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Welcome to spring in California! We’ve just finished some exciting projects, including one very cool Airstream trailer at the Amgen Tour of California (click here). Once again, we were asked by the Governor’s office to serve a leadership role during his visit to CeBIT in Germany, and pulled off an amazing California reception, destined to help us in this fast-growing market. Read "Mission: CeBIT" for more information.
With spring also comes the return to brand advertising. After considering a number of scenarios due to economic difficulties, CTTC and its Ad/Co-op Symposium members have decided it’s best to stay the course regarding brand advertising. Many industry partners are pulling back to regional or local levels or stopping their marketing efforts altogether. By maintaining our strong presence in the market, CTTC can now, more than ever, do what the industry cannot do for itself.
It’s crucial to continue marketing nationally and in key western feeder markets. And, with many of our competitors experiencing budget cuts, we can take advantage during this time of a greater share of voice in the marketplace, ensuring that we will rise from this recession stronger than ever.
As of February 9, CTTC has been back on air with “Work” and “You’ll Be Back” in even rotations. However, this isn’t your same old “Work” – we’ve added a new 10-second tag enforcing California’s image as the Land of Plenty. The spring campaign will run until May 15. Additionally, we’re continuing our fantastic partnership with Southwest Airlines, running a tagged version of “Work” in the key spot markets of Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix. Southwest has created a special landing page, southwest.com/california, branded with our logo, to deepen the partnership’s effectiveness. We are also running print ads in April and May, and our spring co-op in March. Go to "Marketing Horizons" for more information.
On the national level, I have been hard at work reinforcing the message that meetings mean business! Business travel is a big tourism market – worth 2.4 million jobs and $240 billion to the national economy, and almost $37 billion to California. The majority of business events serve noteworthy purposes, but a few rotten apples stand poised to despoil an already-troubled industry through their actions. The U.S. Travel Association is establishing a successful campaign to counteract these issues, and maintain the crucial meeting industry. Go to meetingsmeanbusiness.com to learn more. Please stay tuned for more developments on this important issue.
Please be sure to save the date for our April 27-28 Commission meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento! Despite the troubled economy, it’s hard not to feel optimism as the sunny days become longer, trees blossom and flowers bloom. Springtime in California is a beautiful thing, and I encourage you all to rediscover it for yourselves!
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President & CEO's Message
Special thanks to Commissioner Jon Handlery for his extremely generous donation toward the Australian bush fire relief efforts. While participating at the Discover America shows last month, Jon was touched by the enormity of the devastation.
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