By Allison Schult

Ice Shaker bottles — Good for travel and the planet.

I come from a large, tight-knit family where loyalty and support of each member is woven into our DNA. Sure, there’s plenty of grumbling amongst ourselves, and when we all come together for any extended length of time, prepare to hear some yelling. But, let an outsider threaten one of us, and, well, that someone’s going to pay. When you grow up in a family like that, you tend to notice and appreciate similar family structures because they’re going to understand where you’re coming from.

My husband, Scott, became a Boilermaker in 1985

Which happens to be from a huddle of football enthusiasts. My Dad played offensive tackle at the University of Colorado, so growing up every weekend during the Fall, the house was filled from dawn ‘til dusk (or later) with the sounds of NCAA and NFL football, and I hated it. Not football per se, but the way it consumed our weekends. To drown out the loud, pedantic commentators and my brother’s outrageous tantrums when his teams lost, I’d sequester myself in my room and crank up the record player—reappearing in time for the half-time show (I was a member of my high school marching band.) Fast forward to my adult life and the weekends are much the same… my husband, Scott, played defensive end at Purdue.

Game on for Arizona Wildcats Rob (L) and Chris (R) Gronkowski

It was in 2007, that I first heard the Gronkowski name as Rob started breaking reception records at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where I lived. The following year, despite my efforts to avoid watching football, I realized there was another Gronkowski emblazoned on the back of a jersey that wasn’t Rob. Wait. What? There’s two of them? In 2010, they both went pro: Rob signing with the New England Patriots and Chris with the Dallas Cowboys. Though I was raised to cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs, I couldn’t help but root for our “hometown” boys (even though they were from Buffalo, New York).

The Gronkowski brothers are like the sports-world version of the Baldwin brothers—except, in typical competitive Gronkowski fashion, they beat out the Baldwins five to four. Even if you’re not an athlete, you have to appreciate a family with five boys who all become professional athletes. So, when I saw Chris Gronkowski on Shark Tank, once more I thought, “Wait. What?”

Step aside, Baldwins, because this hulk of a football player can perform. Chris, with the support of his four brothers, pitched and was offered investment deals from all of the Shark Tank investors, ultimately signing Alex Rodriguez and Mark Cuban as investors in Ice Shaker, a collection of insulated sport shaker bottles and tumblers that—unlike athletes—keep their cool, don’t sweat, and don’t stink.

Sign me up.

Other smart marketers in the travel industry have done the same. In 2019, to welcome the PGA Tour Champions players to Tucson for the Cologuard Classic, Visit Tucson and Omni Tucson National partnered to provide each pro golfer with their own branded Ice Shaker. The gift was not only functional but sustainable and has a uniquely memorable tie to Tucson.

‘Sunshine to Share’ Wins Big.

Something that’s uniquely Arizona is its warm, sunny days. So, when the mercury was dropping in New York and Chicago, Visit Arizona let them know they had plenty of “Sunshine to Share” with co-branded, steel-grade shakers that keep your beverage warm through the winter or icy cold while you’re basking in the Arizona sun. It was such a smart move that Visit Arizona walked away with the 2019 Mercury Award (how appropriate is that) for Social Media by the National Council of State Tourism Directors and U.S. Travel Association. Good for Arizona. Good for Ice Shaker. Good for Planet Earth.

And, Visit Myrtle Beach paid it forward, too, when they used Ice Shaker during the Myrtle Beach Invitational. I figure the destination owed it to the Gronkowskis since they’ve spent many multi-generational family vacations in Myrtle Beach through the decades. Maybe Chris’s memories of playing a lively game of Capture the Flag on Myrtle’s warm, sandy beaches contributed to the fact that Ice Shakers will preserve ice for up to 30 hours—a must-have for every beach comber.

Building Strong Communities.

Those are three great examples of how Ice Shaker connected with destinations, but there’s more to this story. As professional athletes, the Gronkowskis live up to their social responsibility to be good role models. Training hard, playing well, and learning from your losses are important to success, but what you do with your hard-earned success is truly what matters. Chris and Rob Gronkowski have capitalized on their athletic success to produce Ice Shaker, a quality product that outperforms in its category, and with Gronk Nation, a compendium of all the Gronkowski-owned businesses, they share their success with those in need.

The Gronk Nation Youth Foundation is dedicated to helping American children lead healthier lives through fitness, sports, education and community involvement. They regularly donate cash to worthy children’s organizations, like the Boston Children’s Hospital, or to support our troops. Ice Shaker recently contributed to more than 1,000 care packages for active military overseas—and who needs a long-lasting cold drink more than U.S. soldiers stationed faraway, dry desert climates.

Maybe I just feel like I’m part of the family (Gronk Nation!), maybe I’m just more of a football fan than I realized, maybe I just know how to pick a good product, or maybe I’m just a sucker for a good story… but every respectable marketer knows, it’s the stories that stick.

Chris (L) and Rob (R) are pros at keeping it cool before their gym workouts heat up, 2019.

Make Ice Shaker Part of Your Brand’s Story.

Whether it’s family loyalty, brotherly love, baseball, football, teams and towns, a dedication to healthy living, or simply a product like no other, it’s a chapter in the Gronks’ story that likely will connect with yours. So, join the Steel Squad, checkout out the lineup of products and make Ice Shaker part of your destination’s narrative. Contact me at allison@milemarker630.com for a special offer.

By Allison Schult

Ever wake up at two in the morning with a song running through your head? Or, maybe you’re humming the same tune all the livelong day. Earworms (also known as “musical imagery repetition,” “involuntary musical imagery,” or simply “stuck song syndrome”) take over your brain, and they’re confirmation of the emotional and mnemonic power a catchy song can have.

Using mnemonic devices like lyrics that provoke imagery, sounds that suggest a certain style, and tones that set the mood, songs have the capacity to idealize the essence of a place, which can create an emotional desire to experience that place firsthand—an effective marketing vehicle for travel destinations.

Additionally, songs have the power to instantly access implicit memories. Unlike explicit memories (which are actively recalled), implicit memories exist outside the conscious, making them more durable and emotionally driven. That’s why hearing a certain song can effectively transport a listener to a time and place relative to the song and immediately evoke emotions associated with that memory. For a destination, this means recalling memorable vacations, getaways and locations which likewise motivates a desire to return there.

Verse 1

Licensing a song to represent your brand is marketing 101, so why don’t more destinations do it? Limited funds can be an issue, but if you know how to create meaningful, symbiotic alliances, money becomes moot, or make that mute.

In fact, for the inspirational soundtrack of their “Top of the World in Tucson” destination marketing video, Visit Tucson managed to license the song “Top of the World” from chart-topping country music artist Randy Houser for a small fraction of what it would normally have cost. How? During my tenure leading the marketing team, we had spent two years building a mutually supportive partnership with Houser while he shot two music videos, “Like a Cowboy” and “We Went” in and around Tucson. So, when it came time to make a deal that benefited both parties, the arrangement was already fine-tuned. Learn more.

In this case, the song was the inspiration for the destination, but what about when the destination is the inspiration for the song? Such as Bruce Springsteen’s recently released Tucson Train or up-and-comer Grace Kelly’s latest release “San Jose” — a love letter to the town where she grew up.

No matter how the song originates, destinations benefit for years to come from the sense of place they create in listeners’ minds.

Verse 2

Jingles, or mini-songs, written specifically about a product is perhaps marketing 102, but why not amp it up by having a song written about your destination?

That’s exactly what Visit Tucson did when we commissioned musical duo Shockley & Fields to write a ditty about Tucson. Again, we accomplished this by leveraging our connections—this time with William Shockley (actor, writer, director, producer, and singer/songwriter) who was involved with the Houser projects. Tommy Fields, the other half of Shockley & Fields, brought years of experience not only as a songwriter and performer but also as a feature film composer to broaden the song’s horizon beyond basic commercial advertising, which it did (see You’re Gonna Miss Me below).

The result of this creative collaboration, aptly titled “Tucson,” is an up-tempo, country rock tune about a wandering troubadour who lands in Tucson, a mountain desert town where he finds the magic he needs to free himself from his restless life and settle down. Its lyrics are relatable, its rhyme and rhythm memorable, and it conveys Tucson’s hip vibe with a shot of the old west—a rugged, magical, wide-open place where you can feel free to live your life.

Available to stream or download on multiple music platforms, “Tucson” was used in television advertising conservatively generating more than 49 million impressions in New York City alone which resulted in a 370% positive lift in travel consideration and 713% lift in recall of brand message. The song is also included in the soundtrack and promotional trailers for the 2017 feature film You’re Gonna Miss Me (filmed in Tucson and southern Arizona).

The Chorus

Like Visit Tucson, other destinations are singing from the same songbook.

It rings true that Austin, the live music capital of the world, should lead the group. In 2014, they created their own theme song, and you can bet that music continues to be at the core of their visitor marketing. More recently, Brand USA, the marketing organization that promotes travel to the U.S., jumped on the bandwagon—giving the lyrics from one song to five different artists with distinctly different musical styles to embody five iconic American destinations (Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Portland, and San Juan, Puerto Rico) for their “Hear the Music, Experience the USA” campaign. Arkansas Tourism engages multiple artists from their state to create original music for their videos. And, Visit Myrtle Beach professionally commissioned two theme songs to evoke stronger emotional connections among travelers to its brand. They also capitalized on the serendipitous mention of Myrtle Beach in the Dan + Shay hit song “19 You + Me” by ensuring the duo filmed their music video in Myrtle Beach and sponsoring free ticket/trip giveaways when Dan + Shay toured nationally with Blake Shelton.

Need further proof that songs are an excellent vehicle to get deep into the heads of potential travelers? Listen to Sinatra sing about a city that never sleeps, a place where he’s “a number one, top of the list, head of the heap, king of the hill…” then consider how its melody and it lyrics permeate your brain, how it makes you feel, and especially, how it brings this place to life in your mind not just for the rest of the day, but when you think about it, forever.