How will Denver awaken you?
That’s the question the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau hopes hundreds of thousands of tourists across the country will respond to this summer from a $3 million advertising campaign.
The consumer-oriented campaign highlights Denver’s cultural pleasures – such as the expansion of the Denver Art Museum and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and its nearby outdoor amenities – including Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Mount Evans.
“We really feel that this campaign awakens all the senses,” said bureau head Richard Scharf, who compared marketing Denver without promoting the mountains to the Denver Nuggets unnecessarily benching star player Carmelo Anthony.
“They are a great backdrop. The average visitor wants to experience our urban, dynamic city, and also take a jaunt to the mountains.”
The largest tourism ad campaign ever launched by the bureau, it will include magazine, outdoor and TV ads, along with newspaper inserts, direct-mail pieces and e-mail blasts. Designed by local agency Karsh & Hagan, the ads will appear in national outlets such as Travel & Leisure, Sunset, National Geographic Traveler and the Chicago Tribune, and online at sites such as NYTimes.com. They are expected to be viewed up to a total of 150 million times.
The bureau also is targeting three regional markets – Albuquerque, Phoenix and Omaha – with intense blitzes, including six weeks of local and cable TV ads and 20 outdoor billboards.
“These are three primary markets that we’re seeing a lot of interest from and they’re very affordable, so we can make the most of our budget,” Scharf said.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
