Google, Nevada tourism officials partner for winter ad campaign

By Richard N. Velotta

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 | 9:16 a.m.

The Nevada Commission on Tourism, partnering with Google.com, expects to produce more than 8 million page views from its target demographic in an Internet winter tourism ad campaign that begins in November.

The commission began working with Google late last year and will spend $835,000 of its $2.4 million media budget on Internet marketing in the current fiscal year. Google has embraced the Nevada Tourism Commission campaign as a case study to show a cost-effective, high-tech means to reach customers.

The commission will use Google In-Stream Video ads targeting winter sports enthusiasts in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The commission’s Web presence is geared to steer business to Nevada’s Lake Tahoe resorts and ski areas.

The commission’s primary objective is to focus on tourism marketing for rural Nevada, since the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority markets Las Vegas and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority works with Reno.

The media budget also includes $1.4 million for television ads in Los Angeles and San Francisco and $90,000 for print ads in National Geographic Traveler, Southwest Spirit, Southwest Airlines’ inflight publication, and Nevada magazine.

The commission also will spend $55,000 for mobile advertising and $10,000 for billboards. While the commission committed no money to social media marketing, it has an employee dedicated to developing strategies for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The state’s target demographic is adults 25-54 with a household income of more than $75,000 that are young at heart, active and enjoy winter snow sports and outdoor recreation.

While the state’s Internet media buy is dominated by Google, it will also have a presence with Yahoo!, Weather.com, TripAdvisor and Southwest Airlines.

The agency’s staff told commissioners at their Wednesday meeting that they would take the advice of the commission’s marketing committee, which earlier recommended that instead of promoting non-ski activities like sleigh rides and roasting marshmallows at resort fire pits that they concentrate on skiing. Commissioners also want to see ads that feature the growing snowboard industry and use the iconic landscape of Lake Tahoe to sell the state.

In other business, the commission reviewed plans for the Dec. 7-8 Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Reno.

The event is expected to be a scaled-back version of conferences of the past that for 24 years have brought the state’s tourism industry leaders together at one time. Budget restrictions led to the cancellation of the event in 2008 and 2009.

Gov. Jim Gibbons earlier had placed the event, which is expected to draw between 200 and 250 people, on his calendar, but Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki said the dates conflict with the Western Governors Association winter meetings that Gibbons is hosting in Las Vegas.

Krolicki said invitations would be extended to the governor-elect and the lieutenant governor-elect after the November election.