Episode 2: How can a DMO elevate a destination above the competition?

Destination marketing is often formulaic, so challenge number one is to stand out in the sea-of-sameness. To do that, marketers must seek out distinction. Looking within the community to identify and embrace authentic experiences is a great place to start. Then the true story of the place can begin to emerge.

Contributors

Zach Stovall
Senior Creative Strategist, Flip.to

Greg Thurik
Strategic Marketer, Formerly Envisionit

Transcript

Zach Stovall: Greg, in the last part of the podcast, we discussed the landscape of travel marketing, and the exorbitant costs of winning over new travelers. You've had a long career as a strategic marketer working with travel brands and destinations. What are you seeing as opportunities for some of these destinations and brands going into the future?

Greg Thurik: One of the biggest that I see right now in terms of these types of brands, owning their own narrative, owning their own stories that they're telling, and really being true to their identity of who they are. You know, this is an extremely competitive landscape. Also, one in which is very different than a product type company who naturally is getting information from people who are interested in buying their product, and having one-on-one dialog with you.

Selling a product, versus selling a destination is very different. You're not able to really, truly understand using digital marketing—which is so prevalent nowadays on platforms like Facebook and Google—who you're talking to. So, what has happened there is it has been determined that there are these different labeled audience segments, who have very distinct interests—household income, educational levels—and all this research that comes out every single year that says here is what travel insights and trends say that people are most interested in travel this year.

So, I've seen so many times where brands are—destination brands in particular—they're all competing for the same exact audience. They want the family traveler. They want the adventure traveler. They want the couples. They want luxury travel, certain levels of household income, etc. Then they're going to make sure that really what their interests are, we have to make sure that our ads are five, five frame digital banner ads. All are hitting on arts and culture, and shopping, and dining, and family fun. And it is it has evolved to the…

Zach: They’re trying to be. They're trying to be everything to everyone.

Greg: Yeah. And it has evolved to the point where you could probably take any ad that you see; any video that you see for a destination, and just plug in an end frame with the destination's name. And there's absolutely no difference.

Zach: Some of it all ends up looking like stock footage at some point, you know, you could just be anywhere, any destination. That's a really important point because each destination has a soul of its own. It has locals that live there. It has certain things that are particular to that destination. And if that place isn't marketing those things that are what make it unique, then they're missing the mark.

Greg: Yeah, exactly. Travelers, again, they want to feel as part of a community. A lot of times when people travel, they want to feel like they're engrained in that community and participating in that community and having authentic experiences, local experiences. It's what makes that destination unique. I mean, we all travel for very different reasons, but at the end of the day, whether you're visiting family and friends, you're just coming in for an event. There is time—a limited amount of time—that you have on any trip. Wanting to be part of it, and take advantage of it as much as you can is always going to be important to people. So, when you can really look at—whether you're a hotel or DMO—as if you're the host. You're essentially the bridge between the travelers and the locals.

When you look at your missions and your visions to better community and the economy, that is bringing those travelers into your communities, into your businesses. And travelers, you know, it is all about that experience that they want to have. They want to have something that they can share. They actually want to be the first to share it with their communities.

That's storytelling. They're taking a step back and saying, “Okay, we can't be everything to everybody, but who are we? What makes us unique? What makes us great? Why am I proud to be a resident of this community, of this destination?” It opens up doors to reach out to your local communities, ask them what they love the most about where they live and what there is to do. Ask the travelers.

But tell your own unique story about the experiences that you have instead of trying to be something for everybody. And really, once you're able to do that, then you become authentic and you can speak to people in an authentic voice, and you can focus on really what it is that you authentically are, and that others can step into and experience themselves.

Zach: If you think about it from kind of a personal perspective, if someone is coming to visit Orlando where I live and they text me, “Hey, I'm coming to Orlando. I've got two days. What do I do?” I'm not going to tell them, you should go to Disney World and you know, you should go ride the tram or whatever.

I'm going to tell them about the things that I think are cool. There's a scenic boat tour right down the street from me that hits three lakes. And I can guarantee you 99% of the tourists that come to Orlando never see it. I think it's one of the coolest things to do in Orlando. So, when people come, I tell them about those things, those unique experiences, the things that I would go and do with my friends.

And so I think, you know, if a hotelier can take on that same mentality and say, you know, one of the things that I actually go and do in my own community and how can I connect my travelers with those things and those experiences, because that's what really makes this community whole.

Greg: I couldn't agree more. A past client that I really saw do this really well—visitgalena.org—which is Galena Country, in which they created an entire original experiences program. These are things that are very unique that an experience in Galena. What I love the most about it is, yes, the experiences are unique, but they're businesses, they're locals. They're bringing the community together, so that if you want this original experience that you probably aren't going to have in the city of Chicago—which is go on a wine tasting with goats—they are embracing who their identity is and what they can bring in a very authentic way.

And I understand why there's a lot of money that these destination market organizations are being funded with, and they have to answer to how that money is being used. What is the return of the investment on that? This is a longer-term play than a shorter-term play. You really have to just embrace who you are, who your community are, who your people are, and be authentic about it. And let that become your brand storytelling. That's what people are going to connect with and go from there.

Zach: I think that's great advice, Greg. Travel is something that is so specific to the place, and having those authentic experiences is really important for guests. They want to live like a local. They want to do the things that locals do. Building your whole program around that I think, is just an inherent idea. It's something that, you know, you can easily do.

The community is there as long as you put effort into meeting them, and bringing them together. And it's a lot of pieces of the puzzle that can really be easily assembled, and help to give guests a great experience, which is really what makes people come back.

Greg: I know it's hard, but you have to resist the urge that if this travel and say report said that wellness and being is one of the top things people are driving for right now, and that's not really who your identity is, to not sit down and have those conversations and be like, “Okay, what do we have that can fit in here?”

“Well, what can I have that we can put out there that would make it seem like, you know, where we're a wellness and being a destination?” So, it's—I think you said it best earlier. It's, you know, you can't try to be everything for everybody. Just be yourself.

Zach: Just be yourself. That's a great lesson, especially for a destination. Embrace your unique, embrace your different. Make that the highlight of your story. Then become a bridge between locals and travelers and connect them with the community at large.

Many thanks to strategic marketer, Greg Thurik, for another great thought starter. I'm Zach Stovall, and I hope you'll join us on the next episode of the Thought Starters Podcast, coming soon.