Evolving Old Tools

Netflix was a category killer when it burst on the scene in 1998…back in the days when one had to visit a physical store to rent a movie which, trust me if you never had the experience, sucked. But, it was the only option. Netflix solved that pain point by mailing your movie to you.

Of course, in time, that business model evolved into the streaming behemoth we know today. But, guess what? Netflix still mails DVDs to subscribers that still prefer old school…to the tune of $77 million in sales last Quarter. To be sure, mail sales are down 20% from the same period last year. But, it’s still $77 million. You want to choke off that kind or revenue and piss off loyal customers who may not have a stream-stable internet connection, but may in the future? Yeah…I didn’t think so.

When we work with DMOs across the Americas, we have a number of questions in our toolkit that we employ to divine how people really feel about an issue on the table. Several are fairly standard; others we believe to be fairly unique to our consultancy.

One of the standard exercises that many consultants utilize is to ask what the enterprise should add, keep or drop. It’s not as easy as it sounds because for everything one wants to add or expand, there is the correlating requirement that something must be cut. And, in Destination Marketing today, there are several Netflix-ish programs on the proverbial chopping block. But, not so fast…should they be?   

We no longer need to publish a Visitors Guide because it's on our website. Tell that to the DMOs that are reprinting this year’s Guide because they’re already out of stock. Tell that to a consumer that wouldn’t know you had a website if their life depended upon finding it on their mobile device. And, tell that to your partners that depend on your Guide to reach the visitors they crave when they are in-market. A Visitors Guide as a mail-out lure piece has never made much sense…unless that Guide has evolved into a life-style publication. But, as a service to those in-market, it would take a lot of research to prove to me that the Visitors Guide has outlived its usefulness.

Nobody needs Visitor Centers anymore; the information they want is all on their mobile device. First off, see the paragraph above. How do you expect them to find your site or app? And, even if they could…aren’t we being a little narrow in our interpretation of what this physical asset could be? What about having Economic Development kick off their site inspections and client visits surrounded by images of the best the community has to offer? Likewise for the local College. And, can it become a place where visitors and residents can find locally made goods and logo wear? It can (and should) be more than a “Visitors” Center. 

Websites are old-school and highly expensive. Let’s just focus on Social and PR. For those that believe that websites are passe…let’s think again. Yes, a lot of consumers go direct to the Googles, TripAdvisors and Yelps of the world. Can’t argue that. But, a website is the only place that a DMO can own their story. You can get hijacked on social media in a New York minute…and your PR can get misquoted even faster. But, for those that want “official” data and information, compelling destination stories they can’t find on the giants and, yes, those we have trained to check with us first because we are the trusted source? Careful with that axe, Eugene.

That Netflix continues to mail DVDs should remind us that not every potential customer consumes content like we want them to. There are those that will never use TikTok because of perceived security issues. QR codes flummox many in older demographics. And, your App may rock…but even I won’t take time to look for your App if I haven’t seen it advertised (and that’s a big if).

To be sure, there are some sacred cows out there that could be better off as hamburger…but, just because we think a program is lame doesn’t mean a portion of our customer base agrees.