Vol. 4, No. 10, October 2007
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Partnering for Atlantic City
Marketing Partnerships are a smart choice for business
Throughout life you build friendships, relationships and partnerships. At the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, we understand the importance of that.
That’s why we’ve taken partnerships to the next level by offering the Marketing Partnership Program.
Marketing partners are the backbone of the authority. The authority serves as the destination’s principal marketing arm, stimulating economic growth through convention and leisure tourism development. But you could say that without our marketing partners, that arm is broken.
Our partners provide needed services to our visitors, meeting planners and convention attendees. We may be able to attract people to Atlantic City to hold their meeting or convention, or visitors to enjoy the area, but only with the help of our marketing partners can we make sure they experience Atlantic City as the world-class destination that it is.
How does it all work? For a small annual fee, businesses join our Marketing Partnership Program. As a result, each partner is listed in our publications, when appropriate, including the Meeting Planner Guide, Directory of Destination Services, our restaurant map, Visitor Guide, and of course, our website.
There are multiple benefits for a business to become a marketing partner, first and foremost reaching the meeting planners and visitors before they arrive in Atlantic City. Each partner receives a 12-month calendar by e-mail that lists all upcoming conventions, and includes contact information in case our partners want to reach out by letter if they have products or services that fit the convention. That by itself is a valuable tool.
It also works the other way around. Each of our convention development salespeople attends multiple shows annually and uses the Visitor Guide, which lists our marketing partners, as a collateral piece to distribute.
Every meeting planner who books Atlantic City is sent the Meeting Planner Guide and Directory of Destination Services. And, of course, our staff works closely with meeting planners and recommends only our marketing partners for any services needed, whether it’s transportation, restaurants, hotel accommodations or attractions for them to visit and recommend.
During large conventions, we have a paid concierge who recommends appropriate partners to fulfill an attendee’s needs and a restaurant cart manned by trained staff who offer partners menus, make recommendations based on a visitor’s tastes, and phone in reservations.
Of course, there is more to the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority than conventions. And our marketing partners benefit from our diverse marketing practices. I don’t have room to list all the ways we help our partners so I’ll just highlight a few below.
Our tourism department travels to more than 20 trade shows throughout the United States every year, distributing Visitor Guides along the way. Our staff also picks up leads at those shows that benefit our partners greatly.
Our media relations department includes partners in our press kits, and when distributing information to media inquiries. They write press releases highlighting different partners and what they offer including a quarterly hotel package release. They also take visiting media around the city and show them attractions offered by our marketing partners.
Our website received nearly 3.5 million visits in 2006 and all of our partners are listed there. We also have an itinerary builder and a hotel booking service, which promotes only our partners.
Our graphics department assists partners with photographs, and helps them design brochures, posters and other collateral when time permits.
Of course, our trained visitor services staff stocks partner brochures in Boardwalk Hall and the Boardwalk Hall Information Center, Atlantic City Expressway Welcome Center and at the Atlantic City Convention Center. And they recommend the appropriate partners to visitors when answering guest questions. Last year, our counselors at the welcome centers spoke to more than 160,000 visitors, responded to nearly 65,000 inquiries through our website and mailed 45,000 packets to potential visitors.
Everyone at the authority participates in familiarization tours. That’s when we invite meeting planners, tourism partners, media and others to Atlantic City to showcase our city. Our partners benefit greatly from these special events.
There are many other benefits for marketing partners, including annual trolley tours hosted by the authority that highlight new developments in the city, special events like a recent seminar that focused on public relations, co-op advertising and trade show opportunities, and quarterly networking functions.
Doreen Prinzo, our manager of marketing partnership, keeps all of our partners informed and is constantly thinking of new and unique ways that we can all work together in promoting Atlantic City. Anyone interested in becoming a marketing partner can contact Doreen at 609-449-7156 or dprinzo@accva.com.
We currently have more than 360 marketing partners, but they are not only our partners—they are our friends.
