVB could compile and publish a series of branded travel guides (in the style of the best-selling Not For Tourists guides popular throughout the world.) However, PCVB guides would follow the buyer personae discussed our approach above, making them a better fit for niche markets. Moreover, we intend to work closely with your ad sales partner to identify and implement value added services for advertisers and members. With these enhanced publications, we have the potential to include a wide range of inserts and premium advertising media. To extend your content strategy beyond print, we propose the addition of podcasts and feature video content. These brief podcasts can exist as part of a content life cycle where client questions, best practices, and industry news can serve as talking points for brief interviews and panel discussions. To further promote your members many of these podcasts could be feature interviews with members about trends in their industries, and the podcast may be recorded at their place of business.
Listen Prolific podcasters John Wall and Christopher Penn have created a strong brand community around their podcast, Marketing Over Coffee. The two hosts meet weekly in Dunkin Donuts to discuss marketing topics sent to them via Twitter, voicemail, and their own LinkedIn group. In addition to answering questions they also discuss marketing news and best practices. Through this low-budget weekly podcast, the duo have been able to grow a LinkedIn following of over 2,100 and a combined Twitter following of more than 56,000. Wall and Penn use their podcast as a means to promote their respective marketing businesses and attract advertisers and sponsors. By using a similar model, PCVB could extend the life of its content, promote its message to a wider audience, and create a new advertising property. 39
WEBSITES: Our Approach In preparing for this response, we conducted a comprehensive review of the digital strategies of other CVBs in your competitive set. The quality of web and social media communication varies greatly, and is largely reflective of their marketing budget. Across the board, there is a need for an integrated strategy that offers compelling content on every channel and allows a user to create their own experience as she moves between different networks. Increasingly, users are viewing content on their own terms. Rather than act as a mothership of authoritative content, a brand’s website now represents just one touch point in a larger network of interactive web properties. To make the most of this, users should be encouraged to interact with the brand in the channel they are most comfortable, and encouraged to explore other channels. As the central hub of your online network, your website will tie together stories and information from various channels, and serve as a guidepost to all of your content online and offline. As mentioned in the discussion of your publication strategy, we envision the web as a resource for visitors to find specific answers to questions and inquiries. 40
In the style of print magazines like Inc., GOOD, New Yorker, and Fast Company, your new web content will revolve around the feature content in your print publications, and integrate with your social media promotions. By co-promoting content with the major online resources mentioned below we can help cultivate a more sophisticated audience for the PCVB blog.
3. B uild a strong coalition of content partners. To help you promote your web content and build a community of brand advocates, we have enlisted prominent local bloggers who are able to provide regular columns, share multimedia content, repost PCVB content and develop co-promotions, and support marketing and social media campaigns. Further, we can work with these local partners to develop branded content series focusing on PCVB members. With Mighty Engine as your content partner, you would enjoy content partnerships with the following groups:
Five ways to enhance your content and your content relationships: 1. Aggregate database of resources and listings. Use the vast amount of data already collected for the OVG to create our own, substantially better version of the VisitPhilly’s database (a site for which Mighty Engine has managed the backend functionality for the past eight years). Become a leader by embracing the “open source” culture and share this data openly with other agencies and visitor centers, giving them multi-directional access for easy ability to update their information and events. With Mighty Engine on your team, you will draw upon our years of expertise in database management for local tourism agencies. We would work with you to develop a consistent taxonomy to organize all PCVB content so that it may be dynamically fed to all of your microsites.
2. C reate event partnerships to increase content opportunities, especially regarding event listings. PCVB will in turn become the preferred destination for realtime information regarding visiting and touring the City of Philadelphia by aggregating all event listings from independent publication groups already advertising events, such as upcomingevents.com, phillyfunguide.com, philly.cities2night.com, phillyweekly, etc.). E xample: Explore Chicago has more than 1,000 “cultural partners” throughout the city, who provide them with information on a regular basis via a web form that automatically populates Explore Chicago‘s robust event listings. Take advantage of backend technology solutions to enlist your own event partners.
• WeJetSet is an online magazine, published daily, that highlights interesting places to see, stay, eat and shop while also adding its unique perspective on global affairs, city innovations, art, culture and music. By delivering accessible and varied news, wejetset’s online content keeps readers inspired and informed about travel from a worldly vantage point. Taj Reid, founder of WeJetSet, is a culture maven who is connected to world-class lifestyle blogs like Cool Hunting and NOTCOT. He writes a regular column for Huffington Post, and is the editor of the travel section for Tumblr.com, where his blog has attracted more than 20,000 followers. • Flying Kite is a weekly online magazine focused on what’s next for the city and its suburbs. Flying Kite aims to create a new narrative about Philadelphia, one that connects our readers with everyone and everything moving the city and region forward. Their multimedia content highlights the people, ideas, neighborhoods, companies and institutions that are helping return Philadelphia to world-class city status. • 215 Magazine is an online magazine focusing on music, arts, culture, style, and news affecting the region’s youth. 215 is the brainchild of Tayyib Smith, a local entrepreneur, marketer, and member of Mayor Michael Nutter’s Black Male Engagement Initiative. In the past, Mr. Smith’s event planning company, Little Giant Media, has helped clients like Red Bull, Vitamin Water, and Heineken to bring experiential marketing events to Philadelphia. • Technically Philly is a news organization that has covered technology issues in the Philadelphia region since 2009. Led by the call for A better Philadelphia through technology, their focus is on building community by growing jobs, increasing access and education and making government more transparent and efficient. They aim to connect a broad and diverse technology community that works together to organize the annual Philly Tech Week, an open calendar of events celebrating innovation in Philadelphia. Technically Philly publishes hourly at TechnicallyPhilly. com and on Twitter and Facebook with news about startups, venture capital, social media, web design and development, digital access, STEM education, technologyrelated government policy, and anything having to do with technology in the Philadelphia region.
• con’t... 41
• con’t... In addition to these outlets, our agency network has direct ties to the Philly Media Network and the following resources:
• UpcomingEvents.com • Philly.cities2night.com • Phrequency.com
• City Paper • Philly Weekly • Be Well Philly (Philly Mag)
4. Improve PCVB content culture. Continuously improve and feed the content machine. Make content creation and thought leadership a part of the PCVB culture. Encourage participation at all levels of the organization by giving them the ability to submit feedback to our combined entity’s project manager. 5. Innovative & interactive maps. Create robust interactive maps for tourists, such as NYC’s successful City Maps App, to include PCVB member brands and inform visitors of valuable resources and real-time opportunities to experience Philly. Incorporate social media interaction to track individual hashtags and show pop-ups of social media sharing in real time, allowing for other tourists to find each other (such as groups, convention attendees, etc.).
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Link
Before You Leap Writing SEO-friendly web content and growing the PCVB social reach is by far a priority in helping PCVB become the preferred source of Philly visitor and tourism information. Making this underlying goal a theme of every task within the on-going project of content creation will help direct visitors to the PCVB website when they are looking for a convenient way to find resources and answer questions.
Our agency network draws upon a comprehensive understanding of search engine optimization when developing web content. A majority of consumers (70-80%) find websites via search engines like Google and Bing. For a website to remain competitive it needs to be optimized for search engines to find it, understand it, and recognize its content as the best match for the user’s search query. Google, for instance, uses a complex algorithm to match search queries with “authoritative” content. Google determines a page’s authority primarily from the following cues: • The correct layout and web design. It is important to design websites with the utmost organization and clarity in order to bypass any potential technical issues. Each webpage has a dedicated space within its code to write instructions and descriptions for search engine programs. • The amount and freshness of the content. One of the principal means for search engines to match queries with a website is to look for keywords within the text of a webpage. This is why we’ll carefully craft content that is rich in a wide variety of relevant keywords and phrases. As your digital marketing efforts progress, we will periodically evaluate and revise the content to better match the queries of prospective visitors. • The number and variety of links that connect to the pages. Along with content, the other major factors determining the rank of your website on a search engine results page are the number of times that other sites link to your website, and the types of sites that link to yours. Shareable web content will help PCVB earn the right kinds of links and push your website to the top of the Google search results. A strong SEO strategy will incorporate all of these different factors in carrying out a link-building campaign. • Images, video, and social media. Lastly, leaving a large footprint on the web through social media, videos, news, and images, will make your site easier for search engines—and even humans—to find. You can view these factors as an inverted pyramid in terms of importance. A clean and organized design is your foundation. From there you populate your site with compelling, keyword rich content. Next, you garner a wide variety of links from other relevant, authoritative sites, and finally share all of your great content through social networks.
App/Mobile Web Development In addition to everything you see here we would work with you to identify ways to add value to your web content by integrating your offerings with a mobile app. Mighty Engine would identify the key benefits to your members and
develop a content strategy and information architecture for an app allowing visitors to search for resources, attractions and reviews. These could be segmented through filters like Yelp or Google reviews, distance, interests, traffic, and
more. As always, PCVB members would receive yet another value added service in the form of premium listings. Premium listings for non-members could potentially become a new revenue source. 43
SOCIAL MEDIA: Our Approach All networks and social media channels currently used by the PCVB are in need of better strategy, content and growth. Currently, the combined total of individuals reached by all PCVB accounts is less than 5,000 people. This is in stark contrast to VisitPA’s current 183,345 person reach across Facebook, Twitter, and FourSquare. The combined Mighty Engine/At Media team proposes to take you through our time-proven process to quickly assess your existing channels. The integration of engagement tools and content is vital to the success of your social media campaign. Many of the CVB Facebook pages we reviewed could benefit from integration of more apps, particularly ones that help with travel related tasks like booking flights and finding hotels.
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As noted in our strategies for your publications and web content, we would tie together our social media approach by branding each channel with a specific visitor persona, even going so far as to create separate Twitter accounts to represent each distinct “voice.� This focus strategy allows us to better segment our social media messaging, ultimately leading to more leads and a more engaged fan base.
Smart Social Media Usage by CVBs In Phoenix, regular convention attendees receive a real-time concierge experience through their convention Twitter hashtag. At the CVB for Austin, TX, they saw an opportunity to offer social media support for key conventions booked in the city. During their first social media campaign, they posted Facebook statuses, tweets about the conference, and conference photos to Flickr and videos to YouTube all on behalf of the client; after seeing successful results, the Austin CVB added social media as a convention service.
Our approach to your social media will be to:
1
Increase your social network reach.
This can be achieved by creating well thought-out campaigns that target the diverse set of audiences to join PCVB’s network, while building API’s that support continued organic growth in PCVB target markets (see case study cheapcaribbean.com for examples).
2
Improve the engaging nature of your content.
We will create smart content and social media engagement that responds to and creates interaction across all platforms, continuously increasing your social media return-oninvestment. We will create content appropriate for social media engagement that is consistent with PCVB’s overall content and messaging strategy.
Customized Google maps with key destination locations can be designed for attendees to better navigate the dining scene, shopping and local attractions. The Seattle CVB social media manager earns points with planners by posting links about their upcoming convention in the CVB’s blog posts and other communication channels. At the Chicago CVB, their staff works with clients to develop interactive gaming experiences at their conventions with apps such as SCVNGR. source: cvnet.com
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Top 10
Social Media Recommendations 1. Create geo-location offers for all visitor asset classes. Provide incentives (in the form of rewards or prizes) for visitors to check in at PCVB and other local attractions via Facebook or Foursquare. The resulting data could prower apps and web utilities that rank attractions by peak traffic times, interests, and other key features. Example: visitpa.com’s successful partnership with FourSquare that inspired over 107,000 individuals to roadtrip their way through Pennsylvania with incentivized geo-location check-ins at 176 participating venues. 2. Use gamification to make content engaging on all fronts; print, web and social. Explore Chicago’s Neighborhood Express Game as an example that improves tourism, making it easier and more fun for visitors before and during their trips. The Neighborhood Express game allows visitors to interact with Chicago’s popular destinations to intrigue them before visitation, and then helps users find useful information while in the City. The game is fun and interactive for millennials, families and women researching trips - while also showcasing Explore Chicago’s dedication to providing useful information, events and real-time engagement. 3. Develop capabilities to produce regular audio content, video content, or webinars that appeal to target markets. Create a content strategy that moves content across various channels to create a conversation (see Marketing Over Coffee, and Marketing Profs for examples).
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4. P rovide real-time social media coverage of events. 5. Invite clients, prospects, and VIPs to write guest posts for the PCVB blog. 6. Support LinkedIn and Facebook content with targeted advertising. Use the company profile features like product and service listings, Twitter and Blog integration, firm updates, and demonstration videos. 7. Actively participate in industry groups on LinkedIn: DMAI, empowerMINT, PCMA, Event Peeps, Corporate Event and Meeting Planners, IAEE, etc. 8. Use Pinterest to build brand engagement and encourage sharing. Create boards that unify content from various social channels and brand promotions. 9. Better integrate and promote content across channels, such means as by connecting blog RSS feeds and Twitter to LinkedIn, connecting Pinterest and YouTube to Facebook, etc. 10. Take advantage of LinkedIn as a business-tobusiness marketing channel that can deliver leads and help establish thought leadership.
B-to-B Social Media As your content partners, one of our primary objectives would be cultivating fans and brand advocates in other cities.
Benefits to creating a branded B-to-B community:
Many organizations complement their company page with separate group pages. This is a good step toward using content as a tool to support a brand community. LinkedIn groups—as part of a broader strategy combining things like social media, email marketing, and even podcasts—are an effective content marketing tool. However, none of the CVBs we reviewed made full use of LinkedIn’s company profile features (e.g., product and service listings, Twitter and Blog integration, firm updates, and demonstration videos.).
• Constant stream of consumer insights
Beyond this, we would add elements to your strategy based on the success of OPEN, the award-winning B-to-B social media platform by American Express. PCVB will use B-to-B social media to share consumer insights, industry trends, best practices, etc. Providing PCVB members with this kind of service is a strong value add. Better still, this model has been demonstrated to boost customer loyalty and lead generation: site visits increased 525 percent from December 2008-2009, from 160,000 to nearly 1 million visits. The AMEX Open forum is widely considered to be the most successful branded B-to-B community online.
network was so successful is that they demonstrated to small business owners that they were committed to investing in their success and professional development, and open to learning from them, as well.
• Captivated (and grateful) audience to contact with product and service offers
• Enhanced brand awareness One of the reasons AMEX’s
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AT MEDIA CASE STUDY:
Cheap Caribbean Doylestown-based Cheapcaribbean.com had over 11,000 daily visitors to their website as a result of their innovative SEO, but had encountered a familiar issue for most businesses; their social media network was underutilized and too small to validate spending any resources on better practices. Our social media partner, At Media, worked with them to create and execute a strategy to address the following issues »
Little reach. Cheapcaribbean.com had less than 6,000 fans on Facebook and 400 followers on Twitter. Poor content. Engagement on networks was low as a result of poor content. The company also thought that their means to generate interesting content was too difficult to manage internally. Negative reviews. Customers who booked with Cheapcaribbean.com had no place to voice their customer ratings online. The Facebook page had turned into a place for fans to voice negative reviews, posing a serious threat to the Cheapcaribbean.com brand. Results. At Media has become familiar with many of the situations brands face in the social media space, and always strives to offer a unique solution that will accommodate each brand’s specific needs. For Cheapcaribbean. com At Media quickly addressed the main issues by implementing the following: • Content partners. Our team pulled content from all of the partner sites (resorts, hotels, destinations) that had already been generated, to easily provide Cheapcaribbean.com’s network with engaging content about their vacation interests. • Contests. At Media reached out to Cheapcaribbean.com partners to request contest packages, such as a free 3 night stay at a resort, to increase ‘likes’ to the Cheapcaribbean.com Facebook page. We developed the API “Sweepstakes Winners” that required folks to ‘like’ the page before entering our giveaways, and then told all of their friends on Facebook that they had entered an exclusive getaway sweepstakes. Within weeks, Cheapcaribbean.com had 13,000 fans. They now have 172,000 and grow at an average 7,000 new fans a week. We found that content partners were happy to give away free packages to promote their own brands, and support Cheapcaribbean.com’s efforts. • Ratings and reviews. To solve the negative reviews left by fans on the Facebook page, we developed the “Ratings & Reviews” API on the Cheapcaribbean.com Facebook page that allowed fans to put all positive and negative reviews in one place, as anonymous users to protect their identity. Now all reviews are hosted in one main place, without fear of risking a customer’s identity or safety and the brand reputation of both partners and Cheapcaribbean.com Today, Cheapcaribbean.com uses At Media’s team to continue successful management for their social media empire. They went from under 7,500 people in their social networks, to over 200,000—making Facebook the top referring site to their main website. The return on investment allowed Cheapcaribbean.com to open their first major call center in Dallas, Texas, and has kept them very happy clients.
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COMPREHENSIVE BUDGET Standard Hourly Rate: $120/hr
Content Account Strategy Development Management
Art & Design
Production & Distribution Oversight
Total Hours
Total ME Cost
Publications OVG
40
96
500
500
80
1,216
$ 145,920
PPG
40
96
500
500
80
1,216
$ 145,920
International
40
96
500
500
80
1,216
$ 145,920
Maps
40
96
500
500
80
1,216
$ 145,920
Website
40
96
1,200
100
0
1,436
$ 172,320
Planning
40
96
10
5
0
151
$ 18,120
Implementation
52
12
750
12
0
826
$ 99,120
Managing/ Reporting
40
12
100
0
0
152
$ 18,240
TOTAL
332
600
4,060
2,117
320
7,429
$ 891,480
Social Media
Keyword & Social Media Advertising (est)
Printing (est)
Freight (est)
Photography (est)
OVG
307,683
37,776
$ 11,000
PPG
16,010
1,660
$ 11,000
International
24,376
3,220
$ 11,000
Maps
28,000
4,200
$ 376,069
$ 46,857
Publications
Social Media Implementation
TOTAL
12,000 $ 12,000
$ 33,000 49
50
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STATEMENT OF AUTHORIZATION May 31, 2012
Lucy MacNichol Senior Content Development Manager/Editor Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau 1700 Market Street, Suite 3000 Philadelphia, PA 19103 Dear Ms. MacNichol: I hereby certify that I am authorized to submit this bid on behalf of Mighty Engine team, and that we will stand by the terms proposed in this document. Sincerely,
Heseung Kim, Ed.D. President/CEO
CONFLICT DISCLOSURE Mighty Engine does not have any relevant conflicts of interest and/or pending lawsuits.
themightyengine.com