TRAVEL WISCONSIN NEWS

January 16, 2004

In this issue:

• Welcome to Travel Wisconsin News
• Department Launches Winter Marketing Campaign 
• 2004 Governor's Conference News 
• Putting Wisconsin on the Map
• Golf Wisconsin Campaign
• Tourism Deputy Secretary Receives National Recognition
• New Addition to Tourism Staff
• WACVB Announces 2003 Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Awards
• New Online Registration Renewal for Boats, Snowmobiles and ATVs
• Summer In-Market Study Now Available
• Travel Tracker: Tourism Business Development Toolbox
• Marketing Tips: Advertising Media Planning  

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Welcome To Travel Wisconsin News

Welcome to the first issue of Travel Wisconsin News, the Department's new electronic newsletter for the tourism industry. You will notice that it has many of the same features you have enjoyed in Tourism Today and Marketour but in an electronic format. Research, marketing and technology tips, and important news pertinent to the broader travel and hospitality marketplace are among the articles you will find in Travel Wisconsin News. We hope you like our new format and we invite you to give us your feedback.

Ad Campaign Shows Diversity of Winter Travel in the Badger State

The announcement of the Department of Tourism's current winter ad campaign in late November was met with unprecedented media interest, as print and broadcast outlets from Wausau to Madison covered the official release of a series of new television ads charged with helping to redefine winter travel in Wisconsin by depicting both indoor and outdoor activities.

During a Nov. 25 news conference, Department of Tourism Secretary Jim Holperin stressed the importance of developing a campaign that isn't necessarily snow-dependent, saying the ads "are intended to reflect Wisconsin's urban and cultural diversity, and showcase the indoor activities and outdoor pursuits that make tourism one of Wisconsin's strongest assets in economic development."

Produced by the Department Tourism's agency of record, Boelter + Lincoln, the new campaign features four print ads, two 30-second television spots and two 10-second spots. While both 30-second ads end by encouraging viewers to call the Department's toll free number or visit its travelwisconsin.com Web site, one also promotes the state's online snow conditions report. The Department will rotate the 10-second ads based on weather conditions, with one ad specifically highlighting non-snow related activities and the other featuring snowmobiling, snowboarding and cross-country skiing.

The ads began running in December, and will continue to air through February 2004. They feature footage shot over the past three years in locations across the state, including Milwaukee, Minocqua, Wisconsin Dells, Wausau, Baraboo, Madison and Price and Oneida counties.

Golf Wisconsin Campaign

With the world of golf's spotlight focused on the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Haven, WI this August, and with the Greater Milwaukee Open preceding the PGA in July, the Department of Tourism will launch a comprehensive effort in 2004 to market Wisconsin as a premier golf travel destination.

Dubbed "Golf Wisconsin" the effort will feature a series of unique promotions designed to increase interest in the game. A "Golf Wisconsin" day featuring free or reduced rate golf and lessons for youth, golf clinics, golf merchandise and overnight lodging giveaways, and the development of special "golf Wisconsin" tours will highlight the campaign. Destination marketing organizations, lodging properties and courses are encouraged to develop golf-themed packages that can be highlighted in travelwisconsin.com's "Vacation Packages & Deals" section.

Do you have a good idea to make this year's golf campaign better and more successful? Or would you like to tie into it in some way? Contact Jerry Huffman at 608-261-8195.

Putting Wisconsin on the Map

Secretary Holperin, Deputy Secretary Edwards and the communications team of John Kuehl and Lisa Marshall have been on the road and in front of the camera promoting Wisconsin as an indoor and outdoor winter destination. Since mid-December, the quartet has appeared on TV segments in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford, Rhinelander, La Crosse and Green Bay.

In other communication highlights, the Department has established a new partnership with Journal Radio Network to record weekly 60-second event broadcasts. The move to Journal Radio Network allows more flexibility and reach into radio stations across Wisconsin.

The Department's winter advertising campaign met with unprecedented media coverage including an associated press article, followed by TV coverage in Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Green Bay, and Rhinelander.

Winter travel in the Badger state - both indoors and out - graced the pages of AAA Home & Away, Chicago Tribune and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. An associated press story on shipwrecks located off the shores of Door County and Milwaukee made the news last month and also appeared on CNN.com.

Tourism Deputy Secretary Receives National Recognition

Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine recently recognized Deputy Secretary Edwards as one of the most influential African Americans in the meeting and tourism industry.

In the October/November 2003 issue, Edwards was featured among the nation's top multicultural travel industry executives. In an editorial message, publisher Solomon J. Herbert championed achievements by Edwards and others, while urging for continued diversity education and training throughout the travel industry. The article also discussed the continued responsibility of the tourism industry to diversify their employment practices.

"It is significant to the state of Wisconsin that our travel and hospitality industry has been recognized for its multicultural marketing and appointment of African Americans in decision-making positions," Deputy Secretary Edwards said. "The travel and hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy and minorities have an opportunity to make an impact through their buying power and many niche entrepreneurial prospects."

Since her appointment, Edwards has initiated several outreach programs to improve communications between department and industry partners statewide, and has been an advocate for an increased role for cultural and urban tourism in statewide marketing and promotional materials. She was recently named vice chair of the Great Lakes of North America, an international tourism marketing association.

New Addition to Tourism Staff

The Department welcomes Outreach Manager Will Christianson who will be working on various special projects for the Secretary's office. Will comes to the Department from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office where he administered a gun violence reduction program called CEASEFIRE. Previous to that he was a special events manager and fundraiser for Beechwood Distributors, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Downie Productions, which produces Milwaukee's Bastille Days Festival. Will earned his degree in Political Science and History at the UW-Madison in 1994.

WACVB Announces 2003 Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Awards

The Wisconsin Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (WACVB) presented its 2003 Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Awards at its November convention in Manitowoc. Bill Otto, President and Chief Operating Officer of Marcus Hotels and Resorts and immediate past chair of the Governor's Council on Tourism, received the award for his role in promoting and advancing Wisconsin's tourism industry. Other tourism organizations receiving Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazers awards for their marketing efforts include:

• Green County Tourism for Outstanding Marketing or Communication Initiative with a budget under $25,000 for the "A Taster's Tour of Green County" sales promotion;

• Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau for Outstanding Marketing or Communication Initiative with a budget over $25,000 for the creation of a 30-minute "travelmercial;"

• Greater Milwaukee Convention and Visitor Bureau for Outstanding Use of Technology with a budget under $20,000 for the Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary E-mail Campaign; and,

• Chippewa Valley Convention and Visitor Bureau and Sports Commission for Outstanding Sponsorship or Partnership for creating a sponsorship program that would enable them to build on national and world sporting tournaments.

WACVB sponsors the Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazers awards each year during the Wisconsin Fall Tourism Convention in an effort to increase the visibility of Wisconsin's tourism industry and destination marketing organizations.

New Online Registration Renewal for Boats, Snowmobiles and ATVs

The Department of Natural Resources is now offering a new Online Recreational Vehicle Registration Center for snowmobiles, boats and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The online service allows owners of recreational vehicles to renew their existing registration 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the state of Wisconsin Web site. The service is currently for renewals only but Rita Harnack, chief of DNR Registrations and Permits, says customers will eventually be able to register new vehicles in addition to renewing their current registration.

The ability to print a validated receipt after completing online registration renewal means customers can legally operate their recreational vehicle without having to wait for registration documents to arrive in the mail. DNR Service Centers and designated agents also provide registration renewal validation services that allow immediate operation.

Registration pages can be accessed through any of the following Internet addresses: www.snowmobile.wisconsin.gov, www.atv.wisconsin.gov, www.boat.wisconsin.gov, and www.recreationalvehicle.wisconsin.gov. Credit cards may be used to pay renewal fees. An additional $1 fee will be charged for online renewals that will help support the costs for this service. Decals and registration certificates are processed and mailed within seven days.

Summer In-Market Study Now Available

The Department of Tourism recently completed the final report in a series of four research studies conducted to gather seasonal-based information on Wisconsin's visitors. The executive summary can be viewed online or a full report or contact David Scheler at 608/261-8187. The summer in-market survey was conducted June -August, 2003 in four areas: Hwy. 63 corridor running from Bayfield to Ashland, the Hwy 53/63 corridor from Superior to Hudson, Grant County/southwestern Wisconsin area, and the Greater La Crosse area. The research covers visitor attitudes and satisfaction levels and activities, media recommendations, spending patterns, demographics, and travel group composition.

Keynote Speakers and Think-tank Workshops Planned for 2004 Governor's Conference

 The KI Convention Center in Green Bay is the location for the 2004 Governor's Conference on Tourism scheduled March 14 - 16. With the theme "Weathering Change: Maximizing Your Potential," this year's conference will focus on how tourism organizations and businesses can diversify their product and capitalize on seasonal offerings. The conference will also provide essential information on marketing, partnerships and consumer research.

Two outstanding keynote presentations will take place on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, speaker Roger Brooks will introduce "The 15 Immutable Rules of Tourism." Mr. Brooks' program concentrates on tourism as economic development and the reasons why every community should consider it vital to their economic growth. His collection of "Immutable Rules" is designed to provide simple ways to make tourism a profitable undertaking by attracting the right kind of visitor and getting them to stay longer. Tuesday will bring Clyde Fessler, former VP of Business Development for Harley-Davidson, who will present "The Rise of Harley Davidson: Building a Brand." This presentation will illustrate the strategy that guided a company into building one of the most successful brands in the world.

New to the conference this year is a series of think-tanks that are designed to be facilitated mini-strategic sessions. Requiring audience participation, these think-tank workshops will produce results that will be made available for use after the conference. These sessions are titled "Cultural Arts & Tourism," "Multicultural Marketing," and "Rural or Urban?" Descriptions for these programs can be found in the registration forms and online at www.wigcot.org.

For further information on the 2004 Governor's Conference on Tourism, please call Dawn Aspenson, Conference Manager at 608/266-3978. Up-to-date information and online registration is available on the conference Web site at www.wigcot.org.

Tourism Business Development Toolbox: A Web-Based Resource for Existing and Prospective Business Operators

The University of Wisconsin - Extension has launched a free, on-line toolbox to assist tourism businesses in market analysis and financial planning. The on-line toolbox provides existing and prospective business operators with relevant business trends, industry comparison data, market analysis techniques and downloadable financial planning software. The toolbox focuses on six types of tourism businesses: hotels/motels, small resorts, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, retail stores, and restaurants. 

The toolbox includes downloadable MS Excel workbooks that have been developed for each business category based on their unique needs and circumstances. The easy-to-use software allows the user to develop 12-month operating budgets and 5-year pro forma income and cash flow statements. The software is especially useful as it allows the user to do "what-if" and "break-even" analyses. Operators considering changes to their rates, operating expenses or capital spending will find the software a useful tool in decision-making.

The software and information in the toolbox allows business operators to analyze their market and sales potential. They can examine their operating revenues and expenses and make comparisons with other similar businesses. Finally, using the software, operators can tighten up their budgets and longer term financial plans to improve profitability.

While primarily participants in the recent Wisconsin Small Business Development (SBDC) Tourism Business Planning course have used the toolbox, it is available to all tourism business operators at no cost. Both existing and prospective operators will find that the toolbox complements the comprehensive line-up of market research and marketing resources provided by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism and other trade associations.

Bill Ryan from the Center for Community Economic Development, UW-Extension and Erica Kauten, Director of the Small Business Development Center, will be on hand at the Marketplace of the Governor's Conference on Tourism, March 15, 2004. They will be doing demonstrations and answering questions about these powerful planning and management tools and provide information on the SBDC Tourism Business Planning Courses.

To access the toolbox, go to http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/tourism/.

Marketing Tips

Advertising Media Planning: Matching your media to your message

In this age of belt-tightening and budget constraints, it is crucial for tourism businesses and organizations to maximize the effectiveness of their advertising dollars. For many marketers, this will mean scrutinizing creative more closely and negotiating advertising buys more aggressively than ever before. However, even the best contract or creative execution may prove ineffective if the organization doesn't pick the right type of media to achieve its objective or doesn't make its advertising message match the chosen medium.

As a starting point, marketers should consider exactly what they want their advertising to do and who their target audience is. Is the goal to establish broad-reaching brand image? Reposition a destination or attraction? Or generate a short-term but immediate sales spike? The answer to that question will help dictate the types of media to be used.

Radio, for instance, is not a good direct response or "price-and-item" vehicle, since an extremely high percentage of listeners are in their cars and can't write down phone numbers or play radio in the background while at work or at home. Television, on the other hand, is more intrusive; viewers are essentially spectators who are paying fairly close attention. For motivating your audience to take specific action, like calling an 800 number or driving them to a web site, TV is clearly a powerful medium, as are print channels and the Internet.

How and when your message will be seen is another consideration when evaluating media choices and is crucial to creative development. Media consumption patterns vary widely between magazines and newspapers, for example, even though both are print media. Magazine readers are typically in a less hurried state, and can "study" ads, often viewing them several times as they look at a magazine over the course of a week or month. Magazines also offer better photo reproduction quality than newspapers, making them perfect for visually oriented, image-building ads that can elicit an emotional response.

Newspapers, on the other hand, are read much more quickly, and often with a "shopping" mindset. Newspaper ad creative is also influenced by the medium's photo reproduction capabilities - which are generally below that of magazines - and page layout, since the larger pages of papers are more content-filled.

"Newspaper ads must stand out in a very cluttered environment," says Rick Lagan, co-creative director at the Department of Tourism's ad agency, Boelter+Lincoln. "So we concentrate on simple, powerful visuals and a headline that gets right to the point. Newspaper is a great medium for motivating your audience with an offer."

Conversely, radio is not considered a direct response medium. However, with its highly specific formats, radio is a valuable way to target specific demographic segments. It allows advertisers to reach a specific audience consistently since most people listen to the same station at the same time each day - morning drive time, for instance. Although radio obviously offers no visual opportunities, it can be an effective reinforcement to a visually oriented campaign appearing in other media. Similar to magazines, it is best suited for brand and image building and is a good medium for messages intended to elicit emotional reactions.

Like radio, Internet can be highly targeted demographically. Unlike radio, however, it is primarily a global medium and opportunities to reach consumers within specific market areas are somewhat limited. As with newspaper, people surfing the net are often looking for specific information at a specific time. Predictably, this has led some search engines (including Yahoo, Lycos and Google) to sell search listings, position or advertising in their databases. A growing number of organizations are concentrating online media dollars on the Internet equivalent of advertorials, buying content-driven exposure as opposed to advertising-driven exposure. Still others have focused on banners and other purely advertising-oriented units, with mixed results. While the medium is still too new and evolutionary to make any blanket assessments, banner ads are generally not viewed as being very effective at garnering click-throughs, though they may generate high exposure numbers. On the flip side, Internet direct response advertising is often successful, particularly when the offer encourages the user to click further for more information.

Of all media, television reaches the largest audience, is the most measurable and has the widest variety of strategic applications of all media. While its broad reach drives its overall demographic makeup downscale, it is very possible to use it in a targeted manner and reach extremely upscale segments. The key here is to run your commercials on a program and at a time of day that your potential customers will be viewing. Naturally, the visual impact of television makes it a good medium for branding campaigns, but it is also a great tool for direct response - stimulating web site hits and 800 number calls, for instance. Unfortunately, television viewing fluctuates significantly by time of year, with fewer viewers during the warm weather months of summer. Nonetheless, many tourism marketers have found success with springtime television campaigns pushing summer activities and attractions - reaching travelers at the critical point before decisions have been made.

There is a tremendous amount of information to consider for advertising planning, much of which is available through the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The Wisconsin Department of Tourism is another valuable resource for information about the media habits of travel consumers, as it continually conducts research on advertising awareness and media usage among travelers in markets such as the Twin Cities and Chicago, and throughout Wisconsin. A recent Department study, which analyzed the information sources travelers from Chicago and Twin Cities used for planning vacations, found that the most popular sources were print editorial vehicles, such as newspaper and magazine travel articles (66 percent preferred), state publications (65 percent) and local publications (63 percent). Web sites and travel information centers also ranked highly (61 percent) as did regional guides (60 percent) and television travel programs (57 percent). Among paid media advertising, travelers ranked newspaper ads highest (56 percent), followed by television and magazine advertising (54 and 53 percent, respectively). Radio advertising and direct mail garnered a 37 percent response.

While some of the media planning information and research done by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) is available only to members of that organization, some is available to the general public. Contact AAAA at www.aaaa.org for more information. For copies of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism's Chicago and Twin Cities Core Market Study and other Department research, contact David Scheler at 608/261-8187.

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