by: Melissa DeDonder

According to the U.S. Travel Association, tourism is a $704.4 billion industry. While leisure travelers and meeting planners benefit from having so many destinations to choose from, Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) face fierce competition as they try to earn those elusive travel dollars. CVBs are constantly searching for creative ways to showcase their destination so that it stands out in a sea of competition. Recently, Visit Denver and the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau used intricate folding to create eye-catching, memorable direct mail brochures that produced high-impact results for their cities.

Visit Denver – One City, Seven Reasons

Visit Denver’s “One City, Seven Reasons” meeting planner brochure highlighted seven reasons meeting planners should choose Denver as the host city for their meeting or convention. Denver’s brochure featured six intricate folds, each opening to reveal a panel highlighting one of the seven reasons.

To flawlessly conquer those six intricate folds, Sprint Press worked closely with KarshHagan, Visit Denver’s advertising agency and designer of the piece. “Collaborative concepts must be thought through from inception to finished product,” said Tamera Rice Ehrman, sales consultant at Sprint Press. “If you think about each process – from prepress, to press, to bindery – then you can foresee any challenges in the production process before they happen. This is what we did to produce such a precise end result,” said Ehrman.

To achieve the difficult crossovers in this piece, Sprint Press collaborated with Karsh/Hagan to determine the best weight and sheet to use to get optimum results. An initial mock-up was created using 80# White Opus 30 percent PCW Dull Cover. A die-line was created for Karsh to drop its files into, and a black plate was used on the press to determine the crossover position needed to create the die. A die was then completed based on the position of the black plate.

The flat size for this piece was 26 5/8″x5 3/8″, so it ran on a 40″ Komori press 6-out work & turn, using a 4-color process with 100 percent Satin Aqueous Coating on both sides. It was placed on a Bobst diecutter to score and trim, and then hand-folded to its final size of 10×5 3/8″. Because Visit Denver is environmentally conscious, a recycled sheet and soy-based inks were used to produce this piece.

The size of this piece was predetermined so that Visit Denver could obtain optimal postage rates. A 12 1/2″x12 1/2″ outer envelope was created that was printed 6-out sheetwise 4CP/0 on 70# White Pacesetter, 30 percent PCW Offset. A die was created for the die cut and conversion to its final size of 10 1/2″x 5 5/8″. After the brochure was hand-folded and inserted into the outer envelope, Sprint Press processed Visit Denver’s mailing lists and mailed it Standard A Presort to Visit Denver’s meeting planner database.

“We are very happy with the ‘One City, Seven Reasons’ meeting planner brochure. We constantly receive feedback from our meeting planner clients that our campaign materials stand out head and shoulders above other U.S. cities engaged in similar efforts,” said Justin Bresler, Visit Denver’s vice president of marketing and business development.

Visit Denver’s “One City, Seven Reasons” meeting planner brochure was part of a larger marketing campaign that included print ads, online ads, direct mail pieces and more. The campaign was developed by KarshHagan advertising agency.

Sprint Press performs print, digital press, binding, finishing and mailing services for its clients. Contact Tamera Rice Ehrman at [email protected] or 303.371.0566, ext. 127.

San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau – Meetings Have it All

Believe it or not, even San Diego must work hard for elusive group travel dollars. Market research revealed that meeting planners often regarded San Diego as a highly desirable, but pricey destination for meetings and conventions. In addition, the recent economic downturn created new challenges for San Diego as heightened sensitivities towards destinations that were perceived to be “costly” or “excessive” for corporate business travel threatened to drive down convention and meeting business.

The San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau sought a new marketing approach to better align itself with the practicality and flexibility of competing destinations. They hired the Miriello Grafico agency to create a marketing campaign focusing on the small- to mid-sized companies that often believed San Diego was out of their price range.

San Diego needed to stand out amongst a sea of similar tourism industry messaging, so Miriello Grafico turned to Americhip, the paper engineering experts who specialize in transforming paper into intricate works of art that pop up, move, twist, flip and soar from the printed page. Americhip’s patented Flippit™ motion graphic design was used to create San Diego’s “Have it All” meeting planner brochure.

“The ‘pull-down’ feature on the cover of the brochure gave us the creative edge that we needed to grab and hold the attention of meeting planners. We needed to inspire them to learn more and to reconsider San Diego as an option for small- to mid-sized meetings,” said Matthew Bachmann, vice president of Miriello Grafico.”

As the meeting planner pulls down on the large tab at the bottom of the page, multiple panels pop open – one at a time – to reveal the top reasons to choose San Diego as destination for meetings and conventions. The interior of this colorful brochure features several panels that expand upon the value points highlighted in the pull-down tab on the cover. The brochure text emphasizes core messages of affordability and availability, and the fact that the San Diego CVB can provide additional tools and assistance.

To create this vibrant, interactive brochure, Americhip and Miriello Grafico worked together as collaborative partners. “The design process was a mutual, two-way creative process,” said Edward Castillo, Americhip’s new business development manager. “The CVB knew what they wanted – to expand upon our original Flippit design, making it larger to include more panels to accommodate its information and photos,” said Castillo.

Americhip’s in-house team of designers and print production experts flawlessly integrated artistry, technology, dielines and glue points on an 8 pt. dull coated stock using a 4-color process and Satin Varnish to produce the finished product. The unfolded full size, nested 1-up in three sections, is 33×25.’ The folded size is 10×8.” The BRC card is 4 ¼x6.”

San Diego’s “Have It All” meeting planner brochure won a bronze Adrian Award from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International in 2010. It was part of a larger campaign that included additional direct mail and email marketing initiatives. The San Diego CVB used various tracking methods to monitor the campaign and reports that it has produced a successful return on investment.

Americhip combines print with digital media, including video and audio technologies. The full-service printer can make paper talk, light up, move, whistle, sing and interact with your laptop. To learn more about Americhip, contact Edward Castillo at [email protected] or 310.323.3697, ext 262.