TELE-WORKSHOP FACT SHEET August 2, 2006 NATIONAL SCENIC BYWAYS PROGRAM MARKETING: CHALLENGES, SUCCESSES &OPPORTUNITIES TELE-WORKSHOP SPOTLIGHT SPEAKERS Patricia S. McNally (with photo) Marketing Communications Director Department of Transportation Highway Administration National Scenic Byways Program Patricia S. McNally’s passion for the Byways started in 1993, when she served on the National Scenic Byways Advisory Committee. She joined the National Scenic Byways Program (NSBP) as a contractor with R.D. Mingo & Associates in 2003, and hit the ground running by attending the 2003 National Scenic Byways Conference in Albuquerque the following day. She has over 20 years of experience in U.S. and international marketing communications for both public and private-sector organizations. Elizabeth Newhouse (with photo) Director of Travel Publishing National Geographic Books Elizabeth Newhouse oversees publication of some 30 titles a year, including The National Geographic Traveler, a 50-volume series of global destination guides to countries, cities, and regions that sell worldwide in 12 languages. For the domestic market, the program publishes guides on parks, nature, adventure, driving, outdoor recreation, history, and family travel, as well as literary travel narratives and travel gift books. Bestsellers include National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the U.S., Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways, and The 10 Best of Everything: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers. Kevin Wright (with photo) Director of Consumer Marketing Travel Oregon Kevin Wright supervises Travel Oregon’s domestic consumer marketing and communications programs, including advertising campaigns, regional cooperative marketing programs, publications, media relations, website and Internet programs, special promotions and projects, and fulfillment. Kevin joined Travel Oregon in 1995 as Manager of International and Domestic Travel Trade Marketing. Before moving to Oregon, his career included ten years of marketing experience in the Colorado ski industry where he also served as Marketing Specialist for the Colorado Tourism Office and the Colorado Film Commission. A Team Approach Genuinely enthusiastic about byways, Patricia S. McNally started the conference call by sharing insights to the national marketing perspective from her position as Marketing Communications Director for the DOT-FHWA National Scenic Byways Program. She noted that she works with a team of people to lead the America’s Byways(R) marketing effort, including Federal Highway Administration staff in Washington, D.C.; online staff in Logan, Utah; America’s Byways(R) Resource Center staff in Duluth,Minnesota;and a marketing committee from across the U.S.that oversees planning. “All of us represent the marketing efforts for the entire National Scenic Byways Program (NSBP),” Patricia said.“My primary areas are the grants and the nominations.To FHWA, these are some of the most important parts of our marketing efforts.I also lead the initiative to promote America’s Byways(R) -– our product – as a collection of distinct and diverse roads that have been designated as National Scenic Byways or All-American Roads by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.We try to promote America’s Byways as much as possible, and in as many ways as possible, keeping the integrity of that collection at the forefront.” GETTING THE WORD OUT The National Scenic Byways Program sends e-mails and letters through traditional mail, but websites are the core tools for reaching the byway community and the public. Currently two websites serve as the central byway communication venues: • www.byways.org for travelers/media • www.bywaysonline.com for the business of byways In addition to the websites, the Vistas publication, which comes out every other month, keeps the byway community informed about what’s happening on the byways and offers learning resources in a printed, magazine format.“Vistas has articles and topics that really have a lot of substance to them,” Patricia commented. America’s Byways Bulletin, which also comes out every other month, is an electronic format that communicates more like a newssheet about Byway happenings than a how-to resource or reference. CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY “One of the challenges that we face at the National Scenic Byways Program is that there are few resources, including staff,” Patricia said. Only two positions focus primarily on marketing.“It’s not a lot of staff for 126 America’s Byways, and the byway programs in all 50 States plus the U.S. territories.” Patricia also cited a lack of monetary resources as a challenge. NSBP does not have a budget for ongoing national marketing initiatives, nor is there language in the transportation policy that supports the Program’s national marketing and communications. Still, marketing is important to the grants and nominations process.“People have to know that the grants are out there in order to apply,” Patricia said. She noted that there is some money allocated for those communication efforts. Patricia also explained that there is not an ongoing national media initiative. All national press requests, if they come to Federal Highways, are directed to the US DOT Public Affairs office. For local or regional publications, Patricia often calls the featured byway leader to follow up with the specific journalist. But there’s good news, too. In the last transportation bill, Congress approved money specifically for public awareness services.Henry Hanka,at America’s Byways(R) Resource Center, is leading this special project and working with a company to help develop this national initiative. From a marketing perspective, the public awareness campaign may help clarify the term “byways” and generate interest in the designated roads that form America’s Byways. Patricia explained that “byway” is a confusing term. She said,“There are State byways.We have Bureau of Land Management backcountry byways. We have Forest Service byways. AAA has byways. And then we have the America’s Byways collection.” Clustering the National Scenic Byways and All- American Roads into one collection—-America’s Byways—-should help make it clearer for people to understand the NSBP product. An additional marketing challenge, according to Patricia, is that the National Scenic Byways Program is part of the Department of Transportation, which includes leisure travel among its many transportation concerns.“Many of the State coordinators, the division people, and even the byway leaders are transportation people; they know the language of transportation,” said Patricia. "I’m introducing them to a whole new language—-the marketing and tourism language.They know what a MUTCD (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices) is, but they might not know what the DMO (Destination Management Organization) is. Trying to teach marketing terms, such as the difference between an itinerary and a packaged tour, can be a challenge.We want people to understand what travel and tourism marketing is about.” EXCITING SUCCESSES ALREADY— AND MORE AHEAD Clearly, the National Scenic Byways Program has enjoyed a lot of successes, as have the individual designated Byways that make up the America’s Byways collection. Patricia noted,“The TIA SeeAmerica’s Byways initiative implemented about three years ago really put us on the map. It helped us to tell the world that we have this unique collection.” She said that more designated Byways are using the America’s Byways logo, too, which fortifies the branding efforts and builds national recognition. “This is a success that I love!” Patricia said. “When I’m traveling on any Byway and I see the America’s Byways sign along with the individual State byway sign, I know that people will be recognizing the logo around the country.” She credited the byways.org website for generating increased awareness of America’s Byways among travelers and the media. Optimizing the site for search engines has helped to push it to the top of the response pages when queried with the keyword “byway.” “We have a lot of people contacting us, just from going to our website,” Patricia said. She also believes that the NSBP is successfully addressing the need to help transportation people understand tourism marketing. Marketing sessions at the State coordinators meeting and also at the National Scenic Byways Conference help build bridges between traditional transportation concepts and recreational transportation. The NSBP has gained strength from other types of organizational bridges, too. “Our largest successes, I think, are the partnerships we’ve formed,” Patricia acknowledged.“We have government partnerships.The Fish and Wildlife Service has been very active in working with us. In fact, they shared information already that’s on our website and there will be more soon. The USDA Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are enhancing the byways.org site by putting their byways on there.We’re also working with the National Heritage Areas, the National Park Service, and others from the public sector.” Patricia noted that NSBP has formed partnerships with tourism and travel industry associations and also individual State and local travel offices.“We exhibit at some trade shows,such as the TIA’s International Powwow. This show attracts international prospects to the byways,” she said.“The American Bus Association has been very generous to us and we have a booth at its conference every year to promote the America’s Byways.This year, we’re addressing the State tourism directors at TIA’s Education Seminar for Tourism Organizations (ESTO).There is a U.S. Culture & Heritage Tourism Program; Michelle Johnson, director of America’s Byways(R) Resource Center, spoke at that organization’s summit last year, and I’m on the Culture & Heritage Tourism board.So, we’re making a lot of contacts to get the word out more and more.” The NSBP has benefited from private-sector partnerships, too. Patricia said,“We did the four books with Mobil Travel Guide,which were good visibility tools for the America’s Byways collection. Harley-Davidson is now working with us, and the HarleyDavidson. com website’s “Great Drives” section uses our website data.” YOUR STATE PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Patricia segued from national partnership descriptions to State and regional partnership opportunities by introducing Kevin Wright,the Director of Consumer Marketing for Travel Oregon. Kevin explained that Travel Oregon is basically the State tourism office. It’s funded by a 1% Statewide lodging tax on all overnight stays. Of that revenue, 15% pushes back to seven regions for marketing as part of Oregon’s regional cooperative marketing program.“The consumer doesn’t see the individual regions. It’s seamless,” he said. “We try to cross-market where appropriate based on paths that consumers travel across the State.We’re trying to work together to have a louder voice for the State of Oregon.” Travel Oregon applied part of a grant from the Federal Highway Administration to kick-start its marketing effort for the scenic byways in Oregon. “We started two years ago,” Kevin explained. “The program includes our Scenic Byways Driving Kit, which consists of a magazine-style guide to scenic byways and driving tour routes. We worked with all of our regional partners as well as our scenic byway partners.We hired Chris Santella, who wrote Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die and Fifty Places To Play Golf Before You Die. According to Kevin, the writer visited with each byway and all of the regional heads to develop stories about the routes.“We put the draft out for all of our partners for feedback. It was really important that we had buy-in from everybody involved.” For the promotion element,Travel Oregon partnered with the NBC television affiliate in Oregon to create 24 public service announcements (PSAs), one for each of the Oregon byways.The PSA directs viewers to the Travel Oregon website to request the Scenic Byways Driving Kit, which includes the Travel Oregon magazine bundled with a logo air freshener, a trash bag for the car and pocket map. Viewers can also order a DVD of all 24 scenic byways. “We’re having to order more DVDs.They’re incredibly popular,” said Kevin.The Scenic Byways Driving Kit is hugely successful, he said, and more popular than the planners imagined. “We’re going through about 121,000 copies per year. Sustainability is now our question,” said Kevin.“Consumers are telling us that they use it to plan their trips in conjunction with other materials such as the vacation planner. It opened our eyes to the planning process for the consumer.” Travel Oregon developed this customized program to promote scenic byways and it’s successfully drawing visitors to the special routes and rural destinations in the State. Scenic byways tend to connect rural areas that might not have the infrastructure to support tourism efforts. “We like scenic byways! Like many other State tourism offices,Travel Oregon has a wealth of marketing programs that are in place. Every State tourism office, I think, has opportunities to promote scenic byways,” Kevin said.“It’s up to you to get involved with the State or regional tourism office, convention and visitors bureau or chamber of commerce. Meet with them to find out what marketing inventory they have. Learn about the opportunities that they’re already doing.” Kevin sees the State tourism website as an important place for byways to easily piggyback.The Travel Oregon website receives about 2,500 unique visitors daily and the opt-in monthly e-mail newsletter counts about 100,000 people on its subscriber list.Travel Oregon also works separately or through partner organizations to produce eight or nine pieces of collateral, including a highly popular travel planner. “We produce about 250,000 travel planners annually,” Kevin said.“For each edition, we hire an artist to do an illustration of one of our scenic byways for the center spread. It has insets of actual photographs of the byway to show what it’s like to experience the entire route.” In addition,Travel Oregon heads national advertising and public relations campaigns with co-op opportunities for its partners. “We generate leads from our advertising and our website.The leads are available to our partners.We manage welcome centers as part of our consumer marketing, too.” Kevin echoed Patricia’s suggestion that byways seek partnerships at the State level. “There are opportunities for the byways to get involved with everything from helping with the press kit to organizing a “fam” (familiarization) or research trip for journalists along byways. Float your hot story idea to the State tourism office.” According to Kevin,Travel Oregon even subsidizes partners to attend tradeshows to promote a byway or region.The agency also provides grants separate from the regional cooperative marketing program for international shows and other special opportunities. “I’d really recommend that you talk to your regional or State offices to find out what’s going on,” Kevin added.“Go to the meetings. You’ll be surprised that a lot of the conversations at the State and regional level have amazing ties to scenic byways.” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S BIG MARKETING ANNOUNCEMENT Another exciting success story has come through the NSBP’s partnership with National Geographic. Elizabeth Newhouse, Director of Travel Publishing at National Geographic, leads the company’s division that successfully released National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways in 1995. The title is now moving into the third edition for spring 2007—and she announced it will be bigger and better than ever with a greater focus on America’s Byways. “We are very fortunate to be able to put a partnership together with the National Scenic Byways Program,” Elizabeth said. National Geographic operates a medium- sized book publishing company, releasing some 100 books a year; about one third of the titles are devoted to travel. Illustrated books incur tremendous expenses, she told the listeners, and partners often help with the editorial or manufacturing costs. “In this case, our partnership with the National Scenic Byways Program enabled us to expand the Guide to include all the nationally designated Byways. Before this new edition, about 75% were in, but not all of them.We had a number of byways that were not nationally designated, too—a total of maybe 200,” she said.“Now we’ll have about 275 scenic byways.We’re going to have an additional 150 pages, more maps and pictures.We’re expanding the book considerably.What was already a very good and popular book, I think, is going to be even more so.” Elizabeth reiterated that the partnership is a good arrangement for National Geographic because it enriched the content while it benefits the National Scenic Byways Program by getting the word out about the individual routes.The book will feature the America’s Byways logo at the front and on all the nationally designated scenic drives. Random House will distribute the title. “We’re very happy to be doing this. I think there are benefits for both sides.We bring credibility because of our brand; the National Scenic Byways Program certainly has a good brand and credibility, too. So together, I think we are just making a better product,” said Elizabeth. Patricia shared her excitement, inviting listeners to preview a draft of the book’s cover as shown in the National Geographic catalog for spring 2007.The partners will issue a news release closer to the publication date.“We’ll have ideas for byways to help promote the book, and we’re working on ways for byways to offer it for sale,” Patricia said. WHERE DO YOU FIT IN? Patricia offered several suggestions for individual byway groups to leverage and enhance marketing efforts for the America’s Byways brand. (LOGO) • Use the America’s Byways logo, especially on publications and signage.The graphics standards are now online at bywaysonline.org. Individual travelers and media will recognize the logo if it’s used consistently. • Visit byways.org and make sure your information is correct.“When the media or travelers call us with questions, we refer them to the byways.org or bywaysonline.org websites. Byway leader names and contact information is there—- if it’s not correct, we’re going to lose the story or the traveler,” Patricia said. • Send information about your byway to the NSBP and the Resource Center. Share your successes and news about awards or recognitions. Put Patricia (pmcnally@byways.org) and Leah (lkohlts@byways.org) on your mailing lists. Keep us in the loop.“Too much information is better than not enough,” she added. • Make sure your byways specialist at America’s Byways(R) Resource Center knows what your byway is doing. Sometimes the byways specialist can facilitate networking among byways by sharing your story or situation at a conference or workshop that will help others or will generate responses that could help you. • Work with your State or regional office and your local organizations, such as the convention and visitors bureau or chambers of commerce. Again, let us know what you and your partners are doing. “ “ Make sure your byways specialist at America’s Byways(R) Resource Center knows what your byway is doing. PHOTO (page/cover of Discover Oregon): Travel Oregon worked with multiple partners to develop its effective marketing materials. PHOTO (group shot of various published marketing materials): The National Scenic Byways(R) Program helped to develop new collateral, including maps, for Americas Byways. Q & A Q. It seems that partnering works out well. It also sounds like it’s a good idea to work with State tourism offices. Do all States have these offices? A. All States have State tourism offices; some of them are private and some of them are public.There are also some regional tourism offices.You can find your State tourism office contact at http://www.bywaysonline.org/contacts/sta tes.html.To learn about your regional tourism office, call Patricia. Q. How important is it to hire a professional writer for your driving guide? A. Generally, hiring a professional writer results in a more interesting and grammatically correct publication.You could also write it and hire a good editor. Travel Oregon looked carefully at how the writer did his research. In this case, he traveled to all of the byways. He experienced the location and met the people there. High-resolution photos are important, too. So, it’s a good idea to hire a professional photographer as well. Q.Why has the National Scenic Byway Program become involved with State offices of tourism? A. We wanted to thank them for putting the NSBP on their agendas. In the past, State offices of tourism haven’t had many opportunities to fully understand the NSBP.The misconception was that the NSBP is strictly a traditional transportation program.We’re hoping that the State byway coordinators become more active with State tourism offices. Q.Will you let us know about your partnerships, such as the Mobil Travel Guide? A. Sure! For that guide, we used the America’s Byways Bulletin. Mostly, we use Byways Blasts for funding or recognition opportunities. Announcements about partnerships usually are through the America’s Byways Bulletin e-newsletter or Vistas. If you haven’t signed up already for the America’s Byways Bulletin, go to www.bywaysonline.org to subscribe. Q. Can we pull information from Vistas, for example, and use it for PR? If I’ve got permission to use it, I will take information to our local media. A. Of course! Call us for more information any time you see something that might pique the interest of your local media.We’d welcome you to do that! Call Leah or Patricia. Q.Tell us more about the national initiative. A. We interviewed and hired Development Counsellors International with Longwoods International to develop a plan to generate national awareness over the next three to four years via multimedia components.We allocated $125,000 for the planning. Implementation has its own budget and begins in second quarter of 2007. We’re keeping State tourism offices apprised of the project and its progress. Q. How many books will National Geographic publish? A. National Geographic hasn’t released that number yet.“We’ve sold about 60,000 books so far,” said Elizabeth. “It’s 465 pages now but the same price. Maybe we’ll do 15,000 the first year.” Q.Are there any other marketing initiatives we should watch for soon? A. Yes! The soonest one will be the new America’s Byways map. It should be available in October. It features regional sections and sidebars with partner information. RESOURCES Travel Oregon Harley-Davidson http://www.traveloregon.com/ National Geographic www.nationalgeographic.com www.harley-davidson.com www.byways.org www.bywaysonline.org America’s Byways(R) Resource Center provides information, connections and expertise that help build better Byways. State coordinators, local groups, volunteers and organizations with ties to nationally designated scenic Byways look to us for hands-on assistance in planning, preserving, promoting and managing scenic Byways. Please visit www.bywaysonline.org for Tele-Workshop Fact Sheet archives. America’s Byways(R) Resource Center 227 West First Street, Suite 610 Duluth, MN 55802 Tel: 218-625-3469 Fax: 218-625-3333 1-800-4BYWAYS (1-800-429-9297) Ext. 5 www.bywaysonline.org copyright 2006 America’s Byways(R) Resource Center