The Williamsburg Area Destination Marketing Committee approved an eight-week extension to its television ad campaign in an attempt to reach more visitors in their vacation-planning period.
WADMC decided to extend the campaign, which will now run from the first week in March to the first week in August, at its December meeting.
“We were able to accomplish this by pulsing the campaign and working with a co-op campaign with the Virginia Tourism Corporation that leveraged all of our assets to keep the message out there longer,” said Bob Harris, vice president of tourism at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance in an email.
Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens and the Virginia Tourism Corporation all run commercials around the same time as WADMC’s campaign so a large focus is put on the Williamsburg area from a number of groups.
Collaboration is a key factor in building the Williamsburg “brand,” Harris said. WADMC wants visitors to have a constant flow of information and advertisements about Williamsburg during the key vacation-planning period.
Current research from Busch Gardens shows vacationers planning a three-day trip tend to plan three to six months ahead of time, though they don’t commit until about two to three months ahead or sooner.
“We are conducting updated research this year that will share more about changes in the booking pattern for our destination but it is important to have a presence when people are planning and deciding where to go for the vacation as well as later in the season when they are making last-minute travel decisions,” Harris said.
Once the research is conducted, WADMC will have a better idea of how to move forward. The research information has not been updated since 2008.
“Without going through the step of doing that … we’re kind of flying in the dark,” said Carl Lum, president of Busch Gardens Williamsburg and chairman of WADMC.
In 2011, the TV campaign ran between mid-April and the first week of August. Harris said WADMC found the late start caused visitors planning trips to lose focus on the area.
Last year the campaign ran from early March through early June.
WADMC hopes to stretch its TV ad campaign even longer in the future, but the committee feels the 2013 campaign run is as long as possible with the available funding.
The TV campaign “is integrated with marketing plans produced by Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg to maximize its impact in the markets where we are advertising,” Lum said.
Lum continued, the integration of the three marketing plans “lets the destination speak with one voice.”
The overall goal of WADMC’s campaign is to bring more overnight visitors to the Historic Triangle. In 2012, the Historic Triangle saw an increase from 2011 in overnight guests but not enough of a rise to satisfy local officials who hope to recover from the large decrease since its peak.
WADMC also has a digital campaign that runs throughout the year. The target of the commercial campaign is not only to drive visitors to the area, but to drive them to the VisitWilliamsburg.com website, which will be integrated so visitors can plan ahead for their trips. Business users will have password-protected access so information can be updated, such as menus for restaurants.
The website marketing runs year-round, unlike the TV campaign, which only runs for part of the year. Research on visitors planning time and when the actually visit the area is used for scheduling the overall campaign.
In 2012, the campaign generated a 25 percent increase in website bookings revenue and a 30 percent increase in website visits.
Funds have been raised separate of the $2 room night tax WADMC uses for advertising to pay for the research and consolidation of websites last year.
“[The website] is going to be getting better and better, that’s for sure,” Harris said.
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