Brand Refresh:
City of Virginia Beach 60th Anniversary Brand Refresh Reveal video
60th anniversary campaign landing page
Statements:
City Statement Regarding Officer-Involved Shooting of Donovon Lynch Investigation
City Statement in Response to January 10 Press Conference re: May 31
Joint Statement from the City of Virginia Beach and the Estate of Donovon Lynch
Recruitment Campaign:
2021 Virginia Beach Police Department “More” Recruitment Campaign Overview
Marketing Plan Sample:
COVID-19 Virginia Beach Leisure Tourism Recovery Marketing Plan
Media & Budget Planning Sample:
COVID-19 Virginia Beach Leisure Tourism Campaign Tracker: I developed this working Excel document at the request of tourism community stakeholders who asked for detailed views of the media flowchart, budget and ad creative by tactic and target market during the 2020 pandemic in real time. Items highlighted in yellow were submitted for CARES Act reimbursement funding. This is one example of campaign organization with simple tools like Excel.
Crisis Communications Plan Sample:
2015 College Beach Week Tourism Communications Plan
Grant Writing Sample:
Hampton Roads Community Foundation Grant Application and Hampton Roads Community Foundation Final Grant Report
Content Writing Sample:
Top 10 FAQs Answered from the Election System Listening Sessions
Blog Post: GOTR Mom Spirit: Renea’s New Perspective on Volunteering
Press Release Sample:
Obici Healthcare Foundation Seeks One Thousand Healthier Girls
White Paper Sample:
Hampton Roads Alliance 757 Recovery & Resiliency Task Force Travel Committee Co-Chair Final White Paper
Feature Story Sample:
Radio Ink magazine article: Selling A Book By Its Cover: I authored this story to increase awareness of a new dedicated ad sales support initiative for prospective affiliates of the The Dave Ramsey Show network. The article was published in the May 2004 print publication of Radio Ink Magazine, a radio-industry trade publication that is published 14 times a year for the radio management sector of the radio broadcasting industry. During my time with The Dave Ramsey Show we experienced 62% affiliate growth.
Website Development Sample:
VisitVirginiaBeach.com redesign (2016): For this project, I collaborated with the contracted vendor Simpleview for destination familiarization onboarding that helped determine creative technical outcomes for this website redesign, improved SEO and ultimately led to a refresh of the department’s brand styleguide. The website was also created to integrate both CRM and CMS platforms, which required significant cross-training for the marketing team on this new platform.
Collateral Development Sample:
Virginia Beach Lookbook: For this 2020-2021 tourism publication, I challenged my in-house content and design team to develop a coffee table/lookbook style collateral item that would accomplish three goals: extend the shelf life of our previously agency-designed traditional vacation guide, be in line with updated branding design guidelines and attract more attention on the shelf at visitor centers. The end result was this piece. I provided final editing and project coaching.
Niche Campaign Ideation Samples, Under $100K Budget:
Surf, Sand & Study: This fall 2020 test campaign was developed to drive hotel bookings and local business redemptions from families living in virtual schooling communities looking for a beach vacation. I developed the campaign name Surf, Sand & Study and directed photography for ads. Using Adara data, I was able to analyze performance of this niche campaign based on hotel search and booking volume generated versus other campaign tactics.
Summer Smarter 2020: To educate potential travelers on what steps local businesses were taking to ensure public health and safety during COVID-19, I collaborated with the Communications Office to produce this video for the campaign landing page. Time on site for this section of the campaign was three times higher than other campaign landing pages.
Destination Marketing Campaign Sample $4M+ Budget:
We’re Open Campaign: In partnership with Pharrell’s creative team I AM OTHER, the Virginia Beach CVB marketing team launched this integrated creative campaign in March 2020 (and again in June 2020 with revisions to address the pandemic) to induce domestic leisure tourism demand during summer 2020. I partnered with research firm SIR for online focus group creative testing prior to production, which shaped campaign messaging. The Norfolk/Virginia Beach market segment was the first market in the Top 25 national markets to cross over 50% hotel occupancy during COVID-19 the week of June 13, 2020 and led the Top 25 markets in overall occupancy percentage for 16 straight weeks. Note that the Top 25 markets are proprietary and defined by Smith Travel Research; the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market segment report represents 482 properties spanning 13 cities in southeastern Virginia.
Sponsorship Activation Sample:
Boardwalk Art Show VIP Experience: For non-profit organizations, sponsorships help align organizational values and goals and help generate organizational revenue while building strategic partnerships. Sponsorship activation requires a deep understanding of a company’s brand to support how affiliations are formed and promoted to target audiences. I concepted and executed this new consumer experience during my time with Virginia MOCA (2006-2012) to secure the festival’s first title sponsorship, engage board members with the festival and create awareness of the festival’s connection to the museum. The VIP experience still continues today and is now known as the “Boardwalk Beach Club.”
Event/Observances Sample:
2005 Virginia Beach Convention Center Grand Opening: In 2005, the new Virginia Beach Convention Center was opened to the public with several celebratory events taking place. I served on the event planning committee and was responsible for bringing the overarching theme of “Architectural Wonder of the World” to life, which I accomplished through an outdoor Egypt sense of arrival experience, ballroom pre-function Parisian shopping/dining experience and VIP tower room decor.
Influencer Marketing to Expand Awareness:
#BeyondtheBeach: In 2018, the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau (VBCVB) marketing communications team partnered with Ayzenberg to activate three influencers and bring awareness to the Virginia Beach passion pillars – culinary, craft beer, outdoor adventures, arts & entertainment and history. Thinking ‘Beyond the Beach’, the three selected influencers were tasked with creating and posting Instagram content that embodied the values, themes and aesthetics of Virginia Beach. Within the span of two weekends, 121 pieces of influencer content were secured, resulting in 56,000 likes and comments and 808K Instagram Stories views.
Multi-Cultural Campaign Planning:
LatinFest Marketing Strategic Brief Proposal: This brief was developed in 2015 as a recommendation to department leadership to consider a test campaign to increase out-of-market visitation by a specific multicultural target audience (now alternatively referred to as LatinX) to Virginia Beach during a signature annual event, LatinFest.
LGBT Marketing:
As VP Marketing Communications for the Virginia Beach CVB, I led the initiative to develop a brand identity mark for LGBT tourism marketing efforts which was used across promotional items, collateral and advertising in LGBT specific market publications. Promotional items were distributed at key events including DC Pride and Pridefest. Additionally, the CVB conducted a lifestyle photo shoot with LGBT talent to use across all marketing efforts to reflect the diversity of the Virginia Beach community.
Canva Presentation Development Samples:
Introduction to the Marketing Communications Team for Virginia Beach CVB Structure Task Force
City Council Briefing: Summer Tourism Recovery and Recording of Actual Presentation to City Council (Start 48:00):
Case Studies:
Switch to User Generate Content Improves Engagement
Tiffany M. Russell, APR, CDME 