Top Chefs and winemakers are taking part in a national campaign to bring tourists to California.
While we in the North Bay already know we live in the capital of wine and food, that message is now being publicized to the rest of the country. “Welcome to California: The Land of Wine and Food” is a new promotional campaign produced through a unique partnership between the California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC), a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs in partnership with the State’s travel industry, and the Wine Institute, an association of more than 1,100 California wineries and affiliated businesses dedicated to initiating and advocating state, federal and international public policy.
“This historic partnership is designed to keep ‘California: The Land of Wine and Food,’ top of mind as the pioneer of wine and food trends and premier destinations among consumers,” says Susan Wilcox, vice president of communications and industry relations with the CTTC.
The partnership was announced in August 2007, honoring September’s designation by Governor Schwarzenegger as California Wine Month. “This partnership represents an unprecedented opportunity to enhance the California wine industry’s standing by communicating our contributions to the state’s economy, lifestyle, tourism and environment to consumers, the trade and public policy leaders,” says Robert P. (Bobby) Koch, president and CEO of the Wine Institute. “California’s wine families have established an industry that’s an important part of the landscape and culture of this great state.”
While the two organizations have partnered in the past on various projects, the strategy to come together for this particular campaign was the brainchild of Tom Klein, proprietor of Rodney Strong Vineyards in Sonoma County, who is both a CTTC commissioner and a board member of the Wine Institute. Being involved in both organizations, he saw the synergy between the two and realized the potential impact of the two groups working together.
“Tom Klein was a great spearhead, because he sits on both boards so he could see this as a great opportunity to work together,” says Wilcox. “We’ve always had a nice relationship with the Wine Institute, but now it is more of a partnership.”
Star power
The cornerstone of the five-year partnership is a national television and print campaign featuring wine and culinary celebrities promoting California’s rich bounty of wine and food and inviting potential visitors to check out the new website, landofwineandfood.com, to help them design trips to California wine regions, including finding wineries, restaurants, festivals and accommodations. Governor Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver will personally participate in the television ads.
“It was the governor’s idea,” says Gladys Horiuchi, communications manager for the Wine Institute. “He decided we needed to make more of an investment into tourism for California. That particular budget had been cut back drastically with the previous administration, and it was his idea to promote tourism more.”
The website hopes to pull visitors into California by letting them virtually experience “the land of wine and food” and enticing them to visit. Some features include an interactive wine region explorer, which shows the best California wine regions for their favorite varietals as well as wine and food itineraries; travel tips; video shorts from California wine and food pioneers, such as the best way to find locals’ favorite eateries; blogs featuring wine and food professionals like Pat Kuleto, Duskie Estes and Andrew Firestone of Curtis Winery; point-of-view tips, where locals tell visitors their favorite things to do and places to visit; and a chance to win exclusive culinary adventures in California. There are so many wonderful places to visit in California, it turns out, that the wealth of information actually posed one of the biggest challenges to putting this campaign together.
“The main challenge we had, to be honest, was content and the variety of offerings in the state,” says Wilcox. “As you can imagine, every region in California has wonderful wine and food—that’s what’s so great about the state. It really is something that happens throughout the entire state of California. So one of the challenges was trying to get all the right content, make it manageable for a website and make it user-friendly.”
The television ad, produced by Sacramento-based MeringCarson, started running on February 4, 2008, in major markets across the United States. In addition, various print ads ran in major wine, food and lifestyle magazines such as Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and Conde Nast Traveler, throughout the winter and spring when most people are planning their summer vacations.
Vintners featured on the television ad include Pat Kuleto of Kuleto Estate and Pat Kuleto Restaurants (including Boulevard, Farallon, Jardiniere, Martini House, Rincon Park Restaurants and the newly opened Nick’s Cove in Tomales Bay), Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards, Carolyn Wente of Wente Vineyards, Bill Harlan of Harlan Estate and Meadowood Resort, Paul Dolan of Mendocino Wine Company, Andrew Firestone of Curtis Winery, Jill Davis of Lambert Bridge Winery and Kathy Joseph of Fiddlehead Cellars. Star chefs include Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Suzanne Goin of Lucques, Duskie Estes and John Stewart of Zazu and Bovolo, Douglas Keane of Cyrus and Guy Fieri of Johnny Garlic’s and the Food Network. The participants of the campaign were chosen for their name recognition and to their contribution to California’s wine and food industries. (Notice how most are from the North Bay? Hmm.…)
“We went after a variety of talent, and California has a wealth of it throughout the state,” explains Wilcox. “So we tried to go after some folks who were definitely recognizable and certainly leaders in the wine and food industry, but we also went after folks who were leaders in their own industry. We really wanted to show the large mainstream as well as the small, and everyone who had a story and was unique to California and who really showed what California wine and food was all about.”
While this campaign isn’t a reaction to any circumstance—such as tourism decreasing in California (tourism has actually been increasing every year in our state)—the two organizations wanted to capitalize on what research shows is a growing interest in wine and food travel, with more people seeking out unique experiences.
“California realized it’s competing with the rest of the world and the rest of the country,” says Pat Kuleto, a participant in both the television and print ads. “We’ve been such a popular place for such a long time—we automatically have so much going for us that California, I think, has somewhat sat on its laurels. Everyone is out marketing the cool things in their state, if not their country. So, I think California finally realized that the critical reason most people come here is, we have such an incredible culinary scene going. The food industry at large and everything that goes along with it—not just the restaurants and the great chefs, but all the products that are available here in California—that really brings people from all over.”
Everybody wins
According to the Travel Industry Association, wine and food travelers tend to be more educated and affluent than other travelers and tend to seek out additional experiences, such as spas and cultural activities, as well as adventure opportunities such as state and national parks. So, this campaign will clearly not only benefit the wineries and restaurants it’s focusing on, but also everything from retail stores, to car rental agencies, to hotels to other attractions.
In September 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 2592, which authorized a spending plan of $25 million for fiscal year 2006/07 and $50 million for fiscal year 2007/08 to promote tourism in California. Funds are raised through assessments collected on passenger car rentals at airports, hotels or other overnight lodging facilities, along with assessment collections from the accommodations, restaurant and retail, and attractions and recreation segments—overall, more than 5,000 businesses throughout the state. California’s general fund contribution will be $1 million in fiscal year 2007/08. This money has been allocated to promote tourism in California, and this food and wine campaign is a major part of this initiative.
“Because our budget has doubled, we’ve been able to increase our advertising,” says Wilcox. “We’re no longer limited by funding.”
Because the economic impact of travel is a significant factor in the success of our local economy, it makes sense to leverage our state’s biggest assets (and what has shown to attract the most visitors)—namely, wine and food. In 2007, the travel industry in California contributed an estimated $96.7 billion to the state economy, up 3.6 percent from 2006 and directly supporting 924,100 jobs. Visitors who stayed overnight in paid accommodations spent $51 billion. In addition, the travel industry generates $2.2 billion in local taxes and $3.6 billion in state taxes. Every $104,600 in travel spending supports one California job.
It appears creating the ads themselves supported several jobs: “It was a blast—it was so cool to see it,” says Douglas Keane of Cyrus. “It was a major production. They took over our restaurant for a day. There were at least 60 people and four huge trucks. They basically took over the town of Healdsburg for a few days, because they did a couple different sites up here. It was impressive and fun.”
Calling all foodies
In comparison to any other campaign the California Travel and Tourism Commission has been involved in, a unique feature of this particular strategy is its emphasis on the “culinary traveler.”
“The California Travel and Tourism Commission had done its own research and realized the kind of visitors it wanted to attract was the culinary traveler—a person who’s traveling to enjoy new eating and drinking experiences,” says Horiuchi. “They’re usually high-income travelers and so, obviously, they’d want to visit restaurants, wineries and related activities.
“At the same time, the Wine Institute had conducted consumer research a couple of years ago, and we discovered that what went into the purchase decision of wine wasn’t only personal recommendations, but visits to the winery or the winery’s website. So, we were telling our wineries we needed to invest a lot more into their winery tasting room visits and websites. The partnership between the Wine Institute and CTTC all came about in a synergistic manner.”
According to the Travel Industry Association, 17 percent of American leisure travelers (or 27.3 million people) have engaged in culinary or wine-related activities while traveling. They cross most age groups and take 6.8 domestic and international trips per year, 15 percent more than the average U.S. leisure traveler. These travelers range from those who deliberately select trips and destinations due to food or wine-related activities, to “accidental” travelers who participate in such activities simply because they’re abundantly available.
“In our consumer research, California had a very strong draw for most people,” says Horiuchi. “California—as a place and an experience—has a very positive, favorable impression with consumers. So, we realized that selling California first was a good way to attract people to our state. California wine regions receive nearly 20 million visitors annually.”
While California is already the most visited state in the union for food and wine-related activities (California produces 90 percent of the country’s wine and is the fourth largest wine producer in the world), research shows there’s still a lot of potential for growth in wine- and food-related travel to our state.
Although the primary purpose of the campaign is, of course, to attract more visitors to California, thereby boosting our local economy, the ads are also a chance for California to showcase its attributes and economic strengths to policy makers.
“The Wine Institute is a public policy advocacy group,” says Horiuchi. “Marketing isn’t part of the mission. But, one thing we know is that we reach our particular audience—public policy decision makers and legislative leaders—in mostly the same way we reach our wine consumers. So the ad campaign helps build our image and reminds our audiences that the wine industry is a contributor to the economic vitality of our state: We create jobs, attract tourists, practice sustainable wine growing and farming and care about the environment.”
Obviously the wine industry has been nothing but supportive of the effort because, even for those who don’t visit, many consumers may try to obtain a little of that “California experience” by at least buying more California wine. But beyond the obvious beneficiaries of the campaign—wineries and restaurants—the affiliated industries that benefit from a boost in tourism are too numerous to mention. Alone in the wine industry, it will affect businesses that make wine labels, bottle manufacturers, equipment producers, wine retailers…the list goes on.
“I’ve had a lot of people and friends who’ve called and said, ‘Hey, I saw you on a TV ad,’ but since it doesn’t say Cyrus or Douglas Keane, I’m not sure if there’s a direct impact to us,” says Keane. “But I think it’s great for our industry in general and for this area—it just brings awareness to have more people come up here and support us, and that benefits everyone. I think it’s more about ‘go to the Wine Country, go to California if you want to be a part of this great food and wine experience.’ Some of that will obviously trickle to us, but I think it’s good for everyone up here in general.”
So, for all of you who still have those economic stimulus package checks burning in your pocket, let’s do something good for our local economy and enjoy some great food and wine…before the tourists get it all!
