Pitching the Crescent City
A multichannel effort by Smithsonian magazine and the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism was set to lure thousands of travelers to the state in late October for CultureFest, a celebration of various locales throughout the United States.
New Orleans is the ninth city to host the event. Previous sites include Philadelphia; Phoenix; Providence, RI; and San Jose, CA.
Most of the prospect names came from Smithsonian Publishing, which contributed 225,000 e-mail addresses from traditional Louisiana feeder markets such as Atlanta and major cities in Texas and the Southeast, according to Rosie Walker, the company’s marketing director.
Smithsonian Publishing also pitched the approximately 21,000 people who registered on its Web site as of September to win a trip or asked to receive more information about CultureFest.
Besides e-mail, the magazine used a printed brochure as a mailer. And the event was touted in the magazine itself: The May issue featured a special guide to Louisiana culture, and readers could send in a reply card for the brochure.
Even before the pieces were mailed, Smithsonian queried its in-house panel
