New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau

2006-2007 National Branding Initiative

2006-2007 National Branding Initiative

Situation

On August 29, 2005, the tourism industry of New Orleans was brought to its knees with the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina. Once the rebuilding was underway, the travel trade industry – the meeting/convention planners and travel agents – understood that the New Orleans brand and experience was resurrected. The hurdle was convincing the business decision makers and visitors, who had written the city off as a destination for meetings, conventions and business, that New Orleans was once again a viable option for their business.

Implementation

The plan called for the CVB Brand to be positioned throughout the experiences of the CEO and Seeker’s daily life. Tactically, www.24nola.com was created to allow people to see those “Seeker” activities that were available to experience within the city at all hours of the day. All components of the campaign were designed to generate brand awareness and drive traffic to the site.

Tactics included:

  • Partnerships and a contest with sites including LonelyPlanet.com and YouTube.com
  • Airline tray table advertising on thirty-five national, major domestic carriers
  • A mobile campaign through NYTimes.com mobile subscribers
  • A GLBT targeted campaign on Travel Ad Network, Side Step and Planet Out
  • Interactive initiatives with Yahoo.com, Microsoft Networks, Value Click (Ad Network), Travel Channel.com, NYTimes.com and WSJ.com
  • A branded interstitial ad that was sent out one time per day to unique users for two weeks
  • Inexpensive text placements to drive cost effective traffic to the site ($0.10 CPM)

Results

  • A 64% increase in room nights (non-group) booked by travel agents from the 12 months after Katrina to the 12 month period after the campaign launched.
  • Room nights increased from 298,568 to 468,888
  • The CVB went from hosting 550 travel professionals pre-storm to hosting over 5,400 in 2007 – an increase of 980%
  • Travel agent bookings have increased 30% from 2006 to 2007.
  • 7 million visitors to New Orleans in 2007, up 200% from 2006