With fall campaigns concluding and the holiday season ramping up, there’s a lot going on in your world. Every week, Bull Moose Marketing gathers the top resources and headlines to keep you updated on industry trends and opportunities. This week, you can RSVP for a destination branding webinar, learn about tourism recovery in Hawaii and how to evaluate whether signing with an agency is the right move for your destination. And, to help you take full advantage of the holiday season, we’re sharing a social media giveaway how-to guide. There’s lots of good stuff this week, so keep reading!

Slogans, taglines, logos… Many of us associate these terms with branding, but they aren’t what branding really is. Branding is more complex than just what colors you’ll use on your destination’s website. Branding is a promise to your visitors— and good brands deliver on that promise.
For destination branding to work, you need to think about what makes your destination unique. Consider why visitors will benefit from visiting and get your stakeholders and community on board. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• How do people perceive your destination?
• Do you deliver on the experience you promise visitors?
• Does your current branding authentically represent your community?
• Which branding elements do you currently have in place? Are they enough to accomplish your goals?

Branding your destination can feel overwhelming and sometimes the best way isn’t always clear. But that’s where we come in. RSVP for our webinar “Welcome to the Brandlands: Branding Your Destination” on Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. Experts Ron Mattocks and Camila Gomez will be your guides and offer advice on how to build a successful brand that will get community and stakeholder buy-in, attract visitors and enhance your marketing efforts.
To get in the branding spirit, join us on FB Live on November 18 at 1 p.m. for some destination branding trivia. Test your branding knowledge and get a sneak peek into our webinar topics!

Hawaii’s visitor arrivals fell by 30% in September after Hawaii Governor David Ige urged tourists to avoid traveling to the island state due to Covid-19. Because of this, the industry has taken a “big hit” according to the CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, Mufi Hannemann. But after Ige lifted restrictions on vaccinated tourists two weeks ago, Hawaii’s tourism industry is seeing business again, giving tourism professionals some hope after a difficult pandemic.
While business is picking back up again, experts don’t expect a huge flood of tourists right away. Instead, they say it will take time for tourists to rise to pre-pandemic levels.
“It’s not going to be like flipping a switch… But we expect some improving bookings over the next couple of months, we expect a relatively busy holiday season,” the senior vice president of marketing for Hawaiian Airlines Avi Mannis said.
It will take time for DMOs all across the country to get visitor levels back to normal, but that’s no reason for distress. Instead, it’s a great opportunity to look inward and evaluate your marketing and branding strategies. Making sure you are prepared will put you a step ahead of the competition as visitor levels continue to increase post-pandemic.

Are you struggling to meet your marketing goals? Does your team have limited internal resources? Is your content not performing as well as you’d like? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it might be time to consider hiring a digital marketing agency.
Hiring an agency to tackle your marketing initiatives is not a sign of defeat. Instead, it opens up a wealth of opportunities for your organization. A digital marketing agency has access to a variety of tools and marketing knowledge that will greatly propel your marketing efforts towards success. The extra help will also take a load off your plate, allowing you to focus on other strategies that will push your organization forward.
A good agency will listen to DMOs, offering them the best solutions for their community. So, you can rest easy knowing your marketing is in knowledgeable and helpful hands. So, it might be time to hand off your marketing initiatives, leaving you time and resources for your organization’s vision and mission.

For many DMOs, social media is one of the primary ways they interact with their visitors and community, making it an important part of their digital marketing strategy. While consistently posting organic social media will help you gain followers, what if there was a way to gain even more followers while engaging the ones you already have? A social media giveaway is an excellent way to accomplish both of those goals while spreading awareness about your community’s brand.
Before jumping in and giving away t-shirts, there are some important steps to include when planning your social media giveaway:

• Choose your social media platforms, picking one that will be most effective when it comes to follower engagement. Just make sure you read each channel’s guidelines for giveaways or risk the consequences.
• Set the ground rules. How long will your contest run? Who is allowed to participate? These are important questions to consider.
• Pick a prize your audience will want to win. For maximum engagement, you’ll want to pick something that offers some serious incentive.
• Make sure you have a way to organize your giveaway. Once you start getting some engagement, it can be tough to make sure no entries get lost.
• Promote, promote, promote your giveaway!

Following these steps will ensure you’re working towards your social media goals in a fun and interesting way.  If you’re looking to increase your brand awareness and engage with social media followers, then this might be the tactic for you.