The Story of Los Angeles’ Comeback in Group Business

By Kerrie Yancey

Digital Edge helped Meet Los Angeles get back their momentum for meetings & conventions business when most of the country was fresh out of lockdown, the LA team’s staff was significantly reduced, and the destination’s post-pandemic branding was making its debut.

 The work and partnership allowed the Meet LA team to gain steady footing in their group sales efforts during one of the travel & tourism industry’s shakiest periods and helped evolve the destination’s brand messaging and apply it to its B2B audience.

HERE'S LA'S BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE STORY WITH DIGITAL EDGE

Challenging Times Indeed...

As one of the most globally well-known destinations, Los Angeles is celebrated as an exciting, creative and welcoming place for visitors. But post-pandemic, even the region’s undeniable magnetism needed some stronger forces to inspire domestic travel from leisure and meetings & conventions. Behaviors and mindsets had shifted.

 LA Tourism was getting ready to roll out their “Start Your Comeback” consumer campaign along with an entire new brand for the organization. This campaign was moving and evocative and would reach travelers in the recovery-message-dense market. During this time, Meet LA – the sales and marketing team for LA’s meetings & conventions sector –  needed Digital Edge to pull off an effective strategy and campaign to motivate group business travel and drive demand for meetings and conventions after a long lockdown.

Meet LA needed the campaign to stay true to their brand identity and play off the consumer message, but evolve into their new position post-pandemic. They also needed to relay the destination’s commitment to being one of the safest options for welcoming group business back while planner sentiment and health and safety guidelines were constantly changing.

Throughout it all, there was a single-mindedness, a united front, that existed from LA’s teams: encourage the comeback – of Los Angeles meetings and conventions.

Everyone loves a comeback story, and Digital Edge couldn’t wait to share it.

The Solution

Digital Edge got to work with the Meet LA team and LA Tourism’s branding task force to understand the new brand fully. In addition, we gathered real-time sentiment and intel from the LA Customer Advisory Board and sales team. From this, we began developing a strategy adapted to planners’ and attendees’ needs.  

Digital Edge  set out to share LA’s comeback story and show meeting planners that the Capital of Creativity was open for meetings and ready to bring groups back together again.

Los Angeles Email Mockup
Kerrie Yancey, Content Strategist
“We knew we needed to keep the integrity of the destination’s branding and elevate it for the B2B side of things. We also knew that if any destination was going to fight for its comeback, it was going to be Los Angeles. It’s almost like the energy of the city took over us when we were strategizing for their meetings & conventions comeback campaign – and it hasn’t really left us since!”
KERRIE YANCEY | DIGITAL EDGE
CONTENT STRATEGIST

We created the companion message, “Plan Your Comeback,” and a tailored digital strategy to parallel LA’s consumer marketing timeline and resonate with meeting and event professionals.

“Plan Your Comeback” took on a life of its own for the business side of LA’s marketing efforts.   

From top to bottom – digital ads and website content to social media distribution, print and email marketing – Meet LA became positioned for its comeback.

While we have a strong internal team with a lot of great ideas, we needed some creative and bandwidth support to execute on those ideas. Digital Edge has acted as a natural extension of our team on that front. They have been able to pick up the ball and run with it, so we’ve been able to move a lot of long-time wish list items across the finish line.
PAIGE CRAM
FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, LA TOURISM

Results

Increased Productivity for the Meet LA Team

Evolved Messaging Alignment With LA’s B2C Markets

Steady Interest & RFP Submissions

The unifying efforts between the two marketing campaigns allowed all teams to create a cohesive experience between the B2C and B2B audiences –  a natural overlap that can easily happen in a city full of possibilities.

The sales team had a strong digital presence backing their efforts and kept busy with group interest and RFPs for future business.

Mya
"The LA comeback campaign to restore meetings and conventions post-pandemic was such a rewarding project to work on. We truly collaborated with the marketing team, the sales team and the customer advisory board to bring the new brand and marketing to life. Now, I feel like a part of the LA team, and I hope they feel like a part of Digital Edge’s team. The relationship has only grown and continues to be fulfilling and challenging as we develop new ideas and strategies to drive business.”
MYA SURRENCY | DIGITAL EDGE
CO-FOUNDER

The Comeback in Numbers

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Media Campaign Impressions
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Campaign Landing Page Views
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Increase in Meet LA Website Pageviews (YoY)
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Increase in Meet LA Sessions (YoY)

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