Winter 2008

Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau Attracted Meeting Planners with Kiosk and Money Bags™ Promotions

Sacramento , CA - Conventions are big money-makers for cities. Looking to draw in more convention business for their city and compete with some of the more popular convention destinations, Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau had to think outside of the box.  With SCA’s help, they developed the “Discover Gold Sweepstakes”, a creative solution designed to put Sacramento on the radar of meeting planners across the country.

Now in their 4th year of running the sweepstakes, Sacramento has been pleased with the results. “We’ve added very strong customers as prospects who previously had little or no knowledge of Sacramento,” said the representative. “We’ve had two planners who have actually booked their meeting in Sacramento. The return on booking one meeting more than doubles our investment into the Sweepstakes.”

“While visiting the booth, our sales managers actively engaged with the meeting planners,” said a representative. “Because of the lure of game, we added potential new customers as prospects who may not have stopped by our booth.”

In August, after the trade show season ended, 10 names were drawn as finalists to visit Sacramento and see what the city has to offer meeting planners. At the end of their visit, the planners attended the “Discover Gold Sweepstakes Grand Prize Event,” a red-carpet reception where they would try their luck at winning $1 million.

The sweepstakes was a two-promotion approach, consisting of a $10,000 instant-win kiosk game and a $1 million finale game. The Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau mailed out postcards to meeting planners, inviting them to their booth at various trade shows to play the instant-win kiosk game. Meeting planners visited the booth not only to play for $10,000, but also for the chance to be   a finalist in the $1 million Money Bags game.

“We’ve seen a considerable increase in the number of new customers. We’ve had constant lines of customers at our booths waiting to play the kiosk game, while more well-known destinations didn’t have a single planner in theirs,” she continued. “SCA understands our business well and works with us to find a game that meets our needs and stays within our budget.”

In the $1 million game, the finalists hoped to select the three winning envelopes out of 20 that contained the three winning words: “Sacramento,” “Discover” and “Gold” from a gold briefcase. At the emcee’s signal, each finalist opened one of their three envelopes.  If a finalist revealed one of the three winning words, then he or she moved on to the second round to open their next envelope. “Last year, one finalist’s second envelope revealed a second winning word, and the crowd erupted. She was literally shaking as she cut open the third envelope,” said the representative.

SCA Representative Nika Radfar

888-860-3700 • scapromotions.com • scainfo@scapromo.com