Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
As the world re-opened and options for travel expanded, the Travel Wyoming brand needed a fresher competitive edge to drive demand. Destination Assessment research showed that once potential travelers put Wyoming in the consider set, they converted at a higher rate than the rest of the Mountain West. With the exception of Colorado other destinations in the mountain west were viewed as similar and not distinctive from one another. Travelers were unaware of the variety of experiences and depth of western culture in Wyoming.
We needed to do 2 things.
1) Create a voice that was ownable and distinctive to increase overall awareness of Wyoming
2) Focus on awareness driving strategies to move more people from awareness to consideration – thus driving more conversion.
• Increase our growing national presence
• Focus on the top of funnel/awareness driving media channels
• Create partnership activations to broaden our reach and generate engagement from new audiences
Building off the award-winning That’s WY platform, we created the Modern Explorers campaign. This campaign is unique in tapping into the symbolism of western culture, currently unclaimed by the comp set, and trending in pop-culture due to consumers’ post-Covid desire for freedom and adventure. Travel Wyoming aims to become the symbol of the West. One that intentionally fosters and preserves where it’s been. And inspires new frontiers for all who are lured to its bold, unrelenting and freeing nature. Studies have shown that adventure experiences can improve self-competency, personal empowerment, trust, personal identity, emotional resiliency and social bonding. The campaign is brought to life by Wyoming locals who embody the bold spirit of the West.
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 Modern Explorers campaign resonated well in qualitative creative testing with verbatims proving its ability to elevate Wyoming out of the sea of sameness with a distinct voice and personality.
• “There is a swagger that runs through the entire campaign. We’re not for everybody but we might be right for you. Tapping into the idea that it’s one of the last untamed parts of the great American wilderness. This isn't going to NYC and staying at the 4 Seasons. I crave the difference. I don’t crave the ordinary.”
• “The untamed land of Wyoming waiting to be seen and explored. That call to adventure or call to explore or seek out maybe where others haven’t before. It’s the sense of wonder, I wonder what’s around the next bend. A sense of not knowing what’s coming. Curiosity.”
The media strategy relied upon awareness driving tactics such as TV, video, digital and audio ads early in the planning season to bring Wyoming into the consideration set. Impressions were up 29% and engagement metrics with 1.6mm clicks were up 5% YoY.
A brand partnership with Discovery extended audience reach with unique content. Discovery created three videos showcasing unique experiences delivered 19.7MM impressions, +50K visits to TravelWyoming.com from sponsored content, the newsletter "3 Places You Don’t Want to Miss" delivered an open rate of nearly 25%, exceeding benchmark by 10.5%. The newsletter drove nearly 20K clicks with a CTR of 6%. And the interactive article delivered 59K visits with an average of nearly 2 minutes spent on site.
Layering in conversion tactics to fill in full funnel activations later in the flight helped push travelers to the state and conversions were 11% over goal.
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?
Travel Wyoming’s invitation to discover your truth in Wyoming was accepted.
2022 Ad Effectiveness study showed the campaign generated more than 1 million visits resulting in $1.21B in influenced visitor spending. ROI was an incredible $336 - just shy of the 2019 pre-pandemic campaign ROI with 23% less ad investment.
In addition, we saw longer and more paid lodging stays and higher trip spending. More use of Wyoming’s owned media channels, more positive visit experiences and more sharing on social media. The increase in familiarity of Wyoming as a leisure destination led to a distinct competitive edge and Wyoming was the only state in the competitive set to see growth in likelihood to visit year-to-year.
To support winter, we invited two influencers to document their visit to support the paid media plan. The influencers total reach of 328.6K with 8.1M impressions and a 1.33% engagement rate resulted in $389.6K in estimated media value. Compared to the campaign spend of $25,314, this is a 1,539% return on ad spend.
Tourism is the number 2 industry for Wyoming and the revenue generated has real impact on the small communities and the 578,803 proud people who call Wyoming home.
Success can be summed up as unique campaign creative with a message that resonates, targeted to the right people at the right time.
Entry Title
Modern Explorers – How Wyoming invited travelers to experience the last bastion of the West
Division
Advertising - Brand Campaign