DESTINATION MARKETING OVERVIEW
As part of our extensive destination marketing work with the Wyoming Office of Tourism, we created supplemental seasonal efforts to drive incremental visitation. The 2014/15 winter campaign represented a major change from past efforts as we shifted toward working with influencers to create relevant content and then pushing it out through mobile and digital to better reach audiences.
The primary influencer for the winter campaign was Wyoming’s own native son, professional snowboarder Travis Rice. His love for his home state is as big as anything he uncorks on the world’s steepest mountains. And he wants to share that love, whether through a video featuring some of the most majestic footage ever captured within the state, or by riding his custom-designed Wyoming-themed Lib Tech snowboards around Jackson Hole with two lucky winners of our Roam with Rice Sweepstakes.
STRATEGY & APPROACH
Barnhart created a mobile-first media plan using a combination of influencers, display, retargeting, SEM, SEO and social media to drive Wyoming’s audience to a modern responsive website that engaged our BYOD (bring your own device) audience. The media plan, however, is only part of the battle.
Quality content built to audience needs was vital, and delivering it to where the audience consumes content is equally important. The content we created, including the Roam with Rice Sweepstakes, custom Wyoming snowboards and the “Winter in Wyoming” video, drove penetration of key messages and value propositions to our target audience building engagement, increasing brand awareness and generating visits.
THE RESULTS
Results were very strong. The ‘Winter in Wyoming’ video has surpassed expectations with more than 65,000 views. The engagement rate on content-specific pages of the winter microsite is up year-over-year, and the interaction rate on expandable banner ads with embedded video has increased 20%. The display ad click-through rate is up 43% versus year ago, while microsite visits and page views are up 21% year-over-year. And, sweepstakes entries are 10 times higher than last year.
Our strategic partnerships not only helped broaden the reach of the campaign, but also helped keep development costs low. We partnered with Red Bull Media and Brain Farm Productions for the winter video, and Lib Tech, Tim Tomkinson and Travis Rice for the creation of custom-made snowboards featured in the sweepstakes. Because of Rice’s close relationship with the other groups, we were able to receive materials at a low cost, allowing more room for the ROI to grow.
THE ROAM WITH RICE SWEEPSTAKES WERE PROMOTED THROUGH CAREFULLY TARGETED BANNER BUYS THAT DROVE ENTRANTS TO DEDICATED ONLINE ENTRY POINTS. TRAVIS HELPED GET THE WORD OUT THROUGH HIS OWN BRAND SOCIAL NETWORKS.
TRAVIS HOLDS ONE OF THE THREE CUSTOM DESIGNED WYOMING SNOWBOARDS PRODUCED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE ‘ROAM WITH RICE’ SWEEPSTAKES. THE BOARDS WERE ILLUSTRATED BY TIM TOMKINSON AND BUILT BY LIB TECH.
THE WINNERS OF THE ‘ROAM WITH RICE’ SWEEPSTAKES SPENT A DAY WITH TRAVIS ON THE SLOPES OF JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT. WE CREATED A VIDEO THAT CAPTURED THEIR STORIES AND PUSHED IT OUT THROUGH SOCIAL CHANNELS.
