National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Printed Collateral Materials

Great Faces, Great Places Print Campaign

About This Entry:

Telling Our Story

With our breathtaking scenery, unique history, and a reputation for having extraordinarily friendly residents, it’s no wonder South Dakota became known as the land of “Great Faces, Great Places.” Our state is home to Mount Rushmore National Memorial and five other national parks, monuments and historic places. Visitors are free to roam among the wildlife, climb Black Elk Peak—the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains—and travel back in time to the Wild West or the wild frontier. South Dakota offers mountain roller coasters, historic towns, and prehistoric sites; locally made wines, craft brews and unique foods. It truly is a State of Great.

This sentiment, and visitor feedback and comments, led the South Dakota Department of Tourism to reimagine the “Great Faces, Great Places” campaign that helped define the state for many years. The new campaign showcases the people and the places that make South Dakota so memorable. The only difference is now we use the Visitor Engagement Program (or VEP) to customize the content we share with each of our target audiences to ensure they’re receiving content that’s most relevant to their interests.

VEP uses multiple integrated programs to target consumers most likely to visit South Dakota. Through VEP, we’re able to use data intelligence to push out marketing in real time. And by scoring visitor interactions and creating profiles for those visitors, the South Dakota Department of Tourism can focus marketing dollars on those who are most likely to take action and begin planning their trip. Using the data provided by VEP, we are able to take an “advertorial” approach to our print materials, allowing us to create hyper-targeted content specific to our audiences as a way of inviting people to experience the unexpected delights of South Dakota.

Campaign Strategy:

Spreading the Word

The South Dakota Department of Tourism wanted to create targeted, informative, and inspirational print pieces for its 2018 marketing campaign. Messaging needed to get attention, standout from other mail and magazine advertising, and inspire people to take a vacation to the Mount Rushmore State. This was the challenge. How do you tell the story of an amazing South Dakota vacation that’s unique to each and every visitor?

The answer: use visitors’ own interests to sell the state. Based on data and insights from visitor intercepts, the “Great Faces, Great Places” campaign was derived from the fact that vacation time is precious, and people are looking for unexpected and authentic experiences now more than ever. Many of these experiences start with the people and the places who greet you as you explore the state. And they offer great stories of adventure, history and culture beyond what people typically expect from the Rushmore State. Together with the South Dakota Department of Tourism, Lawrence & Schiller developed a print campaign using visitors’ online interests to customize the content of the mailer and print ads to entice trips to South Dakota.

Print and direct mail were niched by audience using visitors’ interest profiles from VEP to customize messaging and showcase attractions and activities that were specifically for families, adventure seekers and active vacationers. These elements incorporated a double-exposure visual style to help the messaging stand out from other travel marketing. By combining a “face” with a “place,” we were able to share a more complete story with our audiences. Not only did these placements include breathtaking visuals, but others included interactivity with tear-outs and a coloring book. We placed geographically targeted ads in popular publications like HGTV Magazine and Midwest Living, including inserts, spreads, multi-page advertorials, and full-page ads. Additionally, we strategically built up the messaging from inspirational spreads, to more informative advertorials, to books with featured partners for vacation planning.

The resulting pieces were not only stunningly designed, but they helped inform potential visitors about all of the great moments and destinations awaiting them in South Dakota.

Results:

Visitor Numbers Up. Double-Digit Increases To Web Traffic.

The magazine publications were selected based on audience index and reach scores, allowing us to select publications that reach a large portion of our audience with magazines they consume frequently. The audience profiles created in the VEP using real-time visitor data were utilized to offer direction for the magazine creative and content. This ensured we were targeting the audiences with content that was relevant and would inspire them. The results were positive across the board.

- In total, 2018 print creative generated nearly 39 million impressions with a total investment of just over $1.5 million.
- The campaign is credited with helping increase organic traffic by 22.2.% during vacation consideration months and 30.6% during the vacation planning months of April and May.
- Visitors were invited to discover South Dakota’s Great Faces and Great Places, and in 2018, 14 million did—a 1.4% YOY increase when compared to 2017.
- 2018 visitor spending increased 2.5% YOY to $3.98 billion. Traffic to TravelSouthDakota.com was up 21.4% in 2018, with organic traffic growing by 32.7%.
- 1.3 million incremental trips occurred as a result of the campaign.

The work drove visitors and spending, and more importantly, it influenced the very perception change that stemmed from our initial insight. By showing the unexpected and by matching audience interests with South Dakota’s attractions, destinations and events, we were able to showcase great faces and great places, change audience perception, and generate some pretty great results for the state.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

South Dakota had a smart strategy, using data intelligence and real visitors’ own interests to sell the state. The content is engaging and authentic, and the strategy is well-set, answering the brief directly. South Dakota demonstrates great creative execution—copy, key visuals, feature of partners. This was a very innovative campaign with great results, and a high number of impressions and bookings.