Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:32 PM
Association Holds Contest To Find Lobbyist
The U.S. Travel Association has used a novel tactic to find a new grassroots "lobbyist" to tell its story better on Capitol Hill -- it held a video contest on YouTube.Between March 25 and May 1, the group asked people to send a video explaining why they would be the best spokesperson for the travel industry. The association received 270 videos, and then after narrowing the submissions down, asked its membership to vote for the best one.
The winner, by 16,000 votes, was Paco Saldana, an immigrant from Mexico who worked himself up the ladder from bus boy to director of guest services at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Amelia Island, Fla. His video told the story of the negative impact the economy has had on his hotel and Amelia Island. Saldana said a couple of Ritz-Carlton managers urged him to submit a video for the contest because "they thought I had a good story to tell." The hotel has had to cut its staff to 500 from 700 a year ago.
See the video here.
(Photo of Saldana courtesy of U.S. Travel Association)
Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel
Association, said part of what motivated the contest was the need for
the group to find "a face" who could talk about the recession's impact
on the travel industry. When the contest began in March, lawmakers were
calling for prohibitions on lavish conferences held by companies that
received government rescue money.
"I was talking to someone who said to me, 'You are the poster child for excess because you can't photograph a salary, but you can photograph someone on the golf course,' " Dow said. "We needed someone who could connect the dots for lawmakers so they could understand what the economic impact was."
Saldana received a $5,000 prize and is giving up his free time this week to come to Washington and walk the halls of Congress with Dow and other members of the association's lobbying team. The Senate is currently considering the Travel Promotion Act, a bill that would allow the U.S. travel and tourism industry to better promote international travel to the U.S. The same bill was introduced in the House on Thursday.
So K Street, perhaps there is no reason to hire a head hunter to find your next lobbyist. Why not go to YouTube?
Benjamin Cole
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Between March 25 and May 1, the group asked people to send a video explaining why they would be the best spokesperson for the travel industry. The association received 270 videos, and then after narrowing the submissions down, asked its membership to vote for the best one. Redirect Virus
Mike Jones
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The U.S. Travel Association has used a novel tactic to find a new grassroots "lobbyist" to tell its story better on Capitol Hill -- it held a video contest on YouTube. Mike @ sweating and how to stop sweating
Beth Allen
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saldana received a $5,000 prize and is giving up his free time this week to come to Washington and walk the halls of Congress with Dow and other members of the association's lobbying teamred envelope coupon code - christmas gifts for wife
Amy Showalter
Friday, June 19, 2009
Fantastic example of giving your membership ownership of the grassroots influence campaign by having them vote on the best narrative.
Virtually every interest group knows that stories sell. What they don't know is that all stories are not created or told equally. This is a classic example of the "underdog" who played by the rules but is being hurt by the "big guy " (in this case, congressional rhetoric).
Well done and congratulations!