North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative Wins Big at Visit California Poppy Awards

North Lake Tahoe’s Treasures of Tahoe and Human Nature campaigns earned coveted industry recognition for its content marketing and digital marketing efforts at the Visit California Poppy Awards.

The biennial ceremony, which recognizes excellence in tourism promotion throughout the Golden State, took place on Feb. 11 in San Diego, Calif. It saw the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative’s marketing programs honored for the second time—this year for Treasures of Tahoe (winner for Best Content Marketing Initiative) and Human Nature (winner for Best Digital Marketing Campaign).

Treasures of Tahoe highlights lesser-known activities and trip ideas, giving visitors a new way to experience the destination. Through a multichannel marketing program that deployed across consumer media channels, the campaign combined short-form videos, educational blog posts, printed guides and email marketing tactics to tell an immersive, aspirational story about the region’s most valued treasures. Illustrating natural landmarks, historical sites and gathering places, Treasures of Tahoe taps into North Lake Tahoe’s visual and cultural aspects with a goal of driving visitation to various locations around the region during off peak periods.

“The competitive landscape in destination marketing continues to evolve among our bi-state constituents,” explained Andy Chapman, President/CEO of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau. “The 2020 Poppy Awards received a record number of submissions so to stand out and be recognized among industry leaders as best in class is an incredible honor. Our collective goal is to manage tourism responsibly and grow visitation in need periods to support local businesses. Through the leadership of our agencies and internal teams, we are moving that needle towards year-round economic stability.”

Appealing to national audiences, the Human Nature digital campaign captured the universal human drive to experience life to its fullest, building on a flexible message that positioned the breadth of activities found in North Lake Tahoe as cultural touchstones.

To drive overnight visitation across a diversity of flight and drive markets, the Human Nature campaign deployed a variety of paid and organic media tactics—each targeted intelligently toward consumer and business audiences. The messaging and creative positioned North Lake Tahoe as a year-round, four-season destination and implemented images, copy and ad targeting designed to draw traffic and generate revenue from the campaign’s target groups. This resulted in the development of over 600 digital ad sets which collectively gathered over 50M impressions and thousands of lodging conversions.

Both marketing campaigns are the result of a collaborative effort between the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative—an entity comprised of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association and the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau—The Abbi Agency, and The Augustine Agency, both of which have long served as the Cooperative’s communications partners. Having seen significant growth in revenues and engagement over the past several years, the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative will continue its rich multimedia marketing efforts to build the narrative around the region’s powerful year-round appeal.

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About North Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a crown jewel of the Sierra. Formed approximately two million years ago, it is the largest alpine lake in North America and the second deepest in the United States. North Lake Tahoe spans two states and boasts two dozen beaches, twelve ski resorts, hundreds of miles of biking trails, half a dozen communities, and a growing number of nationally recognized human-powered events, races and festivals. North Lake Tahoe is a 45-minute drive from the Reno Tahoe International Airport, two hours from Sacramento International Airport and just over three hours from San Francisco International Airport. Visitor information centers are located at 100 North Lake Boulevard in Tahoe City and 969 Tahoe Boulevard in Incline Village.