Blog
Event Promotion on Facebook
I had high expectations for social media to spread the word about a unique event. And Facebook did not let me down. It provides an interesting lesson in how Facebook can be used for event promotion Each year, the graduating class of Southeast Tourism Society Marketing...
Good ways to engage Inprint
Inprint is a unique agency. There are branding firms that develop great brand strategies but only in the broadest possible sense. They provide a rationale for their conclusions and some generic mock-ups to demonstrate how it can be implemented. They are not interested...
Introducing Virginia’s newest local tourism brand
This will very likely be a featured in a case study on our website one day. I expect this initiative to generate impressive results for our client. We’ll monitor some performance metrics over several months and report back to you. In the meantime, we just like this...
The Brands of the Roanoke Valley
For as long as I've lived in beautiful Roanoke, Virginia, I've heard some community leaders lament the lack of a cohesive regional brand. Several years ago a group tried to pull it off with an effort called NewVa. What's that, you've never heard of it?...
An undiscovered gem in Virginia’s travel scene
Over the last few months I have spent more time in the Alleghany Highlands than in my previous 22 years in Virginia combined. About six months ago the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Tourism chose us to develop a tourism brand and the website, visitors...
A common denominator between advertising and social media
Successful advertising has always resulted from the smart combination of several ingredients.a. A strategy-driven big ideab. Turning the idea into an artfully designed, photographed or recorded productc. Placing the commercial, ad, brochure, poster, etc. in the exact...
Go big, or go home.
I admit it, I love this philosophy. Advertising is all about big ideas and we're constantly looking for ways to help our clients get big results. Unfortunately, this philosophy is sometimes misunderstood. “Go big or go home” does not involve reckless abandon....
Good Market Research — It’s a start.
Building a successful brand or launching an effective advertising campaign requires some up-front market research. You have to understand your customers so that you can keep them coming back as well as reach more like-minded future customers. Research can tell you...
To fund or not to fund, that is the CVB question
It seems that every week there is a news story somewhere in America about a state or local tourism office or CVB whose funding is cut, threatened or at least questioned. (Like this in Oklahoma, and this in Minnesota and this in West Virginia.) Readers of this blog...
Gut instinct is not a brand strategy
When our firm does a branding project for a client, we guide them through a three-step process. The first step is when we do our research. The next step is the evaluation of the research and the formulation of a brand strategy. The third step brings it to life with...