Little Advertising, Yet Highly Desirable

It sounds as though I’m on a rant against conventional advertising, but that is far from the truth.

 

I’m stuck in summer mode and want to share with you a new and exciting place I accidentally came across for a spectacular vacation.

 

My husband and I were in need of a road trip to escape the daily grind. We were looking for somewhere new, unusual and only 7 hours from home.

 

Like most people, our first step was the Internet, but it proved to be a fruitless endeavor. Same with CAA brochures. After an exhaustive search, we still hadn’t reached a consensus. It wasn’t until I Googled “best places to visit in Michigan” that we found it… Mackinac Island.

 

Located on the Northern Tip of Michigan across from Sault Ste. Marie, the island was 8 miles long and didn’t allow cars on the island. Ferries transported you to a place where transportation included horse drawn carriages, kayaks and bicycles. It was a combination of New Orleans and Amsterdam with rows of bars lining the street and bikes as far as the eye could see.

 

The island was well known for its lush gardens and a timeless classic hotel called The Grand, which was built in 1887. Seemingly known only to the rich and famous, the hotel flies under the radar for those of us with a more moderate means.

 

What’s unusual about Mackinac Island is the lack of advertising. Most travel agents I spoke with had never heard of it. The only information I could find was a direct search on the internet and the few billboards I saw in Michigan. The Island was only well known to people in the know. It was only when we booked it that friends and family began sharing their knowledge about this hidden gem.

 

Word-of-mouth was their main form of advertising and the fact that every B&B were bursting at the seams showed that in some cases less is more.

 

Now that you know about Mackinac… which is a better selling feature, an ad or a story?