LTVA putting the ‘South’ in Tahoe

By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority is making a concerted effort to leave the blue world behind.

The multimillion dollar “blue world” ad campaign never quite had the ring to it that tourism officials had hoped, and certainly not the buy-in from the South Shore community that it was intended to promote.

LTVA is changing its marketing to emphasize activities. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The 2010 summer ad campaign will be the first from Duncan Channon.

A subtle change that not everyone is apt to notice is the change in website addresses. Ads in Ski and Skiing magazine are using www.tahoesouth.com.

“We are stepping out of the blue as this point,” LTVA Executive Director Carol Chaplin said.

She won’t go into detail about the new campaign, but said it is more activity oriented.

“We are trying to capitalize more on — everything you want to do is right here,” Chaplin said. Gaming is still part of the message, but doesn’t dominate it like years past.

She won’t divulge the new tagline for the ad campaign just yet, but one thing the LTVA board has wanted to emphasize is differentiating between the South Shore and North Shore.

The new URL does just that — it clearly indicates the link is going to provide information about the south end of Lake Tahoe. The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association uses www.gotahoenorth.com.

For people still using www.bluelaketahoe.org, it directs them to the LTVA’s main webpage.

The entire campaign will be ready for the public to see after the first of the year. The ad agency was in the area in October shooting footage — stills and video.

Internally, LTVA expects to have its strategic plan in place in the next month.

Not only are website addresses changing, but the entire LTVA website is going to be revamped.

The current www.ltva.org will be more for community partners seeking industry information, with password-protected destinations. Chaplin called it a “resource site” and “internal tool”.

When the ad campaign is more solidified Chaplin expects to show it off to small groups in February and then to the broader community at April’s tourism conference. By May, it will be on the airwaves.

The $800,000 campaign is geared mostly to the broadcast mediums in the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley.