On my way down and back from the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association Conference last week, I was reading (the soon to be added to my website's "Recomended Reading" page) "Creating Customer Evangelists" by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.
Louisiana's current campaign features a bevy of celebrities (John Goodman, Emeril Lagasse, Patricia Clarkson, Wynton Marsalis, Tim McGraw, Allen Toussaint and others), encouraging Americans to fall in love with Louisiana "all over again." The video (click here and then scroll to TV) is warm, engaging and down right effective.
And dead on. In their powerful treatise, McConnell and Huba make a valuable point: Yahoo's "Buzz Index" (the most popular searches) is almost always filled with people. Famous people. And, as they point out, this "underscores the idea that people are fascinated with, and love to talk about, other people."
Duh. Pretty pictures of your destination are (usually) a dime a dozen. Having somebody famous gush about you? Priceless.
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