Kelly & Ryan make impact
This week’s television filming in Niagara Falls with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest is already paying dividends .
Several of the businesses featured on the Live with Kelly & Ryan show in Niagara Falls are hoping to continue the positive momentum through the tourism season and beyond.
“My marketing budget would never come close to covering the amount of PR and media attention and exposure to all these markets that hosting the show here provided,” said Lindsay DiCosimo, marketing manager for WildPlay Niagara Falls, which operates the zipline and adventure course attractions that received widespread exposure this week.
“That was highlighted not only on a national level, but an international level as well. It was definitely a fantastic opportunity. Our products that are new to Niagara are now showcased all over the world to travellers, and to those in Niagara that may have not been down to the tourism core since the last taping of the show (11) years ago. So much has changed and so many improvements have been made that it was almost like they were filming in a new Niagara Falls.”
Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest hosted the New York-based show from Oakes Garden Theatre in Niagara Falls — live at 9 a.m. Monday shown on ABC and CTV, before taping an episode that aired Tuesday at 9 a.m.
It cost about $1 million to bring the show to the city, which was paid for by the tourism industry.
Mayor Jim Diodati said that figure is a “spit in the bucket” compared to what the return on investment will be in the coming weeks, months and years.
The Live with Kelly & Ryan crew, including Ripa and Seacrest, filmed at various locations in Niagara in the days leading up to Monday’s event, which drew about 6,000 audience members (3,000 per show) to Oakes Garden.
Ripa and Seacrest heaped praise on a number of attractions and establishments during the shows, including WildPlay’s Whirlpool Adventure Course and MistRider Zipline, Niagara Skywheel, Niagara Helicopters, Hornblower Niagara Cruises, Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours, Niagara Casinos and Two Sisters Vineyards.
Ripa brought her son, Michael, who recently turned 20, on the trip and the two enjoyed time at some of the attractions.
“It was obviously the largest production company that WildPlay Niagara Falls has ever dealt with since opening, but they were just so organized,” said DiCosimo.
“Kelly and her son were just genuinely happy to be there and to take in all that Niagara has to offer.”
Ripa, her son, Seacrest and the film crew had a birthday celebration at Two Sisters Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Vladimir Skok, a spokesman for Two Sisters Vineyards, said the winery is already seeing the spinoff from being featured on the show.
“Yesterday, I was walking around and then these four ladies from Windsor, all giddy with Kelly and Ryan souvenir bags, said, ‘We came right away because they talked about your place and we saw some of the images at the show … let’s go do some tastings, let’s buy some stuff, can we join the club?’” he said.
Skok said because the winery is located up the Niagara Parkway from Niagara Falls, on John Street East, it sees a lot of American tourists.
He said the business decided initially not to export to the United States, but “we’re talking about doing that now because we’re already getting requests, ‘Where can we order this wine,’ things like that, so that will be interesting.”
Skok said the winery has been open for three years, and has taken a strategic approach to advertising. He said it “naturally” expects to see a good bounce from the exposure.
“Somebody said‘make sure the website doesn’t crash tomorrow. That’s positive thinking. We will see what impact it will be. We sense that it will draw attention. For us, as a relatively new winery … the family who owns it decided the brand will be high end, prestigious — trying to push what Niagara can offer to the highest level possible.”
Skok said during the TV crew’s visit, the business decided to promote not only itself, but also Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Niagara Peninsula.
“We felt that we had a role to talk about … how the whole wine industry is something as interesting and dynamic and impressive as the tourist attractions in Niagara Falls. That was one thing we decided to do and we hope that there will be a legacy on that.”
Serge Felicetti, City of Niagara Falls director of business development, said there will be an analysis done to see what the return on investment will be from hosting the show.
“It’s millions of dollars,” he said.
“When they just announced the show and it hit a ton of papers right across the country and they were doing contests on affiliate stations throughout the U.S. — all the contest winners had a chance to come up and be part of the show — at that point they were telling us it was millions of dollars worth of media exposure. The value was before they even came here, they were getting a big return on it.”
Felicetti said it was set up to bring the show to Niagara Falls in June, just in advance of the tourism season.
“It was really to market the destination and profile the things there are to see and do,” he said.
“(Kelly and Ryan) kept repeating that they needed more time here, so the messaging was really positive.”
Felicetti said there were a lot of production meetings in advance of the event, and credited a number of partners, including Niagara Parks Commission, security, hotels and ground transportation for helping to make a smooth operation Monday.
“There was a lot of planning and it all came together and it worked out really well.”