Springfield CVB surprises with direct-mail campaign

Since September, CVB officials have sent out about 1,200 postcards and pop-up cards to planners across the country. The theme is simple: Springfield is changing; come check it out.

“We wanted a piece that people see and go, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that for Springfield, Missouri.’ Because that’s exactly where we’re headed with a more of a metropolitan feel,” said Mar’Ellen Felin, CVB’s communications director, who spearheaded the campaign.

Attractions like the expo center, minor league ballpark and Wonders of Wildlife museum – the kind of facilities that make larger cities hum – are creating a new image of Springfield. It’s an image the campaign portrays in several dimensions, starting with a pop-up mailer, the first of three pieces.

“It is a really clever piece that presents Springfield in a new way,” said Dana Maugans, who is in charge of targeting campaign prospects as CVB’s sales director. “We wanted to promote Springfield’s new look.”

With a bright blue sky as the backdrop, the pop-up card cover reads: “Sometimes when you’re planning a meeting or convention …” followed inside by, “great ideas just start popping up.”

A die-cut cityscape collage featuring Hammons Field, Hammons Tower, Springfield Expo Center and Hammons Hall, among other buildings, jumps from the 5-by-7-inch card.

While the pop-up piece is the attention grabber, a subtle postcard with similar pictures is the second piece of the campaign. The postcard has multiple purposes; Maugans uses it as a pre-trade show mailer to invite conventioneers to CVB’s booth or as a card-stock note to thank someone for stopping by. She’s planning to send it before bid presentations to various organizations’ board members.

“They are so flexible that we can use them in so many ways,” Maugans said. “Maybe I just want to send a note to a meeting planner saying thank you for visiting with me on the phone about (their) convention needs. I can write on back of the post card.”

The final campaign piece, a 6-by-9-inch folder featuring various inserts, will soon go to the printer and should hit the streets later this month.

The inserts are interchangeable, depending on the targeted groups, such as religious, large convention or conservation.

Flexible pieces

Such flexibility is key for CVB officials, and it was a goal of Schilling/Sellmeyer & Associates Inc., the advertising firm hired to produce the pieces.

“They are using it in a variety of ways, which is good,” said Jim Bailey, account executive and copywriter for the campaign, adding that its impact is equally important.

“We all receive things that don’t really attract our attention. I think we are in complete agreement with the CVB and the chamber and everybody else that promotes Springfield that there is a tremendous amount of opportunities here for people to visit and stay, whether it is vacation or business or both.

“It’s been difficult, I think, to get people to notice us. Even though people around here know what a value it is, people in other places don’t have the same perception. We’re trying to change those,” Bailey said.

Good response

Early response indicates perceptions are changing, said Maugans, who recently took the pop-up to the American Society of Association Executives show in Minneapolis. She plans to send postcards to prospects before the Religious Conference Managers Association convention Jan. 25-28 in St. Louis, and Destination Showcase March 3 in Washington, D.C.

“It’s increased our booth traffic at some of the shows that we’ve been to,” Maugans said.

McCann Printing churned out 7,500 of each postcard and pop-up piece. Another 7,500 folders are slated to go to print, but Bailey said a printing company has not been selected.

With more changes around the corner, most notably a downtown arena, Felin said the pieces should allow CVB to change impressions through 2006.

“The impression that it gives … it grabs you. It’s a surprise and that’s how we’re positioning Springfield as right now – a surprise,” Felin said.

The campaign is part of the 2005 Missouri Division of Tourism’s cooperative marketing program – a $120,000 project, with half funded by the Division of Tourism and the remainder by the CVB.