in May issue of Outside Magazine.
At a meeting of the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership in City Hall yesterday, Travel Oregon unveiled details of how cycling fits into their $1 million national marketing campaign.
Cycling is one of three main pillars (along with outdoor recreation and, somewhat inexplicably, golf) of Travel Oregon’s current “Adventurecation” campaign. At the meeting yesterday, Travel Oregon marketing staffer Michael Sturdevant took us through the details of the campaign and shared some of the materials that go along with it.
The most exciting bit of marketing they’ve developed (with ad agency Wieden + Kennedy) is a video about what just might be the world’s cutest real-life cycling couple – Michelle Ruber and Klaas de Jonge. The pair met on bikes and they continue their love affair with bike touring (and each other) in a sweet video that Travel Oregon is using as a banner ad on websites and as a standalone video to promote their campaign. Check out the video below:
In addition to the video, Travel Oregon has a huge insert into the May issue of Outside Magazine (which also features a report on Portland from the Bike Snob). The insert is right at the end of the special Bike Guide which appears in a version of the magazine mailed to Outside’s nearly 500,000 bike-interested subscribers (it doesn’t appear in the newsstand version). The insert features Travel Oregon’s “A cyclist’s dream of Oregon” graphics and folds out into a large map of illustrations and photos of things to do on a bike trip throughout the state.
In addition to Outside, Sturdevant says they’ve purchased ad space in National Geographic magazine and online at Bicycling.com. Total ad budget for the entire Adventurecation campaign totals more than $1 million (money which an Travel Oregon rep says is pure economic development because it comes back to our state in tourism spending).
The ads lead to a special cycling page on the Travel Oregon website which features an interactive version of the Outside magazine map insert. The site also features a prominent link to RideOregonRide.com, a list of special deals for bike tourists, and a suggested itinerary of a seven-day wine country bike trip.
Travel Oregon is running a contest for each of the three activities (golf, outdoor adventure, cycling) the campaign focuses on. Yesterday we learned that they’ve had over 18,000 entries total and that 11,000 of those were for the cycling prize, making it the most popular of the three.
The cycling component of the Adventurecation campaign runs through mid-May.
This is just one of many exciting developments on the statewide bike tourism front. Stay tuned for more coverage and make plans to the Oregon Bike Summit on June 4th to learn more and get involved.
Thanks for reading.
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OK marketing done, now how about working with the Port of Portland to prevent airlines from charging extra for bicycles that fit within regular luggage on any flight that goes through pdx or eugene. A cap on the max fee for oversize luggage would be nice too, at this point some airlines are charging far more for the bike than the person.
No doubt Bikesnob’s article will also generate bike interest in our fair state. That guy cracks me up 🙂
Travel Oregon has always had a great website and it’s nice to see them playing the bike angle now as well. And by the way, their website is an excellent example of GRAPHIC DESIGN done well.
I’ll bet they didn’t get it done by having a contest….
sustainable tourism (well, aside from the plane trip) – I like it! Very well done by Travel Oregon / W & K. And the “Ride Oregon” website is off to a terrific start.
crud, K. beat me to a snarky graphic design contest remark.