BuckeyeLine

Moving Forward

It’s hard to believe, but May and Ohio Tourism Month already are in the rearview mirror. While it was an incredibly busy month here at the Division, I really enjoyed getting out to as many of our Industry’s tourism events as possible. And I don’t think the spirit of collaboration has ever been greater in our industry than it is right now in Ohio! As a result of our collective Ohio Tourism Month marketing efforts, we saw some fantastic increases in our number of Twitter followers (added 495), Facebook friends (added 221) Facebook “Likes” (added 546); nearly 100 photos/videos were submitted for myOhio; and our public relations efforts reached more than 6 million consumers with a nice boost from Peter Greenberg on the CBS Early Show on May 11. Peter picked up our information on the Twitter Flash Sales. In addition, our 2010 spring/summer campaign continues full speed ahead!

May also brought some wonderful news for the Ohio Tourism Industry. In spite of overall decreases in travel last year, we managed to grow our overnight leisure trips by 6 percent over 2008! Perhaps even more incredible is the fact that Ohio’s overnight regional market share grew by 5 percent compared to 2008. And to top off the good news, research indicates that we saw a return on investment of $13 in state and local taxes for every $1 we invested in tourism – that’s up $1 from 2008! I encourage you to take a moment to review the article below for more details and spend a few minutes with the new research report to make sure you are up-to-speed on all of Ohio’s top-line visitor research as you begin planning for next year’s marketing efforts.

Before moving on to what’s next, I want to recognize our entire staff and our agency partners, especially Singleton & Partners, Joe Vargo and Aimee Zerla, for all their work on Multicultural Tourism Day at the Columbus Zoo and working the Columbus Arts Festival with the Fun-Mobile on June 5. Many thanks to all of you, our partners, who joined us for these events and helped share Ohio’s great tourism experiences with consumers.

As for the near future, the Division and our agencies are fresh from a strategy session during which we celebrated our successes over the past year and began taking stock of what programs worked, what needs to be tweaked or left behind and what we should consider adding to our marketing mix.

In just a few short months, we will be rolling out our cooperative marketing opportunities for the coming year. So, if you can carve out a little time to reflect in the near future, I would love to hear from you about what programs worked for you and what didn’t, programmatic changes you would like to see and programs you think we should consider implementing for next year.

Enjoy your summer and the remaining “Too Much Fun for Just One Day!” Mobile Tour events!

Safe travels,

Amir

Ohio Tourism Month Continues to Produce Results!

Thank you to everyone who partnered with us or held some type of special event or celebration to tell Ohio’s tourism story in May. As you know, it is vitally important for each of us to share both the economic importance of tourism to our communities and promote the consumer experiences that make Ohio a vibrant, soul-enriching atmosphere for visitors and families.

If you missed it in last month’s BuckeyeLine, the Ohio Tourism Month Kick-off on April 28 in Columbus at the Huntington Ball Park with the Clippers was a resounding success, and we continued the celebration with many of our Industry partners across the state throughout May to showcase Ohio’s diverse travel opportunities. Whether you partnered with us on the Too Much Fun-Mobile tour, submitted a great deal/package for the Twitter Flash Sales or donated a fantastic prize package for our myOhio photo and video contest, your partnership was key to promoting Ohio’s tourism attractions to hundreds of thousands of consumers throughout the state and country.

To date, we’ve made more than 200,000 impressions and have received more than 4,000 leads in just the first six stops on the Fun-Mobile Tour. For a more detailed report on the success of the Too Much Fun-Mobile, click here (please note: due to the large file size, report may take a few minutes to download). Click here to see the results of our Ohio Tourism month promotions and how you helped to make it all happen. Congratulations and thank you to all our Industry partners for another successful Ohio Tourism Month!

2011 Ohio Travel Planner Listing Deadline July 23

Be part of the 2011 Ohio Travel Planner! All Ohio travel and tourism entities are invited to submit/update their organizations’ information/descriptions in the Buckeye/DiscoverOhio.com database by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, July 23, to have free listings considered for inclusion in the 2011 Ohio Travel Planner (400,000 printed).

Free Listings -- If your database entry is current, there is no need to re-submit. Please review your entries to ensure information is current and accurate. Due to space limitations, not all listings submitted and approved will appear in the Travel Planner, however, all approved listings will be available on DiscoverOhio.com. The planner features listings for convention and visitor  bureaus and visitor service organizations, attractions, recreation, restaurants, lodging and shopping. Each listing includes: business name in bold, address, city, ZIP code, phone and web address.

Verify Listing Information -- Please be aware that Great Lakes Publishing will contact you via e-mail in late August asking you to verify the accuracy of your listing before printing it in the Travel Planner. If the publisher does not receive a response, the information can not be considered for publication.

Questions -- For questions regarding the Buckeye/DiscoverOhio.com database or to inquire about your listing, please contact Eric Herzog at eric.herzog@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338, or Roger Barker at roger.barker@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-5158. Log on to the Buckeye database today to add your free listing by the Friday, July 23 deadline.

Photos -- We’re also looking for photos to be considered for the Ohio Travel Planner. The best are photos that show happy, smiling people enjoying their experience at your destination. We love action shots that aren’t blurry. Please visit www.glpublishing.com/imagelibrary for more information and to submit images.

Advertising -- If you’re interested in advertising opportunities in the calendar, please contact your advertising representative or Emily Vanuch, Great Lakes Publishing advertising coordinator, at evanuch@ohiomagazine.com or (216) 377-3715. The ad close date is Nov. 16.

2011 Ohio Travel Publications Dates and Deadlines

Please mark you calendars with the upcoming important dates and deadlines for the 2011 Ohio Travel Publications. All Ohio travel and tourism entities are invited to submit/update their information and events in the Buckeye/DiscoverOhio.com database by 5:00 p.m. on the listing submission deadline date to have free listings considered for inclusion in the 2011 Ohio Travel Publications.
• 2011 Ohio Travel Planner – Listing Submission Deadline: Friday, July 23, 2010
• 2011 Spring/Summer Ohio Calendar of Events – Event Listing Submission Deadline: Friday, Sept. 3, 2010
• 2011-12 Fall/Winter Ohio Calendar of Events – Event Listing Submission Deadline: Friday, April 15, 2011

For advertising opportunities, please contact your ad representative or Emily Vanuch, Great Lakes Publishing Advertising Coordinator, at evanuch@ohiomagazine.com or (216) 377-3715. Watch future issues of BuckeyeLine for deadline reminders!

Fun-Mobile in Need of Coupons, Discounts, Prizes

You’ve heard about the resounding success of the Too Much Fun-Mobile Prize Wheel, and there is still time to get involved in promoting your destination to thousands of consumers. One easy way to participate is through a Prize Wheel donation. Each time a consumer spins the wheel and the pointer lands on your logoed space on the prize wheel, the street team member at the wheel sells the consumer on your destination. Prizes can include anything from free product or tchotchkes to discount coupons. Donating a few hundred $1- or $2-off coupons can be a great investment and can be trackable if you choose to include a coupon code. Coupons are best paired with rack cards to drive traffic to your door. The only cost to participate is the items you donate or discounts you offer. The exposure you receive at the events and the number of consumers you bring to your destination is priceless!

To date, we’ve made more than 200,000 impressions in just the first six stops on the Fun-Mobile Tour. Check out photos from the first half of the tour by clicking here. With six stops left on the tour, don’t you want to get involved in exposing your destination to thousands more? If you have any items or coupons to donate, please contact Dave Bernard at Ron Foth Advertising at dbernard@ronfoth.com or (614) 888-7771.

2009 Ohio Tourism Research Reveals Silver Lining

After receiving the results of research showing tourism’s economic impact on Ohio, the Division is excited to announce that our resilient Tourism Industry weathered the storm of last year’s economic downturn, despite overall declines in our industry. In 2009, Ohio grew its number of overnight leisure trips by 6 percent over 2008! The growth in this segment of travelers is significant because this is the group we strive to reach in our marketing efforts. In addition, Ohio grew its overnight regional market share by 5 percent over 2008. The research also revealed that the Division’s 2009 paid consumer marketing efforts generated approximately $360 million in new visitor spending and brought Ohio a return on investment of $13 in state and local taxes for every $1 invested in tourism! In 2008, the return on investment was 12:1.

These results demonstrate the strength of Ohio’s Tourism Industry and reinforce tourism as an economic driver for our state. Because of our Industry partners, we were able to provide the right message and marketing mix, and consumers responded. The numbers above only prove that even during tough times, our Industry can provide consumers with unforgettable memories to our world-class tourism destinations and strengthen their belief in an inherent right to travel. Congratulations on a job well-done to our Industry partners—we couldn’t have done it without you! To check out the full report, click here. Login/registration is required to see the report.

Database Listing Reports by County Now Available

Convention and visitor bureaus are eligible to request a free report to see which travel entities from their respective counties have listings in the Buckeye/DiscoverOhio.com database. CVB personnel can then contact travel entities in their areas that aren’t in the database to encourage them to sign up. Only entities with active database listings are eligible to be published in the Division’s publications. To request a report, please contact Eric Herzog at eric.herzog@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338.

Multicultural Day at the Columbus Zoo

On Saturday, June 5, the Tourism Division and Singleton & Partners, our multicultural marketing agency, joined with the Columbus Zoo and Zoombezi Bay to host Multicultural Tourism Day. Though the rainy weather kept the usual Saturday zoo crowds away, we still pulled off a successful event, with 19 industry partners on site to promote their destinations, six multicultural media interviews, and 1,500 Multicultural Deal Books distributed to interested consumers. The Columbus Saints Drum Line and Ohio-native R&B singer Britni Elise were on hand to provide great entertainment to all who stopped by at the zoo.

Special thanks go to the Columbus Zoo and Zoombezi Bay – the staff really rolled out the red carpet for Multicultural Tourism Day, and went above and beyond their commitments to make the day as great as possible. Also, thanks to the Ohio Lottery and Ohio State Park Lodges, who made financial contributions to the event. Check out photos of Multicultural Tourism Day by clicking here!

Event Sharing with Arts in Ohio Event Finder

Did you know that if you enter events into the Arts in Ohio event system, they are shared with the Ohio Tourism Buckeye/DiscoverOhio.com database? Save yourself some time and effort with this 2-for-1 deal. For both systems to share the information, we’ll need matching e-mail address accounts. The e-mail address on your Buckeye database account needs to be the same as the one on your event finder account and vice-versa. Simply enter your events in the event finder system, and every morning at 2:00, we will download all the previous day’s events that have been entered in the event finder system and post them to the respective account. Please contact Eric Herzog at eric.herzog@development.ohio.gov or (614) 466-0338 with any questions.

Best Practices: Women Rule Social Networking

Based on data collected and analyzed using Google Ad Planner, women rule in social media. Across almost every major social network, the balance was revealing and in some cases, profound. Following are several of the most popular social networking sites and the percentage of users who are male or female:

• Facebook
Male: 43%
Female: 57%

• Twitter
Male: 43%
Female: 57%

• Flickr
Male: 45%
Female: 55%

• MySpace
Male: 36%
Female: 64%

According to new reports, it appears that mobile counterparts paint a similar picture. Nielsen recently released data that shows that in mobile, women also dominate social networking. At 55 percent women to 45 percent men, mobile social networking fortifies what we’re learning in social media in general. Women also used their phones to tweet and friend 10 percent more than men.

Delving a bit deeper into social demographics, the 35 – 54 age group led the fray for active social networking via mobile devices followed closely by those 25 – 34.

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated with mobile online access accelerating to match the broadband connectivity we expect on desktop and laptop PCs. As each day passes, smart phones, such as iPhones, BlackBerries, Palm and Android devices replace the standard cell phone, introducing new capabilities and experiences to the masses. Whereas voice was the primary driver for mobile phones, dedicated apps and online destinations are augmenting and enhancing everyday user activity.

Social networks are now among the catalysts spurring mobile interaction and only continue to grow in prominence as a hub for attention, discovery and communication. Facebook recently announced that of its 400 million users, 100 million actively engage through mobile platforms.

In early March 2010, comScore published a report that documented triple-digit growth in Facebook and Twitter mobile access. The study found that 30.8 percent of Smartphone users accessed social networks via mobile browsers in January 2010, up 8.3 percent from 22.5 percent one year ago. Note that these numbers do not represent access to Twitter and Facebook via dedicated apps, which is currently estimated at an additional 6 million.

Perhaps most notably, access to Facebook via mobile grew 112 percent over the past year and Twitter mobile usage soared by 347 percent. In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook and 4.7 million connected to Twitter via their mobile browser. MySpace saw a 7 percent drop in mobile access, however it still attracted 11.4 million users.

For those active in social networks on behalf of businesses, keep in mind that without a mobile strategy as well as content and engagement programs aimed at specific demographics and psychographics, you may be missing essential touch points for true engagement and collaboration. One size does not fit all and there is no market for generalized messages. In social media, whether it’s mobile, desktop or laptop, opportunity clicks.

This article originally appeared on BrianSolaris.com. To access the article, click here.

Where in the World

June 5: Amir, Joe and Aimee at Multicultural Tourism Day at the Columbus Zoo and Zoombezi Bay
June 5: Jessie at the Columbus Arts Festival with the Too Much Fun-Mobile
June 10: Amir speaking to the Tourism Council of Greater Cincinnati