Well above Albany, tucked between Vermont and Canada, sits Long Lake. This picturesque town in the Adirondacks boasts history including the birthplace of Great Camps Architecture and being one of the original vacation spots in the 1800s. The Travel Video Alliance spoke to their tourism director, Alexandra Roalsvig, for more on capturing the lush wilderness using drone footage, how video plays into their marketing strategy, and more.
What is the approach and goal of the “You won’t BELIEVE your EYES! Long Lake and Raquette Lake, NY, the Adirondacks in all it’s glory!” video? How does it interact with your larger brand as a whole?
Our goal is to showcase and highlight the fall foliage and breathtaking vistas of Long Lake and Raquette Lake to entice new visitors to discover our little corner of the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Using a drone we were able to capture the all-encompassing lush wilderness surrounding us from a birds-eye perspective. We sought to highlight the beauty of our waterways, the drama of our waterfalls and highlight our iconic mountains in our breathtaking landscape and our one-of-a-kind seaplane rides and historic dining boat cruise and Great Camps. Our “brand” is quintessential small town meets the great outdoors of the Adirondacks, a tapestry of public and private land, a one-of a kind six million acre protected park in the Northeastern United States of upstate New York. Long Lake, as a destination, invites visitors to have a transformative, restorative outdoor recreational experience. Whether it’s a gentle, quiet walk in the woods, paddling on a calm lake, soaring in the skies in a seaplane or reconnecting with the forest, a visit to our communities will infuse the visitor with a fresh perspective and rejuvenate the soul. This video showcases the breadth of the Adirondacks and allows the imagination to wander to greater heights. This is one of our most ambitious projects and is the jumping off point and we look forward to producing longer form videos featuring winter and summer activities in the year to come.
How does video development work at Long Lake? Is your video team in house?
Traditionally for small projects the Long Lake tourism video team consists of one person, me, Alexandra Roalsvig, Daytime Emmy Winner in 2007 and Tourism Director for the Town of Long Lake since 2009. Traditionally I use an on-the-go Canon T3i Rebel, iPhone 8 and in-house editing on a MacBook Pro using iMovie or on my iPhone for fast turnaround. For this specialized promotional project, I reached out to a marketing company, Crafting A Brand, hailing from Rochester, New York featuring the producing, directing and editing skills of Glenn Clark and New York State certified Drone Videographer, Mike Bradley.
Who is the target audience for your digital content?
Our target is our visitors is the “rubber-tire, market.” Long Lake is five hours north of New York City, three hours south of Montreal, Canada, and we attract visitors from western New York including the markets of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse. We also reach the Albany, NY area and Northern, New Jersey. Our tourism office of three always collaborates with our neighboring communities in our region to attract new visitors, multi-generational families, international tourists, and the traveler who truly wants to experience something unique. We offer an affordable, quaint, unique vacation experience and we are open year-round. We are not flashy or glitzy. We are back to basics, simplicity. Take a paddle, casual hike, grab a beer and burger and relax in front of the fire. We are your home away from home in a rustic setting.
