One of my primary responsibilities at the Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT) was to act as the Project Manager for the Arizona Official State Visitor’s Guide (OSVG), which was the primary piece of collateral for the agency. In conjunction with our agency, Madden Media, I worked with their editor and creative team on this project from inception to publication. I approved all stories, writers, and reviewed and provided final approval for all information in the guide.
With the team, we reimagined the OSVG to not be just a catalog of things to do in Arizona. Instead, the OSVG was redesigned into a more “magazine like” format with feature stories that would provide inspiration for travelers who were still determining where to go on vacation as well as more actionable content for those who were in the midst of finalizing their vacation plans.
During my tenure at AOT, the contracts for this project were updated. When I started at AOT, the project cost the agency approximately $400k to produce. When I wrote the RFP, the project financials were updated so that the project would not only require zero dollars from AOT, but that additional consumer content would be created under this program (again, at zero cost.) The deliverables wrapped into the new contract included creative design for monthly emails, a suite of web stories written by professional travel writers and the ability for Arizona’s tourism businesses to purchase display ads on the AOT website.
These program changes allowed for a complete update of the email marketing program. While we had a very large database of interested travelers, the program had been downgraded to a “when we can get to it” program and there wasn’t an editorial calendar or sophisticated strategy. I was successful in creating a robust program with consistent flow of new and engaging content.
Added content included new travel stories written by professional travel writers, a photo contest, partner advertising opportunities and sponsored content.
The newsletter was so improved, that it was called out as the best state tourism e-newsletter in a webinar by OTO Associates. The changes in the content acquisition, utilization and placement processes had a lasting and meaningful effect upon marketing performance.
