Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408110019
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was, after all, a group effort, a committee job. The surest way to kill a good idea.
But apparently conventional wisdom isn't unerring after all. For the end product of the group's work - a marketing package extolling the virtues of the Roanoke Valley as a convention site - not only is still very much alive but also is attracting the attention of the people who plan conventions and help decide where they're held.
"We've been really pleased with the response we've gotten so far," said Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. The bureau said Tuesday it completed the first phase of its promotion of the conference facility, which is scheduled to open next spring.
Although the marketing blitz - full-page ads, direct-mail pieces, promotional gifts - was coordinated by the bureau through a contract with the city of Roanoke, both the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission and hotel operator Doubletree Hotels Inc. were involved in its creation as well.
Planning began last fall, when Lin Chaff Public Relations and Advertising of Roanoke was selected to design the marketing materials. A national advertising campaign that began in January placed full-page ads in industry publications, and in late June introductory portfolios were sent to 3,000 meeting planners as part of a $25,000 direct-mail campaign.
As an extra enticement, response cards included in the direct-mail portfolios promise a free gift to anyone who returns the cards to the bureau: a mug showing an artist's rendering of the completed conference center and a bag of Roanoke-roasted H&C coffee. About 100 of the cards have been returned, Mackey said.
Although desks of meeting planners are cluttered by an endless stream of such gadgets and gimmicks, Gary Boyler of the Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International said such promotional goodies may help land accounts by showing cities' unknown sides.
"What is your point of difference? What amenities make your destination unique? That's what you have to play up," said Boyler, director of marketing for the 12,000-member association.
The conference center information package plays up the points that set Roanoke apart from larger cities that may receive more publicity as convention sites, Lin Chaff said.
"We have to realize we're not Atlanta and Baltimore, and we offer things Atlanta and Baltimore don't offer," she said.
Mountains, for instance. Photographs of Blue Ridge vistas feature prominently in the sales portfolio, as do shots of smiling Roanokers and peaceful pastoral scenes.
"We always talk about our scenic beauty and our friendly faces," said Debora Wright, the bureau's marketing director. "And that's a big selling point."
The conference center itself also receives prominent play in the informational literature. Schematic drawings of the center's meeting spaces are included among descriptions of the facility's 51,000 square feet of high-tech conference rooms.
The cost of holding a conference at the center will vary , said conference center general manager Gary Walton. But a typical day meeting package - lunch, refreshments, meeting space and use of audio-visual equipment - will run about $46 per person.
The national advertising campaign that began in January will continue through the next fiscal year, Wright said.
by CNB