Can the latest one-to-one marketing techniques help tourists love New York even more? That became a rhetorical question for more than 350 hospitality and travel professionals attending the 2008 New York State Governor’s Tourism Conference at the Sagamore in Lake George, N.Y. May 14 to 16. The conference, themed “Re-imagine your New York,” coincided with the re-launch of the state’s “I Love New York” campaign, and featured contributions from two members of Xerox’s Graphic Arts Premier Partners, a global network of 725 leading digital print providers, including 31 in New York State.

“One-to-one marketing is now best practice in marketing,” said Julie Anixter, chief marketing officer of laga, a Cincinnati-based design and innovation agency, in one of her two conference presentations on branding. “Tourism British Columbia increased the return on its marketing investment by 25 percent with some smart customized marketing,” she said. “I’m telling you this not to show you what to do tomorrow, but to show you what is possible.”

New York State is employing one-on-one marketing as part of its new tourism campaign. For the first time, consumers will be able to customize travel brochures by downloading them from www.iloveny.com. Site visitors will indicate geographical locations, activities and events for which they are interested and will be given the option to print a PDF version of the brochure in their own home or have the customized piece mailed to them.

Both of Anixter’s presentations were supported by conference sponsor, the Xerox Premier Partners. Two individual Premier Partners helped bring her story to life:

· Mike Hoffman, director, Strategic Accounts, RI Communications Group, a Xerox Premier Partner in New York City, attended the conference to help Anixter describe one-to-one marketing programs RI Communications runs for Disney. One initiative has helped Disney to dramatically reduce reservation cancellations through the use of highly personalized welcome packages.