National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Niche Targeting

U.S. Civil Rights Trail

About This Entry:

The U.S. Civil Rights Trail was created by the Alabama Tourism Department to motivate people to learn more, see more and experience more about the American Civil Rights Movement.

The trail had its beginning three years ago when National Park Service director Jonathon Jarvis challenged historians to inventory surviving civil rights landmarks. Georgia State University, using an Alabama Tourism grant, found 60, which became the foundation of the trail.

Alabama tourism director Lee Sentell spearheaded an effort by TravelSouth USA to have the 12 Southern states it represents supplement the list with other worthy sites. By connecting these sites for the first time, it makes it easier to plan multi-state road trips and to plan them around particular themes or people, such as the Freedom Rides or the role African American churches played in the movement.

In full, the trail is a collection of more than 100 churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks in the Southern states and beyond that played a pivotal role in advancing social justice in the 1950s and 1960s. Places where activists successfully sought equal access to public education, public transportation and voting rights comprise many of the locations grouped under the theme “What happened here changed the world.”

The central component to the trail and to the campaign is the civilrightstrail.com website. It includes immersive content on the sites and features interviews with foot soldiers of the civil rights movement and tour guides.


Objectives

• Build awareness of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail and its mission with 30 million total impressions for the first year in earned and paid media.

• Convert 5% of awareness (impressions) to engagement (site traffic) via the website.

• Sustain engagement in owned channels by growing social audience to 3,500 in the first year.

• Build a partnership with Alabama-based Raycom/Gray Media to produce a series of three “Trail of Hope” documentaries to air on their group of television stations across the nation.

• Generate publicity value of $2 million in earned media.

• Increase the total annual attendance at civil rights sites in Alabama to 500,000 visitors.

Campaign Strategy:

Our audience for the U.S. Civil Rights Trail is the traveler looking to experience the heritage and culture of a destination to understand not only its historical significance, but its role in shaping the modern era. The trail is the ultimate collection of travel opportunities to understand the importance of the Civil Rights Movement. Our campaign strategically connects with couples, families, students, educators, history buffs, international tourists and civil rights activists.

The U.S. Civil Rights Trail was announced on Martin Luther King Day 2018 at coordinated events across the partner states. In Alabama, the trail was announced by Governor Kay Ivey at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery. Within the first two weeks, the trail announcement earned 43 pieces of editorial coverage, 14 television news stories, two international stories and 1,500 social media engagements from this coverage. The strategy to have generated content include back links to the civil rights trail website generated more than 25% of the sessions in the first seven days.

To support the announcement, an integrated paid media campaign was also launched. Digital tactics included banners, pre-roll video, paid search, Facebook canvas, newsfeed and video ads. High-impact print creative ran in TIME, Smithsonian Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and National Geographic.

Dedicated outreach to influencers via the Izea content marketing platform complemented the coverage from media outlets and extended the campaign’s reach with sponsored blog posts and creator content shared on social media. In total, 174 pieces of content were generated.

Trade materials were made available to travel industry professionals, including co-op ad templates for partner states and destinations to promote their designation on the trail. Brochures, videos and a travel guide were distributed at local tourism offices, group travel shows, conferences and events both nationally and internationally.

Starbucks partnered with the trail to distribute 300,000 U.S. Civil Rights Trail maps in 36 of their stores near trail sites.


Methodology

Media coverage, public relations value, website and social media results were provided by Metro Monitor and Coverage Book analytical services.

Results:

Quantified Results

• The U.S. Civil Rights Trail earned 3.21 million impressions from 174 pieces of media coverage, 46.5 million PR impressions, 12 million impressions from paid media and 4.8 million impressions on social media during the first year after launch. This total of 66.5 million impressions exceeds the initial goal by 122%.

• The website has recorded 873,427-page views from visitors. This equates to an 8% conversion rate against the goal of 5%.

• Once initial marketing efforts had completed, the Facebook follower count was 4,159 exceeding the goal by 18%. The follower count is currently more than 5,000.

• Three one-hour “Trail of Hope” documentaries aired on 142 Raycom/Gray television stations in 92 markets with a value estimated at $725,000. The documentaries delivered an audience of 893,951 impressions on 112 airings.

• More than $5 million in publicity value of earned media was generated, exceeding the original goal by 150%.

• Total annual attendance at civil rights sites in Alabama increased to 685,348 visitors, exceeding the original goal by 37%



Cost

The budget for the campaign was $425,000.



Media Coverage Highlights

National Geographic Traveler published a 12-page feature article tracing writer Glynn Pogue’s personal journey to experience the cultural history of U.S. Civil Rights Trail sites in Alabama.

The New York Times printed two articles on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The first previewed the trail before its launch and the second explored the individual and group tour options along trail sites.

The Guardian and Rough Guides each published feature articles on trail sites connected with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

Articles and reports about the trail were also featured in Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS News, NBC News, Forbes, The Telegraph, The Globe and Mail.

TIME magazine upgraded a $40,000 one-page regional ad to the inside front cover of all two million weekly copies for a value of $300,000.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The vision, strategy, and objectives from the Alabama Tourism Department were clearly outlined in this entry. A brief history of the trail was also provided for additional context. The goal was to create immersive content and interviews to help build awareness for the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. An engagement metric was also an excellent addition to traditional impression-based goals. The split photos of the historic and modern locations was brilliant. For such a sobering topic, The map was a simple, effective way to display how large and important the U.S. Civil Rights Trail stretches across history and states. The trail was announced on Martin Luther King Day in 2018, and required coordination with partner states. The results of this campaign were swift, and the application shared results from the first seven days till the "end" of the campaign. Banners, blog posts, social media, and video ads all helped support this campaign.