Tahoe officials try new tourism pitch

STATELINE -- Tourism officials at Lake Tahoe say the blues are gone and it is time to "Get your vacation on."

That's the new slogan behind aN $850,000 marketing campaign aimed at attracting visitors from the San Francisco Bay Area this summer.

The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority unveiled the new effort this week at a tourism forum co-hosted by the authority and the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

Carol Chaplin, the authority's executive director, said the campaign portrays Tahoe's south shore as a vibrant, energetic and active designation. She said it is a departure from the former "Blue" marketing strategy that sold Tahoe as serene instead of vibrant.

Chaplin said the new ads focus on what she calls "passion buckets:" recreation activities that many in the Tahoe basin feel strongly about.

"We are really positioning ourselves in the marketplace as fun and vibrant," she said. "We're focusing a bit more on the active lifestyle."

The Duncan/Channon Agency, based in San Francisco, created the campaign. About $150,000 of the budget was spent on creative and production costs, while nearly $700,000 was spent on media buys, Chaplin said.

The campaign will run from May 15 until Labor Day.

The humorous ads are meant to get the attention of the viewers, Chaplin said.

"I think it really captures the destination's personality, if you will," she said.

One TV ad opens with two upside down chins in a coin-operated laundry beat-boxing with a label, "This is a trip." It's followed by a series of active shots of activities on the South Shore that flash by with the label "This is a vacation."

A similar ad opens with two men who attach the ends of a set of pantyhose to their heads and then begin to compete in a tug-of-war type battle. This image is frozen and labeled "This is a trip," followed by a similar sequence of South Shore clips.

Mikhail Strakov, at student at Lake Tahoe Community College who attended the forum, said he thought the re-imaging of the marketing strategy seemed like the right way to go.

"I like this new concept, that they're moving away from the Tahoe Blue thing and starting this niche marketing," Strakov said. "I think this change is going to be beneficial for marketing."

Dennis Oliver, a spokesman for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency who attended the forum, said the agency is interested in tourism in Tahoe because it brings money to the basin that can be used for environmental efforts. Shifts in marketing to include many outdoor activities and less emphasis on gaming are good, he said, because gaming visitors are abandoning Tahoe as a destination.