Sat, Jul 04, 2009
 The main vehicle in the "guerrilla marketing" campaign on behalf of Tucson is this RV, sporting advertising extolling the Old Pueblo. The Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau's $130,000 campaign debuts this week, first in Chicago, then in Seattle.
Photos courtesy of metropolitan tucson convention & visitors bureau
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RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION General A1 Communications Cable Techs Health Care Sierra Tucson Eating Disorders Program Coordinator BusinessSelling Tucson in cold climatesARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.07.2006
The snowy and damp Windy and Emerald cities are getting a tempting taste of the Old Pueblo's warm sunshine.
Members of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau have hit the road with a new "guerrilla marketing" campaign — targeting Chicago and Seattle — to drum up business for the tourism season, which officially begins in January and lasts through April.
The $130,000 campaign includes hosting tailgate parties at football games in both cities and having the bureau's "street team" hand out free cups of hot chocolate and more than 4,500 hand warmers this week to people on city corners.
"It's the perfect time to talk about Tucson. We're telling them it might be 19 degrees outside here, but it's 57 degrees now in Tucson," bureau spokeswoman Kimberly Schmitz said during a Monday morning phone call from Chicago.
"Cold-weather cities" like Chicago and Seattle are key markets for Tucson's hospitality industry, she said.
About 3.5 million people visit Tucson annually and most come to escape adverse weather conditions, said Rick Vaughan, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the bureau.
The campaign — which includes traveling around in a rented 25-foot-long RV sporting pictures of Tucson's desert landscape, golf courses and dude ranches — is a grass-roots approach to reach potential travelers, Schmitz said.
"It's a marketing technique to get to people who don't pay attention to print or TV ads," she said. "Basically it's a moving billboard."
The bureau also set up a "putt-putt" golf game at a tailgate party before the Chicago Bears' home game Sunday with the Minnesota Vikings. (The weather was the bureau's ally: Game-time temperatures were in the teens.) People could also register for free vacation packages at five area resorts.
The Tucson entourage plans to head to Seattle to host another tailgate party at Qwest Field at the Seattle Seahawks-San Francisco 49ers game Dec. 14.
The football stadiums provide an opportune place to meet local people and talk about Tucson, Schmitz said. People are urged to check out www.tucson warmup.com, a Web site promoting Tucson's weather, resorts and attractions.
The Arizona Office of Tourism held similar marketing campaigns in the last year in Chicago and Minneapolis, handing out promotional items about Arizona in those cities.
Results showed heavy responses from Chicago and Minneapolis to the targeted campaigns via contacts with the state Tourism Office this year, said Jacki Mieler, director of the media relations for the state's tourism office.
Of those inquiries, the tourism office found that the average household income of residents from Chicago was $87,750 and from Minneapolis was $172,090.
The average age of those residents from Chicago was 54 years old, while Twin Cities residents were 51 years old, both fitting into the state's target demographic, Mieler said.
"These campaigns are extremely smart moves," said Brian Johnson, president of the Southern Arizona Lodging and Resort Association. "Frequency in marketing is important. You don't want people to forget you. Anytime you put yourself out there, you're staying at the forefront of people's minds."
The bureau also has initial plans to buy a series of Internet ads on www.weather.com.
When the weather is bad in cold cities, banner ads would pop up on the screen, reminding people to warm up in Tucson, Vaughan said.
● Contact reporter Levi J. Long at 573-4179 or llong@azstarnet.com.
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