Ep 45: 13 Years in the Making - Inside Tempe's Rebrand and What Comes Next

Welcome to Aqua Talks where marketing meets bold game changing ideas. Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience. Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aquatox offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Today we're coming to you from Louisville, Kentucky live at the Etourism conference. We're going to be talking to some great DMOs today and some vendors, so stay tuned. Thank you for coming back to Aqua Talks here at Etourism. We're with Crystal Rodriguez from Tempe Tourism.

How you doing, Kristy? I'm doing good, thank you. Thanks for being with us. Tell us a little bit about, a little bit about yourself and what you do at Tempe.

Tempe Tourism. Excuse me. And yeah, so I currently serve as the director of marketing for Tempe Tourism. We are a part of the greater Phoenix area, home to Arizona State University.

Our whole goal at Tempd Tourism obviously is to promote the city and showcase it as a great place for leisure and business travel. Okay, and. And you said you were communication director. Communications at.

Director of marketing. Director of marketing. Okay, Director of marketing. So speaking of that, I mean, we usually go into where we talk about a trend or special topic there anything that comes to mind for you that you'd like to talk about?

Yeah, you know, I think right now something that's super exciting that I'm noticing in the industry is the rise of solo traveling. And it's something that we are leaning into heavily in Tempe. We're learning a lot more about it. You know, solo travelers are looking for safe environments, walkability, you know, great places to eat and dine and centrally located templates.

Tempe fits all of those and checks all of those boxes. So we're definitely leaning into that solo traveler experience, you know, whether that be bringing solo influencers to, you know, promote itineraries. You know, a lot of our video content is around solo travel. So really enjoying, you know, promoting that aspect of it.

And I think it's fun. And I encourage anyone to, you know, if you haven't done a solo trip yet, definitely put that on your list. I do a lot of solo trips. I've been traveling a long time.

So when you. A lot of your solo travelers, I guess there's two ways to look at that. You could do a solo travel, let's say to Tempe where you're going to spend the entire time by yourself, unless, you know, you. You're very social and you meet people or you travel solo.

And oh, by the way, I have family and friends that live here. Right. And you spend some time with your family and friends, but you're also spending a lot of time alone. So I, I guess we can look at solo travel kind of two ways.

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's really any way you slice it. I think the really main core is the fact that in Tempe, you know, obviously you're in a safe environment. You can come stay, play, wake up in the morning, hike, and see one of the most beautiful sunrises, hit a great breakfast spots throughout the day.

We have several activities. You can, you know, golf, you can hike, you can go on Tempe Town Lake. There's paddle boards, lots of water, activities that you can partake in. And then, you know, kind of wind it down, head to a rooftop for half happy hour.

We're having a huge rooftop renaissance right now. Tempe, in my opinion, has one of the best rooftop scenes in Southern Arizona right now. And then, you know, the culinary scene in Tempe is exploding. There's so many cool restaurants too.

Experience. Whether that means sitting at a bar, you know, by yourself and. And to your point, meeting people or just taking in that solo table. We've got a lot of really cool experiences for.

For that solo traveler. So like I said, it's a trend that we're seeing in the industry that's. That's really gaining traction right now, and we are definitely leaning into that. Yeah, the rooftop scene, I like that a lot.

I actually really didn't think about. About it in Tempe, obviously, when you're out there. I spent a lot of time in Arizona, as we've been speaking about earlier. Do you want to touch a little bit about maybe on some of those you.

Your favorite rooftop locations? And I know they're all your favorite, but some that. That, you know, I don't know if you can mention them all if you want or just talk about as many as you want. So in Tempe right now we have, you know, obviously at.

To your point, a lot of them are my favorite. I like all of them for they're each, you know, have a. Bring something different. Yeah, absolutely.

But, you know, at the top of the Omni right now, you have Lucero, which inside is a great, great dining experience. They also have an outdoor patio. It's facing west, so you see a beautiful sunset and really, really cool vibes. The drinks are phenomenal there.

You can't go wrong with Weston. Their rooftop scene is amazing. You're facing, you know, kind of north west, ish. Great place to kind of catch in and just take in the scenery.

Awesome place to watch Arizona State University football. They have TVs all around, a great pool. And then anytime ASU scores, you see the fireworks from, from Weston. So that's always good.

There's canopy. I mean, there really is, as we mentioned, rooftop renaissance that we're leaning into. And we're very excited about all of it. And so a lot of our content right now is shot around those experiences up there.

Because to your point, you know, it didn't come to mind when you thought of us, so. And, and, and I'm, I'm missing out. I mean, I come to Arizona and I gotta come during football season. Oh, my God.

It sounds like it's a, it has to be a. I'm a football guy. Okay. So it has to be a really good time, hanging out at some of those rooftop bars, the happy hour spots.

And you might not get Arizona, excuse me, Arizona State during happy hour Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, probably. Really great scene to hang out in some of those. Yeah.

And you know, the city really embraces those games and the Arizona State communities. So a lot of those bars and restaurants, you know, have specials and have watch parties. It really is a cool time to be in the city, for sure. Speaking of drinks, you know, we are in bourbon country here in Louisville, Kentucky.

But out there in Arizona, what are some of your favorite drinks when you're getting with friends or family or hanging out watching Arizona State football? Absolutely. I am a strong tequila girl, so I stick stay with tequila. That's my safe spot.

I know. What, I know. I've been doing this for a while. I know what's safe.

So I, you know, I stick to tequila. I'll maybe, you know, just do a tequila on the rocks and kind of just sip on that. But Arizona, and specifically, you know, Phoenix and Tempe have great margaritas, so I'm always keen to try a margarita on the menu. A lot of Tempe hotels right now have, you know, the jalapeno margarita or hibiscus margarita.

So I'm always checking those menus to make sure I'm not missing anything. But tequila never does me wrong. So I, I, I try tequila a little bit, but tequila puts me on a different level. Okay.

Because I'm not used to tequila, so I might, I might turn into something else. Well, you know that key is the slow sip, right? So if we treat it as vodkas or the gins or the beers, then yes, of course, we'll find a different personality in there. But I think for me, it works.

It's the slow sip. It's one, maybe two, that I kind of babysit all night. I'd be that guy drinking tequila in the pool, watching the football game. Okay.

With my sneakers on, a hat, completely dressed. Probably on my phone in the water and not even realizing. Shoes in the water. I wouldn't even know if I drank that much tequila.

Yeah. I have to get you to tempt me. I might have to see this. Yeah, I.

I don't know. I think also we're a little bit older now, so the tequila is different from when we were younger. I can vouch to that. I think the, you know, just when you get a really good one, a high end one, it's the slow sip.

And that's the key here. My problem is when it touches your lips and it just feels so good,. You just can't stop. Especially if the weather's great and to your point.

You're watching. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I think you're onto something, but I. I would have to see it to believe it.

So you're gonna have to come out to Tempe and we'll just kind of do like a little. I. I'm definitely gonna have to come up. I'm an east coast guy, but I love it in Arizona.

Okay, good. I love that. That whole area. Yeah.

Great. No, there's a lot of growth. The city. I went to Arizona State University a while back, and the city is not the same place that I went to college.

And it's definitely matured, it's grown. And that's really what, you know, Tempe Tourism is focusing on right now. We just embarked on a rebrand. I was going to go there.

There were quite a few things that changed. Tell us about your rebrand. The rebrand is definitely a labor of love for our office. It was a long time coming.

The original, the brand hadn't been touched for 13 years. And by touched, I mean logos, colors, all of that stuff. So, you know, it took about two years to kind of put together. We started with research, stakeholder meetings, surveys, lots of listing tours.

We, you know, monitored our website for a very long time to see, you know, the things that our people are leaning towards in terms of content. And then we set out on this journey. It was an all hands on deck type of thing. It Wasn't just a marketing project.

We had all departments involved in some way, shape or form and kind of molding what the end result was. So, yeah, the end result is a beautiful new brand. And we have definitely been riding these coattails since it's launched. We've got a lot of notoriety from it.

A few awards have come from it, but I think what really has come from it is a new identity for not only our office, but something that we're proud to promote. Right. So, yeah, it's such a cool time right now in Tempe, to my earlier point, is that we feel like the city has matured. The dining scene has matured, the bar scene, the rooftops I've been talking about, all of those lend to a definite chic feel.

And so we wanted the brand to match that. And so I think we did an incredible job. And like I said, it was a whole office labor of love. So.

So how important was social media? How, you know, how important was that integration of social media when it came to your rebranding? It was our first channel to switch everything over. We led with social media.

Excuse me, we led with social first. The social team was the first person to release the logo. Kind of just put the story out there that everything was changing and then slowly everything followed. The ads followed in the market and then the website followed quickly after that.

So social and communications, really just the way that we were talking about ourselves, the way we wanted other people to hear about us, the way we wrote about ourselves in blogs and even in something simple like a social caption. Right. More of a POV bespoke experience as opposed to like, here's the things you need to try in Tempe, it's more like, here's what we think you should try and here's why. So we really did lead with social when we decided to launch.

I can't talk enough about your area and I love it out there. Like I said, I have family and friends out there. I love coming out there. And Tempe is.

Is in a unique position between Scottsdale and Phoenix. How do you carve out your own identity in Tempe? Being in that. Do we call it a tri state area or.

I'm sure there's more than. You got Scottsdale, you have Tempe, you. Have Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson. Yeah, Tucson.

I mean, there's a ton of things. Arizona in itself is just boomed. Right. And I think any traveler that comes to Arizona is a win for all of us.

You're getting to see the mountains, the grand Canyon, you get an urban life. You know, in the cities you can go farther south, closer to the border of Mexico, you get those border towns. Tucson is, you know, doing great things as well. So any traveler coming to Arizona is a win, right?

Obviously, I'm biased. We want you to come to Tempe. And I think carving a name out for ourselves is really what this rebrand is aimed at doing. We understand that we're not Scottsdale and we know that we're not Phoenix.

I think internally the DMOs work very well together. You know, we don't look at each other as competitors. We know our lane and our role and I think leaning into that. Tempe is off the beaten path.

Tempe is different experiences. If you want, you know, the high end luxury spa golf trip, you go to Scottsdale. If you want the more urban, lively city, city, you know, fast paced, you're going to go to Phoenix. You know, Tempe is, is different.

This is going to be a little bit more slower, calmer and like I said, a little bit more elevated in terms of dining and, you know, your hotel experience as well. I've done a little bit of research. You've been named marketer of the year. Yes.

Congratulations. Thank you. That says a lot. That says that's tremendous.

That's a, that's a great accomplishment. And that tells me you look at destination marketing, you know, you know, through a lens that's, that's, you know, very focused. So what are some of the things that you understand or might see or, you know, might touch on with destination marketing that maybe some other people don't understand? So what would a little bit about your focus?

So we could try to envision that a little bit. Yeah. You know, I think the difference with destination marketing as opposed to, you know, other marketing aspects is there's for a lot of us, a lot of DMOs, there is no metrics. There's no, I can't physically touch and feel the product.

I can't say, you know, I sold 500 of these things. I'm doing really well. This sales pitch works really well for this. This doesn't.

So the metrics are different. They, what we know as marketers and what we've learned, you know, be it in school or from, you know, just working in different industries, you know, that marketing is all about metrics and data. And if you do this, you get this, right? Well, destination marketing, that's not the case all the time.

So there's a lot of platforms and a lot of programs that you know, can measure attribution and, you know, media spending. And this ad looked like this and this attributed to this many trips, but you can't feel and touch it. Right. And so it's always just everything that goes out, at least for us, is, you know, a coin toss.

We don't know if how the audience will react to it. We don't know if they see my ad on a billboard and in Chicago and book a trip right then or if they do it six months from now. Right. And when they are in market, I don't know that they're there.

So there's a lot of unknowns and intangibles for destination marketing. And I think that's what's so different about this industry and especially in the marketing role, that we're just constantly evolving. We're constantly trying to figure out new ways to attract. Attract travelers.

And that looks different for all of us. Right. Some cities lean heavily into focusing on their local businesses and what they have to offer once they come in. Some people focus on, you know, the journey to the, the destination.

But I think all of us are in the same boat as we're all just trying to figure out, you know, how to get that next trip and that next booking. Right. And what that looks like. Travel has changed where people book travel differently.

You know, back in the day, people used to go to DMO sites for bookings and booking links. People are traveling and getting inspiration through social and itineraries through TikTok. This is all very new to us, you know, within the last couple years. So I think being a destination marketer and being in this organization and in this industry, for all of us, it's, it's ever changing, it's rapidly changing, and I think it's, it's definitely a different touch on marketing because you can't feel.

It and touch it with, with that change in mind. Are you seeing some numbers changing on website traffic because of AI, because of how search agents work differently, how that, how. How AI has changed searching for destinations or researching destinations? Absolutely.

We've all seen the hit, you know, with Google and paid search, and you had to pivot and pivot fast. And it seems, you know, from this end, from being on the DMO marketing side, there's so many vendors that are coming out like, what about this? What about this? Or my product and this product, it's like kind of trying to cut through the noise and find out what actually is working.

This is when we lean on our partnerships with other DMOs. And back to my earlier Point of not being competitors, but more colleagues. So it's nothing big for me to call experience Scottsdale or call visit Phoenix be like, hey, have you seen this yet? Have you heard about this yet?

Visit Mesa. Are you guys doing this yet? Are you seeing this? And just really, you know, building kind of a collaboration effort between all of us to really help each other out.

Because this is, you know, I feel like week by week, you know, it's. We're finding new things and things are changing. So in terms of number and metrics. Absolutely.

You know, I would say last year our paid took a big hit because we're, you know, competing against AI. And last year, were people going to ChatGPT to ask about, like, where's the best pizza in Tempe? No. Are they this year?

Yes. And it's wild. And so trying to get in front of that and trying to stay on top of that is a whole nother feat. But as I mentioned, we are very intertwined with other DMOs and I think shows like this and, you know, meeting people and having these networking times to talk and just kind of hear other people.

And I think the DMO industry is very welcoming in that sense where we're all trying to just help each other out. So data and analytics is a big focus point for destinations. Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean, it's the only thing we have. Right. We could obviously go back and as I mentioned, there's lots of attribution models to say you place this ad and then six months later, Joe from Chocaro showed up into your hotel. Great.

What happens between first month and six month? Like, what am I telling our stakeholders? What am I telling the board? Right.

Like, how am I showcasing that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. And so, yeah, we lean heavy on the metrics and the data. You have a great destination, as we've said multiple times. What are still some things about your destination that you don't think most people get yet?

You know, one thing that we are constantly trying to kind of get over is our, you know, we have a very close relationship with Arizona State University. That's a gift and a curse to some travelers from the outside. Right. You get some travelers.

And our meetings, team deals with this a lot. Oh, I don't want to book, you know, my group in a college town. It's like, well, it's not a college town, you know, and so just constantly trying to fight that narrative. Although ASU is in our backyard, this city is so much more than that.

Right. And then you know, Arizona State University has taken a lot of great turns in terms of its reputation in the market. When I was there, it was a top party school. Right now it is top for innovation, top for sustainability.

They're winning awards left and right. They got a great football team and an organization, great athletics department. So the school, school itself is also matured. And I think with that, the city is kind of, you know, rose up around it.

So I think one of our biggest feats right now is trying to differentiate that college town vibe or that college scene to what Tempe actually is. And we see that a little bit from the outside, but mostly from, you know, intra state. Right. So like people from Tucson or from Phoenix or from Flagstaff to be like, oh yeah, I don't go to Tempe, I didn't go to asu or, you know, I haven't been down there since college.

It's like it is a completely different ball game now. And when it comes to sports marketing and what I mean by sports marketing, when destinations, different destinations have different specialties, you may have a huge lake there where you bring in fishing tournaments. You know, you could have a five or six top world class golf courses, or you could have five or six facilities that have pickleball, since that's a thing now. Yeah.

What would be some of the top sports events could be college. Come to here, watch college football that, that you would promote with at Tempe. Tourism. Yeah.

I think that to your point, obviously having ASU in our backyard and the facilities of ASU is a game changer that most don't have. Right. So we are able to host a lot more events than say, you know, another DMO that doesn't have those facilities. We just hosted a huge CrossFit tournament and they utilized ASU's facilities.

That was a great, great event and it brought a lot of people and a lot of people that typically wouldn't come to, to Tempe and to Arizona. So I'm seeing a lot more of that, obviously very heavy on the youth sports side. There's a great coalition of DMOs and their sports managers in Arizona that are working very hard to get, you know, soccer tournaments, basketball tournaments, volleyball tournaments all into the city. A lot of those facilities could be farther east than Tempe, you know, than where Tempe is.

But what we're seeing is those east cities don't have the room capabilities to hold, so we get a lot of that overflow. So our sports manager works very closely with other Cities and other DMOs. To work together to make sure that Tempe is somehow always in the mix. But, yeah, sports marketing is huge for us, and we are very grateful for the partnership with asu.

If I wanted to go hiking and I come out to Tempe, I want to go hiking. Is there any mountains that stand out? And what month would you tell me not to do that? Okay, so you're not going to do hiking anywhere from, let's call it, you know, May through August.

Right. And if you do, it's going to be early in the morning and you're going to bring your water and you're going to know what you're doing. Safety first. Yes.

But I think, you know, in terms of hiking, Tempe has great, great possibilities. There's the A mountain, and that is central to downtown Tempe. You'll go up there. It's an easy one.

People run it or take their time. But once you're up there, you get phenomenal views of not only Tempe and the water, but, you know, the city around you. So there's one, and then Papago Park, Hole in the rock. You'll see a lot of that in our ads.

Once they get up there, there's a big kind of rock formation. You get to sit and chill and again, views of the city for days. We have South Mountain Preserve. That is part of Tempe.

But really, honestly, just being in the area, you're not going to go wrong anywhere you go. I've noticed that. So, you know, we usually finish up with talking about a case study. Yeah.

So I know you just spent a lot of time, a lot of work, doing a rebranding. So is there a case study that sticks out, or do you want to talk about a case. Your case study of rebranding? Yeah.

You know, I think there's nothing. We went through so many case studies for rebrands, specifically through DMOs, and just seeing how people moved and grooved during their process and after. Right. So you have this huge rebrand and you pushed out into the world, like, what's step two?

What's step three? Like, what happens after that? And we did notice that a lot of people that had these huge rebrands, you know, get it out into the market, and then it's just kind of. Like, keep your foot on the gas.

Right. Yeah. And so that's where we're at right now. We're in phase two, phase three of trying to just elevate that.

You know, we're beyond awareness now. Like, what happens next? So very Interested in that portion. We've seen a lot of things with, you know, visit Philly, they've, you know, rebranded and then just kind of done just an amazing job in keeping things moving and forward facing.

So we always look to them. Obviously anything in California, Los Angeles does a great job. It's really just, you know, keeping our eyes and ears peeled to other DMOs and how they're pushing everything out. I think specifically a case study that stands out is Canada.

They did, you know, a lot of, a lot of their ads for focused more around the feeling that you get when you're in Canada. They leaned a little bit into the faults of Canada where a lot of DMOs look away from that. Right. So one of their destination videos talks about how cold it is and you know, that there's nothing to do in the cold.

And I thought that was such a cool idea of really just like putting your faults out there on the front. Right. Just so you can kind of get over that hump and then get to the good stuff. They've done phenomenal in terms of like numbers and metrics and data.

And I know that they come to shows often to kind of preach on that, but I think they are someone to watch at all times, you know, just to watch and study how they're doing things. They're going against the grain in terms of advertising and where they're placing and how they're placing and really going against the grain in terms of the demographics that they're trying to attract. So we, we look to them a billion times during our process and, and very. We've leaned on them a lot just to kind of peek under their hood and see how they're doing things.

But I think there's a lot of DMOs in the market right now doing great things. It is an exciting time to be in this industry for sure. It should be. So other than on aquatacs.

com where we'll have your bio, your links and how to get a hold of you and find out more information about Tempe Tourism, where would you like people to go to find out more about Tempe Tourism coming directly from you? Yeah, I think our website, www.tempy tourism.com is really where we want people to go because we've built a website that really, you know, showcases the journey we want you to go on when you're in Tempe.

So we aren't a membership organization. There's no pay to play. We're not pushing anyone top of the list because, you know, they paid us. These experiences, these blogs, these journeys that are on the website are bespoke curated experiences from the people that know Tempe the best.

And that's the people in our organization. We've put together these itineraries, we put together these stories and those are all of our on our website. Obviously, of course, our socials are always a hotel, a hot place as well. But I think, you know, heading to our website, peeking around, getting more familiar with the destination, that's where I would send you first and foremost.

Thank you. Thank you for being on Aqua Talk. We definitely love to have you again and maybe one time or twice we might come to Arizona and I think Aquatox on the road. Yeah.

I think you bring Aquatox to a rooftop, we give you tequila. Yeah, yeah. And then we see where this goes. I'm definitely coming in.

You end up in a pool. I can take over the show. That's it. I mean, it just.

We go viral, we keep moving, keep the party going. Thank you. Thank you. You've been listening to Aqua Talks, where marketing innovation takes center stage with bold ideas and actionable insights.

Ready to take your strategies to the next level? Visit aquatacs.com to book your free consultation and explore resources that empower you to thrive in today's fast paced marketing world. Until next time, stay bold, stay inspired, stay imaginative.