Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
As the only organization in the state to provide marketing strategy and leadership for industry stakeholders, the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism (NJTT) has a mighty mission to fulfill: Creating awareness of all that the state has to offer as a destination for visitors in order to enhance the quality of life for residents and their communities. In the fall of 2023, NJTT launched its new brand campaign, “Little State, Lotta WOW” as a powerful platform to showcase the diversity of traveler experiences throughout every region and county. The “Little State, Lotta WOW” message was strategically crafted to resonate across all generations and life stages – as proven in rigorous testing against four other creative concepts. Our team identified 13 target markets based on efficiency, past visitation patterns, growth potential, driving distance from New Jersey and available comparable product offerings. While these markets had all been included in our digital outreach for many years, adding broadcast buys provided additional impressions, reach and frequency. In addition to broadcast, the integrated campaign included digital, social media and print advertising, as well as sponsorships, live activations and athletic team partnerships. We also executed an ambitious out-of-home domination of our big-city neighbors with 450 advertising units placed throughout Philadelphia – including a takeover of all units in 30th Street Station – in fall 2023 and 450 advertising units throughout New York City – including a takeover of Penn Station ¬– in spring 2024. The objective of the campaign is very straightforward: To drive target audiences to VisitNJ.org for vacation inspiration and planning, ultimately growing visitation amongst “local” markets and identifying potential in secondary markets for future growth.
Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)
The Little State, Lotta Wow campaign has definitively achieved its goal of driving target audiences to VisitNJ.org. Website analytics show a whopping 68% increase in site visits and a 60% boost in page views. Of course, the ultimate goal is to impact visitation and visitor spending – resulting in another success. Annual visitor volume grew 4%, and spending jumped 6% over record-high pre-pandemic 2019 levels, 8% YOY. In an analysis of 2022 vs. 2023 and 2023 vs 2024 first half of the year data, we were able to show positive change in visitation in nearly every target market. By scoring the different data points including visitation, market density, spend and hotel occupancy, we were able to create a composite score, ranking markets for future media investment – thus achieving our objective of market identification with an added benefit of visitation grown in both local and secondary markets.
Return on Investment: How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
Visitors to New Jersey spent $49.1 billion across a range of sectors in 2023, expanding by 8% YOY and registering 6% above 2019 levels – more than achieving our goals. An ROI on just the additional 8% puts us at an ROI of 2:1 with an overall ROI of 40:1.
Entry Title
NJ Travel & Tourism Little State, Lotta Wow Campaign
Division
Integrated Campaign - Business to Consumer