Case Studies

Background

The July issue of Arizona Highways magazine was dedicated to Flagstaff, Ariz., featuring its rich history, places to shop, dine, stay and play.  This presented an opportunity to build brand awareness for the iconic magazine in Flagstaff and surrounding northern Ariz. communities. Barclay was tasked with creating a special event to build brand awareness of Arizona Highways magazine in Flagstaff and surrounding communities as well as provide a news angle to promote the issue throughout the state.

The Barclay Advantage

Barclay partnered with the Flagstaff Downtown Business Alliance and the Flagstaff Convention and Visitors Bureau to create an Arizona Highways “Passport to Flagstaff” weekend.  Downtown businesses, hotels and attractions were invited to participate in the weekend by offering a discount to anyone presenting a “passport.” Consumers could obtain a passport as well as a list of participating businesses by logging on to the Arizona Highways Web site.  Through the databases of participating businesses and organizations as well as Arizona Highways, more than 300,000 people were invited to participate via an eblast. 

In addition to offering the “passport” discount, the Barclay created events throughout the weekend such as hikes, photography workshops and “passport” parties that were open to the public.  Arizona Highways set up base in the town square to sell subscriptions, books and other merchandise as well as to hand out passports.  All participating businesses displayed enlarged copies of the magazine’s cover (featuring a scene of Flagstaff) in their store windows to alert customers that they were participating in the special weekend.

Results

According to the Flagstaff Downtown Business Alliance, there has never been such a high level of participation from downtown businesses in any such event.  Barclay secured numerous story placements in print, television and radio interviews. The social media campaign surrounding the event took on a life of its own – more than 1,300 tweets were generated by the DBA alone.  The Arizona Highways Web site received more visits from searches than it had in more than six months and the “passport” page was the top content page with more than 2,500 visits.  The City of Flagstaff wants to repeat the event in 2010 and the City of Prescott has also requested a “Passport to Prescott” for 2011.