DC TOURISM OFFICIALS INTRODUCE A NEW WAY TO SEE DC

This spring, DC's official convention and tourism corporation introduced a new name for itself and a new brand strategy and integrated marketing campaign to promote travel and tourism in the nation's capital. Building on the city's powerful, inspiring assets, Destination DC's new campaign is an invitation to travelers to create their own power trips in DC.

"'Create your own power trip is our new call to action.' It literally and figuratively takes the power of the city and puts it into the hands of the traveler," said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. "DC may be seen as a government town, but tourism is our industry. The city has invested billions of dollars in new museums, restaurants, neighborhood development and a baseball stadium in the past few years. By working strategically to promote our city, we can introduce travelers to the energy that's created here and generate more economic development for DC." Fifteen million visitors spend more than $5.2 billion in the District each year, generating more than $560 million in tax dollars.

The campaign is grounded in DC's first comprehensive brand strategy, developed over more than a year of quantitative and qualitative research, creative development and consumer testing. The independent research revealed that DC registered a considerable advantage over its competition in several key attributes that motivate travel: power, inspiration, beauty, learning and discovery and experiencing history. The ad concepts, created in collaboration with the DC office of Burson-Marsteller, are designed to evoke these distinctive qualities in order to appeal emotionally to the city's target audiences: family travelers, urban explorers and knowledge seekers.

"It's critical for us to be laser-focused in our marketing efforts. We need to create messages that stand out against our competition and connect with our audience," said Dan Mesches, chairman of Destination DC and president of Star Restaurant Group. "While DC ranks among the most popular destinations in the United States, the competition for tourism, convention and nvestment dollars is relentless. Other destinations such as New York, Orlando, Atlanta and Las Vegas are currently outspending DC and have recently increased their efforts significantly to head off potential downturns in travel due to the economy."

DC's new multi-platform campaign includes two 30-second television commercials designed to appeal to two target segments: families and urban explorers. Starring local talent and produced in-studio using green screen techniques and animation, the commercials describe possible power trips for each market segment. In the urban explorer commercial, a young couple's power trip takes shape under the city's famous cherry blossoms, shopping at Eastern Market and in U Street's nightlife hotspots. For family travelers, a power trip means plugging in to the energy on the National Mall, in interactive attractions, in restaurants and on stage at theatres throughout the city. Print ads illustrating four concepts, "Seat of Power," "Soul Power," "Power Play" and "Fire Power," are running in major publications throughout the summer.

"The creative takes the concept of power and injects it with fun and energy to introduce visitors to powerful experiences throughout the city," said William A. Hanbury, president & CEO, Destination DC. "We're inviting visitors to plug in to real DC insider experiences to make their trips to DC surprising and authentic by passing along the insider tips that residents actually shared with us during this process."

To support the new brand strategy and campaign, which includes search engine marketing and partnerships with Travelocity, TripAdvisor, Gothamist and DCist, Destination DC also debuted a new look for its website, Washington.org. For travelers searching for information that caters to their individual interests, a new "Experience DC" section offers advice for foodies, family travelers, history buffs, urban explorers and other traveler profiles. Through local and regional marketing and PR efforts, Destination DC is encouraging residents to share their recommendations for powerful DC experiences with a new "DC insider" feature. Insider tips are peppered throughout the site, including personal recommendations from locals to help travelers tap in to memorable DC moments. A new online page for meeting planners includes features like online RFPs and searchable databases of meeting and event spaces, along with attendance building tools like videos, promotional copy and more.