Visit Plano has been honored with five first place “People’s Choice” Idea Fair awards by the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus. The awards were presented during TACVB’s Annual Conference on August 26, 2021.
TACVB’s Idea Fair promotes excellence in destination marketing. Goals of the Idea Fair awards are to generate awareness of the quality work done by TACVB members as they promote their destinations to leisure and business travelers. The People’s Choice competition allows tourism industry peers to weigh in on their favorites as well.
VISIT PLANO AWARDS
Competing in the $3 million dollar plus budget category, Visit Plano won first place for every entry it submitted in this year’s competition. Its campaign, Plano Premier Holiday Shopping, won in “Pandemic Recovery.” Due to COVID-19, holiday shopping last year looked different from years past; people needed to plan their shopping in advance to ship gifts to friends and family they were not seeing due to the pandemic. Instead of shopping at big retailers like Amazon, Visit Plano encouraged people to shop local. Over the span of 10 weeks, the campaign promoted 9 local influencer’s curated gift buying guides called “Plano Premier Picks” featuring local retailers.
Visit Plano was also awarded first place in “Tourism Branding & Advertising” for their Taste of Plano campaign. The purpose of the mobile program was twofold – to broaden consumer awareness of the many delicious and diverse dining options available in Plano, and to bolster restaurant business as the COVID-19 pandemic continued. The free, mobile-friendly program was available to locals and visitors alike and featured a “passport” showcasing almost 100 Plano eateries whose specialties span the globe and include everything from artisan pizza and lobster fajitas to pulled pork on a biscuit to small batch ice cream with cereal-inspired mix-ins. To participate, consumers simply went to the landing page to sign up. A link was then sent to the user’s mobile phone, which opened the passport and directed the user to add the button icon to their home screen for easy access any time. Then, the fun began. Users could browse the list of participating restaurants for a tempting variety of food available for dine-in or pick-up and special offers that could be redeemed when ordering. Once they arrived at their chosen eatery, they checked in on their mobile phone using the passport link. After 15 check-ins at participating Plano restaurants over a three month period, they received an “I’m a Plano Foodie” t-shirt, courtesy of Visit Plano.
For the three month program, Visit Plano had over 90 restaurant partners participate, 1,225 pass sign ups, and over 1,370 check-ins at partner restaurants. They also garnered over 143,780 total social media impressions, close to 5,000 engagements, and a total of over 31,500 video views. In addition, there were also 6,200 pageviews to the dedicated pass landing page.
Next, Visit Plano finished in first place in the “Video” category with their That’s Tempting video series. In the program’s fourth year, Visit Plano highlights more than the incredible food – they tell the story of 12 people who understand the journey of a specific dish. Through Plano Insider blogs, their social media channels, and their website, they explore these stories behind the cuisine and dish, and get to know the chefs, restaurateurs, and food that continue to expand the appreciation of food.
In the “Local Awareness” category, Visit Plano was recognized for their participation in their local Happy Hour Hike events. The Legacy West Happy Hour Hikes are a monthly sip-and-shop event where guests enjoy wine, beer and cocktails while discovering new shops, restaurants and experiences throughout the Legacy West development. Visit Plano is the water stop during this event and holds an open house to explain our services to the community and distribute themed giveaways. This has increased the local awareness of the Visit Plano Visitor Center; visitors are able to meet the staff and learn about the services of Visit Plano. In addition to the Happy Hour Hike, the Visitor Center has themed giveaways once per month to increase foot traffic.
Lastly, Visit Plano also took first in the “Website” category with the re-development of their website visitplano.com. With a new aesthetic allowing for a better user experience, an improved content architecture, and the addition of a trip planner tool, the new and improved Visit Plano website is much more user-friendly.
