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Destination On The Left

Destination On The Left is a travel and tourism industry podcast hosted by Travel Alliance Partnership. Each episode explores successful collaborations, creative marketing ideas and best practices for both consumer and travel trade marketing programs. Interviews are a mix of Destination Marketers, Industry Leaders, Consultants and businesses in the industry.
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Now displaying: 2016
Dec 21, 2016

In this episode, you will learn about Facebook ad campaigns from Camille Zess, Consultant at Break The Ice Media.

Camille is adept at working in the digital media space. Her passion for creating online and email marketing campaigns shows in the high quality and creative work that she produces. She is an accomplished writer, creating content for social media, websites, blogs, the press, advertising, journalism, and research writing. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Hiram College and uses her flexibility with words to capture the voice of the brands Break The Ice works with.

Her personal strengths include an advanced understanding of marketing, a talent and passion for copywriting and the ability to produce results.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What Camille does at Break The Ice Media
  • The importance of staying on top of the changes in the ad dashboard
  • How to choose the right campaign objective
  • Why you need to be clear on the demographics of your audience before launching a campaign
  • How to keep an audience from being too narrow and using lookalike audiences
  • How Facebook judge’s ad images and what makes a good image
  • The new ad tools and why they’re important including website conversion and lead generation
  • Why the best use of your ad dollars isn’t boosting
  • Facebook Campaign work Camille has done for Wayne County’s Annual Apple Tasting Tour
  • How to structure the landing page for a campaign
  • Instagram ads
  • Why weekly monitoring and patience is important with an ad campaign
  • What Facebook’s “Standard Events” and where you need a coding expert

Resources:

Dec 14, 2016

In this episode, you will learn about destination marketing strategies, the benefits of FAM trips, and strategies for businesses to prepare for groups from Rhonda Vaccaro, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Break The Ice Media.

Rhonda has more than 20 years sales and new business development experience. She has worked in technology, environmental services and hospitality and travel industries. She is a master at creating relationships, working with prospects and turning them into sales for Break The Ice Media’s tourism clients. She has a deep understating of sales strategies, relationship development and creating win-win opportunities.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What Rhonda does at Break The Ice Media
  • How Rhonda works with receptive operators to make their lives easier
  • Marketing and sales tactics that Rhonda uses with receptive operators
  • The proper follow-up and why it’s important in marketing
  • Why Rhonda loves FAM tours
  • The importance of educating everyone involved on how they will benefit from a FAM tour
  • Why communication is key for a successful FAM
  • How to treat your FAM guests as VIPs
  • Remembering to have fun during a FAM tour
  • What a business needs to do before they’re group ready

Resources:

Dec 7, 2016

Sarah Blackwell is a Consultant at Break The Ice Media.

Sarah brings knowledge of the public relations industry to her work at Break the Ice Media, including the ability to write, pitch, and tell a great story. Her experience working with journalists and passion for PR and social media has allowed her to help her clients get great exposure and effectively connect with their target audience. She is a graduate of The College at Brockport, SUNY, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism/Broadcasting (concentration: PR) and a dual degree in English. She joined Break The Ice Media in 2013, and brought with her hospitality and marketing experience from internships at Disney, Southwest Airlines, American Cancer Society, and Susan B Anthony House. She is very involved with the Public Relations Society of America, Rochester Chapter, co-chairing both the Young PR Professionals and PRism Awards Committee.

Her personal strengths include her ability to find, research, and implement new media. She brings a fresh perspective, creativity, and attention to detail to the client projects that she works on.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Collaborative PR programs that Sarah works on
  • The work Sarah has done on Haunted History Trail, Cross Border Showcase, and the Finger Lakes vacation region
  • What a Media FAM trip is, why it’s so important, and what makes a FAM successful
  • Strategies on how to use group trips effectively — and why they are losing popularity
  • Strategies for helping journalists do live “pre-coverage” before they write their articles — a strategy that is new to the digital landscape
  • How to build a journalist itinerary (and when to schedule break time)
  • How to fund FAM trips
  • Working with experts to build a FAM trip without dictating
  • The time commitment needed to build an itinerary

Resources:

Nov 30, 2016

Nicole Mahoney started Break The Ice Media in 2009 in response to the evolving needs of small- to medium-sized businesses, in particular, the rise of social media. Break The Ice Media is a boutique marketing and communications firm with a focus on travel, tourism, food, wine, and hospitality. As CEO, Nicole is responsible for working with clients to understand their marketing needs, develop strategic marketing plans and execute those plans. She is also responsible for building a team that can deliver.

Break The Ice Media specializes in collaborations that leverage resources of multiple partners for the creation of successful marketing programs within the travel and hospitality industry. Break The Ice Media views these programs as “coop-etition” where partners cooperate with their competition to create a program that is larger than one they can execute alone. Building these programs requires a leader who is level-headed, an effective listener, with an ability to move a group towards consensus in order to move forward.

Nicole received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Master of Arts in Communications from The College at Brockport, SUNY.

Nicole loves the Finger Lakes region of New York State where she was born and raised. She is raising 4 daughters with her husband, John.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What Nicole learned at the Marketing Outlook Forum
  • The emerging international travel trends
  • Why Mexico will surpass Canada as the #1 source for arrivals by the end of 2016
  • Why China will surpass the UK as the #1 source for overseas arrivals by 2020
  • Why India will be the second largest market for consuming class households by 2025
  • How the US domestic leisure market will continue to grow in 2017 by the same rate as 2016
  • The research that shows that people are starting to see travel as a better use of money than material things
  • Adventure vs. relaxation: what travelers want their vacations to feel like
  • Why people are wanting more and more to be travelers, not tourists
  • The rise of peer-to-peer lodging and what travelers that use these alternatives are like
  • The World Food Travel Association’s study The 2016 Food Travel Monitor
  • How food and beverage influences leisure travelers to seek out a destination
  • Why a positive food or beverage experience will motivate travelers to return
  • The rise of peer-to-peer dining and psycho-culinary profile research
  • Project Time Off: the initiative to get Americans to use their vacation days
  • The unlimited vacation policy at Break The Ice Media
  • The economic impact of Americans using their vacation time

Resources:

Nov 16, 2016

Jennifer Ackerson is President and Founder of ALON Marketing Group, a respected tourism sales and marketing consulting company. She specializes in effective strategic development for growing travel and tourism supplier businesses with a focus on B2B and travel-trade client relationship building.

Jennifer is a 20-year veteran of the Travel & Tourism industry with experience in the hotel, destinations, attractions and tours, transportation, restaurant, and travel buyer sectors. Jennifer has an excellent understanding of the tourism and visitor dynamic. Her distinctions include an unparalleled assimilation into the domestic and international buyer/seller relationship, which results in a high level of successful strategic business development activity. Her past work experience includes working for Marriott Hotels, Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, Riese Restaurants, New York Apple Tours, Skyline Multimedia Entertainment, CitySights NY, and most recently, 15+ years of independent tourism consultation.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why it’s so important to build up the buyer-seller relationship
  • What ALON does to help its clients stand out from the crowd
  • What Travel Trade is
  • Why staying focused is so crucial in the tourism industry
  • ALON’s collaboration programs
  • What’s coming up for ALON
  • Why you can’t be afraid of your team knowing more than you do
  • How to figure out if a partnership is good at the beginning of the relationship
  • Why you need to make sure everyone in a partnership is on board with the project vision
  • What Jennifer and ALON looks for in their clients and partners

Ways to contact Jennifer:

Nov 9, 2016

Glenn Clark is the president and creative director of Clark CSM Marketing & Communications. He has worked as a Designer and Creative Director alongside world-class talent at agencies such as Partners + Napier in Rochester and Eric Mower & Associates in Syracuse prior to founding an award-winning agency. His vision for Clark CSM has always been to create amazing work with an attentiveness to a wide-array of clients while specializing in tourism and destination marketing. His clients will agree, Glenn is a blast to work with and usually the most enthusiastic person in the room. Even better, he'll never turn down an invite to grab a beer.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why he started Clark CSM
  • How Clark CSM got its foothold in the travel and tourism industry
  • What Glenn did for a skiing location in a year with no snow
  • How telling the right story allowed Glenn to help a coffee shop stand out
  • Why you need to work on the business, not in the business
  • What Glenn is doing with the craft beverage industry
  • How to create a powerful, memorable brand through authentic marketing
  • Why it’s important to connect in person -- not just on social media
  • The creative branding blogs that Glenn has launched

Ways to contact Glenn:

Resources:

Nov 2, 2016

For Leah Mueller, traveling is more than a job -- it’s her passion. After earning a degree in Travel and Tourism Management from Niagara University, she went on to study abroad before starting her career. Leah has broad and varied expertise in the hotel, attraction, restaurant, and private company sector. She has been with Visit Buffalo Niagara for over 15 years and was a key partner in expanding their international appeal.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why passion helps you connect with customers
  • How Buffalo has grown in the last 5 years
  • What challenges and opportunities come from Buffalo’s location near Niagara Falls and I-90
  • How Leah has combated those challenges
  • New York State in 9 Days: a project Visit Buffalo Niagara is collaborating on with Dutchess County Tourism in the Hudson Valley and Visit Syracuse
  • How working with competitors creates win-wins
  • What Leah looks for in partners
  • What makes partnerships not work

Ways to contact Leah:

Oct 26, 2016

Leah Mueller is the Director of Tourism Sales for Visit Buffalo Niagara. For Leah, traveling is more than a job -- it’s her passion. After earning a degree in Travel and Tourism Management from Niagara University, she went on to study abroad before starting her career. Leah has broad and varied expertise in the hotel, attraction, restaurant, and private company sector. She has been with Visit Buffalo Niagara for over 15 years and was a key partner in expanding their international appeal.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • The challenges in selling a region that doesn’t have an iconic attribute
  • How Brew Central came to be
  • How Kelly and her partners measure the success of their campaigns
  • How 10 counties come together to participate in consumer trade shows
  • How Kelly’s engaged with the craft beverage industry
  • The Cheers Network that Kelly created
  • Working with competition to make something that works for the consumer
  • The power of a can-do attitude and not letting anything get in your way
  • Building relationships to tear down roadblocks
  • How Kelly connects her region to other regions to attract an international audience
  • What’s coming up in the future

Ways to contact Kelly:

Oct 18, 2016

Daniel Fenton is an Executive Vice President with JLL's Hotels & Hospitality Group. He is a 25-year veteran of the Hospitality and Tourism industries. Daniel led a destination marketing organization that completed a highly successfully re-branding, re-structuring effort that is used as a cutting edge model for others. He is the past Chairman of the Board of Destination Marketing Association International where he launched several initiatives designed to drive more effectiveness in Destination Marketing Organizations nationally. He graduated with distinction from the Cornell University School of Hospitality Management.

Daniel has successfully completed and is currently the Project Executive for many tourism planning initiatives, most recently including Travel Portland; Visit Denver; Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau; New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau Miami Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau; Daytona Beach/Volusia County, Florida; Hawaii Tourism Authority; Visit Salt Lake; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County CVB, Florida; San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau and Charlotte NC.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Daniel’s background and how he got into the hospitality and tourism industry
  • Destination Master Planning: enhancing the visitor experience
  • Maximizing technology to reach target audiences
  • What makes millennial travelers different from other generations
  • How to deliver heritage tourism in a way that isn’t a passive experience
  • How to work with regulatory agencies to overcome hurdles and find solutions
  • Why economic development leadership is now more engaged with tourism
  • How public-private partnerships are more effective than they used to be
  • How planning departments have become advocates for small businesses
  • Why density of activity leads to higher success for everyone
  • How additional funds can be raised for tourism through business improvement districts
  • Why an occupancy tax is not enough
  • Why you need to assume that everyone has some interest in an initiative

Ways to contact Daniel:

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