Spinning the Emerald City into gold
Ali Daniels is the senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Visit Seattle. Her organization has created several series of short documentaries for social media about Seattle’s music, food and visual art scenes, with an emphasis on local voices offering fresh, insider perspectives for potential visitors.
Tell me about a couple of the video projects that Visit Seattle has made and the origins of those ideas.
Ali Daniels: We have produced seven projects so far and are in production of two more. It’s hard to choose just a couple to discuss as they are all special in their own way, but let’s focus on “Been There, Made That” and “+Play.”
“Been There, Made That” started from the idea that Seattle is a place of inspiration. We have an incredible art community here—from fine art to culinary art, and everything in between—and we know that the artists here find inspiration in their surroundings. But it’s one thing to get a local’s perspective; we wanted to see how visiting artists could be influenced or inspired by Seattle. Each artist—a singer/songwriter, an illustrator, an ice cream maker, a wallpaper designer and a 3D installation artist—traveled to the Emerald City for a couple days, then returned home to create something in their medium, inspired by their trip.
What resulted is an amazing tale of interpretation. Each one is able to tell a story through their own language, and each one is so special and unique. And these pieces of art live on, all across the country.
On the other hand, we were looking for a different way to showcase the incredible museums and cultural institutions that Seattle has to offer. What if we showed these places off from a different perspective? In “+Play” we did just that. We invited a crew of children to play tour guide in their favorite museums and escort adults to their most cherished spots. The world looks a little different from a child’s eye, and we were able to highlight a different side of our arts and culture scene.
What messages about Seattle are you trying to convey with these local-focused videos?
Daniels: Each series is very different and focuses on a theme. We want to show people the many sides of our city—from arts and culture to food, wine and music—and each leans a slightly different way. What you won’t find are any “travel-specific” videos. We want to focus on entertainment first, with an underlying travel education thread.
Who is the primary audience for this type of content?
Daniels: Our target audience is the “advenculturalist”—someone that wants to get every moment [out] of their trip. They want urban, they want nature, they want to see where the locals go, they want to be the first of their friends to try something.
We know consumers are watching more video than ever before and that the “travel cycle” has changed now that technology has advanced so much. By creating entertaining content versus educational content, we can get in front of them even when they aren’t in the travel-planning mindset.
This type of content shows a more holistic view of Seattle. We do highlight attractions and iconic spots, but they are paired with some of the unexpected and local spots.
How do you judge the success of a content-driven approach like this?
Daniels: If only we had one big “BOOK SEATTLE” button that all travelers had to push, wouldn’t our lives be easier? We measure success a number of different ways. The simplest is engagement: We look at view-through rates, clicks from the video, multiple videos watched. Then we look at data that shows who is looking, booking and traveling to Seattle. We also keep an eye on revenue-per-available-room growth year over year and social sentiment. While not a perfect science, all of those factors help guide us moving forward.
What was one obstacle your organization faced in creating a video series?
Daniels: The biggest obstacle has been letting go of control. When you put your brand in the hands of a stranger, it can be a scary thing, but also a very exciting thing. We have tremendous confidence in our brand, in our city, and the results have been really beautiful.
ArtPrize Pitch Nights: Using Grand Rapids as a grand prize
Dave Nitkiewicz is the specialty market sales manager for Experience Grand Rapids. His organization has partnered with ArtPrize, an annual arts festival that attracts 400,000 people to the Michigan city, to host Pitch Night events around the country. Think “Shark Tank” for art: Artists from the host communities pitch concepts for large-scale pieces for designated sites in Grand Rapids. A panel of judges selects a winner who receives a grant to make that artistic vision a reality.
Nitkiewicz and ArtPrize Executive Director Christian Gaines answered our questions about this approach to getting audiences engaged.
What are the origins of the ArtPrize Pitch Night events?
Christian Gaines: It’s necessary to create a foundation of understanding that Experience Grand Rapids and ArtPrize work very closely together on lots of things at lots of levels, and Pitch Night is just one of those. As organizations, we work hand-in-hand, which is very much in the spirit of the collaborative approach that people in Grand Rapids have.
ArtPrize Pitch Night is five years old now, and it’s really ramped up in the last year or two. It is an idea that captures the entrepreneurial approach that is in keeping with Grand Rapids in a lot of ways.
We wanted to create a program that wasn’t only an informational or orientation program around ArtPrize. We wanted to create something with an outcome and a level of excitement that would involve the local arts community and a local partner, but would also be entertaining to someone who was just walking in off the street.
That’s how the pitch night concept was born. It’s something that moves along pretty quickly, and it’s something that has an outcome. One of the artists will win $5,000 and guaranteed space in Grand Rapids during ArtPrize.
Dave Nitkiewicz: ArtPrize has been a huge driver for visitation for Grand Rapids, and we really wanted to share its success with the tourism community more broadly. When we started collaborating, they provided a really wonderful platform for us to get out to our clients in various cities. It’s very much an ArtPrize-led event, but our role as the tourism bureau is to be very supportive.
What does planning these events look like for your organizations?
Gaines: Obviously, how we decide which cities we go to is important, and there are a lot of variables there. Do we have a strong cultural partner in that city? Those cultural partners are important to us because they help us source local, industry professionals that are part of the selection panels. They also help us promote the event to the artists who are submitting proposals for consideration, as well as for an audience.
It’s an efficient, customized way for us to be able to do something that’s turnkey as well as being simultaneously unique city-to-city. It’s something we can drop into a city and yield very different results each time.
Nitkiewicz: ArtPrize brings artists from around the country and the world to Grand Rapids, and over the years they’ve developed those relationships with artists that can ultimately champion this very grassroots approach within their respective communities. Having that local champion really helps.
What I’ve tried to do is reach out to tour operators who are interested in seeing some of the local art. So, my role there is to bring clients to [their] community-based [Pitch Night] event, and because it’s local, it helps for us to be able to partner with ArtPrize.
It adds value to an ordinary sales call because clients get to meet and learn about five artists in their local community. They attend an event in their own hometown.
I like being able to give them an experience and show the value of Grand Rapids. It takes away the sales pitch. ArtPrize has a memorable community event, and they’ve been excellent with allowing us to piggyback on that.
What makes these events effective at communicating your organizations’ messages?
Gaines: We feel good about our social media presence, and original content is an important part of what we do. One of the great things about every Pitch Night is that it yields original artists and original art, and it’s something we can talk about and cover, and our cultural partners can talk about and cover, too. It’s authentic, and it relates closely to our mission and guiding principles. You go into [Pitch Night] talking about art, and you come out of it talking about new art.
Nitkiewicz: I think communicating what Pitch Night is, why [guests] should care and the follow-through of getting people to attend has been an obstacle. With that said, we’re really starting to polish it. We had way more attend this year than last year, and we hope that trend continues.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For more information about Seattle, go to visitseattle.org. For more information about Grand Rapids, go to experiencegr.com.
Top photo: ArtPrize exhibition in Grand Rapids
Photo by ArtPrize/Experience Grand Rapids