Tourism officials rebranding South Shore into Tahoe South
By Kathryn Reed
STATELINE – Tahoe South. It’s a place. It’s an attitude. It’s a feeling. It’s a people. It is the South Shore.
“We know who we are. Now everyone else will too.” That was the tagline in a promotional video shown at Thursday’s Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority board meeting.
The fast-moving segment touched on all things South Shore. Real people doing all the things people moved here to do. The same things tourists envy locals for being able to enjoy 365 days a year.
A new name for the South Shore -- Tahoe South.
Gone are the mixed messages through various advertising and public relations campaigns through the multiple venues the word was delivered. In its place is a coordinated effort to deliver the same message, multiple ways, through an array of mediums. Bringing this promotional consistency means people will get used to seeing Tahoe South and hearing Tahoe South through online, television, radio, and social media outlets.
One cohesive brand is the outcome. While multiple components are involved to reflect the diversity of the region, it’s not dominated by gaming and it’s not some concept like “blue” that no one ever embraced.
When people say “Las Vegas” a variety of images emerge. That same idea, not the same images per se, are what marketing gurus are going after with “Tahoe South”. As time goes by when people say Tahoe South the idea is it will evoke an image, feelings – ideally, a desire to plan a trip.
Expect to see it on T-shirts, tote bags, bandanas, stickers and other merchandise.
As people explore what Tahoe South is all about more in depth via the website – that Tahoe South logo will be there, the imagery will be familiar, but the content deeper, more rich.
Keeping with people’s desire to be interactive online, the new website will allow people to blog about their experiences in Tahoe.
What started about 2.5 years ago will be complete on Monday when the tourism agency’s website goes live.
To see the difference, go to the LTVA website between now and Sunday, and then go back after Monday.
“The complete reinvention of this brand will be done,” Andy Berkenfield said of the website being finalized. With a glass of Champagne in his hand, he toasted the board for its tenacity to go forward, and his staff and others involved for what is being called a leading edge site.
Berkenfield is general manager of Duncan/Channon, LTVA’s ad firm. While Noble Studios built the website, the two companies worked in concert to make it a reality.
Distinct winter and summer ad campaigns are part of the mix, too. This is the first winter LTVA has done a campaign beyond its participation in Ski Lake Tahoe material. Usually it relies on the ski resorts to bring people to town.
“Come to the Wild Side” is the message geared toward ages 25-54 and families. The idea is Tahoe South is more hip, more fun, more energetic than the North Shore. A billboard in San Francisco and one on Interstate 80 eight miles west of the Highway 50 split will target drivers.
Buses along main routes in The City – including Market Street and the Financial District – will also be covered in advertising to lure people to Tahoe South.
“We want to bring the vibrant energy of the destination to life,” Jennifer Corrigan, account director with Duncan/Channon said.
While the ads will be up soon, they are not finalized so they can’t be shown on Lake Tahoe News yet. It’s abstract artistry of elements that when examined closely are crystal clear. They look more like murals than a traditional billboard.
At the Dec. 8 meeting it was also decided what direction to go with the $1 million 2012 summer ad campaign. This is the same amount that was spent this year.
The goal is to increase awareness of Tahoe South and support key summer events.
Gone will be the television spots except on Comcast during Giants and A’s games and what is contractually required with NBC for the celebrity golf tournament.
“Online is the most cost-efficient (advertising) out there,” Laura Davis, associate communications planning director with Duncan/Channon said. “People are spending more time online.”
ITS NOT WHAT YOU CALL IT THAT COUNTS.
Any one who posts here ever call the place they live “Tahoe South”? You are so right David, it’s not what we call it that counts. But we all know that already!!
First impression: Sounds like engaging social interaction is one of the main goals here. Not a bad approach to enhance if as it sounds the idea is to emphasize the lively activity both outdoors and with nightlife to a younger crowd – steering away from the old gambling hole image. Not exactly aimed at the white shoe or blue hair crowd, it seems. No doubt it will bring out some message board snark and trolls though when they put it out there.
The name doesn’t seem to flow quite as smoothly to me as South Lake, but it’s more descriptive if they’re reaching out to a more national audience who has no idea that the Lake means Tahoe, and so are pushing out the word Tahoe first.
Their current website is quite visually appealing – good use of attractive photos and graphics. Hope they keep that general aura. It needs more interactive mapping though — they should bring in a Google map API to tie in the local locations and directions capabilities to all these great things they’re trying to feature – available to use each time you drill into a particular activity or place.
The map they have now is actually pretty detailed and allows you to display feature layers, but as a standalone pdf-like link buried in a dropdown list, it probably gets overlooked a lot. It also doesn’t show anything beyond the immediate South lake area. Also it would be nice to have the full functionality of google maps to show terrain layers, satellite views, street views, and the business listing database that you get on Google. Keeping the custom designed map they have now as a standalone plus adding the google maps would provide a nice mix.
With online marketing, you can track viewing results better too — they need to hit up mobile sites and smartphones pretty hard with this, and mix in some deals and offers – as well as more directly accessible info about where to stay and eat tied more tightly into descriptions of particular attractions, so you’re normally just one click away from that. Good luck, hope it’s done well.
LTVA got this one right. Blue Lake tahoe, go blue, be blue whatever was nuts and we all knew it.
Tahoe South is already what we are in comparison to Tahoe North. North has done a great job branding Tahoe North. If you google North Tahoe or North Lake Tahoe, you will get a clear list of the visitors center, chamber and resources all correctly identified as the north side. Try googline South lake tahoe. You get the city, visitor’s but then a wacky list. Even the chambers can’t get their names right and they confuse the visitors. Tahoe Chamber and South Tahoe Chamber, which is which? When can those two groups just get over themselves and think of the people they are trying to help. There should be just one chamber, Tahoe South.
With one brand us businesses can jump on something we all agree on.Leverage our resources, what a concept. We are competing with other destinations who don’t have spend their time fighting with each other and instead join forces to market their community. We here can’t hardly compete with North Tahoe, they get it. Seems we finally got the LTVA to simply brand the obvious. We all know the lake is blue. That’s not our brand.
Tahoe South makes sense, finally, some sense. Stop complaining, start branding our stores as one piece of the tahoe south puzzle. I can get behind that, thanks LTVA. Can you talk some sense into our chambers with their egos? I’m not going to join until you two realize its not good for business dividing us up or making us pay two different organizations. One is professional and one doesn’t do anything except keep defending how they should be recognized. Who the heck cares about yourselves, your here to help business. I’m sick of getting calls to join one and chose sides, that’s not the businesses role, you’re supposed to be grown ups and get it together. Just one chamber folks, one.
One brand works. When the tourists get here they can see our individual stores and ideas.
This is indeed good news LTVA, you got it right!
I don’t know. LTVA wants to continually market south lake tahoe as a place for people to come to loses something: inhibitions, money, control, virginity(?). I guess in todays culture that is “hip” or something.
I’ve never heard our town called that, guess it will help everyone know who’s a tourist, and who’s a local.
Why not: South Lake, or South Tahoe, I can see the point of wanting Tahoe on top (first), for logo wear, but not sure this is going to catch on. Need some repetitive jingle, to pound it into our heads, cause it doesn’t come naturally ;)
“Come to the Wild Side” is the message geared toward the older demographic up to age 55 and families?
It will be interesting to see if this new approach works.
Hopefully the new ad campaign works out great! But why is the LTVA paying for staff AND an ad agency? If the agency is coming up with the ideas and plan, what’s staff needed for?
And while again, hopefully the plan works out well. But as I’ve previously stated, it would be great if the City of SLT wasn’t solely reliant on the LTVA to generate business and did some of its own promotion & marketing!
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority – the wrong people being paid way to much money to do what should be a private sector job in the first place.
Your excessive government California has ripped you off.
The bad reputation that South Lake Tahoe has is well deserved. Myopic economy with a shallow bench.
A bunch of 4s and 5s that act like their 8s and 9s. You’re not.
I am not saying everyone, there are some winners on occasion but in general The musicians, the artists, the technologists, the business owners, government… consistent ‘mediums’ with attitude.
That is how I and others I know up north feel.
Service with a punk attitude.
It doesn’t take a genius, to walk/bicycle/skate, whatever….the bicycle paths and various places around the city of South Lake Tahoe, to understand that graffiti is a constant occupation. Unfortunately, relatively aggressive athletes and tough laborers seem to be the only thing to calm these places. Marketing to those athletes might save the place.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perryrobray/5459423709/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perryrobray/5459423533/in/photostream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PcaiFfvV9o
BTW, some people think if a person doesn’t want to live in an area, then others will not want to visit. If to many people moved from here because they didn’t want to raise kids here, hmmmmmmmmm.
All of the re-branding won’t help. South Tahoe is dying. With all due respect to the marketing folks, there is not much they can do about it.
Until the California economy recovers, SLT will continue to suffer. During times of economic recession, consumers look for more affordable alternatives with their disposable incomes. They shop at Wal-mart instead of Nordstrom’s. Here, Heavenly is the Nordstroms’s of winter. They are asking $98 at the gondola window for a lift ticket with 4 runs open. Best of luck with that business plan. I’m sure you’ll get thousands of repeat customers with that level of value.
And why are we competing with NLT for business? Do they have some excess business we can syphon away? Absolutely not. NLT has been attracting a different clientele for years. If that is who we are just now trying to bring in, a better marketing slogan would be “South Lake Tahoe — the New North Lake Tahoe”.
I realize I’m being negative nancy here, but sometimes I feel like these Associations fail to see the reality of our situation. Until Tahoe becomes a more affordable vacation destination, you can’t just change the color of the lipstick on this pig and “hope” nobody notices.
On a side note, I loved reading how Mr. Berkenfield was toasting the LTVA & his own staff before day 1 of this new marketing plan has even been engaged. Let’s maybe wait a year or 2 before we pat ourselves on the back for doing a good job. When this new plan fails too, I sure won’t be celebrating.
Combine this with the new logo and catch phrase for the chamber and were realy going places!
We should take the $1,000,000 they’re spending on the add camaign and have cocktail waitresses hand out 50,000 $20 vouchers redeemable at any “SOUTH LAKE TAHOE” business.
I bet if we did this during the lunch hour in the SF financial distrist we would be better off.
Have fun with it maybe pass them out every third tuesday to give peopel time to come up on the weekend.
In addition we would most likely get a ton of free tv time when it was reported on the news.
Sorry forgot spell check.
The Frisco and Bay Area crownd call it “”$Tahoe$””!!!
WHO CARES WHAT PART?
Nothing going to change the facts regarless the Name!
A hole is A hole!
Course you can call it “Cole”
COLES HOLE DON’T LIVE HERE NO MO!!
He lost his grip,as the people ripped his broken back from the trpa crap and he’s gone away.
The people rejoiced ,ran happily through the streets ,council Stood, cried and weeped!
Tahoe south wind, blew up a storm,Cole BODY washed up on the BROKEN SOUTH SHORE$.
MACO.
So I found some small google maps already attached to pages on some of the LVTA website’s attractions, that I didn’t see in my earlier limited review of the existing site, when I suggested they add them in an earlier post.
But they are really small and not very useful. Need to make them 3-4 times larger on the new site, and a bit more prominent, imo.
The fact that I didn’t stumble onto them earlier but saw only text pages and small video windows tells me the maps need to be more prominent.
Whats troubling here is that yet again there is a new marketing plan. Ho many failures must the LTVA habe before they change their leadership. Same board, same results. The amount of money being wasted is ridiculous.
Ultimately it won’t work. Do any die-hard locals call Sierra Ski Ranch Sierra at Tahoe? Does any true local not drive by Grocery Outlet and not think of The Outdoorsman? “They” can change the name but we’ll all still call it South Lake Tahoe.
Krista, I guess you can’t read, no one is changing the name of our city or town or community, its a marketing campaign to mirror Tahoe North. Tahoe North’s marketing efforts have branded it very well, Tahoe South will take advantage of those efforts and help the visitor, not the local, figure out which side the lake they’d like to stay and play. I hope they chose the South, since it is here on the south where there is much more to do and much more reasonably.