50 YEARS OF LOVE

OVERVIEW

Virginia is For Lovers was established in 1969 and has become one of the most iconic slogans in the world. In 2019, VTC celebrated the 50th anniversary of the slogan by teaming up with partners across the Commonwealth to promote and celebrate special experiences all summer long.

GOAL

To inspire consumers to take a vacation in Virginia by engaging in special travel experiences during 50th anniversary.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

50 Years of Love promotion kicked off on June 21, 2019, and ended 50 days later. We encouraged destination partners around the state to participate in this campaign by creating events, merchandise, activations, packages and deals. We awarded grants to 39 destinations at $10,000 each that could be used on anything related to the “50 Years of Love” campaign. A tool kit for partners was developed and the industry was encouraged to use a special logo and video developed for the campaign.

RESULTS

As a result, 50 Years of Love was enthusiastically embraced by more than 400 tourism partners who responded with creativity and exceptional tourism marketing.

For example, Visit Loudoun branded a 1970-vintage Volkswagen bus and hit the road, traveling more than 1,000 miles to 28 featured events, engaging with nearly 40,000 residents while another 177,000 cars passed the Summer of Love bus on the road.

At the end of the landmark year, we reached 785k consumers on social media, generated 6k unique visits to our website and placed more than 400 press placements with an ad equivalency over $500k.