RKPR Inc. » Travel

Snowvember in North Lake Tahoe

kristen — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:38:55 +0000

Major winter snowfalls in what’s being called “Snowvember” coupled with the opening of ski resorts around the region have led to a lot of fun on the social sites for the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative. North Lake Tahoe’s Facebook has become a place where fans can see and share winter snow photos of Tahoe when the news trucks just can’t make it through the snow to cover the story. And on Noth Tahoe’s Twitter snow totals and updates from ski resorts are creating an avalanche of replies and retweets.

Success with the coop’s social networks, which also include a blog, Flickr and YouTube, has led to homepage integration of the feeds in the website redesign. RKPR and the coop, which works to encourage visits to North Lake Tahoe year-round, launched the social presence nearly two years ago and we continue to enjoy interacting with fans and followers. Get involved with the North Tahoe conversation by joining the networks.

Old school tools – they’re still effective

kristen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:50:13 +0000

We often times talk (a lot) about the impact of social media on what we’re doing in public relations and how it’s leading the way for the future of communications. But there are still a lot of cool tools that have been around for a long time that are effective and provide results. Enter the Media Visit.

Media visits come in all shapes and sizes, from 5-day tours for 25 people to weekend trips for just one journalist. We work on media visits on an ongoing basis for tourism and festival clients bringing the media in to tour the entire region, or just to check out one festival performance. Seeing a location, enjoying its attractions and amenities and just feeling what it’s like to be there can speak volumes about a client’s product that no press release or YouTube video could ever convey.

This week we have a journalist coming in from New York City on a winter tour of Reno-Tahoe. Her 6-day trip (which includes two travel days) has her dining at two of Tahoe’s finest restaurants, skiing two days at premier Tahoe ski resorts, dog sledding, snowmobiling, touring Reno’s arts and culture scene and getting an exclusive spa treatment at the area’s newest spa. The trick to a media visit is this: plan it as if it’s your vacation. If you treat it strictly as a sales opportunity for your product (using site tours, meetings or demonstrations to fill your itinerary) then you’re doing yourself, your product and the media person a disservice.

It’s a whirlwind trip for sure, but the thing is if I could’ve planned a vacation to Reno-Tahoe this is the itinerary I would choose. And it’s an itinerary full of activities her readers and viewers might choose too. That means the potential for great coverage and a pleased journalist who’ll remember Reno-Tahoe the next time winter travel enters the discussion.

They’re Onto Something

kristen — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:46:48 +0000

First I heard the guys at the muffin shack next door talking about it. Then I heard it mentioned on Good Morning America and I knew I needed to investigate. It’s the “best paid job in the world” and where do I sign up?

Seriously, Tourism Queensland is recruiting a “caretaker” for Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef whose job duties include swimming, snorkeling and frolicking on the beach along with posting photos and video to a blog. Promoting tourism with a first-person online diary – it’s not a unique idea.

But perhaps the thing that makes it unique is that they’re paying the lucky job-winner $100,000 for just six months work and throwing in airfare and an oceanfront villa…and they’re promoting that fact. According to the Jan. 15 article in the Los Angeles Times more than one million unique visitors logged onto the website promoting the gig between Monday, Jan. 12 and Thursday, Jan. 15. That’s one million people who may have never heard of Hamilton Island that may now consider it for their next vacation. Impressive.

In the LA Times article Anthony Hayes, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Queensland said “The tourism industry is having a tough time at the moment. So what we’re really trying to do is drum up as much interest and as much passion for the place as we can.” Of course, but it’s not kicking off on July 1, 2009 when the blogging begins. It already started.

Watch application videos on YouTube by searching “Island Reef Job.” They run the gamut. This one seems like a cross between an application and an American Idol audition!