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Agency that helped Asheville hired to boost Williamsburg tourism [The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg :: ](Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) April 22--WILLIAMSBURGWILLIAMSBURG-- The Williamsburg Area Destination Marketing Committee, the entity created to spend the revenue from the Historic Triangle's $2 per night room surtax, has chosen a new advertising agency. Marketing director Corrina Ferguson announced that Luckie & Company, of Birmingham, Alabama had been chosen as the new agency. Char-Broil, Bayer Advanced, GlaxoSmithKline, Little Debbie, Chick-fil-A, the Alabama Tourism Department, Regions Bank and Mercedes-Benz are among Luckie's clients. In addition, Bob Harris, senior vice president for tourism at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance said Luckie had worked for Asheville, N.C. "They worked on their re-branding campaign, when they wanted to show they had more than just The Biltmore," Harris said Tuesday. That's similar to what Williamsburg marketing professionals are considering, which they've been using the moniker "History Plus" to describe. "The strategy presented by Luckie and Company aligns with our organization's goals and provides a foundation to reach our target audiences," Ferguson said in announcing the move."Their creativity inspired our decision to move forward and will hopefully inspire more visits to our area throughout the remainder of 2014 and beyond." "Research and data were the primary drivers in the creation of this overall strategy," said Tom Luckie, president and CEO of Luckie & Company. "We are pleased to be able to work with the team in Williamsburg and help them tell their story to potential visitors across the country." That jibes with a change tourism professionals have been touting for the Historic Triangle's tourism promotion to be more "research based and data driven." Although Luckie comes on board with the marketing committee May 1, the area's television ad campaign is rolling out this week. "The 2014 campaign started digitally April 8 to May 1 and the TV started yesterday," Ferguson said Tuesday. That campaign features creative content from last year, created by Momentum Worldwide, of New York. The Martin Agency, of Richmond, has assisted with media planning and buying. Ferguson said Tuesday it was too early to tell if new creative by Luckie & Company would be phased in during 2014 or if the ad agency would concentrate on the 2015 campaign. Tourism leaders told the Gazette two weeks ago that they hoped to have enough flexibility this year to make changes "on the fly" if they found something was working particularly well or particularly poorly. ___ (c)2014 The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.) Visit The Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Va.) at www.vagazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |