For Immediate Release

Laguna Beach launches new website powered by simpleview CMS

New site features, site promotion services raise the bar in online destination marketing

TUCSON, January 29 — simpleview, leading sales and marketing partner to U.S. and international destinations, made a splash this week with the launch of a new website for the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau (LBVCB). The project combines new design, new feature-rich builds of simpleview's Calendar of Events and Video & Photo Tour modules, ongoing site marketing services and an unprecedented level of control for in-house maintenance through the company's website management solution, simpleview CMS.

Commitment to "Cutting-Edge" Makes simpleview the "Go-To" Company

“In keeping with the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau’s commitment to cutting edge innovations, communications and technology, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our new, greatly anticipated website," said LBVCB executive director Judith Bijlani. "We identified simpleview as the go-to company for helping us to achieve our goals, and they have exceeded our expectations. Today we have a leading-edge destination marketing site.”

Lifecycle Site Support

While many companies end their work at site launch, at simpleview the job is then just beginning. "If you look at the overall spend for this project, a significant amount goes to ongoing services we're providing to ensure that the site succeeds as a marketing tool," explained Greg Evans, director of account management at simpleview.

With LBVCB channeling 70 percent of its marketing budget to online initiatives beyond its website, Evans noted that simpleview has been working with the Bureau to maximize return on that investment, "casting the net" both organically through SEO services and through a robust paid search campaign to boost visibility and draw quality web traffic. "It doesn't matter how great your site is if nobody finds it," Evans said. "We're looking at outcomes — we're not in the business to build a great site then leave a client to sink or swim."

Mega Menus for Friendly Navigation

The new site raises the bar for user-friendly navigation in destination websites with an increasingly popular best-practice element of contemporary web design: "mega menus" that fill the screen as visitors hover over main navigation items at the top of the site.

LBVCB staff have full control over the mega menu panels through simpleview CMS, with the ability to re-order and re-stack menu items, edit or replace menu item descriptions and swap out images for each panel.

New Tools for Photos and Video

The Laguna site includes the latest build of simpleview popular Video & Photo Tour website module, which gives LBVCB full control over an online gallery of Laguna Beach images and video. Website visitors can save images to a "My Gallery" feature and request images from the LBVCB for destination promotion purposes. simpleview's Video & Photo Tour module also allows visitors to send images as e-postcards.

New Calendar Module and Events Showcase Widget

The new site also features simpleview's fully redesigned Calendar of Events, with a new event-finder interface that lets website visitors slide through views by day, week or month, filter by types of events and search by keywords.

As in earlier versions of the Calendar of Events, LBVCB partners can submit new events info and images online, which LBVCB staff can review and revise before adding them to the site. As a new feature, the Calendar of Events is now linked to a dynamic Events Showcase widget, empowering LBVCB staff to select up to 10 events that website visitors can scroll through in a special marquee area of the home page.

About simpleview

simpleview develops big-picture strategies for every aspect of a destination marketing organization (DMO), from convention sales to tourism marketing and day-to-day operations. The company offers integrated products and services, including social media strategy, powerful forecasting and reporting tools, dynamic websites, sites for mobile web, search engine optimization, interactive marketing and the industry's most advanced CRM and CMS platforms. Founded in 1991, simpleview employs 60+ people in Tucson and San Diego and represents 130+ DMOs in North America.

CONTACT:

Cara Scholke
Director of Marketing, simpleview
(520) 575-1151 ext 143
cscholke@simpleviewinc.com 
http://simpleviewinc.com

# # #

New creative director brings 20+ years' experience to simpleview's destination websites and interactive marketing services

Maria DelVecchio joins simpleview in Tucson, Arizona

TUCSON, January 26 — Maria DelVecchio, an agency and tourism-marketing veteran, has been named the new creative director at simpleview, a Tucson-based company that specializes in helping destination marketing organizations (DMOs) achieve their goals by leveraging the web, technology, interactive marketing and social media.

In addition to leading simpleview's award-winning creative team, DelVecchio will work closely with new and existing DMO clients to enhance their overall brand and increase leisure, meeting and convention business — all key contributors to delivering economic impact to the 130+ local, regional and state tourism economies simpleview represents.

“We are extremely excited to have Maria join our team” said Ryan George, simpleview CEO. “Our history and working relationship goes back many years to her days as art director and creative director at LP&G, the former agency of record for one of our long-standing clients, the Metro Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau. Maria’s real world experience and deep destination marketing experience will deliver tremendous value to our family of simpleview customers."

DelVecchio holds a BFA in visual communications and brings more than 20 years of creative, interactive and management experience to simpleview, including 12 years of agency and interactive marketing experience. Her professional portfolio includes work in website usability assessment, search engine optimization, design, content and photography direction, campaign development, creative strategy, traffic analytics and social media marketing.

About simpleview

simpleview develops big-picture strategies for every aspect of a destination marketing organization (DMO), from convention sales to tourism marketing and day-to-day operations. The company offers integrated products and services for DMOs, including social media strategy, powerful forecasting and reporting, dynamic websites, sites for mobile web, search engine optimization, interactive marketing and the industry's most advanced CRM and CMS platforms. Founded in 1991, the company employs 60+ people in Tucson and San Diego and represents 130+ destination marketing organizations in North America.

CONTACT:

Cara Scholke
Director of Marketing, simpleview
(520) 575-1151 ext 143
cscholke@simpleviewinc.com 
http://simpleviewinc.com

# # #