Destinations Council Destiny Awards > Integrated Marketing and Messaging Campaign: Overall Marketing Budget More Than $5 Million

Visit Myrtle Beach Shares Some Sunshine

About This Entry:

For Myrtle Beach, 2020 was on track to be another record-breaking year. And then the world as we know it was paused. Businesses closed, trips were cancelled, events postponed, and we learned how to live in the post pandemic world. Many people called it “the great pause” but the Visit Myrtle Beach team never really paused. Rather, we shifted into overdrive, especially when it came to marketing the destination.

At the onset of the pandemic, Visit Myrtle Beach’s first focus was customer service. It was critical to share the latest information with visitors and partners as they navigated the rapidly changing environment. The Healthy Travel Information page on VisitMyrtleBeach.com became that key resource for visitors and the community alike.

And rather than pause marketing efforts, we responded quickly with the Ready, Set, Go Tourism Recovery Marketing Strategy, an approach designed to keep awareness and interest high in the destination and then invite visitors back responsibly when they were ready. This included Sharing Some Sunshine from The Beach when people couldn’t visit and were dreaming of brighter days. As we began to slowly open in the Summer, we shifted to the Set phase and encouraged visitors to start planning for their future trip to the Beach. Then, once things were fully open, we shifted to the Go phase, and launched the Escape to the Beach campaigns.

Key audiences initially were families and couples in nearby drive markets and then later expanded to 64 markets east of the Mississippi River. In each phase, visit responsibly messaging was integrated across the board, including extensive public relations efforts, visitor services responses and new initiatives with our community partners, such as the Greater Grand Strand is Open Promise.

It was critical that this campaign strategy be flexible, quickly shifting markets, messaging and campaign elements in response to market landscapes, including changing quarantines, virus counts, public relations response, and resident and visitor sentiment. This approach set the Myrtle Beach destination up for a strong rebound that would reduce the potential impact on the tourism economy.

Campaign Strategy:

The Phase 1 “Ready” messaging began mid-March at a time of uncertainty and when people couldn’t travel. Visit Myrtle Beach wanted to “Share Some Sunshine” to brighten people’s day until we could see them again. Elements included paid television, digital, social media, virtual experiences and promotions, as well as public relations efforts. The campaign also encouraged everyone to do the same – share some sunshine – with a tool kit of shareable elements, including imagery, videos, virtual games, coloring books, zoom backgrounds, student lessons and more.

As businesses began to reopen and quarantines were lifted in mid-May, Visit Myrtle Beach shifted to Phase 2 “Set” messaging that encouraged trip planning in nearby drive markets for five weeks. Phase 2 “Set” media was 100% digital, including a mix of direct paid and network placements. This included the development of a Visit Responsibly message that became a critical component for the recovery campaign and future consumer messaging, including a video series, media outreach and partner activations.

In mid-June, when the public was freer to travel, Visit Myrtle Beach shifted to Phase 3 “Go” messaging. This messaging included ways to visit the beach responsibly along 60 miles of wide-open beaches while providing value-based offers and packaging. Television and digital media ran for 10 weeks in 64 key markets. Social media and public relations also built awareness with key audiences to help tell the Myrtle Beach story.

Methodology for evaluating the campaign included monitoring many data points, consisting of marketing performance and impact, visitation and demand, sentiment studies, tax collections, social media and public relations to name a few. Research and data informed the agile approach to campaign management in order to optimize promotional efforts to stimulate demand, including shifting media and market investments or tactics deployed. For example, media was paused briefly in some northeast markets due to state closures.

Agency partners included MMGY for the Ready, Set, Go strategy, Visibility + Conversions for digital and social media services, Corinthian for broadcast media, Fahlgren Mortine for public relations, and Luckie and Co. for data and analytics.

Results:

Myrtle Beach generated impressive numbers for unprecedented times. The Share Some Sunshine Ready, Set, Go Tourism Recovery approach positioned Myrtle Beach for a strong recovery beginning in May 2020. In fact, Myrtle Beach led the way when it came to recovery in the industry. Myrtle Beach was number 1 in Google search demand among our competitive set for the past two years. The Beach was also number #1 in hotel booking demand in the U.S., according to Trivago.

In terms of revenue impact in 2020, there were $11.4 billion in gross retail sales receipts for Horry County, down 7% year over year during a pandemic, $842 million in lodging revenue, and $1.2 billion in restaurant gross sales. There was also $27.4 million in tourism development fee collections, down only 14% year over year.

Visit Myrtle Beach also helped create $21 million in revenue in direct and influenced bookings, as well as introduced 23 million new travelers to partners during the pandemic through enhanced Tourism Investment Partner program benefits.

Visit Myrtle Beach public relations efforts generated 2.2 billion in earned media impressions valued at more than $139 million, up 18% year over year.

Visit Myrtle Beach social media generated 1 billion impressions, up 37% YOY, and 15.6 million engagements up 125% year over year.

And, while air service was one of the most impacted tourism sectors throughout the world, as well as here at The Beach, MYR has reported to have one of the fastest recoveries in the country, and attracted expanded air service for 2021, including 10 new non-stop markets served via Southwest Airlines.

This campaign marketing budget was approximately $15 million.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The campaign was designed strategically from inception when three main phases were identified and given a creative name (Ready, Set, Go). Not only the initiative drove traffic and revenue to the destination, but the communication strategy was designed around the times and shifted as needed to reflect reality and consumers' needs and aspirations. The media strategy was inclusive, with a mix of digital, social, and PR that worked in synchrony and shifted where the attention was at each stage. The executions were simple but effective, relatable, and relevant to the audiences that were identified as the main target.

The strategy was straight to the point, the messages were convincing, very clear and concise. The budget and the elected media was very well planned, the team knew to react according to the situation as fast as in covid phase was needed.

The overall outcome was very positive, over-indexing in social media metrics, paid search results, bookings to the destination, and PR mentions among other KPI's.