I really love my job.  One of the most rewarding parts of my work is helping clients show their communities and stakeholders that they’ve made good use of their funding by providing a positive return on investment.   As many of you know, our philosophy at Destination Analysts is to always provide our clients with the most conservative, bullet-proof, state-of-the-art methodologies to measure their marketing programs’ return on investment (ROI).  This approach comes from the many years we spent developing such research techniques for the San Francisco CVB.  Years of presenting ROI estimates to skeptical boards of directors and politicians taught us some very important lessons.  As a result, we carefully build our economic impact models, and whenever assumptions are made, we take the most conservative path possible.

We recently had the chance to apply this way of thinking and conduct some very interesting advertising effectiveness research for our award-winning friends at the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau (CACVB).   If you’re not familiar with this organization’s work, I’d strongly suggest looking at their ideas and practices.  They’re simply an outstanding team of talented marketers, and they’ve hit a home run with their recent advertising campaign.

If you’re interested in learning more about research measuring Charlottesville’s success, check out the press release they sent out yesterday.  It’s well written and is a good model for how a DMO can showcase their results in an effective, easy-to-understand way.

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Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau Advertising in DC Marketplace Yields Positive Economic Impact to Local Area

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA–(Marketwired – December 10, 2014) – The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau (CACVB) has announced the results of an advertising effectiveness study that shows its advertising and marketing in the Washington, DC metro area has produced significant economic impact to the Charlottesville-Albemarle area.

Destination Analysts, working with the CACVB and through its website management company, Simpleview, completed the “2013-2014 Advertising Effectiveness & ROI Study” to gauge the success of the organization’s recent marketing campaign. The study indicates that more than 23,600 incremental trips to the Charlottesville area were taken by Washington, DC metro area residents as a result of being exposed to one or more ads. These trips resulted in nearly $25 million being spent by visitors in our destination.

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