Two groups responsible for increasing Williamsburg-area tourism are launching a new online advertising campaign today to attract Philadelphia residents to the area.
“All in for August” runs Aug. 4 through 28, and is aimed at attracting Philadelphia families with children aged 5 to mid-teens to Williamsburg.
The Williamsburg Area Destination Marketing Committee — charged with spending the $2 per night hotel tax on advertising — and the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance are footing the bill for online ads to promote the month.
The ads will begin running on family-related websites in Philadelphia, including Travel and Leisure.
In addition to advertising “All in for August” in the Philadelphia area, WADMC Marketing Director Corrina Ferguson said information will also be sent out via email and social media. News releases have also been sent to publications in the District of Columbia and New York.
About 50 Williamsburg-area businesses, including lodging, dining and attractions, have signed on to offer some form of discount during August to help attract guests in the final weeks before school begins.
Visitation to the area was down through May, with the destination suffering a 3.5 percent drop in the number of room nights booked over last year.
The City of Williamsburg was the only Historic Triangle locality to have a drop in room nights; 11 percent fewer nights were booked than in 2013. In James City County, the number of nights booked increased 0.8 percent, and York County saw an increase of 2.1 percent.
Preliminary reports from hotels and timeshares in the area indicated the first few weeks in July might have been better than other weeks, but reports lag by at least two months. Rather than wait for the hard numbers to come out, WADMC and the Alliance decided to act quickly to boost overnight visitation.
Luckie & Company and representatives from WADMC and the Alliance worked together to brainstorm a way to attract guests after WADMC pulled an ad that was not performing as hoped. Once the group had an idea, Luckie came up with the moniker “All in for August,” and WADMC put the leftover funds from the discontinued ad into the promotion.
“We liked it because it sounds positive and exciting, but it doesn’t say ‘last chance,’ which almost says ‘fire sale,’” Ferguson said. “We don’t want to promote it as a fire sale.”
In less than a week, nearly 50 offers poured in from area businesses wanting to help boost tourism in August. Businesses including Baskin Robbins, Bounce House, the Historic Powhatan Resort, Go Ape, Quirks of Art, Busch Gardens, Historic Yorktown and Alewerks have offered up buy-one-get-one deals or decreased prices during August to help attract visitors.
Ferguson said the Alliance and WADMC hope to see 30,000 clicks on the “All in for August” site. She does not want to set a visitation goal, because there is not a concrete way to track how many visitors stay in the area because of the promotion. Guests could contact hotels and attractions to book visits and purchase tickets outside of the site, which cannot be accurately tracked.
WADMC in March launched “Insider’s Access,” which offered guests deals at 14 area businesses, but no money was spent advertising the deals. Newspapers including The Roanoke Times and Times Union picked up news releases about the March promotion and put out news articles about the deals.
In March, Ferguson presented information to WADMC showing about 1.1 million newspapers that contained information about Insider’s Access were distributed. She calculated the ad value as being more than $34,000.
“All in for August” is a first-of-its-kind campaign by the Alliance and WADMC. If this year’s campaign is successful, it could be carried through to future years. If the promotion is repeated, this year’s numbers will be used to set a goal for the future.
The “All in for August” website, which includes more information about the offers to tourists, is scheduled to go live today.
