The Central Leatherstocking Region
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The Central Leatherstocking Region consists of eight counties in New York State.
Challenge: The Central Leatherstocking Region needed help with several things; bringing tourists into the area, educating them on the wonderful attractions in the region and encouraging them to spend the night.
Many previous attempts to unite the region and evenly promote their attractions were unsuccessful.
Idea: ABC Creative Group first advised the region to stop all attempts to educate potential tourists about what the Central Leatherstocking Region represented. Continuing those efforts would prove to be a long, expensive and ineffective process.
ABC decided to focus on getting people into the region by highlighting attractions they had to offer and packaging them into a travel itinerary's. ABC developed a unique print piece for distribution that contained these pre-made trips throughout the region call "TripKits". The full-color multi-page TripKits would entice people to visit the attractions, stay for an event and spend the night. A high-end interactive website was also developed - www.nyfun4u.com.
The site allows users to create personalized trips throughout the region based on several interest categories. In 2007 ABC created a special publication called Simply Getaway, which is a custom-designed magazine highlighting the Central Leatherstocking Region, a basic travel guide in disguise. The magazine was mailed to over 30,000 homes and promoted in the Albany and Scranton, PA areas.
Results: The Central Leatherstocking Region's website, www.nyfun4u.com has seen major increased traffic and through a "Getaway Giveaway" promotion in the Simply Getaway magazine and online promotion.
The region also obtained well over 3000 qualified leads. Not to mention increased visitation to the counties, measurable by the increase in overnight stays.
As of May 2008, the region has successfully built their database of credible leads to over 8,000 names through online ads, print advertising, e-blasts and unique marketing strategies.
A conversion study will be implemented in the fall of 2008 and results will be available in early 2009.
