Leisure/Tourism Marketing Campaign - $1 Million and Over

Description:

Birding Between Borders Co-op between Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles LA with website, brochure and FAM Trip completed April 2023. Brochure includes birding within 40 mile radius and is the perfect tool to use when planing your birding trip along the gulf.

In April we hosted a seven-day fam trip and included Visit Galveston, Visit League City, Visit Beaumont, and Visit Beaumont. During this event, travel writers from across the country and abroad were invited to immerse themselves not only in the region's remarkable birding experiences but also in Beaumont's rich culture and warm hospitality. Editors of Birdwatching Digest, ABA Birding and several additional writers including Birdwatching UK and Birds and Bloom. Moreover, the initiative aimed to forge collaborative relationships with multiple industry partners and foster a sense of cooperation among neighboring CVBs.

Objectives:

"Birds don't see borders so neither should we."

-Promote Beaumont and Lake Charles region as a premier birding destination in reputable publications and media sources.

-Build relationships with established media members of the birding community.

-Grow a cooperative relationship with local partners in the tourism industry.

-Birders typically travel 7-10 day trips so the farther the regionally promotion the greater the sales pitch.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaa...

Project Costs: Galveston CVB $1300-1500 Beaumont CVB $3500 Lake Charles CVB $2500 Print cost: $200

https://www.visitlakecharles.org/birdingbetweenborders/#:~:text=Birding%20Between%20Borders%20is%20the,Southeast%20Texas%20and%20Southwest%20Louisiana.

In-house or Agency: In-house

Description:

Our "Aggie Affinity" campaign was launched with the goal of reintroducing Texas A&M University alumni to Bryan, Texas. There is a pre-existing negative perception from many of our Former Students' time in Aggieland, so changing this perception is a top priority for our organization.

This campaign includes targeted display, print ads, and partnerships with Texas A&M Athletics, The Association of Former Students, among other relevant organizations.

From October 22 - June 23, this campaign has generated more than 5 million impressions.

Objectives:
Reintroduce Texas A&M University Former Students to Bryan, Texas in order to change their perception of our destination.

Project Costs: $80,000.00

In-house or Agency: Agency

Description:
The "Christmas in College Station" campaign was carefully designed to cater to both niche markets and the general travel audience. It specifically targeted individuals and families in search of a memorable holiday experience. By showcasing College Station's Christmas-themed attractions, events, and offerings, the campaign effectively captured the attention of holiday enthusiasts, families, and broader travel audiences.

Objectives:
Visit College Station's rise in tourism can be attributed to their commitment to unique experiences like the "Christmas in College Station" campaign. This targeted campaign captured the attention of holiday enthusiasts, families, and broader travel audiences by showcasing the city's Christmas-themed attractions and events. It created a cohesive and immersive experience, enticing visitors to choose College Station as their Christmas getaway. The impact of the campaign was remarkable, reaching a diverse audience through strategic marketing efforts, including print, digital, and social media promotions. During a five-day Meta Ad campaign advertising Howdy Holly-Days, a Christmas in College Station event, Visit College Station generated 5,033 impressions, 45 link clicks, and a reach of 3,689. increasing awareness of College Station as a desirable Christmas destination. Website traffic, inquiries, and bookings surged during the campaign period. Visit College Station leveraged social media platforms to enhance the campaign's success, sparking interest and encouraging user engagement through captivating content and interactive elements. Staff and community involvement, along with partnerships with TACVB, contribute to their community-focused approach. Investing in staff and board development programs ensures Visit College Station stays ahead in destination marketing, delivering high-quality services and staying updated with industry trends. Inconclusion, Visit College Station's targeted approach, unified theme, social media utilization, and community involvement have positioned the city as a must-visit destination for a magical Christmas experience. Their commitment to staff development and collaboration with TACVB further contribute to their success as a destination marketing organization.

Project Costs: $10,000.00

https://visit.cstx.gov

In-house or Agency: In-house

Description:

This campaign used a full-funnel marketing approach with a focus on targeted messaging tailored to Corpus Christi's main audience categories. These four audience categories were formed through research of demographics, behaviors, and positions within the purchase path (new customer prospecting, building consideration with those that have the intent to travel, and/or driving conversions). This full-funnel approach utilized channels with increased engagement and ensure the investment levels engage with travelers that have a higher propensity to stay longer and explore more of Corpus Christi.

By using an always-on approach that engages with customers no matter what the season, this campaign included curated content partnerships and custom content that told a deeper Corpus Christi story. This approach inspires potential visitors to learn more about Corpus Christi offerings and ultimately plan longer trips. The always-on approach is used across several channels, with seasonal additional channels added throughout the year. The higher investments in this campaign are placed in paid search and paid social, as well as a higher focus on engagement-driven media such as CTV and Video, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bdZXJINBHzxe_rRnr....

The methods for evaluating success range across the funnel. At the top, we looked for reach/impressions and brand awareness through sentiment and brand lift studies. We also looked for net new customers, website visits, and video completions through Corpus Christi’s owned media. As we moved through the funnel we looked for partner referrals, trip ideas, site engagement, CPE, rich media interactions, campaign learnings, and qualified leads. These all ultimately lead to an increased number of bookings, economic impact, and ROI.

Objectives:
The success of Visit Corpus Christi’s full-funnel integrated marketing campaign was measured against our goals for impressions, total engagements, CPE, and total inquiries. Due to our media efficiencies and targeting, CPE is surpassing our campaign goal by being $0.04 more efficient than originally planned and garnering 4.9 million engagements, pacing well inline with our EOY goal. We have delivered 43.7 million total impressions during this time period with our campaign advertising. Our CPE and engagement goals are on track due to a mix of strong targeting, engaging creative messaging/units and robust content for viewers to dive into on the Visit Corpus Christi website.

Over the course of this campaign, paid social has raised awareness and driven traffic to the Visit Corpus Christi website. Meta was able to generate 42,409,412 impressions at an average CPM of $3.19 which is more efficient than the industry average of $10. This also significantly outperformed last year's performance of a CPM of $9.71, and in turn increased impressions by 163% YOY.

Project Costs: N/A

www.visitcorpuschristi.com

In-house or Agency: Agency

Description:

The AT&T Byron Nelson showcases our community on the world stage and is a strong promotional tool for McKinney as a travel destination. The event moved to McKinney’s TPC Craig Ranch in 2021 after it was canceled at its Dallas location. Visit McKinney and other departments in the city (City Communications, McKinney Community Development Corporation, McKinney Economic Development Corporation, and McKinney Parks) collaborated on promotion of the event as well as manning a welcome booth near the front entrance at the event where we greeted thousands of attendees on each of the four days of the tournament. In the welcome booth at the event, we engaged with the public by encouraging them to play a Pinko game to win McKinney swag, giving us a chance to visit with them about enjoying all McKinney has to offer. The economic impact of the 2022 event was $28.8 million with $10 million coming from direct visitor spending in McKinney. Complete numbers are not in yet for 2023, but we do know that attendance was up from 135,000 attendees over the four day event in 2022 to 142,000 attendees over four days this year; organizers are pleased with the outcome.

Specifics/Results:

Landing page traffic 6,989

19th Hole offers landing page 4,121

QR Code scans on signage: 376

Visit Widget app: 3,056 pageviews and 142 app downloads

Instagram posts: 18 with totals views of 73,153

Visit McKinney Hotel Pick-Up: 429 room nights ($54,012)

Objectives:
The location of the event is on the southwest corner of McKinney at what is known as Collin County’s “Four Corners” where we butt up against Allen, Frisco and Plano. Of course, visitors don’t know when they leave one city and cross into the next when we are all so close together, so this “19th Hole McKinney” campaign was designed to keep visitors in McKinney when they were not at the event. All signage at the booth, hotels, street banners, and promotional assets (coasters, table tents, and ads/social posts/website) communicated a message about McKinney being the “19th Hole/The Perfect Par 3 – Shop. Dine. Unwind,” encouraging visitors to spend their time after the Byron’s events each day enjoying all that McKinney has to offer. All website traffic was driven to our Visit McKinney landing page where we had links to hotels, restaurants, attractions, tickets to the event, and a 19th Hole special offers page that promoted more than three dozen local business discounts. Everything about our marketing efforts drove visitors to our hotels, restaurants, shops, and attractions. It coincided with National Travel & Tourism Week this year; what better way to celebrate than by the city hosting our largest tourism event!

Project Costs:
$82,868 ($45,000 for advertising, $12,868 for promo items, and $25,000 for signs, graphics and materials)

In-house or Agency: In-house

Description:
As the impact of COVID-19 was still being felt, we put incredible effort into bringing visitation and interest back to our city. Our pandemic advertising messaging was a three-phased approach starting with “When you are Ready to Travel, We are Here”; followed by “When it’s Time, Come Explore”; and ending with “It’s Time!”. Once we saw visitation consistently increasing, we decided it was time to drop our pandemic marketing messaging. The perfect fit for the next post-pandemic campaign was a natural flow from “It’s Time” to “Let’s Go!” From there, we were able to achieve a successful development and launch of a new integrated marketing campaign, inclusive of a 12-month video series, new ad campaign, and a refreshed e-marketing template. We also executed a weeklong photoshoot in 2022 to capture refreshed imagery to support the exciting energy of the Let’s Go campaign. These photos, along with the refreshed creative look and feel, are what really brought the print and digital campaign to life.

Objectives:
- To inspire a weekend getaway by triggering the desire to do something memorable.
- To use the CTA "Let's Go" in its truest form, calling to mind the fun that is possible by just getting up and going.
-To use various types of media with consistent messaging: print/digital advertising, video, social media, and digital e-blasts.
-To capture video content and be able to slice & dice to serve various target markets.
-Drive interest to Visit Plano's extensive online planning tools.

Project Costs: Total: $198,020.50
Breakdown: videos$98,820.50, new photography $82,900,creative campaign development and other hard costs $16,300.

In-house or Agency: Agency

Description:
To address impacts of record 2021visitation and create better conditions for the future, Port Aransas guided a visitor and resident research process that developed into a stewardship program. Rather than just create a list of dos and don’ts, the focus was to bring the community together around ways Port Aransas could encourage visitors to blend in with, not disrupt, the island’s special way of life. “Respect Our Island Home” derived from the idea that the island is home to not only the human residents, but the fish, birds, sea turtles, and other finned and feathered natives. Flynn, the “spokes-turtle” for the message, has been used in social media ads, on stickers, magnets, posters, plushies, reusable totes, and in animated videos featuring local heroes.

Objectives:
The Respect Our Island Home campaign is designed to encourage visitors to experience all Port A has to offer while treating locals and the environment with the care required to maintain the island’s beauty for generations to come. The campaign walks the line between the island’s largest industry, tourism, and residents’ quality of life needs. The main objective of the campaign was to embody destination stewardship as part of Port A’s marketing efforts.

Project Costs:
The development cost of the Respect Our Island Home campaign was a part of the agency creative service fees included in the FY ‘2022 agency contract. Agency allocated the amount of fees attributed to the concept is $10,000. Social media ads featuring Flynn and Respect Our Island Home were run in the 2022 summer travel season with a budget of ~$3,200 to on-island residents and visitors. We also purchased Flynn branded apparel and merchandise, such as bags and plushies, for $13,200.

https://www.portaransas.org/

In-house or Agency: Agency