Finding opportunity in our eccentricity

Two thoughts serve as the underpinning for the new marketing approach to be launched by the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority.

Thought One: The potential visitors targeted by the region's tourism industry share an interest in authentic experiences.

Thought Two: Reno is let's face it at least a little quirky, and that very quirkiness can provide a powerful draw for visitors. But we need to have a sense of humor about ourselves.

The RSCVA's board likes the concept, although it sent a proposed advertising tag "A Little West of Center" back to the drawing board.

But capitalizing on the region's quirky characters remains the campaign's cornerstone.

"We have to stop apologizing for who we are," says Michael Thomas, executive director of marketing for the RSCVA. "By acknowledging who we are, we will communicate in a much more effective way."

And that's a type of emotional communication that resonates with two groups of potential visitors targeted by RSCVA folks who haven't been to Reno for a while and need a reintroduction and folks, many of them younger, who haven't been to Reno at all.

"They are hunting for real and authentic experiences," says Thomas after reviewing research based on interviews and surveys of more than 11,000 consumers. Most of the research was focused on the core market for Reno-Sparks tourism residents of the Interstate 80 and Interstate 5 corridors in northern California although some research also was conducted in markets farther afield.

The research campaign found roughly a quarter of consumers in the core market need an introduction or a reintroduction to Reno.

Another 25 percent represent the existing core of Reno-Sparks tourism. RSCVA won't focus on members of that group, which already are the targets of hotel and casino marketers. RSCVA looks instead to grow new visitors.

From that research conducted by Mortar, a San Francisco advertising agency, RSCVA developed a basic statement of where the market should position itself: "Reno Tahoe is the only place in America that delivers the refreshingly offbeat because Reno Tahoe has always celebrated the original, the eccentric and the unconventional."

As their next step, the ad agency and RSCVA began developing advertising and public relations efforts that pay more attention to the Santa Crawl in downtown Reno and the camel races in Virginia City and less attention to photos of spectacular sunsets over Lake Tahoe.

The campaign, which is likely to carry a budget of $3.5 million to $4 million in funding from RSCVA, hotels, casinos and other tourism interests, is scheduled to begin in early 2010.

RSCVA has spent about $132,300 on research and early-stage development of the campaign.

Thomas says a campaign that emphasizes the Reno market's unconventionality will help it stand out from competitors whose pitches tend to be the same all about finding yourself or soaking up natural wonders or finding new adventures.

Tests of the new campaign's approaches with consumers this summer found that it boosted their interest in visiting the region and positively changed their impressions of the region.

A 46-year-old focus group member, for instance, says he pictured Reno as "a sleepy little town in the desert ... I associate it with my parents" before he saw a test of the new campaign. Afterwards, he pictures Reno as "the best of both worlds. It's grown up."

Another consumer whose initial conception of Reno as "casinos, smoking and drinking, gambling your life savings away" described the market as "funky, offbeat" after seeing the test marketing.

The purpose of the campaign is straightforward, Thomas says: "Grow visitation."

While the campaign targets new visitors to the market, executives of the ad agency, Mortar, say it may reinforce the habits of core visitors as well. They'll find new reasons to come to Reno, and core visitors can become some of the strongest evangelists for the reason, agency executives say.

RSCVA also will be working with local residents to win their support.

That, Thomas acknowledges, may take some work.

"We have to have a big sense of humor. We have to be able to laugh at ourselves," he says.