Building a distinctive sustainable brand strategy to guide the city’s marketing and promotional efforts.
The Challenge: Help change perceptions of Washington, DC's fractured brand that conjures up the image of the federal government, the Mall and eighth-grade class trips and infuse into it more of “D.C.,” the term locals use, is associated with its restaurant scene, international culture and open green spaces.
The Solution: Michael Altman led a project team (including Longwoods International) that worked with Destination DC to build a distinctive sustainable brand strategy to guide the city’s marketing and promotional efforts. Our “powerful moments” positioning evolved from formal national and international surveys as well as an innovative community-engagement web site the team developed called, “Share Your DC.” The site generated thousands of DC “insider” tips for visitors that were incorporated into marketing communications. Consistent with the new positioning, we also renamed the organization from Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation to Destination DC.
Is it working? The client completed a Return on Investment Study where they determined the following about the new positioning and accompanying advertising campaign:
- Generated 79,000 incremental trips
- In total, generated $53.4 million dollars inside DC
- Generated $3.7 million in tax revenue to DC
- 40:1 Spending ROI and 3:1 Tax ROI
UPDATE: In an exciting and synergistic development, Events DC (formerly the Washington Convention and Sports Authority) has decided to leverage the logo that we developed for Destination DC and incorporate it into their new brand mark.
Michael Altman was further engaged by the CEO to co-develop with him the organization's five-year Strategic Plan.