RFP Application

Humboldt Lodging Alliance 2020 MEDIA STRATEGIES

Proposed Public Relations Services Humboldt County, California

Submitted by Stenger Media, Eureka, California

AGENCY INFORMATION

Stenger Media

3833 Pennsylvania Ave

Eureka, California, 95501 707-497-8134

StengerMedia.com

A boutique public relations firm with expertise in destination communications and marketing, Stenger Media is a virtual agency and can call upon the talents of a pool of similarly experienced colleagues to provide strategic planning, research, media outreach, database sharing, graphic design and other skills as necessary.

SM has been in business for less than two years, but relies on working relationships that go back more than ten. For the Humboldt County Lodging Alliance project, the services of principal Richard Stenger and partner John Poimiroo are proposed.

Richard has more than 15 years of experience as a tourism media and marketing professional. During his career, he’s served as Chief Marketing Ranger, Redwood Coast Parks,

California; Media and Marketing Director, Humboldt County Visitors Bureau, California; Interim Administrator, Humboldt Lodging Alliance, California; Coordinator, Film Promotion and Publicity, Sundance Film Festival, Utah; book author, several outdoor adventure books; travel writer, various outlets such as CNN.com and the San Francisco Chronicle; and outdoor recreation researcher for the U.S. Forest Service.

John, a former state tourism director for California, has worked in travel marketing and communications for more than 35 years. He’s served as Vice President, Ketchum Communications, and represented Marriot Hotels; the Eldora Ski Area, Colorado; Squaw Valley USA, California; Yosemite Park and Curry Co, California; the California Park and Recreation Society and many more.

CASE STUDIES

SM relies on an array of strategies to maximize PR reach and effectiveness..range of examples include:

1. Lonely Planet Award

Richard played a crucial role for a client winning Best in the US award from Lonely Planet, the world’s top travel media brand. First, he placed favorable content in the magazine a year before which put the client on the LP staff radar. Then he worked extensively with LP staff before and after the selection process, providing the nomination team with Humboldt stories, content, images, videos and mementos, coordinating and leading an advance trip by the Lonely Planet editorial team before the selection, and, afterwards, helping craft the postannouncement press release and grand prize sweepstakes to ensure that the public relations messaging focused on client attractions and businesses. The result?.PR campaign that generated more than a billion impressions, at least $1.4 million in earned media and a noticeable economic boost to the destination.

2. Golden Milestone

Shelter Cove, a remote beachfront community on California’s Lost Coast, was stumped on ways to reach visitors, especially given that it was hours from any metro area and required a stretch on a steep and winding road to reach. While researching options, Richard dug up an obscure factoid that could be turned into something, the 50th anniversary of the community’s semi-official creation. Given the village’s complicated bureaucratic past, few locals even knew about it. Richard positioned it for an ideal off-season timeframe, advised the city on travel press

friendly events, stockpiled dramatic images and reached out to regional and national media contacts. The campaign generated travel stories in many major new outlets, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and NBCBayArea.com.

3. Complete Section Takeover

The travel section of the San Francisco Chronicle is often “captured” by deep pockets, whereby well to do advertisers, like Napa Valley or Hawaii, buy all the ad space in exchange for dedicated editorial content just for their destination. Working with an A-list travel writer and the Chronicle travel editor, Richard arranged for what amounted to a section take over, with zero ad spends, something unheard of at the paper. Eight editorial pages were dedicated to the destination in consultation with Richard. They included content he pitched, photos he submitted, a story he wrote, and a feature piece from a media trip he planned. It reached an audience of an estimated 2 million and had an earned media value of $500,000 or more.

4. Outside Cover

While monitoring press leads, Richard found out that Outside Magazine was considering nominations for best places to live in America. He researched who the appropriate contact was and emailed him a cold pitch outlining why a small coastal town in Northern California should be included. After some back and forth via email and the phone, Eureka made the cut, and the cover. The city’s description in the magazine, which has a readership of more than a million, relied in large part on the original email pitch.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND REFERENCES

The Team

Richard Stenger has worked to promote West Coast destinations for more than a decade, primarily through media communications. In respect to travel publicity, highlights include a successful campaign to name a client Lonely Planet’s top US place to visit; landing a small mountain town on the cover of Westways, the nation’s largest auto club magazine; numerous feature stories in Sunset Magazine; and placing the world’s tallest tree in the first San Francisco Chronicle front-page story to run from top to bottom in 90 years.

As a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and PR representative with Brand USA, he is familiar with many key members of the state’s travel media. In his PR and journalism career, he’s placed content with the New Yorker, Washington Post, Condé Nast, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, Parents Magazine, USA Today, among others. In 2020, Richard Stenger won a Visit California Poppy Award for best public relations campaign for a destination.

As a reporter, editor and freelancer, Richard has worked for CNN, New York Times Digital and the San Francisco Chronicle, and more news outlets. He’s appeared on numerous television networks including CNN and the Travel Channel. He’s won or co-won awards from the George Polk Foundation, Georgia Press Association and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for journalism excellence.

Among other pursuits, Richard has written several travel books, worked as a national park ranger and forest service researcher, and driven a Zamboni. He lives with his wife, Gretha, and four children on the northern California coast, along with nine chickens, two rabbits and one duck, Jemima.

Stenger Media, which launched in 2019 after years of in-house and contract work in the field, brings together a virtual agency of experienced marketing, creative and web experts from across the country, including the following team member for this proposed plan, with whom Richard has worked for more than decade on travel media campaigns.

John Poimiroo, the former California state tourism director, has specialized in travel marketing communications for more than 30 years. He’s directed marketing communications and PR at two mountain resorts, a theme park, hotel and resort companies and major public relations agencies.

He also was the founding President and CEO of the National Parks Promotion Council and was elected by the US Travel Association as America’s best State Tourism Director.

During his career, John has received numerous honors in marketing communications, public relations, journalism and photography. The Society of American Travel Writers awarded him the Bronze Award in its prestigious Bill Muster Photo Competition. He has twice won the Frank Riley Award for travel writing by SATW’s Western Chapter.

John is editor and publisher of CaliforniaFallColor.com (judged California’s Best Outdoor Medium and Best Internet Site); writes a travel and outdoors column for the oldest daily newspaper in California, the Mountain Democrat; and is executive producer and correspondent for On Travel, which provides radio features to the American Forces Network (one million listeners). John races sailboats and is a member of Northern California Sheltie Rescue. He and his wife, Joan, live in El Dorado Hills in the Sierra foothills. They have three married children and four grandchildren.

Stenger Media’s two main focuses are public relations and rural destinations. One reason for its success is Richard and John, as working travel reporters, know the psychology of the travel media, business and technology trends in the industry, and maintain strong working relationships with the West Coast travel media.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND REFERENCES

The Record

Stenger Media has many years of experience in promoting Humboldt County as a tourism destination. In particular, Richard has successfully promoted the county as a whole, leveraged the assets of its regions and communities to gain media attention for them individually, and managed media campaigns for numerous events.

In general, SM’s focus has been on rural destinations which, due to limited resources, lean more on PR than marketing to compete with better financed rivals in the big cities. Having extensively researched West Coast demographics and technology and economic trends as they relate to tourism, SM can help Humboldt differentiate itself from competitors like Mendocino, Shasta, Yosemite and others as they vie for California travelers, as well as extend publicity outreach to other Western states, the rest of the nation and world.

SM, being proficient in old and new media, is well positioned to help the Humboldt Lodging Alliance reach the different demographics necessary for its tourism economy to survive, the growing number of Millennials, who do not have a tradition of family vacations; and the still significant Boomers, who tend to have more leisure time and resources to travel.

Measuring and Reporting

Monitoring, monetizing and otherwise measuring the impacts of public relations campaigns includes various tools and forms of analysis. First, number of placements is tallied. Second, estimated or actual audiences, readerships and impressions are counted. Third, the earned media value is calculated, based on comparable print space or broadcast time should advertising have been purchased. For online and social media, benchmarks can be somewhat more elusive. Often audience reach is not directly obtainable due to technical or privacy constraints of the publishers. However, indirect measurements are sometimes available, such as the general reach of a particular site or social media, social media monitoring services such as Hootsuite, measuring landing page referrals in Google Analytics on a DMO site, or firsthand anecdotal reports of success from destination businesses.

In general, SM has relied on a mix of Google Reports, regular check-ins with reporters, and direct monitoring of targeted media to confirm media placements. Moreover, SM uses conventional media tools to determine media reach and earned media value, such as independently audited circulation and readership numbers and published advertising rates.

Various examples of previous reporting, which include quarterly and yearly formats, are included in the Appendix.

ACCOUNTS AND SERVICES

SM has conducted or conducts the following services for various destination clients, including the Northern Humboldt Lodging Alliance, the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau and Brand USA, and could offer its services to the Humboldt Lodging Alliance as well. They include:

Media Relations

1. EMAIL LISTS

Develop and maintain email lists to aid in distributing story queries and leads to destination partners such as hoteliers, outfitters, guides, museums, attractions, public lands contacts, arts and events, restaurants and culinary groups.

2. MEDIA ASSISTANCE

Helping media gather information, respond to media requests to visit and coordinate trip details with DMO staff and lodging providers.

a. State Releases

Submit a roundup monthly or quarterly to state and regional tourism agencies. Respond to state and regional queries, distribute them to client tourism contacts on its email lists, consolidate suggestions and report back to state and regional agencies, seeking opportunities for clients to be included in these stories.

b. Writer Queries

SM subscribes to a variety of sources that provide travel writer story queries. SM distributes story leads generated by these sources to tourism contacts through its email lists, consolidates suggestions and forwards them to querying media.

c. Story Leads

Leads resulting from media relations and media resources (In-house lists, DMO lists, Society of American Travel Writers, Cision Help a Reporter Out) are reviewed daily and followed up on immediately. Once a lead is uncovered or developed, the story is developed and pitched.

d. Editorial Calendars

Review editorial calendars quarterly and contact media to encourage their inclusion of clients in scheduled stories.

3. MEDIA OUTREACH

Represent client at pre-packaged media events hosted by regional and state agencies, develop story ideas, meet with travel writers and editors, prepare and provide press kits and follow up with media, as necessary.

4. GLOBAL OUTREACH

Reach out to national and international media through the international media relations office of a state tourism agency and its overseas PR offices, including them on media lists to receive releases and story pitches.

5. STORY PITCHING

Each quarter, in client consultation, select media to target for custom pitches. These pitches are designed to best fit marketing communications objectives, available product (activities) and desired exposure in traditional or nontraditional, domestic or international, and consumer, trade or niche media.

6. PRESS KIT

SM prepares a digital media package that includes the following elements:

a. Client fact sheet

b. Client resources (outfitter, guides, parks, destinations, lodging, museums, public lands agencies, governmental agencies, events).

c. Attractions (public lands, museums, roadside attractions, historic sites, cultural sites and centers, commercial attractions, destination shops, retail stores and restaurants, visitor centers)

d. Photos and videos from the DMO or other sources as needed.

The kits are digital kit only and not printed, as the latter are no longer preferred by media. The press kit is placed on the client website and, if requested, duplicated on digital devices. However, print materials could be produced per client approval.

7. PRESS RELEASES

With the ongoing decline in traditional media, there are fewer opportunities to place press releases in newspapers and magazines. Moreover, too many press releases can be counterproductive in that editors and writers may decide to opt out.

As such, SM guidance is to send out no more than one planned release per month, along with quarterly feature releases showcasing new facilities, exhibits, programs, services and seasonal news; and news releases as events warrant.

MEDIA RELATIONS

8. NEWS RELEASES

SM issues news at it occurs and is reported.

9. PRESS TRIPS AND VISITS

Coordinate media group trips associated with state and regional tourism agencies. There are exceptions, but SM usually doesn’t recommend large group press trips for small destinations, also called familiarization or FAM trips. They are often time consuming, expensive and don’t generate enough quality return on investment.

Coordinate individual visits from single media outlets, evaluated on a case by case basis for prospects of quality ROI. Talk directly with lodging and other partners to advise of the prospects and suggest whether to discount or comp lodging or other services.

10. TRADE MEDIA

SM works with consumer and trade media to place stories for travel agents, tour operators and meeting planners that benefit the destination and its businesses.

11. SPECIAL EVENT PUBLICITY

SM frequently manages media and marketing campaigns for seasonal events to boost out of area guests.

12. ADMINISTRATION AND REPORTING

The following services are provided on a monthly and/or quarterly basis.

a. Conducts monthly conference calls to review progress and outline coming projects/work

b. Attend quarterly meetings with client DMO

c. Provide additional communications/reporting as needed

d. Clip monitoring and related metrics reporting on a monthly and quarterly basis

e. Time/job reports accompany billing. These reports detail hours and activities

References

Donna Hufford

Director, Northern Humboldt Lodging Alliance donna@teamredwood.us (707) 488-2602

Current client

Shannon Carroll Project Manager, Brand USA shannon.carroll@milespartnership.com 941-342-2408

Current client

Don Leonard

Executive Director Emeritus, Humboldt CVB dal@visitredwoods.com 707-442-8571

Former client (in-house)

Robert Earle Howells

Writer, National Geographic Traveler 310.204.1162 bob@howells.com Not a client per se, but de facto

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS -HUMBOLDT COUNTY

The following section illustrates SM’s knowledge of opportunities for publicity for Humboldt County.

CORONAVIRUS REPONSE

With the COVID19 outbreak, Humboldt is facing its great tourism challenge since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. However, properly planned and timed, the strategic response could actually help the county, which has top tier natural assets, relatively few visitors compared to urban parks, and a sparsely populated region, all within driving distance of the Bay Area.

What should a regional destination like Humboldt do? Timing is critical. Aggressive messaging at this time would either be ignored or risk a publicity backlash. As the general public’s uneasiness subsides, initial messaging that implicitly, not explicitly, addresses their CV19 concerns can highlight that Humboldt is the natural solution for travelers.

After the pandemic bell curve flattens and starts to drop, messaging could then start to ramp up. In fact, regional demand could increase. About two-thirds of tourists to Humboldt come from California, the majority of them from the Bay Area. With affluent residents there less likely to take international flights, a car drive a few hours away is an attractive alternative. Proper messaging is critical to ensure that Humboldt stands out.

At this time, SM would suggest the following steps. First, inventory current offerings and consider new ones that would resonate with Bay Area guests, including families. Many of them could be open to travel before summer since most

urban California schools have closed. Promoting outdoor youth activities like junior ranger programs and Humboldt EdVentures, for example, could be great draws.

Second,.gas giveaway for multiple-night guests could provide low-cost quality publicity..$50 gift card, for example, would be a general incentive, and highlight to motorists that Humboldt is a one-tank destination.

Third, most importantly, Humboldt’s destination messaging can do double duty to address the current situation and strengthen its general position into the future. On a related note, now is the perfect time to pitch long-lead media, such as blue chip travel magazines, who are planning editorial calendars for editions that should print after the crisis is over.

With major natural attractions such as Redwood National Park, Avenue of the Giants, the Lost Coast and Bigfoot Country, Humboldt has premier assets associated with health and wellbeing. The addition of the Eureka Redwood Skywalk will be another such major draw in its own right.

Finally, the SM team has managed major crisis communications before. Poimiroo led numerous PR responses for travel clients in the state of California. Stenger has done so as well in Humboldt after the 2010 earthquake and the 2017 mudslide that closed Hwy 101. Moreover Stenger served as one of the lead reporters for CNN in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. His beat: Covering the nation’s economic recovery.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS -HUMBOLDT COUNTY

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

In general, some of the issues that Humboldt must manage are macroeconomic. The first is demographics. Major California cities have a growing number of Millennials without the tradition and perhaps the budget to do leisure trips. Moreover, given their reliance on technology, their virtual exploration risks replacing real exploration.

The second is economic. California and Humboldt have enjoyed steady tourism growth for some decades, but the rate has stalled for both over the last several years. While Humboldt should rightly be proud of the successes of its evolving marketing brand and strategies, competitors continue to draw potential guests.

Strategies must take into consideration lodging capacity limits during the high-season. That reality gives greater urgency to media efforts to draw in the off-season, in particular the months with the highest ADR potential. Such efforts would minimize issues tourists have in the high season, such as traffic congestion from San Francisco on Hwy 101.

Third, how does Humboldt position itself to various markets: Millennials, Boomers, families, retirees, individual or group female travelers? SM would integrate media strategies to address these questions into programming already in place through the HLA, the Humboldt CVB and other regional partners.

Some suggestions that could be incorporated into shoulder season media strategies include: targeted intergenerational travel, grandparents and grandchildren with flexible schedules; hybrid old/new media targets, that is, digital influencers who also represent traditional media outlets; and midweek marketing and promos, perhaps even in high season.

A full media campaign would of course go beyond these strategies and include levering regional and state partnerships, targeting major media outlets and travel journalists, drawing in more overnight traffic on Highway 101, among other campaigns.

PROPOSED BUDGET

Fees

Research

Expenses

Hours to complete each task are estimated and may vary. Regardless, SM will bill all above services on a flat retainer basis of $9,125 per month, with any additional hard expenses not included in the service agreement to be subject to client approval.

SM’s billing rate is $125 per hour, substantially lower than fees charged by major PR agencies offering comparable services.. time by job detail report will be included in monthly invoices which summarize details hourly activities.

Any approved discretionary expenses (trips, meetings, travel, mileage, lodging, printing, postage, shipping, etc.) would be approved by client and billed at cost. Any services retained from other parties (print materials production, for example) would be approved by client and billed at cost.