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The Virginia is for Lovers Story: Lessons Learned for Destination Branding Today

Forty years ago, the State of Virginia launched the "Virginia is for Lovers" Campaign—what is now arguably the first and most successful destination brand positioning state tourism program.  

Here's the fascinating story of how it was developed, its significant influence on other destination marketing programs, and some lessons learned for brand development today.   

Take it from someone who was there…."Virginia is for Lovers" was not only the groundbreaking, nationally award-winning and wildly successful state tourism development program that is still going strong today (Forbes.com recently named it one of the top ten tourism marketing campaigns of all time. And just last month, the campaign  was inducted into the prestigious National Advertising Walk of Fame on New York's Madison Avenue. ). It was also a major accidental occurrence and a stroke of great luck.

How did it actually happen? What did it really come to mean? And what did the campaign achieve for Virginia's tourism industry?

Back in the Day

To answer those questions, let's take a quick trip back to the late 1960's when new social winds were beginning to blow across America, issuing a clarion call for universal love and happiness.

In 1967, the "American tribal love rock musical Hair" premiered on Broadway. Popular song lyrics from the Mamas and the Papas urged hippie adventurers on their way to San Francisco to "be sure to wear some flowers in your hair." Two years later, in 1969, the year's best new musical artists Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young introduced the mantra, "Carry on… Love is coming… Love is coming to us all." This was also the year of Woodstock, and the era of "free love" and communal "love-ins."

To juxtapose it all, the Viet Nam war was raging while young people demonstrated in the streets, proclaiming, "Make love, not war."

Writer Eric Segal hit it big with his best seller, "Love Story" and the popular movie that followed. It's little wonder that this period quickly became known as the "Love Generation."

You can begin to see why the word "love" was considered all the rage, and in my opinion, was pre-destined to soon burst upon the scene of America's tourism industry.  

A new tourism campaign for Virginia

It was during this period that the State of Virginia's tourism advertising contract was about to expire.  A request was issued for advertising agency proposals and a new campaign to attract the leisure market. I was also about to be named Virginia's newest and youngest ever Commissioner for Tourism. 

One of the firms pitching the advertising account was a group of talented young people headed by David Martin, its president, who also had a creative bent, and VP George Woltz, who despite his senior creative role at the agency, also had solid business acumen. Together, the team at Martin and Woltz began preparing a new marketing approach that, if selected, would provide a major departure from the current state tourism campaign.

As a first step, the M&W team wisely concluded that the state's visitor market was static. Earlier that year, a new visitor profile study had estimated that while Virginia's market was better educated and affluent than regional competitors, it was also an aging demographic. And while the good news showed that visitors to Virginia kept returning often—one out of three had been there up to seven times—the younger adult market with the greatest long term potential for future visitation was not being courted through state advertising.    

Why should we continue to focus on the older traditional visitor who already had such destination loyalty for Virginia, Martin and Woltz questioned. Instead, the agency team envisioned an opportunity to win new minds by mirroring many of the interests and life style attributes of the young adult market with children who would later become the mainstay of Virginia's travel market. 

The State's current tourism campaign, "The Faces of Virginia," with its stoic, old-fashioned black and white photos of attractions and scenery, was considered by many to be staid and passive.

Catching the new wave of social change

What was needed, the M&W agency believed, was a communications approach that evoked the current milieu: cool, hip, cutting edge, and in synch with the social change that was sweeping the country. 

The M&W agency's proposed campaign featured the vibrancy of full color photography that captured the excitement of families rollicking in the ocean, trekking the Blue Ridge Mountains and stepping back in time at Williamsburg amidst the re-creation of Colonial life. There were also seasonal approaches targeted to the couples market such as upscale fall visitation opportunities and romantic winter getaways.    

Introducing the "Lovers" concept

But the most innovative step was when the agency decided to introduce and then weave the socially popular theme of love throughout their creative approach.  In the ad featuring historical attractions, for example, the headline read, "Virginia is for History Lovers." For the beach ad's headline, "Virginia is for Beach Lovers," and so on.

Shortly before the campaign presentation was readied for the State, a junior ad agency creative department staffer offered this significant recommendation: "Why don't we just take out the history and beaches and other appeals," she suggested. "Instead, let it just be, "Virginia is for Lovers." Everyone at the agency quickly embraced the idea and what it came to mean; that no matter what you loved--history, beaches or mountains or the like—you'd find it all in Virginia.

It may not seem so cutting edge today, but in the late sixties it was borderline risqué and provocative for a government tourism agency to introduce a "lovers" theme into the lexicon of tourism marketing.

When the new campaign was officially presented to the decision-making body of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Economic Development that oversaw State Tourism, one of its conservative, gray-haired board members responded enthusiastically. "I don't think any of us are too old not to be considered a Virginia "Lover"…and I recommend approval." And so the board unanimously did just that.

At first, the State didn't really know the significant value of this new campaign— not until it was introduced to clients at a national trade show. When the staff quickly ran out of lapel buttons featuring the white lettered Lovers' logo and bright red heart emblazoned across a shiny black background, one enthusiastic attendee responded, "I'll give you $25 dollars for one of those buttons!" At that precise moment, we really knew we had something very special.

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What followed was the comprehensive integration of the "Lovers" theme through all marketing programs and media: collateral, PR, sales presentations, etc.

When the in-state public service campaign was launched, the TV spots featured Miss Virginia USA Debbie Shelton. As luck would have it, she soon went on to gain greater notoriety for the State campaign when she was selected as Miss USA short months later.

In one TV video, as Debbie and her companion were filmed romantically strolling along  Virginia Beach, back-grounded by the ocean's lapping waves, the camera came in for a close-up of her "Virginia is for Lovers" T-shirt. Almost immediately, a new cottage industry sprang up to produce a wide variety of Lovers merchandise: shirts, pens, coasters, posters, glassware; you name it and people flocked to by it. Tens of thousands of bumper stickers were shipped to the State's highway welcome centers and soon became little traveling billboards for Virginia when they appeared on most out-of-state cars heading back home after family vacations.    

Most importantly, the campaign was soon enthusiastically endorsed by Virginia's tourism industry business stakeholders.

What was really innovative was the way the campaign later unfolded and matured through so many  creative nuances that continued to breath new life in it for decades. For examples, ads for autumn included this headline: "Fall. In Love. In Virgina." For the honeymoon market, this copy appeared: "Love is an eight letter word. In a word, Virginia, because all the things you love are here."

Months later, the national premium association suggested to its membership that the current big deal was "the smiley face logo and (blank) ___is for lovers—Just insert your city or state," it suggested. Unfortunately, a number of businesses did just that—and they were quickly followed with some terse phone calls from the Virginia Attorney General's office who had handled registration for the "Lovers" logo and theme line.    
  
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the "Lovers" campaign was certainly flattered to death. Entrants included: "Alabama is for Livers," "Missouri Loves Company" and "Maryland is for Crabs." Then eight years later, in 1977, the "I love New York" campaign was created. 

What the campaign achieved 

From Virginia's campaign inception, positive consumer awareness grew. So did corresponding interest in visiting Virginia. Despite its provocative nature, there were no measurable negative connotations.

In just three short years, the percentage of young adult families to Virginia grew from the low 20% to the mid-30 percent range. Top-of-mind interest in Virginia as a major destination by both tour operators and the media alike also consistently grew.

Some lessons learned

Here are a few things we learned over the years.

With destination tourism themes, market positioning and brand development, follow the golden rule of tennis: never change a winning game. To assure success, you must be prepared to stay the course and build positive awareness for the long term.

Changing campaigns doesn't mean changing your brand.  However, because some destination marketers work on and see their campaign every day, they sometimes change not only their campaigns too quickly but also develop campaigns that don't support their brand. It's an important lesson that changing a campaign has the potential of destroying the valuable brand equity that you have just begun to foster.

However, being aware of changing marketing conditions and ways to breathe new life into ongoing campaigns can help maintain the brand equity while catering to new market demands.

Keeping it fresh

Virginia continues to keep the "Lovers" campaign current, memorable and targeted to today's consumer, thanks to the savvy and skilled staff at the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

"Based upon the brand equity we have achieved over the last 40 years and the continued positive response from our target markets, we know that our brand is delivering on our promise of a great travel experience," said Alisa Bailey, President & CEO of VTC. "We recently initiated the supportive line, "Live Passionately," which gives a renewed meaning to "Virginia Is For Lovers," allowing us to capitalize upon the consumer's growing interest in what has become known as experiential or enrichment travel."

Theme lines, not tag lines

If you develop a theme line that serves to help pay off the promise of your destination's market positioning, I urge you to refer to it as just that: a "theme line" and never as a "tag line."

To me, a tag line sounds like a passing fancy, one that has no permanence and is therefore of little value, just tagging along; an appendage that can be easily discarded and replaced. In my opinion, that's not a thought you should wish to encourage.  

(By the way, in the early 80's, a Virginia State Secretary of Commerce tried to gain traction with a replacement campaign entitled, "Virginia. Exciting Times every Time." But no one really embraced the approach and it was discarded with the quick reinstatement of the "Lovers" theme as if it had never left).

Don't rely on your instincts

Remember that ongoing consumer research is a necessity in monitoring the recognition and positive value of your campaign in changing consumer attitudes, destination awareness and interest to visit.

Was "Virginia is for Lovers" in any way a model for today's tourism campaigns and brand development programs? Not really. After all, it was created forty years ago without the benefit of good projectable consumer research or advanced pre-testing techniques that are available today.

Yet while "Lovers" may have indeed been an accident, it was also somehow born to succeed--and that it has surely done in so many tangible, winning ways.

Going forward, act boldly

As you prepare to develop your next new campaign, after you've made sure it's on target based on your destination's motivational appeals, there's one other very important requirement: That is, to be bold--delivering a creatively distinctive and memorable campaign that is different from anything out there.

It is this "WOW" factor that is found in truly great destination campaign themes… and you should reach for nothing less than that.       

Need market planning assistance in enhancing performance? Call Marshall Murdaugh at: (901) 336-9170.

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