Every marketing tool must have a clearly defined purpose – whether it’s to encourage bookings, sell selected packages, fill "soft" periods, announce deals and news, strengthen customer relationships, build loyalty, increase brand awareness. Only then can it be effectively designed, aimed and measured.

The overall objective of the multi-year campaign for Switzerland’s national tourism board was to boost visitor numbers from America by reaching out to the travel trade, media and FIT consumers.

The foundation selling tool for the trade was a120-page destination guide, Selling Switzerland, which both "sold" Switzerland’s USPs -- from its scenic trains to city packages -- and functioned as an all-you-need-to-know, booking-friendly resource. Using creative 4-color management and template efficiencies, we transformed the original 2-color version into an attractive and alluring guide that increased both its audience and sponsorship advertising every year for four years.

We were also instrumental in creating a travel agent specialist program designed to further knowledge of the destination and foster loyalty within the trade. Our advertising, collateral brochures, audio-visual presentations, and sales materials garnered the Switzerland Specialist program over 1,000 fee-paying members within two years.

To keep front-of-mind, to provide on-going education and enable sales, we created and produced a monthly newsletter, Switzerland Network News. The print version was mailed to 10,000 travel agents and an electronic version was mounted on the official tourism website. Among our innovative sales tools was a booklet of seasonal packages that agents could order free and include in their client mailings.

For the consumer, we produced a range of brochures -- including Winter Switzerland (encouraging winter travel), Switzerland By Rail, Switzerland by Car – designed to "convert" 800# and website inquiries.

Over the five years we worked with Switzerland Tourism, visitor-numbers consistently out-performed the European average growth.

In 1999, the celebrated private island of Mustique in the Grenadines wanted a newsletter to promote its luxury villas and boutique hotel to a diverse international audience -- potential consumers, past guests, villa owners, media and travel trade. The newsletter had to fit its sophisticated subject, entertain its readers, sell in an understated way, and stand out from the clutter of collateral.

Since then we have written and designed five editions of the award-winning newsletter, Island Times. Designed in a 6-panel, oversized format, it is distributed annually to an audience of 12,000 worldwide. Since 1999, partly due to Island Times, visitor numbers to the island have surpassed expectations and real estate sales are at an all-time high.

Shangri-La, the owner and/or operator of 42 luxury hotels worldwide, needed a corporate-positioning tool that condensed the company’s entire modus operandi (philosophy, brands, service and comfort standards, loyalty and VIP clubs, global reach, technological leadership, management style, expansion plans, thumb-nails on each property, etc.) into a single, easily assimilable booklet.

Having worked with us on an advertorial section for Travel & Leisure magazine, the Hong Kong-based company asked us to help strategize the booklet and prepare its content. An initial response tool, it had to simultaneously attract, inform and sell. Its intended audience covered the spectrum from staff and past guests to potential hotel partners.

Working with Shangri-La’s promotion department and a Hong Kong design house, we created the stunning #10-sized brochure that is now the common denominator of all the company’s promotional activities.

Biras Creek, the boutique resort on North Sound in the British Virgin Islands, was looking for sleek and effective sales tools to reposition the hotel after major refurbishment. Specific goals included creating brand identification, increasing travel agent conversion, and stimulating direct consumer bookings.

Our brochure and its complimentary tariff card won a Gold at the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) awards. It was seamlessly converted into the resort’s web site. Combined with an effective PR campaign and strong sales support, the brochure/website made Biras one of the hottest properties in the Caribbean with an 85% year-round occupancy and an ever-increasing ADR.

To claim a share of the wedding market, we designed ads for publications like Elegant Bride, and created a customized brochure – with package details – to convert inquiries. As a direct result, wedding-related bookings soared.

Other tools include tariff cards, letterhead, a staff orientation booklet and logo/laminated menu covers. Sharing a consistent design and content, these tools made Biras Creek one of the Caribbean’s most recognized resort brands.