National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > "The Road Less Traveled"

Discover South Carolina

About This Entry:

The Discover campaign was developed to build awareness of and increase visitation to Undiscovered South Carolina, which includes all counties other than Horry, Charleston and Beaufort. From the iconic Myrtle Beach Grand Strand to Charleston’s cobblestone streets and Hilton Head Island’s luxury golf resorts, South Carolina’s coastal cities are well-known travel destinations. Not only do we want to continue to encourage the exploration of these popular coastal cities, we want to showcase the multitude of diverse vacation opportunities that South Carolina’s diverse culture and rich history have to offer.

Since 2014, SCPRT has made a concentrated effort to promote lesser known attractions, destinations and hidden gems that South Carolina has to offer. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the Discover campaign influenced 682,539 trips to undiscovered destinations in South Carolina.

The Challenge
The Discover campaign has been successful — but how do we keep it that way?

Success is great. We love seeing our hard work pay off — but we can’t keep being successful without sharing new stories about the incredible variety of experiences that can be had across the Palmetto State. It was clearly time for some new creative to breathe life back into the campaign and keep the numbers on the rise.

The Goal
To influence 750,000 trips to Undiscovered South Carolina during FY18-19.

Target Audience:
•Adults 25-64 (skewing female), HHI $75,000+
•Outdoor enthusiasts seeking outdoor activities and adventure.
•Cultural travelers, history enthusiasts and foodies seeking unique and authentic experiences.
•Markets within a 750-mile radius that have demonstrated a higher propensity for travel to South Carolina.

Campaign Strategy:

Authentic experiences deserve authentic marketing.

We chose to shift from a more traditional, inspirational and romanticized campaign with paid talent to shorter-form videos that feature “real people, real stories” to better capture and convey the authenticity that makes South Carolina so special.

Happy Campers explores South Carolina’s unique geography and the variety of accommodations and activities offered at South Carolina’s 47 state parks.

The Sea-to-Table campaign explores South Carolina’s charming coastal towns and shares the secrets to making a meal of fresh-caught seafood that’s ready-made for memories.

The Scenic Gardens creative showcases some of South Carolina’s stunning gardens, including the majestic Swan Lake Iris Garden, and the famously gorgeous Brookgreen Gardens.


We shifted our paid media focus to target travelers who take four or more leisure trips a year.

These heavy travelers account for just 25% of leisure travelers, but they account for nearly 50% of ad-influenced Undiscovered South Carolina trip spending. We adjusted our media targeting to focus on these heavy travelers, who skew educated, higher income, older and married, likely empty nesters. They are people who have the time and the disposable income to travel frequently.

We made a concentrated effort to target markets within a 350 miles radius during the fall, winter and spring because they are more likely to visit/travel during the summer. More distant markets are most likely to visit during the spring and need a longer lead time for planning a trip, so we reach them during the fall and winter to influence spring travel.

Undiscovered South Carolina travel increases dramatically when consumers are exposed to ads in three or more media. To accomplish this, we adopted a layered paid media approach:
•Awareness and Consideration: TV, Video, SEM, Print, OOH, Audio Streaming
•Actions/Link Clicks: Cross-Platform Display Ads
•Trust Building and Engagement: Facebook, Instagram, Native and Influencers

We partnered with SMARI, an independent research firm, to assess the awareness and impact of our advertising and its ability to influence Undiscovered South Carolina travel. Data is collected via an online survey completed by 4,000+ qualified respondents in our target markets.

Results:

With another 861,807 trips, Undiscovered South Carolina is definitely getting discovered.

Not only did we exceed our goal of 750,000 trips by 15 percent, the number of trips increased by 26% from FY17-18.

In fact, the FY18-19 campaign generated the highest number of trips to Undiscovered South Carolina since it was created 5 years ago.

Real Stories, Real People get real results.
Our creative shift better captured South Carolina’s unique undiscovered locations while our media optimizations made sure the right audience was being served our ads.

Undiscovered South Carolina was so successful, we reached a major milestone: our admissions tax collections passed the $40 million mark for the first time in our state’s history, growing by nearly five percent to over $41 million in FY 18-19.

We also saw:
•Accommodations Tax Revenue Increase 4%
•$9+ Million Vacation Rental Room Nights, an 18.7% increase
•$34+ Million in state park revenue, leading to 103% self-sufficiency, the highest to date


Our media is 60% more efficient than the industry benchmark.

Our refined media strategies led to an improved cost per awareness household. SCPRT spent $0.13 to reach a target household. This marks a significantly efficient media buy, as SMARI’s industry benchmark for comparable campaigns is $0.32 per household reached. Being 60% more efficient proves the media optimizations that were made were extremely effective.

The FY18-19 Discover campaign generated 47% awareness of SCPRT ads in target markets, reaching 27.4 million target households, which helped lead to the 861,807 undiscovered SC trips and a 26% increase in overall trips to South Carolina.

Our strategies have continued to pay off in the FY 19/20 fiscal year with:
•92.2% of trips booked have been by people in our targeted 25-64 age range
•92% of trips have been booked by those with HHI of $50K-$249K
•50% of those that booked hotels in SC who are also members of a hotel loyalty program have earned status milestones within their program, which suggests they are heavy travelers
Budget
•$5 million media budget
•$300K for video creative and production

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The vision, strategy and objectives are clear and relevant. Very good use of media - videos highlight real people well and capture the intent.

"Real Stories, Real People get real results" is authentic, personable and listening to what the traveler is demanding from its destinations now.

The program's methodology and program partners are defined and identified. Tactics are well executed, but innovation in terms of concept is not overly innovative.

The authenticity is felt. The campaign doesn't feel scripted, you can relate to the visitors. Prioritizing diversity of visitors an important element as well.