Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
We’ve seen huge success in our brand campaigns over the last couple of years. So, now what? How do we continue to carry that momentum forward? Well, fortunately (or unfortunately), there are still many deeply seeded misperceptions of our great state. To continue being successful, we need to continue changing those misperceptions. With that in mind, this summer, we set out to achieve the following:
• Use misperceptions as inspiration to push our messaging further
• Utilize quirky Nebraska experiences to introduce positive new perceptions of the state
• Use divergent thinking to portray unique travel experiences
• Remain rooted in our values-based positioning, relying on honesty to create a connection between a place and an audience
We paired the high impact nature of OOH, TV and print with the targeting efficiencies of digital to effectively reach our travel intender audience through all stages of the marketing funnel. In short, our goals were to:
• Increase overall arrivals into Nebraska by optimizing media towards signals of intent to travel
• Prioritize bringing qualified users to VisitNebraska.com with the ultimate goal of driving user engagement on the site
• Utilize grant funding to expand our footprint beyond our historical market presence
• Increase trackability by shifting dollars from traditional tactics into new paid media channels, maximizing share of voice in the digital space
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)
We achieved all our original goals using a media mix of traditional, digital, paid social and search engine marketing (SEM). With a total budget of $4,035,000.00 from May 1- August 28, 2023, the campaign produced 292,791,903 paid media impressions.
In Digital, we had 50,486,609 total digital impressions with 106,640 total clicks. Click-through performance on ads was more than 3x the industry average. We had 9,586,219 video completions with an overall completion rate that outperformed the industry benchmark by more than 20%.
Our efforts produced 13,350,807 social impressions and 152,330 total clicks. We had 772,295 Video ThruPlays and 185,876 Conversions. The Session Conversion Rate was 65.34%, Bounce Rate was 22.23% and Engaged Sessions were 101,170. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, and Kansas City drove the most link clicks this summer.
SEM produced 269,914 total search impressions. We had 39,344 total clicks, a CPC of $1.64, and CTR of 14.58%. Conversions were 125,632 with a session conversion rate of 78.41%. The bounce rate was 8.76% with engaged sessions at 34,904.
Trueview produced 1,209,121 impressions with 1,142 total clicks. Trueview also had 712,597 video views with VTR of 58.94%. “Odd Kid” creative had the highest VTR while the “Tanking” creative had a higher CTR, clicks, and video views.
OOH had 140,791,549 impressions across 30 boards. Broadcast had 77,098,122 impressions across 17,674 spots. Print had 9,585,781 impressions across 29 insertions.
Through an expanded CTV presence (inclusive of Hulu), we captured the ever-growing cord-cutter audience. These placements garnered more than 4.6M video completions and had an average completion rate of 98%.
The introduction of custom content allowed the Nebraska brand to extend its reach to new audiences while also increasing owned content. Custom articles for Nebraska consistently surpassed vendor engagement benchmarks including average time on content and call-to-action clicks.
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?
While the Summer 2023 iteration of this campaign is still running, the first half of our campaign drove 26% more arrivals than the same timeframe last year. In addition, we saw an increase of day trips 86% YoY - meaning more people are sampling what we have to offer!
In terms of web traffic, we also saw increases in users and sessions on the site this summer, most notably garnering a 96% increase YoY in engaged sessions on VisitNebraska.com.
Lodging tax in the state of Nebraska has continued to break records. All four months of our summer campaign (May-August) have set an all-time record, dating back to when the 1% tax was created back in 1980. This summer alone has generated $3.3M in lodging tax revenue, an increase of 14% over 2022, which is the current record year.
Entry Title
“Honestly, It’s Not for Everyone” Summer Campaign 2023
Division
Integrated Campaign - Business to Consumer