Announcing the Launch of Search Party, a Destination Marketing Agency

Dear Friends and fellow Destination Marketers,

I am thrilled to announce the official launch of Search Party – a destination marketing agency focused on outcomes that matter.

I'm Seth Chalmers, a data nerd who is still trying to memorize those last few moves to solving a Rubik's Cube. I've been a Senior Marketing Director at a well-known destination marketing agency, the Director of Digital Marketing at a DMO in LA, and – going back over a decade – cofounder of a small web design and dev shop in Los Angeles. For 20 years I've lived and breathed digital marketing – even before I knew what to call it. I built my first website just after we thought the Y2K Bug was going to take us all out, and (thankfully) things just got better from there. I have a passion for classic car restoration and tinkering, but what really makes me tick is people.

I love to learn about their lives, where they've come from, and where they want to go. Perhaps that's what drew me to destination marketing in the first place, and why I love to travel so much? Travel feels almost magical to me – it jumpstarts your exposure to learning about people that may be completely different from you, or more similar than you could have ever imagined. I'm a big believer in the idea that the more you travel, the more you see your world relative to others – and the more you see the world in that light, the more your capacity for caring for people expands.

I could go on and on, but I'm not sure you came here for my super-sappy take on travel, and people, and the world. (But maybe we can talk about it next time I see you?) Where was I? Oh, Search Party!

Over the course of my last 6 or 7 years in destination marketing I've found a few repeated themes coming from destination marketing agencies. These themes are (in no particular order):

• Bloated margins hidden in convoluted pricing structures
• Vanity metrics, not results
• Chasing sales, no matter the minimum
• Treating clients like contracts, not partners

And here's a bonus one:

• Missing what strategies are new & effective outside of destination marketing

Before you think this is a bash other agencies post, allow me to clarify. There are some amazing people at other destination marketing agencies that I have the honor of calling friends – and of those folks, many who work tirelessly to this day to address and remedy these problems. With how quickly technology, the economy, and consumer sentiment changes, it's no real secret that staying ahead of the curve is a big challenge.

This is why from day one, Search Party is committed to:

• Simple and transparent pricing where you always see what the media costs so we can work as partners on improving campaigns for maximum results
• Building campaigns, recommending bid strategies, and aligning creative assets around goals that drive measurable engagement for your website, and ultimately, economic impact for your destination
• Building, executing, and optimizing campaigns with intention – and providing recommendations for reallocating funds if something isn't working
• Having meaningful conversations about the best ways to allocate your marketing dollars, and being honest if we aren't the best fit to drive positive outcomes for your organization
• Looking beyond travel & tourism to see what technology, advertising strategies, and methods may work to drive results, and bringing those to our clients
• Openly sharing what we know and learn with others in the industry, and inviting others to share using our platform

In short, Search Party gets a chance to start off on the right foot and continue to stay ahead of the curve with thoughtful, open, and intelligent approaches to destination marketing strategies, SEO, and Paid Search for organizations and businesses in travel and tourism.

The Destination Interesting Podcast

As part of our commitment to open knowledge sharing in our industry and beyond, Search Party is sponsoring the development of a new podcast called Destination Interesting. We'll be hosting experts and leaders from across the travel & tourism space for candid conversations about their experiences, wins & losses, and how we might work together to help everyone get a little better at what we do. Our hope is that even individuals from other agencies will participate, and it can be a common space for building a more collaborative, open industry.

Learn more about the Destination Interesting podcast - Launching early 2024

Ready to Challenge the Status Quo With Us?

Maybe you've had some of these thoughts about how our industry could improve, but an unclear path to getting there. Maybe this struck a nerve and you'd like to chew me out? Either way, let's chat. Maybe we can do something great together to shake things up. I'm just an email away! Reach out to hello@asearchparty.com or just use the form on our contact page.

Cheers to new beginnings and an exciting future!

Seth Chalmers - Founder, Search Party