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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4A SLO Wine Annual Partnership Annual Marketing Campaign July 2017-2018 SLO Wine Country Association SLO Wine Country represents 34 wineries throughout the Edna Valley AVA, Arroyo Grande AVA, and surrounding growing areas including Pismo, Avila, and Cambria. Our focus is to promote and market our wine region to regional and national consumers, trade and media contacts, and travel industry partners. We are a non-profit 501 C6 organization. SLO Wine Country has maintained a dynamic partnership with the City of SLO and its lodging group since 2014. Over the past two years, we have delivered a myriad of public relations, media, marketing and referral opportunities through SLO Wine Country including: -Membership referrals, online promotion through website, e-newsletter and social media marketing -Marketing/advertising through SLO Wine County brochure, website and events -Public Relations/Media/Wine Writer hosting in San Luis Obispo City -Roadshow opportunities San Luis Obispo Wine Country channels wine enthusiasts from all over the world. Our key demographic and geographic targets for visitation include Los Angeles, Bay Area/San Jose, and San Diego. Additional out of CA markets include Arizona, with new potential flight markets in Seattle, WA and Denver, CO. San Luis Obispo City has benefitted as a major partner with SLO Wine and is currently the only co-branded entity having brochure placement at all SLO Wine Country co-op events and roadshows. SLO Wine Country recently featured SLO City promotion for Roll Out the Barrels, with SLO City brochure placement at the Seattle Wine & Food event last month. SLOwine.com has over 200,000 unique visitors each year, with over 30,000 visiting the “Stay” page section of our website. SLO Wine garners over 10,000 Facebook & Instagram followers with a high level of engagement with unique posting each week. We are continuing this promotion with an annual branding campaign, and have invested additional marketing dollars to promote SLO Wine Country through digital and social media marketing. Through our roadshow participation, SLO Wine Country integrated into SLO City booth at Bacon and Barrels in San Diego, CA and provided staff at the event to pour and represent wines. Additionally, SLO Wine and SLO City hosted an integrated marketing experience at LA Magazine’s The Food Event, where we captured new followers and hosted an “Art Bar” experience at the event. As we continue to co-brand the City of San Luis Obispo with SLO Wine Country, we have brainstormed additional opportunities to build onto our robust marketing partnership and will continue to research new opportunities to drive destination marketing awareness. As the largest partnering entity for SLO Wine Country, we will continue to offer benefits for all SLO City Lodging partners to take advantage of. Below are benefits SLOWCA is seeking funding for: 1. Membership & Marketing Benefits: All SLO City lodging partners will continue associate membership to SLO Wine Country at discounted rate (less than $200 annually per lodging partner). Benefits include: a. Invitation to SLO Wine Country’s Annual Associate Member BBQ (July) and membership mixers (4 per year) b. 10% off of ad space in SLO Wine’s popular “San Luis Obispo Wine Country Guide” for all individual properties c. Website branding i. Listing under associate members & “Stay” Section ii. Website banner advertising (annually)—3 banner ads and placement on 5 pages each month iii. Prominent logo placement online iv. NEW: Additional build-out of all lodging partners integrated into San Luis Obispo “Stay” page which will include images, addresses and direct links to all SLO City lodging. d. Event Tickets – 30 complimentary tickets to: i. Roll Out the Barrels & Harvest On the Coast e. E-Newsletter: i. Logo placement in newsletter throughout the year ii. Featured editorial, story and event placement annually in all e-newsletters (consumer, winery, associate member) iii. Additional member placement for deals/offerings into e-newsletters Funding Requested: $6,000/annually 2. NEW: Sip In SLO Tasting Pass Integration: a. Integration and promotion of SLO City Lodging off-season deals during the months of November-December with SLO Wine “Sip In SLO” Tasting pass promotion b. SLO City lodging will have exclusive partnership to offer special hotel deals in the months of November-December Funding Requested: $2000 Annually 3. Visitor Guide/Program Full Page advertisements and listing placement: a. Free full page advertisement in SLO Wine Country Visitors Guide b. Free listing in Visitors Guide c. Free full page advertisement in Harvest on the Coast Auction program d. 50,000 Maps printed with distribution in Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo County Funding Requested: $2000/annually 4. PR/Media Hosting: SLO TBID funding to cover hotel costs for media and wine journalists. This would cover nightly stays and additional hosting expenses for wine media/travel journalists who would be covering SLO Wine Country and the City of San Luis Obispo. This is an increase in the amount we have budgeted for in the past as we have are aiming to bring additional journalists this year from outside California and have added additional cost into our budget to fly journalists out. This is the first time SLO Wine Country has had additional funds to cover flight expenses. Aadditional funding in this category will allow for more journalists to be hosted in San Luis Obispo. We have had continued success in acquiring journalists from large publications and have had past coverage in the Chicago Tribune (syndicated in over 20 additional markets), USA Today, and San Diego Union Tribune. Public relations has had the highest impact on building brand awareness for both San Luis Obispo City and SLO Wine Country. Lastly, SLO Wine will have a dedicated feature in each quarterly “SLO Wine Surf Report”, which covers all things new and exciting in SLO Wine Country, along with new and interesting features in SLO County. Past coverage has included: SLO Farmers market, Flour House Restaurant, Granada Hotel & Bistro, SLO Marathon, and Foremost Restaurant. Funding Requested: $3000 (Funding to be drawn on as needed throughout the year and would be directly paid to hotels hosting journalists) 5. Targeted Trade and Media Marketing: SLO TBID and SLO Wine Country to host “roadshows” to targeted regional CA cities to build brand awareness of wine country and SLO City destination. Partnership would include a sweepstakes giveaway to secure emails/lists and social media promotion during event. This was a new addition to last year’s partnership and SLO Wine/SLO City hosted a unique experience at LA Magazine’s “The Food Event”. Sponsor dollars covered some costs for the booth space. Additional $1000 in funding in this category would go towards hosting a “brand experience” with San Luis Obispo Wine Country. Example of this would be: Booth at L Magazine Food event w/ wine seminar placement during the weekend of activities or potential VIP tasting experience the night before the event at a location in Los Angeles. SLO Wine would co-op in with several winemakers to host panel or tasting event. Panel/dinner would tie in the San Luis Obispo experience (example: dinner featuring ingredients from our local farmers, wine panel featuring cheeses from local producers) Other potential roadshows options include: Aspen Food & Wine (w/new Denver direct flight). (Target: 1 Roadshow w/additional potential for seminar/presentation in tandem with event). Funding Requested: $8000 Annually TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTED: $21,000 TOTAL FUNDING TO SLO WINE: $18,000 We believe a partnership at this level will leverage both SLO Wine and the City’s efforts to brand SLO as the place to see, stay, eat/taste and explore when traveling to the Central Coast. Looking long-term, we believe this partnership will create top of mind awareness for wine enthusiasts when booking their stay in SLO County. While cross promoting SLO City lodging partners, SLO Wine is the perfect platform for creating symbiotic relationships as wine tasting becomes more of an integral part of our traveler’s SLO County experience. By continuing this partnership, SLO City will be included in all aspects of promotions and events.