CA Advertising Effectiveness & ROI

California Tourism has tracked the effectiveness and ROI of its advertising efforts for many years, using the
same methodology since 2004. The research efforts follow the same pattern so that results will be comparable
to past years.  Advertising research is conducted in two phases.

Phase 1 is conducted immediately after the conclusion of an ad run and measures:
1) the reach of the campaign; 2) reactions to the creative; 3) the impact of the campaign on changing
attitudes toward California and; 4) the ways in which the campaign influenced consumer interest in visiting
the state.

Phase 2 of the advertising research is conducted after a period of time deemed reasonable to allow for travel
which is related to advertising exposure. It measures:

1) incremental travel and spending associated with California Tourism’s marketing efforts. 2) ROI as determined by this travel spending in relation to campaign expenditures.

CTTC and its research partners, Strategic Marketing and Research, Incorporated (SMARI) and Rakuten Research,
attempt to be conservative in calculating ROI by only considering incremental travel and not influenced travel. 
Also, in estimating total audience  CTTC considers only its target demographic and not the whole population
exposed to the advertising.

                              Ad Effectiveness                                            ROI

Domestic:             2006, 2007, 2008                                           2006, 2007, 2008     

    Winter:               2007 , 2008 , 2009                                         2007

 In 2008 CTTC aired three distinct TV ads to a US national target audience.  The ads portrayed three distinct but interrelated
 themes. Because of their interrelationship, the results of all three campaigns have been included in one "Domestic" report.

Canada:                  2007, 2008                                                      2007, 2008

United Kingdom:   2008 , 2009 TV-only                                       2008      

Japan:                     2008                                                                  2008

REPORTS AND STUDIES ON EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF ADVERTISING, FULFILLMENT AND OTHER MARKETING PROGRAMS

Case Study: In Support of Destination Marketing: Building Credibility - Recommendations and guidelines for establishing credible measures of destination marketing success. How destination marketing organizations can build solid justifications for their budgets based on clear demonstration of return on investment. By Tiffany Urness.

An Economic Evaluation of Public Investment in Tourism Marketing - Methods and recommenations for determining the return on investment from Del Norte County tourism promotion. By Council of Economic Advisors, Del Norte County, March 2006

Best Practices for Measuring Destination Return on Investment - Recommendations and best practices compiled by state travel office researchers, by Tiffany Urness, October 2005.

ROI for Destinations; Ten Best Practices - Presentation to TTRA (Travel and Tourism Research Association), June 2005.