Geiger & Associates Public Relations

Our firm has a significant number of reference letters from clients and journalists. We have included a few excerpts here and can make available packets of complete reference letters and additional client contacts upon request.

“Following the recent news of the substantial increase in our marketing budget last month, I thought I would take a moment to write to let you know how pleased I am with all that your agency has accomplished for the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau over the past three years. I promised the CVB board when I accepted the President position that your firm would deliver the regional and national visibility for our destination that they expected. And you have certainly delivered on that promise. Our increased visitation and bed tax collections are a reflection of the increased visitor awareness that the Roanoke Valley has been experiencing.”

“The media coverage that you’ve been able to generate has helped to establish our new “Virginia’s Blue Ridge” brand. You have united our five separate community funding entities into a destination product that is understandable to the media, and the resulting editorial coverage has made those diverse communities excited about working together. Your educational training workshops have shown our tourism industry members how to capitalize on the media tour opportunities that the CVB has brought to them, and how to market themselves with greater impact.”

“The media marketing program has been very cost effective, thanks to your firm’s ability to secure airline sponsors for the transportation of journalists for every media tour. You have established good working relationships with our tourism industry members, who have supported the media marketing program through the provision of lodging, meals and activities for the media tours – making our budget go even farther.”

“The staff of Geiger & Associates are true professionals. You and your associates meet deadlines, are creative in the way that you market us to the media, produce results and are always available to consult with me and the members of our tourism industry.”

“We’ve worked together for nearly 20 years now, first at the Chattanooga CVB, then at the Mobile Bay CVB, and now here in Roanoke, and have accomplished so much. Please feel free to refer potential clients to me so that I can share our success story with them!”

Landon C. Howard
President
Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau

“The Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau has been working with Geiger & Associates to publicize and promote our destination since July 2005. This decision was made after extensive research to find the best firm to help the ACVB increase our public relations efforts. Prior to working with Geiger & Associates here in Albuquerque, I had the pleasure of working with Debbie and her staff on the San Antonio CVB account.”

“To say that I have been pleased with their results both here in Albuquerque and San Antonio would be an understatement. Debbie and her team are utmost professionals and execute top-notch press trips on behalf of our destination. They bring in the right journalists to fit the destination and ensure those journalists produce positive and well-informed articles and features. We have worked with other firms that claim these same results, but are not able to produce the journalists or the feature articles to back it up. The Geiger & Associates staff is well-organized, innovative in their approach to securing press for destinations and an outstanding team of professionals.”

Dale Lockett
President/CEO
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“As President of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, I have personally had the pleasure of working with Debbie Geiger and her staff for a number of years. They are professional, responsive, accountable, and most importantly productive. I am not sure there is anyone better in the country in this specialized area of public relations.”

Butch Spyridon
President
Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“Our new-urbanism town has evolved considerably during these eleven years and their firm has remained flexible and responsive to our changing needs during that time. Whenever I have contacted them with unexpected projects I know that I can count on Shari Hubbard and the staff who work for her on our account team.”

“The firm has strong connections with journalists who write for the high caliber national and regional media outlets that we have targeted, and they have a proven ability in generating high value media coverage with placements of very specific content in a large variety of types of outlets (including print, broadcast, electronic and social media). That coverage has reinforced our brand messages and increased the visibility of Rosemary beach beyond what we could have afforded to do with paid advertising. Geiger’s longstanding relationships with airline sponsors have saved us considerable expense money in bringing journalists to visit our unique, luxury development for group media tours and individual editorial research trips.”

“The firm’s president, Debbie Geiger has been accessible and involved with our account from the beginning. The account management situation has been very stable under the direction of vice president, Shari Hubbard, for all of the past eleven years – a rarity in the agency world. Their professionalism and reliability has served us well, both in our local community, and on a national and international scale. The Geiger team has worked well with our internal staff and has supported the objectives of the other segments of our marketing, rental and real estate departments.”

Ken Gifford
VicePresident/Managing Director
Rosemary Beach
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“Geiger & Associates first came on my radar about five years ago through several travel journalists who were participating in the agency’s trips. Around the same time Door County, a Wisconsin destination, hired them. I had seen many of Geiger’s clients, specifically Michigan, Tennessee, Nashville, Virginia, New Mexico and our own Door County consistently featured in large features in the same travel and lifestyle publications that I wanted Wisconsin destinations to break into.”

“My decision to hire Geiger & Associates followed a decade of working with travel writers and employing the services of several different public relations agencies that were also connected to our advertising efforts. One thing I learned from this experience is that to really gain earned media coverage in the travel and hospitality sector, hiring an agency that specializes in travel promotion is critical. In my opinion general public relations agencies are not able to generate the breadth, depth and variety of coverage in lifestyle and travel publications. This is because they don’t have the travel media contacts and the airline relationships needed to bring travel writers to destinations; two things that Geiger & Associates has spent more than two decades cultivating. Travel PR is a specialty that can take years for an agency to excel in and Geiger & Associates already has a proven track record in this area.”

“We have been pleased with the media coverage, the quality of journalists, and the efficiency of the press tours that Geiger produces. In addition, each time they produce a tour for us, they have had to work with entirely different destination marketing organizations. In every case, they have risen to the challenges that this creates. In addition, each time they produce a tour for us, they have had to work entirely different destination marketing organizations. In every case, they have risen to the challenges that this creates. In addition, the work ethic and overall spirit of customer service we have received from Debbie Geiger and her staff is yet another reason we look forward to our continued work with them. My only regret is that we didn’t hire them sooner.”

Lisa Marshall
Communications Director
Wisconsin Department of Tourism
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“Geiger & Associates have played a significant role in the marketing efforts of the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitor Bureau for nearly 14 years now. Before that, in my role as public relations manager of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, I had the good fortune of working with Debbie Geiger and her staff to market that destination.”

“There are a number of factors that played into our initial decision to hire Geiger & Associates and our continuing relationship. This agency has specialized in travel media relations since day one, and as a client we benefit from the connections that Geiger & Associates has developed over the years with journalists who write about travel and the hospitality industry. We closely monitor return on investment, and the fact that the Geiger staff follow up with journalists who have visited our destination to ensure production of an article(s) on Fredericksburg is important to us as the destination marketing organization as well as to our local partners who participate in the press tours. The relationships developed by Geiger & Associates with the airlines over the years are also crucial to the success and ROI of this program. Their ability to bring journalists from all over the United States and Canada to Fredericksburg helps achieve our goal of increasing the awareness of our destination outside of the State of Texas.”

“Debbie and her staff understand the relationships that need to be developed with local partners to make a media relations program work. They spend considerable time making sure that our lodging, restaurant, attraction and retail partners understand the “big picture” goal of marketing Fredericksburg as a travel destination.”

“Finally, being a German community, we have a pretty significant work ethic in our community and organization. Geiger & Associates delivers again and again. We appreciate their commitment to our overall success and their attitude of service to the client.”

Ernie Loeffler
Director
Fredericksburg and The Texas Hill Country Convention and Visitor Bureau
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“Geiger & Associates is the undisputed industry leader in producing superior travel writer FAM trips that result in expectation-exceeding earned-media coverage. Though earned media is the end goal, it is hardly the whole story.

The Geiger staff members, under the expert-hand of Chief Debbie Geiger, are see-to-it, whatever-it-takes professionals. They attend to hundreds of details every day to ensure the client, the travel writers, and the individual representatives along the FAM itinerary are well-served and experience the ‘Geiger Touch.’ The ‘Geiger Touch’ is known by all who have worked with Geiger as the seemingly effortless expression of impeccable hospitality, effective public relations, top-tier itinerary building, detailed trip management, and thorough results reporting, all the while wearing a smile and remaining cool under pressure.

Geiger & Associates has facilitated travel writer FAM trips for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development for more than 20 years. I have had the privilege of working with Debbie and her team for more than a dozen of those years. I have every confidence the work Geiger & Associates achieves for Tennessee tourism impacts the bottom line of our industry by inspiring travel to our state.

When deciding on an agency to manage travel writer FAMS, Geiger & Associates is my first, and only, recommendation.”

Cindy Dupree
Director or Public Relations
Tennessee Department of Tourist Development
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“Debbie Geiger and her team at Geiger & Associates have been enormously successful for Amelia Island Plantation. The quality of their work and commitment to our public relations needs has yielded significant coverage in a wide range of publications year after year.”

“How do they do it? Basically their relationships with writers and airlines make for a combination that produces the most effective press tours with which I have been involved. I have also found them energetically responsive to our requests, creative in their problem solving and gracefully meticulous in their management of writers and clients. I have worked with Debbie Geiger and her organization for more than ten years marketing resorts and destinations and I have always been delighted with their work.”

Richard Goldman
Vice President of Marketing
Amelia Island Plantation
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“We retained Geiger & Associates in February 2007 upon recommendation of a national tourism consultant and research we had done about national PR firms that work primarily for tourism-related clients. It has been a great decision for our Bureau and has produced excellent ongoing results for our destination.”

“The firm’s specialty in media marketing for travel industry clients has meant they have strong working relationships with the specific travel and lifestyle journalists that we were interested in targeting. Many visiting journalists have told us that the reason they considered covering our destination was because Geiger & Associates was handling media relations for us.”

“Geiger & Associates spent considerable time research our destination and familiarizing their staff with our marketable attributes. Their experience designing media tours that were truly effective editorial research opportunities has brought many journalists in to visit our county and to produce significant targeted editorial coverage that would not have come about in any other way. The account team working on our behalf has been accessible and responsive whenever we have needed them – much like an extension of our own staff.”

“Their relationships with the airline industry and those that they have established with our own tourism industry here in Door County have resulted in tremendous savings on expenses. Geiger staff has been able to secure complimentary air transportation, lodging, meals and activities for visiting journalists. When unforeseen circumstances required additional efforts (outside the scope of our contract with them) they offered to provide those services without increasing our costs. They have been true team players and I value and appreciate our working relationship.”

Jon Jarosh
Director of Communications & PR
Door County Visitor Bureau
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“I am writing on behalf of the Greater Phoenix CVB to express our genuine satisfaction with the public relations firm Geiger & Associates…”

“Coordinating media tours can be a monumental and daunting challenge. But the staff at Geiger & Associates helped us to conduct some of our organization’s largest and most productive tours to date, and they did it with composure and class. They cultivated relevant journalists, invested the time to understand (and even anticipate) the egos and personalities of our close-knit Phoenix PR community, and weaved seemingly impossible itineraries together to create a tapestry that reflected the best our tourism portfolio has to offer.”

“I first worked with Geiger’s staff during my 13-year tenure as the executive director of the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau, and I brought them on board with the Greater Phoenix CVB because I knew firsthand the results they provide.”

“Geiger & Associates came to us with a reputation as a major media-marketing player in the travel and tourism industry, and, from my perspective, that reputation is well earned and maintained. I wholeheartedly endorse their efforts as a stellar and results driven organization.”

Steve Moore
President & CEO
Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“I selected your agency for the media work that you do for the VTC because no other firm in the nation does what you and your staff do so well.”

“Our public relations department looked for an individual or company that could not only successfully target national media for the media tours in the commonwealth but also integrate our communities into the process. As our own human resources for public relations become more stretched, your agency impressed us from the beginning with results you shared from previous tours. You and you staff have demonstrated phenomenally strong relationships with travel journalists across the U.S., including journalists in niche fields such as arts and outdoor recreation.”

“I was able to assess early-on that your firm knew how to work as the intermediary between our state tourism office’s pr unit and the appropriate community contacts in putting the tours together; your relationship-building saved us an immense amount of time by not having to be present for every meeting in preparation for the tours. Your staff’s thorough research and attention to detail at all levels of delivery are undoubtedly responsible for the excellent results we’re still experiencing from the tours.”

Martha W. Steger, APR, Fellow PRSA
Director of Public Relations
Virginia Tourism Corporation
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“I expected great things when we hired your firm in December 2002, and you have succeeded on every level for these eight years. The writers that you have brought to Mobile Bay have been of the highest caliber. You were able to jump start a media marketing program that had been idle for several years by getting the Mobile Bay story told in hundreds of specifically targeted media outlets.”

Landon Howard
Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“As Region Chair and a representative of a New Mexico Tourism Board we elected to retain Geiger & Associates in 2008. I have worked with other pr firms and have never seen the level of expertise and involvement, as was apparent with Geiger & Associates.”

“Funding for our region’s innovative public/private media marketing program came from the state tourism office budget, various cities, Native American tribes and the private sector. It was a coordinated effort that was complicated…and Geiger & Associates worked very cooperatively with the various partners to ensure the overall successful implementation for each and every partner.”

“This is a huge geographic region with very diverse offerings, yet Geiger & Associates did very thorough advance research to familiarize their staff with the destination and understand the objectives and marketing challenges of our numerous tourism industry members.”

“Our program involved a very customized approach because a one-size fits all public relations effort would not have worked for our group. The numerous tracks created an almost customized tour for each of the journalists as well as showcasing the best of each of our partner participants. Though Santa Fe was the most visible destination within the region, the Geiger staff worked hard and were very successful in publicizing the region’s smaller and lesser-known offerings as well.”

“The program was a catalyst for a regional branding effort that earned much national recognition and received a statewide tourism industry award within its first year at the New Mexico Governor’s Conference on Tourism.”

“The first press tour alone involved 34 journalists who visited our region for editorial research based on a 150-page itinerary. That single press tour has already produced more than $3.5 million in editorial coverage in specifically-targeted markets (with publication dates for even more national coverage yet to come).”

Jill D. Lane
Chairperson
North Central New Mexico Region Tourism Board
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“When we began our relationship with you in 2001 we really had no idea how far your firm’s media marketing services would take us. Our 46 rural counties had never been previously marketed as a collective destination, but you and your staff spent so much time familiarizing yourselves with our product that you got to know it as well as we did. Your educational training workshops raised the level of marketing sophistication within our tourism industry, and gave them a sense of what was possible if they all worked together for their common economic benefit.”

“Your media marketing program branded our region in a way that took into account how diverse our product is, and made all the components fit together in a way that would make sense to potential visitors. Your ability to obtain the sponsorship of major airlines, as well as the support of the local tourism industry members who supplied the meals, lodging and activities for press tours has saved our organization an astonishing amount of expense money.”

“Your reputation with the national travel media has allowed us to coordinate at least six large group press tours through your firm each year since we began. We continue to be impressed with both the number and caliber of journalists who participate in these press tours. To think that we had 14 national television broadcast programs featuring our region in the last year alone!”

“The numerous articles in Southern Living, as well as other key national and regional publications have put Southern & Eastern Kentucky on the map. They have given us visibility and credibility as a destination. It is a pleasure to come to our monthly board meetings with all of the positive editorial coverage to present each time.”

“The success of the program is reflected in the distinct increase in visitation and lodging tax collections, which has come at times when other parts of Kentucky have posted declines in tourism.”

Sheila Seppi
Executive Director
Southern & Eastern Kentucky Tourism Development Association
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“When the SACVB began conversations with you and your firm, I had no idea that the addition of Geiger & Associates to our team would generate such stellar results for our city again and again. Your firm continues to effectively strengthen our staff’s ongoing efforts and blend seamlessly with SACVB and community relations.”

“I am always impressed by how Geiger & Associates harmonizes with our organizations’ goals, objectives, challenges, and political environment. I always appreciate how you and your staff enforce and encourage the relationship between our staff and the local community. Your team goes out of their way the let local attractions – hoteliers, restaurants, retail organizations and others – know that your efforts are on behalf of the SACVB and in direct support of driving more tourism to our city and, hence, to their businesses.”

“Your staff’s planning, execution, follow-up and attention to detail has been flawless every time. Since we do have such an active PR element in house, we appreciate the caliber of media and the depth of relationship your company has with top-notch travel journalists around the country and around the world. And we appreciate your efforts to showcase our destination to them. The proof is in the results – and month after month – as excellent print clippings are provided to us, we are assured again and again that the investment with Geiger & Associates was an excellent business decision and the return on investment is unequalled.”

Dee Dee Poteete
Director of Communications
San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“Ski New Mexico is a New Mexico based association of the state’s ski areas… As Executive Director for Ski New Mexico, I work directly with the Geiger staff and appreciate the professionalism of the team and their commitment to meeting our needs. Our press tours are fairly complex as we represent varying ski resorts with different personalities and destinations. Geiger met those diverse needs well. We also incorporated the journalists’ varying levels of experience and Geiger was able to diversify the itinerary and the activities based on the journalists’ needs. This complex and detailed planning and implementation resulted in successful tours on both the ski resorts part as well as the experience for the journalists due in great part to the detail that Geiger incorporates in planning and implementing their press tours.”

“Our successful 2009 Press Tour was acknowledged as a recipient of an award at the 2010 New Mexico Governor’s Conference on Tourism for BEST PR EFFORT. This result was due to the quantifying data presented showing the value and strong results from this unique press tour. This partnering of a number of New Mexico’s ski resorts, both financially as well as with in-kind activities…has resulted in a $21.67 return on investment value for every dollar spent – an excellent ROI in our industry’s perspective, with more coverage anticipated. This collaboration of ski resorts has brought value to each of the ski areas as well as to the State. Based on our experience with working with Geiger PR, I am pleased to endorse their work to other tourism related destinations and organizations.”

George A. Brooks
Executive Director
Ski New Mexico
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“I have been aware of Geiger & Associates’ stellar reputation in the travel and tourism industry for more than 20 years. When searching for new ways to bring in ‘different travel writers,’ I asked my peers in other cities what they would recommend. Most of them said “Geiger Fams” and were emphatic in their reply. My employer, the Branson/Lakes area Chamber of Commerce & CVB, decided to hire Geiger in 2010, particularly for their efforts in media relations and securing topnotch journalists to cover our destination.”

“Little did we know that Geiger’s extensive knowledge in dealing with all aspects of crisis communications would be so helpful. In the early morning hours of Leap Day 2012, Branson was struck by an EF2 tornado. I was in Little Rock with Branson entertainers touting Spring Break on morning TV shows. The Weather Channel and CNN were airing live phone interviews with newsroom people at our local radio station and calling the mayor to set up phone interviews, all before 5:00 a.m. Power was out in many parts of town and cell reception was spotty. The information being reported on TV was disjointed and incorrect. Knowing that Geiger & Associates had worked with some Southern destinations during Katrina and the BP Oil Spill, I placed a call at 9:00 a.m. seeking their assistance. We immediately began working with Geiger and getting out correct information to replace erroneous reports. The following day, Geiger sent a rep to work with us at our office for the next four days. Rob Klepper immediately developed extensive talking points with Mayor Presley, City Administrator Kruithof, CVB staff, Chamber staff and other spokespeople, acknowledging 24-hour update availability of CVB, Chamber and Geiger & Associates’ staff. The width and breadth of Geiger’s experience was invaluable during the trying times of tornado coverage and switching the news to recovery and reconstruction. Remarkably, we were able to do so in just four days. It is a pleasure to recommend Geiger & Associates…”

Lynn Berry
Director of Public Relations
Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce & Convention & Visitors Bureau
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“Heritage Hotels and Resorts partnered with Geiger & Associates for the past two years. Our partnership was a success due to Geiger’s focus on culturally interesting destinations and Heritage’s ongoing cultural initiatives. The Geiger firm was chosen, in part, due to their work on the Heritage Tourism Initiative for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They were able to secure editorial research visits to Heritage Hotels and Resorts properties throughout New Mexico from journalists writing for targeted publications such as Preservation Magazine, American Style, Forbes, Dallas Morning News, Destination Weddings and Honeymoons and more. A considerable expense was saved due to the firm’s negotiating air travel with national airline sponsors. I am glad to recommend Geiger and Associates.”

James M. Long
CEO
Heritage Hotels and Resorts, Inc.
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“Since January 2005, the first year the tourist tax was collected, I have served on the TDC. I know that Geiger & Associates has put Franklin County on the map, giving St. George Island, Eastpoint, Apalachicola, Carrabelle and Alligator Point national exposure.

In addition to developing a long-term media marketing campaign for our TDC, incorporating clear, measurable goals and objectives, Geiger has also been on hand to help us in times of crisis. In April 2010, during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, our area could have been greatly impacted by the unprecedented national and international media coverage this disaster received. With the assistance of Geiger’s team, and the crisis communication plan they developed for us to ensure preparedness and synergy with both local, county and statewide emergency officials, we were able to offset many of the negative consumer perceptions, and reassure our visitors that Franklin County had not been impacted by the oil spill.

As a coastal destination, we are subject to flooding and wind damage from seasonal tropical storms and hurricane which can greatly impact consumer perception of our area, even when the storms do little to minimal damage. Such was the case in 2012 with Tropical Storm Debby. Geiger’s expertise in crisis communications was invaluable to our TDC in getting the word out to our primary demographic that Franklin County was open for business.

Geiger & Associates Is the epitome of a results-based, proactive marketing firm. They are responsive at every turn to the needs of our TDC board, and work effectively with our tourism industry members in a way that reflects positively on our organization. I give Geiger my highest recommendation, and it would be my pleasure to speak further with any group or organization considering retaining Geiger & Associates.”

Alice Collins
Vice Chairperson
Franklin County Tourist Development Council
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“On behalf of the NACVB, we would like to share our appreciation on the widespread media attention that the Nebraska Tourism Commission-sponsored media tours in partnership with Geiger & Associates, have brought to our communities and the state. In fact, NACVB considers the media tours the best marketing strategy lead by state tourism in the past 20 years.

Kim Kwapanioski
Chair
Nebraska Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus
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