Consumer Marketing

Based on the research, visitors to California reportedly spent one-third of their travel budget eating at restaurants and visiting bars and wineries. Visit California wanted to harness its world-renown cuisine to attract the lucrative culinary traveler by promoting the state’s abundant wine and food discoveries.

As project lead, I worked collaboratively with the California Wine Institute, industry partners, our agency of record (AOR) and across disciplines and departments to launch an integrated culinary initiative called The Land of Wine & Food including:

• Creative development of :30 second national terrestrial TV spot in partnership with our AOR
• Partner collaboration on print co-op that was inserted in wine & food publications
• Content creation and curation for website, social media and eDM campaign
• Assisting PR team to craft culinary-themed press releases
• Supporting consumer and trade events and activations across 13 international markets

The successful global launch and promotion generated $400K in partner buy-in programs and reached 250K consumers and travel trade in the first three months. Post campaign research indicated a conclusive uptick in overall ad effectiveness and propensity to travel.

To remain competitive, Visit California needed to break through the clutter in key markets where California was not top of mind as a travel destination. I lead a team of five from our Korea office to secure Lee Byung-hun (BH) as California’s Tourism Ambassador. BH is A-lister with a massive following across Asia thanks to the immense popularity of Korean dramas. 

As tourism ambassador, BH participated in multi-channel cross-promotional campaigns that included event appearances, photos shoots, interviews and video messaging which was used throughout Visit California’s owned channels via website content, social media and print marketing collateral. 

His popularity and reciprocal promotion on his personal social media channels bolstered market expansion beyond Korea and in one planned campaign, earned 22 pages in media coverage in Cosmopolitan Korea & China and Vogue Japan, with a combined media value of $1.2MM and 1.1 million impressions.

The Tahoe Heritage Foundation works with the U.S. Forest Service with a mission to preserve and protect the landmark Tallac Historic Site by providing educational activities that showcase the local and indigenous history of the area. 

Working with the Director of Operations, I developed a strategic marketing and communications COVID recovery plan to elevate the Tahoe Heritage Foundation’s brand and create alternative funding sources for the Foundation through grant writing, donor development strategies and a year-long PR campaign centered around the site’s centennial. 

As the chair of the Marketing Committee, I work with staff and board members spearheading marketing initiatives and low-cost tactical solutions to increase awareness and community support for the Tallac Historic Site’s centennial celebrations in 2021. 

The Stories of Tallac is a digital documentation of the site’s history through video shorts that will be promoted through the Foundation’s social media channels. The Stories will be told by docents, historians, locals and visitors about life at the site in the 19th and 20th centuries and will offer messages for future visitors as part of the Centennial digital time capsule. 

To date, the Foundation has been awarded $28,000 in funds through grant writing efforts, with another 3 grants pending. The Stories of Tallac will kick off in April 2021.