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Cheerful campaign tempts tourists bound for California; ‘Let’s play’

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By Audrey Kemp, LA Reporter

March 4, 2024 | 3 min read

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Set to ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky,’ the new commercial is part of Visit California’s $32.8m global campaign and first rebrand in over 10 years.

Visit California, a nonprofit organization focused on boosting the state’s travel industry, has today unveiled a joyful campaign, ‘Let’s Play.’

The commercial is part of ‘The Ultimate Playground,’ which marks Visit California’s first rebrand in over a decade. With a $32.8m media budget, the integrated campaign is set to captivate audiences in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Mexico and China.

Central to the endeavor is a 30-second commercial featuring a star in the form of a colorful beach ball – a Californian invention from 1938. The lively ball bounces between California’s iconic destinations, from the towering sequoias of Northern California to the sun-kissed beaches of SoCal. Its soundtrack is none other than ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky,’ which is often considered the happiest song of all time.

“California’s DNA as a famously playful place is globally recognized,” says Caroline Beteta, president and chief executive of Visit California. “With sunny weather year-round and endless options for entertainment, California is the ultimate playground for visitors from across the globe. This new campaign beautifully captures this distinction and invites the world to come express their individual form of play in California.”

The campaign was ideated and developed by The Shipyard, whose executive creative director Kerry Krasts explained: “Play is a critical part of human existence and can be transformational, especially when combined with travel. California is blessed with the biggest and best playground anyone could ask for and the beach ball represents California’s playful spirit and the contagious nature of fun and joy that you feel when you are here.”

Visit California’s rebrand is informed by research, which revealed that California, along with its “you do you” ethos, inspires people to play. A study by the US National Institute for Play (NIFP) revealed that 43% of UK travelers believe holidays are the only time to truly engage in play. Another 66% express a desire for more play in their lives, with 89% considering fun a necessity during challenging times. A majority (83%) actively seek experiences that bring joy and happiness.

Effective today, the work lives across linear, connected TV, streaming platforms, digital media, podcasts, social media and out-of-home channels.

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California to Launch New Tourism Campaign: First Look at ‘The Ultimate Playground’

Dawit Habtemariam , Skift

February 29th, 2024 at 10:18 AM EST

California's reputation as an ideal tourism spot was dinged during the pandemic. The state is trying to remind travelers that it's still a fun destination.

Dawit Habtemariam

Visit California is reintroducing itself globally with a new $32.8 million tourism rebranding campaign – its first in a decade — on March 4. 

The tourism body is adopting a new “brand platform” called “The Ultimate Playground.” The tourism campaign plays off of California’s free-spiritedness and abundance of destinations and experiences. The campaign is based on research about the value of play from the National Institute for Play in Northern California.

The campaign is a significant investment, part of Visit California’s total spending on global marketing this year of $158 million.

The focal point is a 30-second ad called “Let’s Play.” The video features 10 diverse destinations across California set to the tune of “Mr. Blue Sky.” Skift got a first look:

Ultimate Playground’s media buys will include streaming, linear TV, podcasts, and celebrity and influencer collaborations. The campaign will stretch across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Australia, and China over the next 18 months. 

Across all 14 of its core inbound markets, California will be pursuing media opportunities, trade integrations, and consumer activations under the banner of The Ultimate Playground, said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California.

Why California Needs a Re introduction

The tourism rebrand is a response to a drop in consumer sentiment, especially domestically, toward its previous brand platform, “Dream Big,” which played off California’s image as the destination where anything is possible, a Visit California spokesperson said.  

During the state’s lockdown, Visit California couldn’t market as much, and its image took a hit. Politicization around its lockdown, media focus on urban challenges, and extensive coverage of devastating wildfires hurt the state’s image. 

Some of California’s most popular destinations were presented in a doom loop narrative . San Francisco, for example, became associated with crime, a downtown in decline, public drug abuse, and homelessness.

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Visit California to Launch ‘Am I Dreaming?’ TV Spot Ahead of Super Bowl LVI

Taking audiences on a soaring joyride through California’s diverse travel offerings, commercial to debut Feb. 13 on NBC

• Visit California to Launch ‘Am I Dreaming?’ TV Spot Ahead of Super Bowl LVI Print
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Jan. 31, 2022) – Leading into Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Visit California will premiere an all-new, star-studded commercial taking viewers on a whimsical ride through the Golden State’s vast attractions and offerings Feb. 13, during the Super Bowl LVI pre-game programming on NBC.

To showcase the importance of driving tourism and economic recovery back to the state, Visit California is investing more than $23 million in the campaign. This will mark the state’s first time advertising alongside the big game, kicking off a two-month run that will include other high-profile programming such as the Winter Olympics. "California is open for business, and we welcome everyone who wants to live out their dreams,” said Visit California President and CEO Caroline Beteta. “Tourism plays a critical role in California’s economic vitality. Inspiring Americans to plan a visit in 2022 is paramount to the Golden State’s comeback – and there’s no bigger stage for this message than the Super Bowl. The campaign embodies the California dreamer attitude, playing out against scenic backdrops, and fueled by high-wattage talent and an iconic soundtrack to enthrall visitors and residents alike.” Visit California partnered with its agency of record The Shipyard and Superprime Films to produce the spot, “Am I Dreaming?” Directed by Rodrigo Valdes, the commercial features a protagonist soaring through an utterly wondrous California dreamscape, highlighting recognizable destinations such as the Hollywood Sign, Coronado Bridge in San Diego, the redwood trees of Santa Cruz, Yosemite National Park and more. Set to Queen mega-hit “Don’t Stop Me Now,” the journey depicts the endless possibility of adventure, exploration and good times to be had in California. No California dream is complete without celebrity cameos – and this one features Anthony Anderson, Mario Lopez and San Francisco Giant Brandon Crawford, all of whom are California natives. “Dreaming big is what California is all about,” Shipyard Executive Creative Director Kerry Krasts said. “We aimed to bring a rip-roaring, joyride of a flying dream to life – taking viewers on an imaginative journey through the state’s abundance of stunning landscapes that are the star of the show.” The inspiration behind the commercial comes from the heart of California's “Dream Big” tagline, as a destination filled with possibility. The abundance of landscapes co-mingled with famously easy-going, open-minded attitudes and creative thinkers and doers, make California an “if you can dream it, you can do it” destination. For more information on the commercial and traveling in California, go to www.visitcalifornia.com .  ABOUT VISIT CALIFORNIA : Visit California is a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs – in partnership with the state’s travel industry – that keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. For more information about Visit California and for a free California Official State Visitor's Guide, go to visitcalifornia.com. For story ideas, media information, downloadable images, video and more, go to media.visitcalifornia.com .   ABOUT THE SHIPYARD : Engineering Brand Love. The Shipyard builds performance-driven brands that audiences love by applying modern mindsets to established models, fueling more courageous and more validated brand and marketing decisions. The agency serves iconic brands such as Thrivent, Visit California, CAS, In-N-Out Burger, Weleda, California Wine Institute, Serengeti, NCR, SDG&E, CO-OP Financial Services, Donatos Pizza, Protective Insurance, VSP, Clifton Larson Allen (CLA), San Diego Tourism Authority and many others. Founded in 2014, The Shipyard is a full-service agency with offices in Columbus, OH, Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Diego California.  

Media Contacts: Kristen Bonilla, [email protected]   Michael Wojtowicz, [email protected]

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Visit California Lifts Intent to Travel to California With a Unique Experience on YouTube

Visit California, the state's non-profit organization to promote travel, is inviting dreamers to discover its state. Following an inspiring BrandLab workshop, it created The Dream365 Project, an initiative that showcased the many opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment available in California. Dream365's launch included a 24-hour takeover of the YouTube masthead as well as a rollout of video content in both Lightbox and TrueView ad formats. The inspirational videos helped increase California travel search volume on Google by 21%. The campaign truly gave the organization a solid foundation on which to build future promotions.

Generate awareness and consideration for the California brand and create incremental travel impact with a limited budget across key global markets

Took over the YouTube masthead for 24 hours and featured a new video each hour

Broadened the reach with Lightbox Ads

Created downstream impact on consideration and intent to visit California with TrueView ad

7% lift in consideration and 17% lift in likelihood to visit California

21% increase in California travel search volume on Google

Website visitation lift two days after the YouTube takeover: 306% in U.S., 165% in Canada and 920% in U.K.

Keeping California top-of-mind as a travel destination

Visit California is a nonprofit organization that partners with the state’s travel industry to keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. Visit California has operated with a fixed $50 million budget for the past several years. Consequently, continuing to grow visitation to the state depends on efficiently expanding Visit California’s global content marketing strategy through hard-working content marketing initiatives and partnerships.

Google BrandLab: Learning about content’s role in digital

In early 2013, Visit California and its agency of record, MeringCarson, attended a BrandLab workshop to gain insight into how global brands are innovating in content marketing and to take the organization’s own content strategy to the next level. BrandLab is Google’s innovation center where brands learn how to unlock the latest digital tools to engage customers and grow their businesses.

“Our biggest takeaway was content’s role in digital,” says Traci Ward, Visit California’s director of consumer marketing. “We went through case studies, seeing what bigger brands were doing—looking at the content ecosystem beyond just created content.” With their visit, the vision for Visit California’s next campaign was starting to take form.

The Campaign: The Dream365 Project

Fast-forward one year. On February 28, 2014, Visit California used YouTube to launch The Dream365 Project, an ongoing initiative to amplify content-centric digital brand activity and inspire people worldwide to dream big every day of the year. The global launch, dubbed “24 Hours, 24 Dreams,” featured a new video every hour for 24 hours through the YouTube masthead in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The videos were aimed at showcasing, inspiring and celebrating California dreamers with their iconic and off-the-beaten-path experiences statewide. 

“Each piece of content is reflective of somebody’s dream,” says Ward. “Some pull at the heartstrings, some are more quirky, but they’re all about people who have gone on to do something that manifested in California.”

The campaign included the 24-hour YouTube masthead takeover, and released different combinations of video content with Lightbox Ads, rolling out full videos in TrueView and serving up video-specific banners across the Google Display Network. “YouTube is the biggest video platform out there,” says Ward. “From a sheer eyeballs perspective, there really isn’t another choice that could’ve done what YouTube was able to deliver.”

The campaign features some of the Golden State’s biggest dreamers, including professional skateboarder Bob Burnquist, artist David Garibaldi and chef Ludo Lefebvre. To showcase the state’s abundance and variety, Visit California employed several tactics and assembled a robust collection of content. First, MeringCarson leveraged past production efforts to develop and produce original content. From there, multiple tactics were used to activate the creative community for custom content—from established YouTube creators, such as SoulPancake, to crowdsourcing companies like PopTent. Finally, the team curated existing YouTube content that showcased the California spirit.

Measuring campaign performance and success

The ultimate metric, however, is whether this content inspires travel to California—and the results speak for themselves. High awareness and engagement levels led to a 17% lift in likelihood to visit California and a 7% lift in consideration to visit in the next 12 months. 1 The campaign achieved a 21% increase in overall California travel search volume on Google during the week of the launch compared to the year before, 2 exceeding the prior week’s year-over-year growth by 1.5 times. Two days after the masthead takeover, viewers exposed to the Dream365 masthead visited the visitcalifornia.com site 306% more often than unexposed viewers in the United States, 165% more often in Canada and 920% more often in the United Kingdom. 3

The campaign also showed the broad reach of Visit California’s digital presence—136.6 million impressions in one day, with a total of more than 2.5 years’ worth of content watched. It reached a click-through rate of 0.28%—exceeding the average across all industries, including entertainment. The interaction rate was 13.1%, nearly seven times the industry benchmark. Results also aligned nicely with Visit California’s overall target audience—75% of the views on Visit California’s YouTube channel were from users over 25 years of age.

As a bonus, the viral nature of the content has boosted reach and attracted media attention. The video featuring skateboarder Bob Burnquist and a ramp floating on Lake Tahoe has been watched more than 800,000 times, and it continues to rack up thousands of impressions in earned media coverage, including a high-profile placement on ESPN.

Moving forward with a proven platform

The months to come will focus on sustaining this momentum through a digital paid media program combined with owned and earned activity, allowing elevated exposure for the initial suite of videos, driving additional consumption of Visit California’s video content and fostering greater content engagement.

“This is probably the best-received campaign we’ve ever launched from an attention standpoint,” says Ward. From a corporate brand perspective, “the B-to-B pickup has been huge.”

Having achieved a solid proof of concept, Visit California now has a foundation upon which to build. To consistently fuel the channel with content, the organization is working on an active management plan. “These 24 pieces of content are good for a while,” notes Ward, “but as we move forward the goal is not to have to kill ourselves to do content like this but rather to have an ongoing plan in place to deploy, learn from and react to content.”

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1 Visit California run study by Strategic Marketing & Research, Inc. (SMARI) 2 Google Internal Data, Google.com Search, California core terms. US, UK, CA & AU. Week prior to campaign = 2/16 – 2/22. Week of campaign = 2/23 – 3/1 3 MillwardBrown Digital Ad Impact Report, Visit California YouTube Homepage Takeover. US, UK & CA. 2/28/14 - 3/2/14

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Abortion Tourism Is the Next Frontier

California’s Gavin Newsom has underlined an interesting question with a shocking series of ads in red states.

Two young women are driving towards the Alabama state line. The driver is seeking an abortion, which is illegal in the state of Alabama. In the passenger seat, her friend encourages her that she will not get caught, since the two are almost out of the state. Less than a mile from the border, however, blue lights flash them over, and a law enforcement officer walks up to the car with a pregnancy test. 

This is not a true story: It is a fever dream of an advertisement campaign launched in the state of Alabama this week by California’s Gov. Gavin Newson. In a stunning instance of intrastate political interference, Newsom has launched similar campaigns in Arizona and Tennessee, and is targeting Alabama specifically while state lawmakers weigh a bill that would penalize the act of helping a woman travel out of state to receive an abortion. Newsom might be playing a long game for the Oval Office —and this move would certainly suggest that—but his state also stands to benefit from abortion tourism, especially from neighboring Arizona. All this raises the question of whether there are any limits on the governor of one state influencing the politics of another.

It is hard not to see a bigger picture forming here, one in which leaving abortion decisions to the states to decide sounds increasingly impossible. Just this week, the Biden administration issued a new rule expanding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to hide abortion medical records from law enforcement investigations. This is not merely a strategic move for the Biden reelection campaign but also unavoidably hampers pro-life wins at the state level. As the politics of abortion become increasingly contentious, and January feels like a long time to wait for making substantial moves, the political left is seizing power wherever it can be found to take this debate to the national stage, where they are confident the pro-death strongarm will prevail.

The HIPAA expansion means that women who receive abortions in states where abortions are illegal are now effectively immune to that state’s efforts to enforce its own law. While private medical information has been protected under most circumstances since HIPAA was created, it was also always available to law enforcement in special cases, such as in a criminal investigation. Now, by executive declaration, any information about an abortion is exempt from disclosure, even in criminal cases, making it practically impossible to prove an illegal abortion has occurred. Of course, national rules trump local laws, meaning states that do ban abortion are powerless to counteract the Biden administration’s new rule. The only recourse is through the presidency or federal law. 

This is one reason why national legislation is inevitable: The left is already making national moves. Thus, the question is not whether abortion will be regulated nationally, but who will do the regulating: Will the right answer these moves? So far, Republican leaders seem to prefer running from the playing field, as Trump did in claiming abortion should be left to the states to decide, for fear of harming Republicans’ chances in November. And fair enough: Most polling on abortion regulation is not in Republicans’ favor. Meanwhile, the left is unafraid to make national abortion legislation a key goal. Some have even gone so far as to say that “any candidate who doesn’t outright promise to protect abortion rights at a federal level with proactive legislation has no regard for ‘the will of the people.’” 

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The story doesn’t have to end there, however. Forty Days for Life’s Shawn Carney recently compared the pro-life movement to the gay rights movement, the latter of which forced a mind-boggling pendulum swing from obscene fringe to corporate-backed ascendancy in the span of some 10 years: “After losing referendum after referendum, same-sex marriage advocates didn’t go away; they went for broke. Just three years after winning their first referendum, they achieved total victory on June 26, 2015 when the Supreme Court—wrongly in my opinion—redefined marriage for all 50 states with Obergefell .” In other words, the appearance of an uphill battle does not necessitate a loss, and most definitely does not preclude fighting back harder. Needless to say, this is not how the Republican Party has traditionally operated, but just as painfully obvious are the party’s results, which are further from the target today than ever . 

Abortion tourism seems poised to force the question before Republicans are ready to answer. The practice has opened a load of state sovereignty questions which demand a higher authority to resolve. Does a state have a right to ban its residents from leaving? Can another state be permitted to interfere? Normally, a medical practitioner has to seek additional licensing to work in another state, but California is already working to offer reciprocity for Arizona OBGYNs who cross into the Golden State to perform abortions, incentivizing an exodus of doctors from the desert. Can Arizona protect itself, or the federal government protect Arizona, from such predatory behavior by neighboring states? These are questions for constitutional scholars, but they are being answered in real time by real political actors who care little for parchment barriers. 

The “New Right” has made waves by claiming the mechanisms of the state may and should be used for the common good. Here is an issue where such power may be used without embarrassment.

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Coming to Alabama: Newsom’s Abortion-Access Ad, Depicting an Arrest

The ad portrays a woman trying to leave the state to have an abortion. The Campaign for Democracy, a political action committee started by Mr. Newsom, the California governor, created it.

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By Neil Vigdor

• April 21, 2024

A woman nervously peers into her rearview mirror as a patrolman activates his car’s lights and sirens. She is less than a mile from leaving Alabama to seek abortion services, but it’s too late: The next thing she knows, she is being handed a pregnancy test and is handcuffed.

The encounter is depicted in an unvarnished new television ad called “Fugitive.” The Campaign for Democracy, a political action committee created by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, produced the ad.

It will appear on Monday in Alabama, where Republicans have called for prosecuting women who travel elsewhere for an abortion. The state’s abortion ban, one of the nation’s strictest, outlaws the procedure at all stages of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape and incest.

“Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care,” the ad’s narrator says.

The ad then shows the patrolman approaching the vehicle: “Miss, I’m going to need you to step out of the vehicle,” he says, tapping the kit on the driver’s side door, “take a pregnancy test.”

The ad is scheduled to run on broadcast and cable television, along with digital platforms like YouTube, for two weeks, according to the PAC. The cost of the ad buy was not immediately available.

Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, a Republican, has clashed with the Justice Department and abortion assistance providers over whether the state has the authority to prosecute individuals or groups that help women leave the state to have the procedure.

Last month, Republicans introduced a bill in the Alabama House that would make it a misdemeanor to harbor or transport a minor to seek abortion services.

Mr. Newsom has emerged as a key surrogate for President Biden while harboring future White House ambitions of his own. He has regularly skirmished with G.O.P. governors and Republican-led states over abortion access, immigration, crime and other issues.

While Republicans have seized on crossings at the southern border in their messaging, Democrats have harnessed the issue of abortion-access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. It helped propel Democratic candidates to key victories during the midterm elections in 2022 and in races last year.

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos were people with rights, casting a cloud of uncertainty over in vitro fertilization. The state later passed a law giving I.V.F. clinics criminal and civil immunity, but it did not address whether embryos have the legal status of human beings.

In another seismic ruling, the Arizona Supreme Court this month upheld an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions. The decision could have far-reaching consequences for women’s health care and election-year politics in the state, a critical political battleground.

Mr. Newsom said in a social media post at the time that California, which borders Arizona, would provide a refuge for women affected by the decision.

“Arizona wasn’t even a state — it was a territory — when this draconian abortion ban was passed,” he said. “That’s how extreme this is. California remains ready to help Arizonans access reproductive health care.”

Neil Vigdor covers politics for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation. More about Neil Vigdor

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