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California Parks CompaniesP&P was retained to increase publicity for Lassen Volcanic National Park, which - at the time - only received media attention when heavy snows caused the park road to close. P&P generated major feature stories in San Francisco Chronicle, Sunset Magazine, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, and elsewhere, generating so many calls that P&P’s client was unable to fulfill all the requests for reservations and urged P&P to stop further publicity. P&P now assists the California Parks Companies with publicity at other operations, trains employees in media relations and marketing, and provides general marketing communications counsel. In the summer of 2005, P&P was called when advance bookings were lagging at Lassen Volcanic National Park's Drakesbad Guest Ranch. P&P quickly recognized the news angle within the story... namely that an antiquated rural phone system was preventing callers from making reservations at the remove lodge. Pitching the idea that there are travel destinations where the phrase "can you hear me now?" doesn't work, P&P was successful in getting a cover feature about Drakesbad in the world's largest newspaper travel section, USA Today. Unsold rooms at the guest ranch quickly filled through the following year! Roaring Camp RailroadsWhen P&P began handling the advertising for Roaring Camp Railroads, the Santa Cruz Mountains attraction was using television ads that had been produced 16 years previously. In the intervening years, eroded awareness had caused Roaring Camp’s walk-in visitation to decline 11.8 percent. Within two months, P&P conceived, filmed, produced and distributed three new commercials with original scores for less than $12,000. Walk-in visitation that year increased 6.15 percent. P&P was asked a week before Roaring Camp's annual July 4th Frog Jump to generate publicity for the event. Within two days, P&P had identified a story angle, prepared spokespeople and secured feature stories on local NBC and ABC news programs. P&P proposed the concept of attracting an appearance of a full-scale replica of the popular children’s literary figure, Thomas the Tank Engine, and then contacted Thomas' promotions company and secured one of the few appearances on Thomas' first western tour, despite the company's reluctance to add another apprearance. P&P then promoted and publicized the Roaring Camp event, attracting 25,000 people, making it the most attended event in Thomas' first national tour and generating a 16% increase in attendance at Roaring Camp. This event was not as successful at other tourist railroads, several of which lost money on it. The difference was P&P's advertising, publicity and promotion. Intel Museum2001 was the first full year that P&P handled advertising and directed marketing efforts for the Intel Museum. In spite of the high-tech industry experiencing a dramatic decline resulting in fewer business visitors to Santa Clara (the majority of the museum’s visitors), and the negative effect of 9/11 on travel and tourism, the museum experienced record high numbers of visitors. Non-group visitor traffic increased, especially during off-peak periods. The Intel Museum experienced its first 10,000-visitor month, breaking its previous record of an 8,000-visitor month. Turtle Bay Exploration ParkTurtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding retained P&P to handle publicity for several projects. One was to garner media attention for the returning exhibit, Butterflies! Live butterflies were released on Sacramento and Reno morning shows as television anchors announced the “first butterfly of summer.” The exhibit received additional media coverage in these markets and was well attended throughout the summer, despite being a return attraction. P&P handled media relations outside the Redding area for the grand opening of the Turtle Bay Museum in June 2002, for the opening of Santiago Calatrava’s Sundial Bridge in 2004 and for the opening of the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens in 2005. P&P directed media relations efforts leading up to the openings which included press kit development, story development, pitches to national and statewide travel writers and publications, and opening day logistical and media support. P&P’s efforts resulted in several Associated Press stories, travel features in the Sacramento Bee and on KOVR-TV (CBS, Sacramento), on the cover of Via magazine, in Sunset magazine, on Huell Howser’s California Gold series and in numerous travel briefs in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, and as far away as the Tulsa World, Florida Sun Sentinel and Boston Globe. Yosemite ResortsP&P has handled crisis communication, marketing strategies and publicity development for the Yosemite Resorts since 1999. Among the many services provided to the company, we gained attention for Mariposa County by coordinating a week-long Mariposa/Yosemite special on Huell Howser’s California’s Gold (KCET-TV, Los Angeles). This series included eight programs including two hour-long Road Trip specials and has re-aired on KCET-TV and is now appearing on public television stations throughout California. The exposure provided to Mariposa County has been extraordinary. Most notably, P&P with partner Fortune2 Design Firm rebranded the Yosemite Resorts from the Yosemite Motels, creating a polished, professional look for the home-grown company and positioning it properly as the major lodging provider that it is in the Yosemite region. Redding C&VBThe City of Redding has employed P&P to promote its accomplishments. Major feature stories were secured in Sunset, Via, the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times and 183 other media for the opening of Santiago Calatrava's Sundial Bridge. The effect of publicity related to the opening of the bridge has been so strong that an expected decline in visitation has not occurred, now over two years since the bridge was dedicated. Positive exposure was also generated on television and in newspapers and magazines for the openings of Big League Dreams, a softball complex that replicates Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field in 3/4 scale and to the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens, a 200-acre horticultural park dedicated to plants from Mediterranean climate zones. Mono County Tourism Commission"Out of sight, out of mind" the old saying goes. That certainly was so for Mono County on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. Since beginning public relations and marketing communications counsel in 2003, P&P has helped Mono County increase its profile among travel and outdoor writers, issuing releases, coordinating press visits, organizing press trips and media conferences and reminding the public of the little-known places and wonders to be discovered throughout rural Mono County. Now, when people speak of Mono County and say "out of sight," it has an entirely different meaning. Bracebridge DinnerYosemite's famous Christmas dinner performance, The Bracebridge Dinner, turned to P&P in December, 2005 to help promote production of a new music CD and encourage attendance to the expanded number of performances. With only weeks to go before the first performance, P&P produced and distributed releases to hundreds of travel and entertainment writers and coordinated the visit of media to the performance. KGO-TV (ABC, San Francisco) became the first film crew to film an entire performance from the floor of the banquet. CD and performance sales benefited from the increased media attention. |
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