How a Pancake Trail and Festival Led to Williamsburg, Virginia Becoming the Pancake Capital of the World

Goal: Become the Pancake Capital of the World 

As an outsider moving to Williamsburg, Ed Harris immediately noticed one thing – there was an abundance of pancake houses. The destination is well-known for its significance with historians, but Emma Schmitz with Visit Williamsburg explained the correlation between history and this tasty breakfast treat. 

“Colonial Williamsburg has been around for a very long time, so we've been getting visitors to our area for nearly a century. In the past, hotels didn't offer continental breakfasts as frequently as they do now, so all of the pancake houses popped up historically to support all of the visitation that we would get.”

As the new CEO of the DMO, Harris decided to take this asset and capitalize on it. Schmitz said, “He wanted to try and become the pancake capital of the world.” His team accepted the lofty challenge and set forth to stake their claim. 

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Creating the Pancake Trail and Festival

Schmitz said the first part required their team to simply take ownership of the title. She explained, “It had not been claimed, and so we claimed it.” They became the Pancake Capital of the World because they have the most pancake houses per capita. But the Visit Williamsburg team also identified two elements that would be integral in their mission to let the world know about their new esteemed title: a pancake trail and a pancake festival. 

The DMO had already created other Bandwango passes – including a Christmas-themed pass called the Historic Holiday Pass, a seasonal savings pass called the Cool Summer Savings Pass, and a check-in challenge for their annual Williamsburg Whiskey and Wine Weekend. They weren’t new to creating passes, but this one would be a little different. Schmitz took on the role of creating the Williamsburg Pancake Trail that gave participants the chance to earn points for visiting local pancake houses. 

Other breakfast restaurants were also included, but there was another group of businesses that she felt was important to include too – their local hotels. She explained, “If anyone came and stayed at a hotel, we actually gave them two points because we really wanted to encourage that.” While the pass was focused on pancakes, this additional incentive gave visitors an incentive for staying overnight – an effort that generated an increase in heads in beds. 

The Williamsburg Pancake Trail was live for the month of September and included two prizes: a t-shirt and a ticket to the pancake festival. The two-day festival included a Friday night pajama party where people were encouraged to pair their pancake t-shirt with pajama pants. Those that didn’t earn a ticket could also buy one, but Schmitz said they had one unexpected problem:

“We had to turn people away. It was packed!”

Being too successful in their first year was a great problem to have. She said it was hard to predict how well the public would initially embrace their idea and shared, “We thought there could be 10 people that came, but there ended up being hundreds – so it was great. But having a bigger venue is definitely something we're going to  target next year.”

Elisa Hernandez Campana from Visit Williamsburg took the lead on the community event and planned a variety of activities that included live music and a professional pancake-eating competition. There was also storytime for the kiddos where pancake-themed books were read. And of course, hungry visitors were able to try a wide variety of pancake flavors. Schmitz excitedly said, “That was the conclusion of a whole month of celebrating pancakes.”

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The Birth of Short Stack – The New Visit Williamsburg Mascot 

As the new Pancake Capital of the World, the destination decided they would need a mascot, too. “We had a lot of fun creating our little character,” said Schmitz. “He was on the logo and we did a social media campaign to help name him. We got a ton of engagement on those posts.” They enjoyed seeing all of the ideas roll in (and also loved the bump in social media engagement.) In the end they found the perfect name for their new mascot – Short Stack. He even ended up being the chatbot icon on their website for the month of September. 

Short Stack has officially assumed the role of being the new mascot of Visit Williamsburg. The DMO even took it a step further and ordered a costume so the mascot can be live and in person at the pancake festival next year. Short Stack won’t be going away until then though. Schmitz explained, “We’ll have our pancake character included in some of our different promotional marketing, and we’ll make sure that we're still referencing it throughout the year.”

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Results 

“We were blown away by the response for the pass,” said Schmitz. “It was very well received, so we're very excited to do it again next year.”

Using the data-driven metrics found in their reporting dashboard, the DMO was able to easily see the results of their one-month campaign:

• 1,651 Pass Sign-Ups
• 920 Check-Ins
• 394 Coupon Redemptions
• Passholders from 35 different states 

Schmitz shared that there was another big win that came from this initiative, saying,  “I think we got a lot of positive news attention. It was something that a lot of journalists were excited to write about.” The initiative was used as a way to garner earned media and impressive stories were published in outlets such as Travel + Leisure and Garden & Gun. 

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Visit Williamsburg’s Tips for Success for Becoming “Your Unique Asset“ Capital of the World 

Visit Williamsburg staked their claim in becoming Pancake Capital of the World, and thinks any destination can find a way to be known for whatever it is they want to be known for. Schmitz shared some of her top tips for things to consider if you want to try this for your destination. 

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Think outside of the box.

“Be creative with your destination and what it’s known for. Take what you already have and really shine a spotlight on it. We're very known for being a historic destination, which we love, and we love to promote, but we're more than that, too.” 

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Start your initiative with a community-first focus.

“I think one of the things that you have to consider when you're building an event up from scratch, is that it might be very community-focused at first, but the bigger and bigger it gets, the more it's going to drive out-of-town visitation.”

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Don’t feel compelled to do everything in your first year. 

“We considered trying to go for the Guinness Book of World Records' tallest pancake stack – something fun and gimmicky that would get people to come and participate. But it actually costs a fair amount of money to do that, so we decided to wait on that. As we build the event, we could try to do that at a later event and plan more for that investment.” 

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Use professional eaters if you plan to have an eating competition.

“We partnered with a professional eating league called Major League Eating, and their professional eaters came. They put on that part of the event and that ended up being a good choice.”

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Use the initiative to get earned media for your destination. 

“You have to have something that's engaging and interesting in order for journalists to pick it up.” 

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Include discounts on your pass – not just check-ins.

“We always like to include an additional benefit to the pass. Having the check-ins is nice, but having the offers gives the added benefit to the visitor. It also provides a way for our different businesses to really attract the visitors to their specific businesses.” 

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Be prepared to add additional businesses even after the pass is live.

“We had a few pancake houses that were dragging their feet, but once it was launched, and everyone else was getting the attention, then they're like ‘Wait – Why am I not on this?’ We went in, included them on the pass, and made sure that everyone that wanted to be a part of it got to be a part of it.”

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Keep it fun. 

“We kept it fun with things like having people wear their pajamas to the event.” 

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Conclusion 

Visit Williamsburg is proof that creative-thinking and strategic-minds can allow you to take ownership of whatever title you like. As the newly-proclaimed Pancake Capital of the World, they will continue to weave that messaging into other relevant marketing throughout the year, but are already planning next year’s Williamsburg Pancake Trail and Festival. They have pre-sign ups set up on their website, and you can sign up for the pass now if you want to join in the tasty, syrupy fun next year. 

Schmitz said their team had a blast working on this initiative and smiled as she proclaimed, “It was a very successful campaign. I think the pancake pass was a huge part of it – not just having the event, but actually having the trail. It got people to come to Williamsburg, not just for a singular weekend, but throughout the whole month.”

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What do you want your destination to be known for? Learn more about how you can become the World Capital of __________. 

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