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Catching tourists in Baltimore’s Web
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Client: Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association
Job: To help raise the visibility of Baltimore as a tourist destination and to attract visitors to the city.
Agency: Web Ad.vantage, based in Havre de Grace, Md.
The Concept: From Virginia Beach northward to New England, the East Coast is saturated with tourist destinations. To compete, the Greater Baltimore area needed a marketing campaign that would remind people about its attractions and position the city as a great drivable destination for visitors from D.C. and Philadelphia, and an affordable vacation option for national travelers.
Plan: Web Ad.vantage created a Web marketing campaign for the organization’s Baltimore.org Web site and its social networking site, visitmybaltimore.com, on which locals can post videos of their favorite Baltimore experiences. The company focused on optimizing search engine results so that the sites would show up when someone searched for things such as “mid-Atlantic tourism destinations,” placed pay-per-click ads alongside search results and reached out to area bloggers to recruit them to mention the sites on their blogs.
Web Ad.vantage is also doing the Web media buying for the organization, placing banner ads or text links on geo-targeted newspaper sites, including The Washington Post, and national travel newsletters, highlighting specific upcoming events and attractions.
Creative team: Web Ad.vantage, Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, and the organization’s ad agency, Carton Donofrio Partners, based in Baltimore.
Background: Web Ad.vantage is a nine-year-old company that specializes in search engine marketing, online media planning and buying, social media outreach, and Internet strategy and consulting. The Small Business Association named CEO Hollis Thomases the 2007 Maryland Small Business Person of the Year.
Working on Next: The company is running the Web marketing for the holiday campaign of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which urges people who are scrambling for holiday gift ideas to consider sponsoring a threatened animal in someone’s name.
tluntz@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
6:58 PM MST on Mon., Feb. 11, 2008 re: "Traction for Clos du Bois"
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Examiner Reader said:
Why is this PR piece considered news? Its free advertising and just plain lazy on the Examiner's part.
102 agree | 90 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Get some of the crime issue solved too
247 agree | 233 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
China needs to do more to promote the Olympics. All this talk about toys. I am glad that someone is finally promoting travel to China. I have been there twice and loved it. Great job, guys.
355 agree | 265 disagree
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Jay Dasker said:
Very nicely done! There is not a lot of agencies that have a beautiful and fresh looking web site like yours. Kudos to your team! Jay
515 agree | 293 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
“We want to sound the alarm that AIDS is a serious problem,” said Rebkha Atnafou, director of The After-School Institute. “We need to stress the gravity of this situation.” I pray you can get SOMEONE to SOUND THE ALARM! We hear hours of babble on the media about bird flu, one or two people with TB, etc. but hardly ever hear about HIV/AIDS. The government as usual thinks it can be solved by throwing money at it. Someone said, The more we treat it, the more we will have to treat. Money will not wipe out AIDS....treatment will not wipe out AIDS. A monumental change in behavior is the only answer.
645 agree | 431 disagree
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THE Examiner Reader said:
Very well done, my cellphone rang when I was in a meeting, and it was Chris Angel! I couldn't quite believe it! I was smiling all day! Kudos to youdos EVB, infact, I'll go one better, EVB= Everyone's Very Brilliant!
561 agree | 427 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is a laugh. This event was poorly marketed. I tried and tried to find some mention as to whether this event was taking place in 2007, but with no avail. There is nothing on the World Wide Web, including on the link that is mentioned in the article. I work in the area around Woodrow Wilson Plaza and have not seen any posters, brochures,, etc. Also, I am on the email list from past years and have not received any notice at all. This article is the first I have seen mention of the event.
632 agree | 427 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
uh, folks the "spot" is at the top...duh!
544 agree | 457 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why aren't we able to view the spot? Get with it Examiner!
477 agree | 443 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
nice stuff! great campaign.
582 agree | 445 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
hog wash!
805 agree | 485 disagree
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