Dear Members,

Destination DC is advertising again.

It has been a long sixteen months without it, and now thanks to a $3 million investment by and in partnership with Events DC, we are thrilled to share our new campaign with you. We intend this to be a recovery campaign that generates a broad economic impact to help bring visitors back to Washington, DC to support all of your businesses. Your sustainability and recovery has been at the center of all the work we have been doing to launch this campaign.

Today, Mayor Bowser launched the campaign with a special press event with the Deputy Mayor of Economic and Development, Events DC, DC United and Destination DC (DDC) by taking media on a tour hosted by Big Bus from the Washington Monument to Ben’s Chili Bowl to rally the entire city around DC’s hospitality industry. We are grateful for all of their support.

Please read through this email thoroughly to learn more about our creative campaign, advertising strategy, the editorial pitching efforts and how to connect your content through washington.org, to which all of our digital advertising will link. I have never been more proud of this now smaller, but mighty marketing and communications team that has thoughtfully spent its time during COVID prioritizing how we can support you and our city. I thank them and all of our destination partners who join us in welcoming visitors back to the nation’s capital.

Thank you,

Robin A. McClain
SVP of Marketing and Communications
Destination DC

What does the world picture when they hear “Washington, DC”? We all see it: stock images of the U.S. Capitol Building and The White House, visions of democracy in action and politicians. That’s Washington. We want visitors to experience DC—a city of Michelin-starred restaurants, exciting nightlife, major-league sports, a dynamic arts community and diverse neighborhoods. Our “Experience DC” campaign will strip away potential travelers’ preconceived notions about our city and introduce (or reintroduce) them to the DC we all know and love. Our 30 second commercial says it best:

To bring this campaign to life, we’ve engaged a woman- and Washingtonian-founded agency called January Third, based in Logan Circle. Together, we’ve created a campaign that is local at every touchpoint—from the font on our ads to the voice in our commercial—seamlessly blending the iconic aspects of our city and local flavor to tell a distinctly DC story.

CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS:

The red color in our print and digital ads represents the DC flag.

The font is designed by DC type designer Tré Seals and modeled after rally posters from the civil rights era.

The ad photos were taken by a local photographer, Jared Soares.

The commercial music is by a local band, The Funk Ark.

The commercial voiceover artist is a local poet, Charity Blackwell.

You may recognize a cameo by go-go legends, Experience Unlimited, in the commercial!

The skaters featured are the Lace Em Up skaters led by Kenneth “Rollo” Davis and the X-Rated Skate Group.

The dancer featured is local ballerina Nya Cunningham.

We filmed at 19 locations around the city, including The REACH at the Kennedy Center, Ben’s Chili Bowl, Hi Lawn at Union Market and No Kisses Bar.

STRATEGY/MEDIA:

Our media plan—and the creative that fulfills its placements—targets four audiences: Family Travelers, Foodies, Cultured DC Fans and Historophiles. You can see each of these audiences represented in our ad photography and with a custom, 15-second video.

Family Travelers (15-second video)

Foodies (15-second video)

Historophiles (15-second video)

Cultured DC Fans (15-second video)

Additionally, the media plan focuses on reaching individuals who reside within three target geographic markets: locals, consumers within a 4-hour drive of the District and a broader national audience of potential visitors who show travel intent. We’ve also layered an additional buy specifically aimed at marginalized audiences including Black, Latine and LGBTQ+ travelers. The placements were developed by our longstanding media partner, MMGY Global, whose most recent campaign with Destination DC yielded our highest return on investment in the organization’s history. Recovery advertising buys are mostly digital and include streaming video networks, interactive mobile units, targeted email blasts, digital out-of-home and more.

The newly redesigned website remains one of DDC’s most important touchpoints for potential visitors, and it will serve as the endpoint for all digital advertising for the Experience DC campaign. Consumers across all target audiences will be directed to curated, content-rich landing pages where they can discover special offers from member businesses, attractions and hotels. 

• Content will include a mix of timely things to do in summer and events, including reopenings occurring through the rest of summer. 
• The campaign will utilize personalization to connect users to relevant content, help drive users to deals pages and increase site engagement. 
• Hotel content will be featured throughout landing pages to generate bookings.
• Paid search will target users searching for queries relevant to website content on Google and Bing; promote events, attractions, things to do; and support hotels via queries meant to drive incremental bookings.
• Social media will complement the campaign messaging primarily through user-generated content and the #ExperienceDC hashtag.
• Social media videos highlighting unique DC experiences will be shared on Instagram Reels and TikTok, and may contain audio and editing styles that are trending and are relatable to a broad audience.

Over the past 16 months, strong media relations and proactive pitching have kept Washington, DC in the media without advertising dollars. As DC has reopened, the team has shifted messaging away from the devastating economic toll of the pandemic to proactive recovery efforts and the excitement of all there is to see and do during a trip to the nation’s capital. Domestic pitching will align with the targets and consumer profiles of the paid media campaign and international efforts will keep DC present to help inspire travel as soon as the borders reopen. A sampling of editorial opportunities include:

• Experiencing DC’s vibrant history and heritage 
• Development and renovations, including new hotels, the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, Metro’s Silver Line and Reagan National Airport’s new 14-gate concourse
• Anniversaries (Smithsonian Institution’s 175th; The Phillips Collection’s 100th; Amtrak and The Kennedy Center’s 50th)
• Pitching themes surrounding dining, nightlife, music, sports, hotel rooftops, deals, free things to do, new exhibits and more
• Local economic recovery of the travel and hospitality industry
• Timely overseas inspiration, especially where potential shorter-term bookings are a possibility from the UK, Germany and France
• The return of large-scale meetings and conventions this fall

1. Download the campaign toolkit (PDF) with Experience DC banners you can use on your website, as well as ready-to-post social media content.
2. Send major updates about your business to dcmedia@washington.org. The content and communications teams access this email address and may consider including your big news in content or in pitches. 
3. Upload your deals and special offers to the Member Extranet and tag them as Summer for promotion on the washington.org/experiencedc landing page.
4. Tag your posts with the #ExperienceDC hashtag during this campaign. We also encourage members to continue using the popular #MyDCcool hashtag.
5. Tag DDC’s social accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for potential amplification.