Marketing Objectives:
Clearly state your marketing goals.
What did your company strive to achieve using this piece or program?Objective: Each summer we create a campaign to increase awareness and overnight stays by positioning the county as an easy, fun, get-away-weekend. We tempt Chicagoans to check out the many unknown and forgotten experiences and activities in this rich and diverse county with over 90 lakes and multiple attractions within an hour north of Chicago.

Target Audience:
Who was/is the target audience?
Characterize the composition, size, and location of your target audience.• Reach 75% of Adults 25-54 in Chicago (Universe: 3,800,000) an average of 8 times over the campaign. • Qualitative target: Household Income $75,000 + and hotel/motel stays 10+ per year • Heavy-up in five counties with highest performing zip codes within the DMA Tap into the large base of Chicago prospects who like to travel: • Younger adults 25-34 looking for new and fun experiences. • Couples and families, with or without children, who look for unexpected and memorable things to do and share over the weekend.

Research, Planning, and Implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign? Describe how you planned and produced the creative asseets with the mobile canvas in mind.With a modest budget, strategic goals and short window of time we rely on proprietary, syndicated and secondary research to be as strategic and impactful as possible. This includes syndicated research from Nielsen, Scarborough and Media Audit to evaluate and measure media usage by the demographic and qualitative audiences. Very importantly, we also commission an annual projectable post-campaign survey and use our database of leads to guide decisions and track information on how we’re moving the needle year-over year. Implementation A multi–platform broadcast TV, digital TV/Radio and OOH campaign was developed to meet exposure and repetition goals that would generate desired response. Program, station and digital vehicle selections were based on cost efficiency and high indexing programming Broadcast TV :15 sec spots Video for Geo-targeted Digital Media • Pre-roll • AerServ (Mobile in-app video) • Social Stingers to entice viewers to click through to the website • Pandora spots

Message:
What is the key message intended for the piece/campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?Focusing on exploration, adventure and boating, we created several video experiences built around the invitation to “Let’s Go”. This theme was reinforced with music of the same name to add energy and memorability. Features: Six Flags, Boating, Dining, Camping, Hiking, Events A branded summer landing page was created to provide quick access to upcoming events, video footage of additional experiences and summer giveaways. In addition to our :15 second TV spots, we created a long form “anthem” video further supporting our story of discovery. The differentiation of message comes from the unexpected idea of a getaway so close to home.

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.This years post campaign survey is currently in field with results available in October. However, we have solid data from analytics and state sales receipts documenting the increased awareness and ADR growth YOY supported by this campaign: • Web traffic up 11.64%, YOY (Google Analytics) • New users up up 11.98%.YOY (Google Analytics) • Added an additional 8,000 contacts to our database using two sweepstakes (boat for a day and a hotel stay) • Hotel occupancy - 60.3% (Source: State of IL) • ADR up 2% YOY : $103.83 (Source: State of IL)

Project Analysis:
Please provide a brief background on the project and your efforts to preserve the destination’s natural, cultural and historic heritage.

Objectives and Goals:
What did organization set out to achieve in undertaking this project?

Creativity and Innovation:
What new and innovative ideas did you incorporate in either your method of outreach or in the implementation of the project that you think could inspire others committed to sustainability in the tourism and travel industry?

Communication:
How did you communicate your actions to the public, the media and other key stakeholders and what was the aim of the message?
How did you generate publicity in order to build awareness of, or support corporate values on your sustainability initiatives.

Results:
How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve?

Leadership:
Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting preservation and sustainability best practices in the travel and tourism industry?

URL #1:https://www.visitlakecounty.org/summer/

URL #2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b73QtSlLKls

URL #3:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHqCPK5dza8

DivisionIntegrated Marketing Campaign

Sub-categoryIntegrated Marketing Campaign

CategoryIntegrated Marketing Campaign

Entry TitleVisit Lake County Integrated Campaign

Innovation Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the project and why you feel it fits the definition of innovation, what the breakout implications are and how it was an industry disruptor.

Sources of Innovation: Did the innovative project result from chance, from research, from inspiration from outside the industry, or from some other source?

Goals and Objectives: What were the goals of the innovative project, and were they met? Were they tied to a business plan? A larger campaign? Or to get specific result (such as views, shares, influencer engagement, or bookings)? And what obstacles did you encounter in the execution of the project and how did you overcome them?

Classification

Situational AnalysisAs with all CVB's, Visit Lake County's marketing goal is to increase economic activity by generating leisure tourism to benefit member businesses and increase state revenue through sales taxes. But the challenge for Lake County, IL, is the built-in competition it faces because of its geographic location. Within the Chicago DMA, Visit Lake County borders Lake Michigan to the east, Wisconsin to the north, Chain’ O Lakes to the west (the longest, connected series of lakes in IL) and downtown Chicago, about 40 miles to the south. So in addition to a short summer season, tourism is overshadowed by the excitement and urban draw of Chicago and minimal awareness, with the exception of Six Flags or as the route north to family summer homes or well known vacation destinations in neighboring WI and MI.

Research, planning, and implementation:
What market research was conducted prior to planning the piece/campaign?
Describe how you planned and produced the creative assets with the mobile canvas in mind.

Message:
What is the key messages intended for the piece/ campaign?
What differentiates your piece/campaign in the marketplace?
What helped you breakthrough on mobile?

Results:
What original goals did you achieve and how?
How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign?
Entrants should provide quantifiable metrics tied to real business results (eg brand lift, leads, or bookings generated).

Results:
How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve? Please be as specific as possible and share the full impact of your efforts in CSR. Understandably, maintenance is another major part of CSR. If you have continued to actively and consistently work on your CSR process; please add those actions to your results description.

Leadership:
To keep your CSR efforts thriving, you need momentum and passion, which has to come from the top. Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting corporate social responsibility in the travel and tourism industry?