Mandate Objectives/Purpose:

• Increase tourism revenues within a Tri-County area of upstate New York
• Reposition the region to better reflect its assets and quality of life
• Assist local industries in attracting and keeping top-notch employees
• Build awareness for the second largest wine-producing region in the U.S.
• Create an insurance policy for $65 million investment

Program of Research:

Awareness/Image and Profiling Research:

Longwoods was engaged by Corning Inc. to conduct image and visitor research, in order to develop a regional tourism branding strategy.  In addition, the first stage involved analysis of our syndicated travel research:

• Demographic and trip profiling of recent upstate New York visitors using data from Longwoods’ syndicated Travel USA® study of 200,000 American households annually
• Custom Awareness and Image Survey to benchmark how the Finger Lakes region was currently perceived in the marketplace, including strengths and weaknesses versus the competition

Based on findings, it was determined to build a "brand within a brand" – leveraging the Finger Lakes equity in support of the region’s unique core assets, and to highlight these assets in line with touring "Hot Buttons" – ensuring that the destination was seen as unique, exciting and appealing to both adults and family.  Then to create a pool-out of the umbrella brand, providing a flexible template for region-wide attractions and wineries.

The Desired Positioning:

A truly unique, magical and exciting experience at your back door, combining wine, culture and scenic beauty:  “Finger Lakes, Wine & Much More.”

Accountability Research:

Finally, Longwoods Accountability research was utilized to ensure that the positioning and messaging strategies were on target and producing the desired result.  It also measured the Return on Investment (ROI) of the ad campaign, thus allowing the organization to grow its budget.

Results:

Perceptions of the destination were changed in a positive way across all key image characteristics, yielding unexpectedly high short-term conversion and intentions to visit Finger Lakes Wine Country.  In the first year alone, $11.4 million in incremental tourism revenues were generated as a direct result of the campaign.

Over the past four years, since its creation, the campaign has generated $79.6 million in visitor spending in Finger Lakes Wine Country that would not have been realized had it not been for the Finger Lakes Wine Country campaign.  In 2003, the campaign had a Return on Investment of $39 spent in the local economy by visitors for every dollar spent on marketing.  That’s up from a $38 ROI in 2002, a $22 ROI in 2001 and $21 ROI in 2000. 

The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) recognized the organization’s success by awarding it their 2001 Odyssey Award for excellence in domestic marketing and positive Return on Investment.  In 2002, Georgia Tech recognized the organization for "Best Practices" in travel research.

Today, the organization represents four counties and three major wine trails, featuring 80+ wineries.