Spring turned out to be a very busy time for Mikula-Harris. That brings good news and bad news. The good news is that being busy means we have been producing some interesting, fun and beneficial things for our clients and working hard to grow our agency as well. The bad news is that it didn't leave much time for blogging. I thought I'd take this opportunity to update you on some of the cool stuff we have been working on.
• We have completed a beautiful new Visitor Guide for Bath County, Virginia. As I write this blog, Chocklett Press in Roanoke is printing the booklet. We were encouraged by a recent study that showed how printed visitor guides work in tandem with online resources to help those consumers still in the decision making process choose a vacation spot and convince some travelers to extend their visit.
• Mecklenburg County in southern Virginia is fairly new to the tourism scene. We had a lot of fun developing their first ever ad campaign. Our creative team came up with several very solid concepts to pitch, all of which were based on reaching their target audience and our firsthand experience with the county's tourism assets. The campaign is beginning to run in multiple media outlets. We think you'll be hearing more about this campaign soon.
• Readers of this blog know that Mikula-Harris has worked closely with the Abingdon CVB over the past two years to launch a tourism brand strategy, ad campaign, website, visitor guide and a whole lot more. Now we are working with them to develop an economic development website. The site will launch mid-summer.
• With our strategic partner, Access Advertising and PR, we have been working together for Virginia's Blue Ridge. Of the numerous projects we’ve tackled, the biggest and most newsworthy is a Spring campaign that includes some awesome online and television creative work to promote a major contest. This campaign and contest brings together an impressive group of public and private partners to extend the value of the media buy and the prize opportunities. We hope to do a case study on this innovative program.
• The afore mentioned Mecklenburg County partnered with neighboring Halifax County to form the Southern Virginia Wild Blueway. Over the winter they chose Mikula-Harris to develop their brand identity, website and some advertising materials. This is the third blueway/water trail that our team has marketed. Each one is unique and offers different experiences. Based on the response within the first few weeks of the website launch, we think this one will be just as successful as the others we have promoted.
• We launched a fun video promoting outdoor recreation in the Alleghany Highlands. We supported the launch with some very targeted online advertising and, a lot of social media activity, and a modest YouTube campaign. In about eight weeks the video had received more than 10,000 views. The video was edited into a 30-second TV spot that has run in Roanoke and Richmond.
Well, there’s a quick update although it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll post samples of the projects mentioned here as well as case studies as soon as possible.