Strategic Marketing Plan: Executive Summary - the California ...

Marketing Program History & Success
Visit California’s marketing approach for the next five years
builds upon the tremendous success of Visit California’s
current marketing program. With the Foundational
Plan, Visit California laid a powerful strategic foundation,
applying hard data and industry insights to craft a roadmap
that would drive California farthest.
A key part of that road map was finding out, through
qualitative research, how California differentiated itself
from its competitive set. Roughly 10 years ago, Visit
California discovered that the California lifestyle is what
truly made the Golden State unique among global
destinations. The “California Attitude”—Californians’ unique
approach to life (putting pleasure first and living life to
the fullest)—is what drove the mystique of, and desire for,
a California vacation. This message resonated strongly
with consumers, particularly when the embodiment of the
lifestyle included Hollywood celebrities. The quantitative
tracking results were powerful and consistently positive.
By capitalizing on these brand assets in Visit California’s
advertising program strategy, and integrating them into
tourism sales and public relations efforts, Visit California
was quickly able to demonstrate positive results. As an
example, most recently, during the “great recession” of
2009, Visit California maintained its domestic marketing
investment. As a result, the California tourism industry
realized 3.4 million incremental trips and $4.2 billion
in spending. The $305 to $1 return on investment far
exceeded advertising ROI seen for competing destinations,
even during better economic times. California’s share of the
U.S. market is nearly double that of its closest competitor
(11.27% vs. 6.5%).
SINCE 2006, THE MEASuRED
ECONOMIC IMPACT GENERATED
BY THE DOMESTIC PROGRAM HAS
GROWN FROM $1.96 BILLION TO
$6.55 BILLION.
Brand Platform
When Visit California’s budget grew to $50 million in 2007,
the team invested in updated and more comprehensive
qualitative research programs to study and explore the
relevance and impact of California’s brand platform
domestically.
This research showed that the “California Attitude” was
as relevant as ever. In fact, Visit California discovered an
aspirational quality where consumers wanted to experience
the California lifestyle—or at least see it for themselves.
Visit California also discovered that the idea of “Abundance,”
the best of everything in one place, solidified California’s
value proposition. When combining the “California Attitude”
with “Abundance,” California becomes a “Superlative”
destination—a place where consumers can live like a
Californian, essentially becoming a Californian themselves
during their visit.
Visit California used this important research and additional
funding in 2007 to broaden its message platform. In
addition to the core umbrella campaign (California
Attitude), Visit California introduced three additional,
distinct efforts:
• California Wine & Food (wine and food appeals to more
affluent travelers)
• California Insider (re-inspiring “brand familiars” with rural
regions beyond the gateways)
• California Snow (supports the winter/snow experience,
a younger/edgier side)
With additional, consistent funding and the strategic
deployment of the above programs, Visit California’s
advertising ROI has soared. Since 2006, the measured
economic impact generated by the domestic program has
grown from $1.96 billion to $4.66 billion. This is a historic
high, unmatched by our domestic competitive set.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9
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