May 31, 2012
Here at Yulu PR, we understand that some stories are better understood if experienced. In this post we’d like to share a tool we use to implement the “you gotta see it to believe it” philosophy – the FAM trip or FAM tour, press tour, etc.
What is a FAM trip?
A familiarization trip, often referred to as a FAM trip, is a tour offered to media on behalf of an organization to get the media familiar with their destination and services. A FAM trip is a great way for the organization to get positive publicity and for the media to have an opportunity to write a story about an organization they fully understand and have experienced.
Comox Valley and Qualicum Beach FAM Trip
Yulu recently experienced success in hosting a FAM tour for two of our real estate clients, Harwood Beach Estates and Qualicum Landing. Because Harwood Beach Estates and Qualicum Landing are located within close proximity to each other, Yulu worked with the local tourism centres to create a memorable trip, filled with fun activities that provided our writers with rich content to report on for both communities.
Five influential reporters attended the FAM to cover stories for: The Vancouver Sun, Business in Vancouver, The Calgary Herald, New Home Buyer’s Guide, Western Investor and Real Estate Weekly.
Yulu kicked off the trip with lunch at a popular local restaurant called the Black Fin Pub, which was conveniently located by the Comox Marina.
With individual preference and restrictions, lots of planning went into making the agenda. Golf and biking tours were ruled out due to a knee injury and our plans for a Kayaking tour were thrown to the curbside when the tides rose so we ended up doing something we all equally enjoyed – distillery and wine tours!
First stop: Shelter Point Distillery! We’re not sure what we enjoyed most about that tour from the beautiful facility to the animated tour guide to the plethora of malt whiskeys we sampled – it was all fantastic.
Shortly after, we stopped by local, award-winning Beaufort Winery for a tasting and to select wine for our “West Coast Inspired” dinner.
The group then headed off to Harwood Beach Estates, for a tour of the entire property. Here the writers were able to interview the developer and ask questions for their story.
We then enjoyed a wine mixer and dinner at a Harwood Beach Estate waterfront beach home.
We made sure that all the food and wine was 100% locally sourced from the Comox Valley.
After dinner, some of the group went to the beach for some shore-side fishing and socializing.
The next morning, the group headed for breakfast at a local café and a stop at the Comox Valley Tourism Visitor Centre, where they helped us decide what activities to include in our itinerary when we were planning the trip. As we were unable to fit in all that Comox had to offer into our agenda, this was a great opportunity for the media to see what else their readers could look forward to when planning their visit (or move) to Comox.
The group then took off to Qualicum Beach, where they were given a tour of the Qualicum Landing property, with a similar structure to the Harwood Beach Estates tour.
Following the tour, the group ate a catered lunch in one of Qualicum Landing’s beachfront homes, which led the media to experience “a day in the life” of a Qualicum Landing resident.