Been to New Orleans lately?
It truly is a tale of two cities. The lower wards are still — yes, still — trying to recover from Katrina. However, if you stroll down Bourbon, Canal, Freret, and Frenchmen (mark it down), it is arguably the best French Quarter ever.
The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (That’s CVB to you and me) proudly lays responsibility for that rebound at the feet of 360i. The New York-based ad agency (a branch of Dentsu Inc. based in Toyko) began running the city’s tourism advertising campaigns in 2012 with much fanfare and bead-throwing.
Its success and payoff after the jump…
The New Orleans Picayune notes that “the contract pays the firm $86,363 per month and gives it a five-percent commission for advertising that it places above an annual base of $4.5 million in spending.”
The campaign entitled “Follow Your NOLA” has been a big success for the city, utilizing traditional and social media all along the Gulf Coast, as well as in other select markets such as Baltimore, Denver, and Nashville, Tenn.
“We’re transforming the way we market the city,” [Mark Romig, president and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp.] said. “We are inviting our visitors to explore and discover the entire city, in addition to our iconic and wonderful French Quarter. We want to raise awareness of every corner of New Orleans to the visitor, to the culture-minded consumer, and we refer to these tourists, our visitors, as the experiential discoverer.”
In 2012, the campaign’s message earned 611 million views. Laissez les bons temps rouler … all the way to the bank.