May 2008

The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau is Bringing Home the 8.2 Billion Dollar Bacon

The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau has released its annual study of the economic impact of the travel industry to the city and county of San Francisco. The report indicated that SFCVB must be doing something very right:

  • In 2007, 16.1 million visitors came to San Francisco, showing an increase of 2.4% over 2006.
  • Visitors spent $8.2 billion in 2007, which was an increase of 6.2% over 2006 and an all-time high.

Joe D’Alessandro, SFCVB President and CEO, says, “Tourism continues to be San Francisco’s most vital industry. Visitor dollars provide the largest financial impact to the local economy and its imperative that we continue to fuel this source by strengthening our marketing efforts to promote San Francisco and the Bay Area as [a] premier destination.”

All agreed, Joe. We are thrilled to see that SFCVB is seeing such positive results in its marketing efforts. Even more thrilling is the idea of playing a role in bringing home the bacon for San Francisco.

San Francisco Agency, San Francisco Advertising

It makes sense that a San Francisco Advertising agency would have San Francisco Advertising clients. And while this circumstantial factor was responsible for many of our early local projects, Iron has turned its focus to this audience, winning work from the de Young Museum, the Legion of Honor, the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, Bay Area Jobs and more.

We saw early on that our work for San Francisco institutions was getting remarkable results, so it made sense to make the area a specialty. But why did we have that success? Well, I could say it’s because I’m a San Francisco native and I have my ear to the city’s volksgeist. But I won’t, because the word “volksgeist” is really, really pretentious.

And more to the point, regardless of my intimate knowledge of the San Francisco demographic, I am the only native San Franciscan in the agency. Instead, we believe that the secret of our success in the San Francisco market is more a product of our agency’s philosophy – that advertising should be VERY smart.

We just don’t believe people will take an interest in an advertising message unless there’s an element of discovery – what lots of folks call an “aha” moment. And in a city like San Francisco, where just about every heartbeat has a college degree or better to go with it, this approach to advertising tends to resonate. So if you’re advertising here, you’d better be doing it with that in mind.

The de Young Campaign Receives the 2008 Excellence in Marketing Award

Last night, Iron’s campaign for the de Young Museum was awarded the 2008 Excellence in Marketing Award by the American Marketing Association. After a blockbuster opening in 2005, the de Young had experienced a decline in attendance of nearly 10% every four months, continuing through the spring of 2007, as the Vivienne Westwood exhibition wound down. With no exhibitions of note upcoming, the summer looked bleak. Iron was hired to create some new “brand buzz,” and more importantly, reverse the declining trend in attendance.

During the four-month period after the launch of the new campaign, average monthly attendance rose by 12% – a turn-around of more than 20%. As such, the campaign is a great example of the value of an integrated campaign that takes full advantage of print, outdoor and collateral.

Iron has also produced stunning campaigns for the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Legion of Honor (completed November 2007), and this summer’s blockbuster Chihuly show (June 2008).

For more details on the de Young Campaign, click here.

The Risk Ratio

When do you take a risk with your marketing? The answer depends entirely on the purpose of a given marketing communication. In today’s crowded marketing environment, your advertising absolutely must take a risk. That said, marketing is not always advertising.

When a client asks for advertising, they are asking to break through the clutter and grab the attention of an otherwise disinterested prospect. This is not the forum for a conservative approach, and to recommend such an approach is just plain irresponsible. However, there’s a reason we call it a risk. Effective advertising often connects with the majority of the target at the expense of putting off a minority. For instance, we recommended San Francisco Honda go with a voice that was downright wacky:

Now, when a client asks for a business card or a tri-fold brochure, there is no reason to take a risk. These communications are going to people who are already paying attention. So the upside of taking a risk is removed, leaving only the downside.

So, in short, you take a risk when you have to.

Iron-Designed Site Wins Prestigious Award

How does an emerging photographer make a bold impact, yet still let his images do the talking? The answer: commission Iron to design an iconic portfolio site that garners awards from industry gurus and creates a brand strong enough to hold its own in the overcrowded marketplace.

The result? We were delighted to hear that Eric Percher’s new site made it into this year’s prestigious PDN Photo Annual, giving Eric a huge boost and a ton of welcome publicity. Bravo Eric!

5 ways Iron finds The Right Message and The Right Voice

USA Today recently reported that consumers see and hear about a million marketing messages a year. ONE MILLION marketing messages a year (insert jaw-dropping gasp). How do you compete with that? How do you make sure your message is the one seen/heard?

You engage the target personally and precisely – to the point where they forget the 999,999 other options, even if it’s just for a moment. This takes two critical tools: The Right Message and The Right Voice.

To achieve The Right Message:

  • Be mindful that messages should get to the point – simply, quickly, and effectively.
  • Pinpoint the thing about your client that people want and can’t get anywhere else.
  • Refine and reshape that thing until the consumer has to choose it over the competition.

To achieve The Right Voice:

  • Remember that it’s about more than building a brand; it’s building brand personality. (It’s personality that the target should identify with – either in terms of who the target consumer is, or who they want to be.)
  • Know who you’re talking to – figure out if they like Bill Cosby, Bill Maher, or Bill Shakespeare.

Of course, this is all easier said than done – which is why we’re here. Check out this skit for an exploration of the wrong voice and how it can kill a sale:

SFCVB + Iron = ArtSF08

The San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau recently enlisted Iron to figure out a way to promote the Summer Art Exhibition Campaign in San Francisco. The overall purpose of SFCVB is to boost the local economy by selling the city to visitors as a premier destination.

Simple task, right? Attract tourists to San Francisco. Tourists get the experience of a lifetime (and spend a little cash along the way). Everybody wins. What made this project the most difficult was perhaps the incredible lineup of artists and exhibitions. So the question was, how to balance such a star-studded lineup? Take a look at what we were working with:

These visiting exhibits embody an extensive range of cultures from all over the world. After digging into this project it became clear that in many ways, San Francisco already mirrors this fusion of foreign and domestic customs. Why not flip the deck on this idea – let’s present San Francisco as a piece of art in itself, and as such, the ideal host to these rich cultures.

And so…ArtSF08 was born. With a prominent media run in publications such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Los Angeles Magazine, the campaign had to appeal to the most sophisticated and well-traveled reader. The result: check it out here.