Viewing Richmond from the water hails visitors
Richmond was in the news a lot, not as a shining star, but as a city teeming with crime. No one seemed to know what Richmond had to offer – actually a lot of hidden gems. We found them and in collaboration with SF on the Bay, created a dynamic new content rich 85+ page website for Visit Richmond CA, the City of Richmond’s Visitors Bureau.
Our vision for the website was to make it an online ‘entrance’ to Richmond by way of the water – visitors stepping down onto the docks from the ferry, magnificent sunsets, spectacular views to SF from restaurants and venues on the water, boats and birds and grassy knolls along the Bay Trail. Beautiful captures of Hotel Mac, East Brother B&B, Riggers Loft Wine Co., the breweries, art museums and more. Scenes from festivals, fun places, and eateries in Richmond would entice site visitors. The vibe is warm and inviting, artistic, a bit eclectic, and all about its people. An image of Richmond no one had seen before.
And then we started writing stories about Richmond’s assets which received numerous great reviews and feedback. We positioned Richmond as part of the greater Bay Area travel destination, central to Napa & Sonoma Valleys, SF, Berkeley, Marin, etc., and reachable by train, car, BART, bus, ferry and sail or power boat.
A beautiful sunset on the water welcomed visitors on the homepage of the site and it was easy for visitors to access the information they wanted. Hotels were featured and Around Town portrayed scenes from fun places, eateries, museums, art galleries. A video swept visitors away to the Bay Trail at Miller Knox Park, East Brother Beer Co., a coffeehouse and Native Plants Nursery, where everything was dog friendly. Two successful tools were buttons on the Homepage which allowed visitors to submit requests for event estimates or submit an event to the calendar.
We painted a new image of Richmond with great photos & writing, classy graphics, great technology, video, and easy access to promote events in Richmond. Inquiries increased dramatically – by 90% after the website was launched. Interest in adding calendar entries increased by a huge margin. VRC reported that the Richmond Trail Guides produced by SF on the Bay, were ‘a hit’ giveaway at tradeshows and served as their brochure to promote Richmond.
VIdeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL9gLtECKVM&t=2s
What we did:
- Visit Richmond strategy development
- Brand refinement
- Development of content rich and graphics/tech savvy website
- Content creation – copy, photos
- Video script and production
- Content creation for sharing on VRC social
- Storytelling campaign
- Partner with nonprofit organizations
- Supply Richmond Trail Guides – a curated tour of Richmond
