With more than 40 agencies vying for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau account, Bruce Turkel, head of his eponymous Coconut Grove, Florida, ad agency, knew his team would need more than Armani suits and slick visuals to win the bake-off.
Their goal: Learn what makes tourism in the region hotter than Biloxi in August. Their strategy: Rent a 31-foot Winnebago, equip it with computers and art supplies, and hit the highway for five nights of field research. No focus groups, no clipboard-toting researchers accosting folks in malls. "We tried traditional research," says Turkel, "but it wasn't enough. We needed to know why people go there and what they experience."
At night, the Turkel team would stop at RV parks, set up lawn chairs, pop open a cooler of beer, and start jamming on guitars and harmonica. As folks wandered by, they'd offer up drinks and ask, "What are y'all doin' here?"
