Thursday, September 26, 2013

From The Telluride Daily Planet: Telluride's Marketing To Increase Threefold

Three times the marketing


TTB, Telski and CFA collaborate to bring more winter tourism

By Collin McRann
Staff reporter
Published: Thursday, September 26, 2013 6:06 AM CDT
This winter, the area’s marketing push will be a combined effort by three major tourism organizations, which officials say will create more efficiency and exposure.

The deal, which was announced on Monday, now makes Carbondale-based Backbone Media responsible for the placement of much of the area’s advertisements for the winter season. The Telluride Tourism Board, Telluride Ski & Golf Company and Colorado Flights Alliance all came together to sign a contract with Backbone.

The deal is similar to what other regional organizations have been doing to bring consistency to marketing efforts.

In addition, the Telluride Regional Airport decided last month to work more closely with Telski on its marketing.

“It’s going to be a more efficient use of monies, and we should be able to target our markets better by doing this,” said Tom Watkinson, director of communications at Telski. “In the past, it was sort of an unspoken agreement that Telski would cover the winter marketing, and the Tourism Board had the other seasons. But that’s changed in recent years.”

Telski, TTB and CFA will each produce their own creative content for the winter campaign, but common branding and messaging will tie the ads together. Winter ads are slated to launch on Nov. 1.

According to a TTB press release, the winter marketing campaign will include digital banner ads delivered to computers, mobile devices and tablets. And Watkinson said Telski has earmarked additional money for ads in print publications.

The release states that by pooling advertising dollars together, it will result in a more extensive winter campaign by creating buying power and allowing each organization to focus on specific markets without competing or duplicating efforts.

In the release, TTB president Michael Martelon called the partnership unprecedented. He said all three entities have the same goal, which is to bring as many guests to Telluride as possible.

“We are excited that the ski resort has embraced this collaboration,” Martelon said in the release. “Telski provided invaluable data from past winter guests for the data analytics that will play into this very targeted and strategic winter marketing plan.”

Martelon made presentations last week to the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association and the Mountain Village Town Council about the new marketing campaign.

During the presentations he outlined how different ads will be placed. Ads promoting Telluride will be on everything from Pandora, an Internet music streaming service, to electric billboards in New York City’s Times Square.

Some of the ads focus on flights that connect the area to major cities.    

As flights into the area are a vital part of bringing people to Telluride, the Colorado Flights Alliance is a critical part of winter marketing. CFA Chief Operating Officer Matt Skinner said in an email that there have been prior efforts to coordinate marketing, but the newest effort is the first to center around combined data.

“This is a great next step in collaborative marketing efforts for the destination,” Skinner wrote. “In a competitive industry, we need to be more targeted and more effective with the resources we have, and combining our programs to such a specific level will put us a step ahead.”

The CFA also works with regional communities such as Montrose and Crested Butte to bring more people in on flights. And Telski collaborates with Crested Butte as well as other ski resorts to offer ski pass deals.

“It’s just a smart use of money,” Watkinson said.

For more information on this or Telluride area luxury homes, condos and land, please contact Telluride Real Estate Corp. at 970-728-3111, info@telluriderealestatecorp.com, or visit www.telluriderealestatecorp.com. 

No comments:

Post a Comment