Chamber Supports Sedona’s Arts

Today’s consumers are savvier than ever.  They expect to have the same experience from a brand that they see in the brand’s advertising and marketing.  If a brand communicates that their product is the best, then they’d better be the best.  The same goes for the Sedona brand.  Not delivering on our destination’s promise disappoints our visitors and negatively impacts our impressive 40% repeat visitation rate.  Luckily, Sedona delivers.

The Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau (SCC&TB) positions our city as the “Most Beautiful Place on Earth”.  Our spectacular red rock beauty is the overarching reason to visit, drawing travelers from around the world.

Under the umbrella of sensational scenery, we’ve identified three brand pillars that we promote.  Those pillars are:  outdoor adventure; wellness and personal enrichment; and, arts and culture.

In our effort to Elevate the Arts, we’ve worked extra hard the past couple of years with various partners, arts-related businesses and organizations to develop quality marketing tools that help us to promote Sedona’s robust arts scene:
–    A high-production video series that tells the interesting stories of local artists like Ken Rowe and Nicholas Honshin
–    Photography that portrays gallery scenes that appeal to art collectors
–    Monthly eNewsletters that are blasted to 100,000+ opted-in Sedona visitors and potential visitors
–    Monday arts-related social media posts
–    An award-winning tourism website – VisitSedona.com – that receives nearly 1.5 million visits per year
–    A multiple-page spread about the arts in our Experience Sedona Guide of which 275,000 are printed and delivered around the country each year.  It should be noted that this guide has an impressive 70% conversion rate in bringing visitors to Sedona.

Sedona has a rich history as an arts and culture destination.  We have a long-standing reputation as a City Animated by the Arts, with over 80 galleries and shops amidst an eclectic local artist community.  There are many weekly, monthly and ongoing annual events that celebrate all types of art forms which are proudly featured on VisitSedona.com.  We continue to grow in the area of culinary and wine.  We have a deep respect for Native American culture, film and western history, and nearby heritage sites and national monuments.  And, our city has made a diligent effort to incorporate public art throughout the area.

It’s not merely about promoting the area as a preeminent arts scene.  The SCC&TB also considers tourism product development, which is defined as proactive efforts that either create, link or enhance products or experiences that make Sedona more attractive to today’s traveling public as well as appealing to resident desires.  Following are highlights of tourism product programs created specifically to support the arts:

walksedonaWalk Sedona:  Focuses on positioning Sedona as a walk-friendly destination in effort to mitigate the effects of vehicle traffic.  By gallery and lodging partner recommendations, the SCC&TB focused the first phase of this program on luring those visitors already in-market into the galleries via a “Sedona Gallery Art Walk” program intended to drive business through the doors of the numerous galleries in Sedona.  This program launched with hotel lobby map signage and postcards, in-room TV spots, a “web map” digital version, public relations, and social media.

Public Art Brochure:  Distributed at the official Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau’s Visitor Center in Uptown Sedona, this printed fold-out map helps art lovers find their way to all of Sedona’s works of public art, including sculptures and installations by talented artists such as John M. Soderberg, John Waddell, W. Stanley Proctor and James N. Muir, to name just a few.  The program brings existing art to a heightened level of prominence; aligns with the Sedona brand as an arts and culture-oriented destination; and, also links to area galleries to help increase sales.  The various public art locations are now also plotted on WalkSedona.com.

sedona-secret-7-logoSecret 7:  Sedona’s Secret 7 is a marketing program that helps to disperse visitor traffic to certain areas by creating a guide to “secret” gems.  But don’t worry dear Sedona residents:  We are not divulging your super-secret favorite spots.  The Secret 7 sites are areas that are well developed and have always been intended for our visitors. They’re just not as well known to them at this point in time. The program focuses on seven categories of attractions on SedonaSecret7.com:  Hiking trails, biking trails, vistas, picnics, spiritual, stargazing, and arts and culture.  In the arts and culture section, we promote the areas in Sedona that house arts-related shops and galleries such as Gallery Row, the Village of Oak Creek, Uptown Sedona, and West Sedona, as well as heritage sites that represent the original artwork of ancient Sedona.

Arts Event Quarterly Brochure:  A brochure was created to promote signature arts and culture-related events like the Open Studios Tours, the Sedona Wine Festival, Oktoberfest, Hummingbird Festival, Sedona Arts Festival and Plein Air Festival.  The brochures were placed at Sedona hotels, the Official Sedona Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center, the Sedona Arts Center Sedona and in relevant Phoenix locations.  The brochures were also inserted into the Experience Sedona Guide.

snl_logoimage_combined_72dpiSedona Northern Lights:  To celebrate the 2017 holiday season and the Sedona Arts Center’s 60th anniversary, the City of Sedona, the Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau, and dozens of local merchants came together to produce and fund the country’s largest 3D light show on a natural canvas: Sedona Northern Lights (SNL). The free holiday light spectacular projected 3D images onto Camelhead Rock (located next to Snoopy Rock), using groundbreaking 3D mapping technology, which provided great community engagement with minimal impact on the sensitive natural environment. SNL took place from December 14-17, 2017.

Sedona’s art scene began as early as 1931 with well-known sculptors Robert and Mary Kittredge, continuing through the 1950s and 60s with surrealist icons Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning and the birthing of the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America with Joe Beeler.  To this day, Sedona inspires and captivates artists and collectors alike, having become an arts destination the New York Times refers to as a “New West Enclave”.  This is something to be extremely proud of, a marketer’s delight to promote, and an area of even greater focus as the SCC&TB aims to attract an affluent audience who stays longer and spends more in our great city.

For further information, feel free to contact Michelle Conway, Director of Marketing, at 928-204-1123.