Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
Fort Myers – Islands, Beaches and Neighborhoods partnered with Accidentally Wes Anderson (AWA) and Whalebone Magazine to showcase the area’s natural beauty to an adventure-seeking audience through the lens of a young, hip publication with an eye for symmetry and storytelling.
The goals of this campaign were to:
-build meaningful connections with brand audiences across key markets.
-inspire travel to the destination while driving traffic and engagement on Fort Myers’ social media channels and to the destination website.
Campaign elements included a co-branded sweepstakes that lived on AWA’s website; a three-day influencer trip with AWA included social sharing on both the @accidentallywesanderson and @whalebonemagazine accounts; custom content highlighting the destination on both brand’s owned channels; a two-page spread in the June 2021 “Sea Creatures” issue of Whalebone Magazine, and newsletter promotion.
By forming this unique partnership, we succeeded in sharing Fort Myers’ inherent beauty, hidden gems and Old-Florida charm with persons searching for the next “it” travel destination.
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)
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) (1,097 / 2,000)
The campaign successfully delivered on our awareness, connection and engagement goals. We received more than 5M impressions across AWA and Whalebone’s digital, social and email platforms, and reached 2.5M unique social accounts. Results also included:
-More than 200,000 actions taken including likes, comments, shares, post clicks. This garnered a 4% engagement rate. The destination’s average engagement rate is between 2% and 4% for the year.
-4.6K email newsletter sign-ups
-8.7% click-through rate on newsletter (outperforming industry standard by 190%)
Not only were we able to deliver strong results for our brand, but the outpouring of love and positive feedback received created an even deeper connection to this new audience. Positive sentiments and community interaction included more than 1.4K comments on Instagram like, “Looks amazing. Never heard of this place before. Now, I must go,” and “Fantastic! I learned about a part of Florida I didn’t know existed. Totally want to go.”
Also, seventy-two percent of AWA’s audience engaged with the full Instagram Story featuring the adventure content, and over 6,000 users tapped the social handle from this series to drive to the destination’s Instagram page. In addition, the Instagram Stories mentioning the weekend giveaway received more than 2.7K reshares.
Budget: Please include total budget vs. total actual cost. How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
Total budget for all components of this campaign was $50,000, including time, travel costs, prize funds, media spend, content creation, and influencer promotion. Our ROI based on impressions gave us a 1:1 return on investment.
While pleased with the phenomenal performance of this campaign, we are even more encouraged by the long-lasting value it will continue to have for us past the campaign period. For example, the Fort Myers travel guide lives on at accidentallywesanderson.com – a site that has over 40,000 unique visitors each month.
*The components of this award entry were executed prior to Hurricane Ian's devastating impacts to Southwest Florida. All visitor marketing was paused shortly before Hurricane Ian made landfall on Sept. 28, 2022, and our focus immediately shifted to relief efforts. Our homes, communities and livelihoods were dealt a catastrophic blow and while the road to recovery will be long and hard, we are confident in our strength and resilience. Our islands, beaches and neighborhoods will rebuild, and in time, we will resume our place as a relaxing refuge for our residents and visitors.
Entry Title
Accidentally Wes Anderson showcases Fort Myers, Florida
Division
Digital - Social Media Campaign